toilet bowl, yuneeccand other stuff i've noticed

[Gutternuts]

received typhoon H, i'm literally 4.99m away from a chicago airport. Have now flown approx 200 or so times now. few incidents, but PLENTY of scares.

i quickly learned smart mode is more like "auto idiot" and after the first flight told myself, this is not the way to do this. i switched to angle mode,

i learned quickly and after 200 or so takeoffs, and with emails to Yuneec, the H has some failsafes that i think aided in 2 hard landings (hard landings being props contacting ground) near misses would be a much higher number.

the word is "toilet bowl" is what comes to mind. it mimics the movements the H will make, when it should otherwise be hovering. Long story short, giving the H is normally rock solid in the air when idle... I've learned when it decides the battery is low (with or with a warning) it will lower power to the motors CYCLICALLY in an attempt to lower the power usage which according to Yuneec has been what i've encountering.

i.e. toilet bowl.

i dont know about you, but trying to land a bird that's doing a 3-6 foot circle at 6" above the ground is next to impossible.

luckily the first time i was in a large (wet) field, i ended up with muddy props, the 2nd time i had to cut power and let it fall 3"

i've seen this while stationary 150' up in the air (and learned to land immediately) prior to any warnings. where it is just doing circles instead of otherwise being stationary.

my batteries never show less than 14.8v at the time, i'm in Chicago, and it is winter but 10 minutes into anything should not cause this.

yes, I've calibrated, multiple times. facing true north. i've calibrated the accelerometr as well, verifying no wind, flat, and level in all directions.

i've seen some crazy movement after updating & calibrating (with confirmation from h we're good) only to do the calibration 2, 3 times more.... while in the middle of a grassy area, away from electrical interference, w/my phone shut off in the car > 50 feet away) this is not that....

the toilet bowl effect only happens when voltage seem to go < 15v which in Chicago in winter is about 5 minutes of flight time before taking it home and crossing your fingers.

 

[PatR]

Just curious, what kind of temps are you experiencing on your cold flying days?

 

[Rayray]

200 times? Wow! With only many "near misses"? And in the Windy City in freezing temps!

Darn, I crashed one of mine after only 20 or 30 flights. OK, I am old and physically decrepit and mentally unstable, but my word--you are having too much fun.

If not too much trouble, kindly let us see some of your videos.

 

[Mojoe35]

received typhoon H, i'm literally 4.99m away from a chicago airport. Have now flown approx 200 or so times now. few incidents, but PLENTY of scares.

i quickly learned smart mode is more like "auto idiot" and after the first flight told myself, this is not the way to do this. i switched to angle mode,

i learned quickly and after 200 or so takeoffs, and with emails to Yuneec, the H has some failsafes that i think aided in 2 hard landings (hard landings being props contacting ground) near misses would be a much higher number.

the word is "toilet bowl" is what comes to mind. it mimics the movements the H will make, when it should otherwise be hovering. Long story short, giving the H is normally rock solid in the air when idle... I've learned when it decides the battery is low (with or with a warning) it will lower power to the motors CYCLICALLY in an attempt to lower the power usage which according to Yuneec has been what i've encountering.

i.e. toilet bowl.

i dont know about you, but trying to land a bird that's doing a 3-6 foot circle at 6" above the ground is next to impossible.

luckily the first time i was in a large (wet) field, i ended up with muddy props, the 2nd time i had to cut power and let it fall 3"

i've seen this while stationary 150' up in the air (and learned to land immediately) prior to any warnings. where it is just doing circles instead of otherwise being stationary.

my batteries never show less than 14.8v at the time, i'm in Chicago, and it is winter but 10 minutes into anything should not cause this.

yes, I've calibrated, multiple times. facing true north. i've calibrated the accelerometr as well, verifying no wind, flat, and level in all directions.

i've seen some crazy movement after updating & calibrating (with confirmation from h we're good) only to do the calibration 2, 3 times more.... while in the middle of a grassy area, away from electrical interference, w/my phone shut off in the car > 50 feet away) this is not that....

the toilet bowl effect only happens when voltage seem to go < 15v which in Chicago in winter is about 5 minutes of flight time before taking it home and crossing your fingers.

Have you thought about using the RTH for landing? Give that a try and see if it still wants to 'toilet bowl'.
One tip about using the RTH switch, if you are real close to the ground and flying in Angle mode, if you hit the RTH switch, it will kill power to the motors! So be careful in how low you are. I saved mine from taking off by hitting that switch and saved a possible crash.

Fly safe...

 

[Gutternuts]

PAtR and Rayray (love your signature)

Rayray - learning the H still (hoping to be "good" by spring) and yes, around 200 flights, bought the 2nd battery for time, and a flight to me, is a takeoff and landing. most important to me is sticking the landing ... i need to be a pro at it. (this is a me thing)

I'm still learning how the H reacts to different settings CCC, watch me, follow me, the wand (still a mystery), etc etc.... almost went into a pile of snow when i didn't compensate for it while making the CCC on the PC..

temps this year have been relatively nice in Chicago, today was a high of 38 i crashed in a muddy field, then again at home w/different battery... my last check i was just under 15v, 30 ft away, 12' or so up. I got the big red LAND NOW warning , and while trying to maneuver back to me, i ended up shutting off a few inches from the ground. the H dropped maybe 3" (over a driveway) and tipped over on a driveway.

Previously, i've also encountered the NFZ numerous times flying w/in 1 house of my running buddy (3 blocks away) i've lost video countless times (never seems to reconnect), and even lost telemetry once.

losing telemetry scared the living C R A P oughta me. luckily even when my ST16 showed i wasn't connected to ANYTHING,either the RTH worked (of the copter did itself), and just when i was calling (same friend from above) to tell him to look up.. the **** thing was coming down directly above me.

farthest i've gone "city" is about 2.5 blocks any direction before signal degrades (line of sight or not), and in the country i've gotten a good 1/2 mile or a little over.

let me see what i can do on the video posting... might take me a while.... need to figure out how to export the video & telemetry info

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, learn and practice the following "hand catch" technique...
and many thanks to CaptainDrone for making this video available.

I have spent some time having similar issues when the battery gets low, and at lower temperatures.
Based on the video above, and some helpful prodding from some members of this board, I have
gotten quite comfortable with this method of landing the H when it is exhibiting this type of behavior.
When you catch the Typhoon it provides the following advantages:

If you have situation like you describe, you can usually keep it a steady height, though it will do
some sort of drifting, whether circular (toilet bowling) or simply in one direction. Bring it down to
where the retracted landing gear is about a foot above your head. Then you can usually at a
steady walking pace, follow the drift and simply grab onto the landing gear. As soon as you
do grab on, hit and hold the red motor arm/disarm button for 3 seconds. The props have to fully stop,
there is no idling down as there will be during a landing on the ground. Believe me, it's easier
then it sounds.

Same goes if you are in an area where children and dogs are around. Much better to catch,
than have a playful dog (or a curious child) go after it within a foot of the ground. Also if you are
getting some interesting outdoors shots in, you may have sandy or gritty dirt conditions, or inches
of snow. All those are solved with hand catching.

 

[Mike Lentsch]

OK, I am old and physically decrepit and mentally unstable

At least you admit it...

 

[Drone On]

My H flew fine the first 10 minutes of flight then I've noticed with both flights I started having issues in flight with GPS and compass warnings right before my first low battery warning. Maybe Yuneec miscalculated the power consumption/ requirements with the H and there is a low voltage issue. That after the first few minutes of flight there is not enough power to keep everything working. The H's flight times are not what was advertised by Yuneec. People have be posting their disappointment with the low flight times. My Q500 would go 23 -25 mins every time no problem.

 

[mcbutler]

Maybe get some good thick gloves, cut power at low altitude and cache it?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[Drone On]

Maybe get some good thick gloves, cut power at low altitude and cache it?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

For the money we paid for the H's we shouldn't have to do that. We should be able to take off and land from the ground like it was designed. If mine still has problems after Yuneec said they fixed it I'm going to ask for a refund and wait till the next model or until they work the bugs out of the H.

 

[mcbutler]

For the money we paid for the H's we shouldn't have to do that. We should be able to take off and land from the ground like it was designed. If mine still has problems after Yuneec said they fixed it I'm going to ask for a refund and wait till the next model or until they work the bugs out of the H.

Catching a drone is not unusual. Many of them can be launched from the hand so long as it does its start routine on a level surface.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[Drone On]

Oh Ok. I don't fly around anyone else. I'm always by myself so I never seen anyone catch it.

 

[Tiburon]

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, learn and practice the following "hand catch" technique...
and many thanks to CaptainDrone for making this video available.

I have spent some time having similar issues when the battery gets low, and at lower temperatures.
Based on the video above, and some helpful prodding from some members of this board, I have
gotten quite comfortable with this method of landing the H when it is exhibiting this type of behavior.
When you catch the Typhoon it provides the following advantages:

If you have situation like you describe, you can usually keep it a steady height, though it will do
some sort of drifting, whether circular (toilet bowling) or simply in one direction. Bring it down to
where the retracted landing gear is about a foot above your head. Then you can usually at a
steady walking pace, follow the drift and simply grab onto the landing gear. As soon as you
do grab on, hit and hold the red motor arm/disarm button for 3 seconds. The props have to fully stop,
there is no idling down as there will be during a landing on the ground. Believe me, it's easier
then it sounds.

Same goes if you are in an area where children and dogs are around. Much better to catch,
than have a playful dog (or a curious child) go after it within a foot of the ground. Also if you are
getting some interesting outdoors shots in, you may have sandy or gritty dirt conditions, or inches
of snow. All those are solved with hand catching.

Well, I let the Typhoon start from the rear side of the transport backpack and catch the drone for landing. Like this I am avoiding that the lenses are getting dirty or - even worse - the gimbal gets damaged.

Cheers

 

[mcbutler]

Watch this, probably the best drone footage ever and illustrates it very clearly.

 

[mcbutler]

Well, I let the Typhoon start from the rear side of the transport backpack and catch the drone for landing. Like this I am avoiding that the lenses are getting dirty or - even worse - the gimbal gets damaged.

Cheers

Great idea

 

[CraigCam]

My H flew fine the first 10 minutes of flight then I've noticed with both flights I started having issues in flight with GPS and compass warnings right before my first low battery warning. Maybe Yuneec miscalculated the power consumption/ requirements with the H and there is a low voltage issue. That after the first few minutes of flight there is not enough power to keep everything working. The H's flight times are not what was advertised by Yuneec. People have be posting their disappointment with the low flight times. My Q500 would go 23 -25 mins every time no problem.

Your Q did not go that long. If it did it was not with stock batteries. No companies flight times are as advertised. It's the same BS car manufacturers use when claiming gas mileage and any conditional change skews the times. I don't agree with your assessment. You got warnings because it's not happy and that's not battery related. Could be firmware issues that many of us have been dealing with or how it collected compass data. If it's new, you should contact Yuneec. It took me two trips to solve the conflicts I experienced. I've also learned to never rush my compass procedure and then test for steady hover before committing to full flight. It's not the Q which does not suffer from multiple compass disorder like the H. This thing can be weird but unless you got over flown batteries, I along with many here have not experienced power related loss of control.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Mojoe35]

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, learn and practice the following "hand catch" technique...
and many thanks to CaptainDrone for making this video available.

I have spent some time having similar issues when the battery gets low, and at lower temperatures.
Based on the video above, and some helpful prodding from some members of this board, I have
gotten quite comfortable with this method of landing the H when it is exhibiting this type of behavior.
When you catch the Typhoon it provides the following advantages:

If you have situation like you describe, you can usually keep it a steady height, though it will do
some sort of drifting, whether circular (toilet bowling) or simply in one direction. Bring it down to
where the retracted landing gear is about a foot above your head. Then you can usually at a
steady walking pace, follow the drift and simply grab onto the landing gear. As soon as you
do grab on, hit and hold the red motor arm/disarm button for 3 seconds. The props have to fully stop,
there is no idling down as there will be during a landing on the ground. Believe me, it's easier
then it sounds.

Same goes if you are in an area where children and dogs are around. Much better to catch,
than have a playful dog (or a curious child) go after it within a foot of the ground. Also if you are
getting some interesting outdoors shots in, you may have sandy or gritty dirt conditions, or inches
of snow. All those are solved with hand catching.

Let me add my 2 cents worth here. Instead of hitting the RED button to turn off the motors, if you have actually landed, just push the 'flight mode switch' to RTF position and the motors stop instantly. Last time I flew my "H", it was just a couple inches off the ground and I switched to RTF and the motors all stopped and of course it touched down instantly, too. No harm done!

 

[madatme]

received typhoon H, i'm literally 4.99m away from a chicago airport. Have now flown approx 200 or so times now. few incidents, but PLENTY of scares.

i quickly learned smart mode is more like "auto idiot" and after the first flight told myself, this is not the way to do this. i switched to angle mode,

i learned quickly and after 200 or so takeoffs, and with emails to Yuneec, the H has some failsafes that i think aided in 2 hard landings (hard landings being props contacting ground) near misses would be a much higher number.

the word is "toilet bowl" is what comes to mind. it mimics the movements the H will make, when it should otherwise be hovering. Long story short, giving the H is normally rock solid in the air when idle... I've learned when it decides the battery is low (with or with a warning) it will lower power to the motors CYCLICALLY in an attempt to lower the power usage which according to Yuneec has been what i've encountering.

i.e. toilet bowl.

i dont know about you, but trying to land a bird that's doing a 3-6 foot circle at 6" above the ground is next to impossible.

luckily the first time i was in a large (wet) field, i ended up with muddy props, the 2nd time i had to cut power and let it fall 3"

i've seen this while stationary 150' up in the air (and learned to land immediately) prior to any warnings. where it is just doing circles instead of otherwise being stationary.

my batteries never show less than 14.8v at the time, i'm in Chicago, and it is winter but 10 minutes into anything should not cause this.

yes, I've calibrated, multiple times. facing true north. i've calibrated the accelerometr as well, verifying no wind, flat, and level in all directions.

i've seen some crazy movement after updating & calibrating (with confirmation from h we're good) only to do the calibration 2, 3 times more.... while in the middle of a grassy area, away from electrical interference, w/my phone shut off in the car > 50 feet away) this is not that....

the toilet bowl effect only happens when voltage seem to go < 15v which in Chicago in winter is about 5 minutes of flight time before taking it home and crossing your fingers.

I had that happen to me and it was awful, it was out of control, good thing I fly helicopters, could of been a mess

 

[GhostGuy]

Oh Ok. I don't fly around anyone else. I'm always by myself so I never seen anyone catch it.

I try to always hand catch all of ny quads. I usually never have to replace props, although i do always have spares.It keeps your quad from " bunny hopping" upon landing, which in my opinion is a major problem with most quads upon landing un full rth.