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Well that didn't work.....(crash)

Joined
Mar 18, 2018
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So I FINALLY got around to getting my NEW Q500 4K drone in the air. I bought it in June of 2016 and just never got around to flying it.... until today.

I (re)charged all the batteries and made sure all the firmware on both copter and controller are up-to-date. I've read the manual countless times between the time I bought the drone and now. I set it for Smart mode, powered on everything properly, waited for video sync, waited for good GPS lock. Clear sunny afternoon. No wind. Total "Chamber of Commerce" weather. I pushed ever so gingerly forward on the left stick and let the copter rise up to about 10 feet. It started to drift forward so I pulled back on the right stick towards me. The drone and I were facing the same direction (forward). So in either Smart or Angle mode, the drone should have started backing up towards me. Nope. I released both sticks and watched helplessly as the drone flew into the side of the house, shattering the propellers. Thank God it was my house that was hit! Sigh. There are bushes between where I was standing and the house, so running ahead and grabbing the drone out of the air wasn't an option. Total time in the air, less than a minute. Sigh. Now I'm scared to death to even touch the thing again. I couldn't believe how un-stable it was and how it just wandered into a house that was 50 feet away on it's own. Do these models have a tendency to just wander around on their own? I know there's no obstacle avoidance on this model. I just figured it would more-or-less stay put when the controller sticks are released. Guess that's not the case. Should I take another chance on this one? Or should I just can it and get a DJI?

Dean
 
Smart Mode was your enemy.
Angle Mode is your friend.
In smart mode there's an invisable fence and depending how far or close you were to the Q, it will automatically fly outside the invisable fence.

Did you not see that in the maual?
 
Part of what you described could be attributed to "Smart Mode" (bad choice of words on Yuneec's part), but I don't think all of it.
I would try again, but minimize the "chance" part of it.
Such as:
Check the controller response on the "Hardware Monitor" screen. A controller sitting for that long has some tendency towards bad signal, until you work them around awhile.

Remove the camera. You mentioned "video Sync" above, which makes me think you had the camera mounted. Not a good idea for the first few flights.

Find a BIG open field somewhere.

As you did this time, keep it close to the ground. Between 5 ft and 10 ft is good.

Practice with the OFF button. It is not instant, and you need to get a feel for how long it takes to shutdown.

Practice with the Return to Home button. That one can save you. Read up on EXACTLY how it works. It's going to come for the Controller, not the take-off point, and there are some other details you need to know, but mainly, know how to get to it when you need to.

And don't use "Smart Mode".
 
With Smart Mode, there is an invisible fence around you that the drone does not want to be inside. It will automatically try to get outside of the circle, regardless of any inputs you try. Angle Mode is your friend. No invisible fence. Another really good thing is if you want to practice is the Yuneec SIM. The dongle can be had fairly inexpensively, the software is a free download from Yuneec. It has a large field to practice in. There are challenges with a floating box that you try to stay inside, without GPS. It is really challenging, and helps you learn to fly. If you were to lose GPS lock while flying, practice without it is invaluable. You don't have any camera inputs, but it is meant to learn to fly.

Good luck with you 4K.It is the first real bird I had and is a stable bird to fly.
 
Great advice!!!!! I just took it to a big open field. Sure enough, Smart mode was the culprit. Angle mode is much better and is NOT hard at all (especially in 'turtle' speed). Smart mode is WAY more complicated and the copter does things you DON'T want it to do and it DOESN'T do things you do want it to do (like stay in one place.....). Took videos and still pictures for about 10 minutes and then it stopped taking pics and videos. Sure enough, half of the pictures it did take were corrupted files (the top-half of the pic was fine, and the bottom-half was just noise). Brand new SanDisk 32Gig SDHC UHS Speed Class (3) card. I'll bring spare SD's next time I go out.... The pics and video that did turn out were wonderful. Just wished I could have recorded more than 4 minutes worth and took more than 9 still pics. Oh well. One victory at a time.... :). As a first-time flyer, I'll go on record saying Smart mode is a disaster. Just tell newbies to put the speed into turtle mode and just fly in Angle. MUCH less busted copters that way. Thanks, everyone. GREAT replies (and wicked fast, too!).
Dean
 
The video's are limited to 5 minutes each. You can then connect these videos in software, such as Nero Video, and they will be seamless.
I think you meant to say the video will be broken into 5 min clips. It won't stop recording, it just makes a new file every 5 min.

SanDisk 32Gig SDHC UHS Speed Class (3) card
Is it a Class 3 or a U3?
A Class 3 will be way to slow to record in this camera. U3 would be the correct card.
 
@DeanWaters
Here's what I do.
99% of my pictures come from video. Most of my projects do not need high resolution pictures.
I use GOMPLAYER (free) to watch videos, from that I can select a picture from any frame to use as a picture.
Take a look at the web site 107sUAV.wix.com/mysite, all pictures you see are captured from a video.
Sooooo much easier!
 
Like the others said ANGLE mode to start out.
Make sure you let drone sit for 12 minutes to fully acquire satellites. Go into GUI and be sure the St 10 fully responds to your inputs. They are known to oxidize. Finally, remove the camera for the first few flights so that if a mishap occurs you won’t cost yourself a 300 dollar camera
Good luck
 
Great advice!!!!! I just took it to a big open field. Sure enough, Smart mode was the culprit. Angle mode is much better and is NOT hard at all (especially in 'turtle' speed). Smart mode is WAY more complicated and the copter does things you DON'T want it to do and it DOESN'T do things you do want it to do (like stay in one place.....). Took videos and still pictures for about 10 minutes and then it stopped taking pics and videos. Sure enough, half of the pictures it did take were corrupted files (the top-half of the pic was fine, and the bottom-half was just noise). Brand new SanDisk 32Gig SDHC UHS Speed Class (3) card. I'll bring spare SD's next time I go out.... The pics and video that did turn out were wonderful. Just wished I could have recorded more than 4 minutes worth and took more than 9 still pics. Oh well. One victory at a time.... :). As a first-time flyer, I'll go on record saying Smart mode is a disaster. Just tell newbies to put the speed into turtle mode and just fly in Angle. MUCH less busted copters that way. Thanks, everyone. GREAT replies (and wicked fast, too!).
Dean
Don't waste your money on SD cards until you make CERTAIN you have U3...NOT Class 3. The U will have the 3 on the inside of it. These cards are VERY fast and will perform great for you the others? Not so Much!
 
First time out of a box or been sitting for a very very long time, most likely you need time to acquire updated satellite info.
If you're flying every week you really don't need to wait 13 minutes.
Though there are others who swear you should, (Rubbish)
Again I have gone for 16 days without flying and have never had satellite acquisition issues.
By the time I manually set up my camera, I'm good to go. (about 3 minutes)
 
To be specific, we are not waiting thirteen minutes for satellite acquisition.

The thirteen minutes is to allow the full satellite almanac to download and update the GPS system. This almanac data can become stale after a few days of this inactivity.

For those interested, search on satellite almanac for more info.

Jeff
 
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While a GPS receiver must collect a complete ephemeris from each individual GPS satellite to know its correct orbital position, it is convenient for a receiver to be able to have some information about where all the satellites in the constellation are by reading the almanac from just one of them. The almanacs are much smaller than the ephemerides because they contain coarse orbital parameters and incomplete ephemerides, but they are still accurate enough for a receiver to generate a list of visible satellites at power-up. They, along with a stored position and time, allow a receiver to find its first satellite.

On the other hand, if a receiver has no previous almanac or ephemeris data in its memory, it will have to perform a cold start, also known as a factory start. Without previous data to guide it, the receiver in a cold start must search for all the satellites without knowledge of its own position, velocity, or the time. When it does finally manage to acquire the signal from one, it gets some help and can begin to download an almanac. That almanac data will contain information about the approximate location of all the other satellites. The period needed to receive the full information is 12.5 minutes.


The time to first fix (TTFF) is longest at a cold start, less at warm, and least at hot. A receiver that has a current almanac, a current ephemeris, time and position can have a hot start. A hot start can take from 1/2 to 20 seconds.

 

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