What to do?

KCDrone · Jul 10, 2024

A co-worker of mine recently asked me if I could do something with a drone that had been sitting in his shop for many years. He has moved on and has many other drones he currently uses. I took this one home and did everything I could to get it airworthy. I've read and read posts and information in this forum, as well as YouTube, etc. It seems everything is working "mostly" normally, but I cannot get the drone to start, which I believe is being stopped by the fact that it never quits searching for GPS signal. I've fully charged a battery several times and left it sitting on my back patio table with a clear, unobstructed view to the sky for hours, to no avail. At this point I'm about over the whole process, and wish to move it to someone that can make it work for them. My co-worker is one of those that buys every piece of anything her purchases, and you can see by the pics that there is a lot here. Is there an appetite for this equipment or should it be tossed and the nice carrying case sold separately? I have made repeated attempts to contact Yuneec Skins via phone and email and never reaching anyone or get a return response. Furthermore, I cannot post in the classifieds as I don't have the required privileges

to do this.

WTFDproject · Jul 11, 2024

KCDrone said:
I've read and read posts and information in this forum, as well as YouTube, etc. It seems everything is working "mostly" normally, but I cannot get the drone to start, which I believe is being stopped by the fact that it never quits searching for GPS signal.

Best guess if you have decent drone satellite count is you have a bad FC board. If you are not registering enough drone satellites the next best guess is the GPS unit.
@h-elsner posted a good discussion of the issue, including a quick diagnostic to help clarify whether the issue is with Flight Controller or GPS Unit.
See:
Carlos Cunha

h-elsner · Jul 11, 2024

A simple question is, can you start motors when GPS is switched off (ST16 > Settings/calibration on the right of the screen > slider GPS to Off)?
If yes, you have simply wait when drone is powered on and sit outside in a open area. It may take up to 12 min if the drone was powered off for a long time or moved to far away position. GPS needs to download sat correcion data (almanach) which are sent every 12min.
If no, that's bad. Pre-flight check failed due to IMU problem and drone remains in state "Aquiring". As said above, you need probably a new MCU board (flight controller). You can try an accelerometer calibration first.

A doc with background infos is linked above.

KCDrone · Jul 11, 2024

No. It will not start when GPS is switched off. Have tried that several times. Yes, drone sits in a state of "acquiring" for as long as I'll leave it sit, which has been up to 3-4 hours at one time. From everything I'm seeing, a new MCU board is most likely needed.

Please note that this drone sat for years in a climate-controlled environment in it's hard case without being used. I'm seeing that this is probably why it is failing.

Pier2162 · Jul 12, 2024

Hi, welcome from Italy.
I would suggest gps battery replacement, due to recent similar troubles on my H.
It could be totally drained and making difficult or impossible gps acquiring.

DoomMeister · Jul 12, 2024

I don’t know if you downloaded the document from the post linked to in the #2 post in this thread (so I’ve attached it here). Attaching the aircraft to a PC and running the GUI will give you a better idea of whether the problem is with the MCU (yaw drifting) or the GPS (battery). The clues are explained in the document.

KCDrone · Jul 12, 2024

DoomMeister said:
I don’t know if you downloaded the document from the post linked to in the #2 post in this thread (so I’ve attached it here). Attaching the aircraft to a PC and running the GUI will give you a better idea of whether the problem is with the MCU (yaw drifting) or the GPS (battery). The clues are explained in the document.

I did see it. Just printed it out and will try to do this. I don't know if I'll be successful. May need someone to walk me thru it by phone.

FlyFree · Jul 18, 2024

KCDrone said:
A co-worker of mine recently asked me if I could do something with a drone that had been sitting in his shop for many years. He has moved on and has many other drones he currently uses. I took this one home and did everything I could to get it airworthy. I've read and read posts and information in this forum, as well as YouTube, etc. It seems everything is working "mostly" normally, but I cannot get the drone to start, which I believe is being stopped by the fact that it never quits searching for GPS signal. I've fully charged a battery several times and left it sitting on my back patio table with a clear, unobstructed view to the sky for hours, to no avail. At this point I'm about over the whole process, and wish to move it to someone that can make it work for them. My co-worker is one of those that buys every piece of anything her purchases, and you can see by the pics that there is a lot here. Is there an appetite for this equipment or should it be tossed and the nice carrying case sold separately? I have made repeated attempts to contact Yuneec Skins via phone and email and never reaching anyone or get a return response. Furthermore, I cannot post in the classifieds as I don't have the required privilegesView attachment 30770 to do this.

Hi i would be interested in this, how can i contact you ?