Why did this happen?

[JMolter]

I was just out flying my Typhoon H, and everything was working fine and normal for most of the flight. Towards the end of the flight though, as the battery got low I started lowering it out of the sky to land, and all of the sudden the drone got out of control. It didn't have the normal stability that holds it in one spot like it normally has, it started flying forward/backwards/left/right by itself and it was super hard to manually stabilize it so I could land it. I did my best I could to gently land it but it was moving so much that it was hard to control and it ended up flipping over upside down when it hit the ground.

The drone looks to be okay, but what gives? Why did this happen? How can I prevent this in the future?

I didn't calibrate the GPS prior to taking off, but everything seemed to work fine up until the very end of the flight, so I doubt it was that? Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Atomic08]

How old is your Typhoon H?
Check your flight logs and see if you lost GPS.
If your last flight from your last calibration was more then 50 miles, you should have re calibtrated your compass.
Sounds like what happened to me last week, but mine crashged hard!
First Crash Totaled My H !
I sure Ty, DM or others will chime in.

 

[DoomMeister]

Unless your battery is down to a critical level it is best to throttle up and get out of ground effect. Raise the TH to 15 to 20 feet and let it stabilize then attempt a smoother landing. If it is still squirrelly then raise up again and try landing in a different area in case you are getting magnetic interference.

The other thought is to make sure you are in Angle mode and that OBS is off.

 

[Mrgs1]

I was just out flying my Typhoon H, and everything was working fine and normal for most of the flight. Towards the end of the flight though, as the battery got low I started lowering it out of the sky to land, and all of the sudden the drone got out of control. It didn't have the normal stability that holds it in one spot like it normally has, it started flying forward/backwards/left/right by itself and it was super hard to manually stabilize it so I could land it. I did my best I could to gently land it but it was moving so much that it was hard to control and it ended up flipping over upside down when it hit the ground.

The drone looks to be okay, but what gives? Why did this happen? How can I prevent this in the future?

I didn't calibrate the GPS prior to taking off, but everything seemed to work fine up until the very end of the flight, so I doubt it was that? Thanks in advance guys.

Can't calibrate GPS. Not that I'm aware, just update it's almanac details. If you recently calibrated compass then should be fine unless hundreds of miles from original location. As Doomiester said could be interference, sometimes they will play up a little, like everything electronic or otherwise, height is your friend, get it up and evaluate, they can become a little wandering on low voltage.

 

[Steve Carr]

What was the voltage reading when you began having trouble? At what altitude?
Do you know how to turn off GPS?
Can you access the telemetry files?

 

[AH-1G]

Were you in Smart Mode?
Like the folks above mentioned
Telemetry files will help knowing what happened.
If we can few these, this will aid you and others hopefully not happening again.

 

[JMolter]

To answer everyone's questions, I got the drone back in November, but have only flown it a handful of times because of the cold weather where I live. I was flying in angle mode with obstacle avoidance off. I flew in a parking lot close to the spot I've flown it in past times. I don't have Excel on my computer so I'm unable to upload the telemetry files from the flight unfortunately. There were a bunch of trees around me, could that have possibly been the cause for interference? This is all pretty new to me so I guess I'm not exactly sure how to troubleshoot this

 

[Ty Pilot]

You don't need excel. When you get the file for that flight's telemetry it will look like this> Telemetry_00021.csv

Add .txt to the end so it looks like this> Telemetry_00021.csv.txt . . . .then upload it here. We will then be able to read it.

 

[JMolter]

Still not letting me upload with the .txt :/ thanks for the input though

 

[PatR]

Be interesting to know how low “battery got low” actually was.

 

[Mrgs1]

I was just out flying my Typhoon H, and everything was working fine and normal for most of the flight. Towards the end of the flight though, as the battery got low I started lowering it out of the sky to land, and all of the sudden the drone got out of control. It didn't have the normal stability that holds it in one spot like it normally has, it started flying forward/backwards/left/right by itself and it was super hard to manually stabilize it so I could land it. I did my best I could to gently land it but it was moving so much that it was hard to control and it ended up flipping over upside down when it hit the ground.

The drone looks to be okay, but what gives? Why did this happen? How can I prevent this in the future?

I didn't calibrate the GPS prior to taking off, but everything seemed to work fine up until the very end of the flight, so I doubt it was that? Thanks in advance guys.

Did you get any low battery warnings?

 

[DoomMeister]

Still not letting me upload with the .txt :/ thanks for the input though

Try this to get the FlightLog files:

Retrieving flight data from the ST-16.

Insert an SD card in the ST-16.

Power up and enter Pad mode and tap OK.

Enter menu by pressing circle with six dots.

Select File Manager and scroll to the FlightLog folder, then tap arrow at the right of FlightLog folder.

Now select Compress and add the date to the file name suggested.

Scroll to bottom and find the zip file you just created, tap the arrow at the right and select Copy.

At top left tap the icon that looks like two SD cards to swap to the SD card inserted in the first step.

You will then see the file structure on the SD card, select Paste at the bottom to add the file you just copied.

Now press the ‘Back arrow’ at bottom right of the screen to exit File Manager and select Settings.

Tap on Storage, scroll down to SD CARD and select Unmount. Press the Home icon and power off the ST-16.

Remove the SD card and use your PC to upload the zip file here by using the Attach files button below the Reply box.

 

[FlushVision]

On the rare occasions I've flown down to the warning (back in the day) one thing I noticed was the H becoming unstable and unpredictable and just one time I took it to the second warning (I was a green with the H at that time) it became so unstable that I was lucky not to trash it. Since then I've always been careful not to be in the air with such a low battery. Not just because you can do bad stuff to your battery's health, but also to avoid any unpredictable behavior. These days I always aim on the ground by 14.5v which leaves me a bit in reserve should I need it.

 

[JMolter]

Did you get any low battery warnings?

Yeah I did. That's when I started bringing it down.

 

[JMolter]

Be interesting to know how low “battery got low” actually was.

Reading the telemetry files from the flight, looks like it got down to 14.3V, then jumped back up to 14.7V right at the end? What's with the jump in voltage?

 

[AH-1G]

Ouch!

 

[NorWiscPilot]

Reading the telemetry files from the flight, looks like it got down to 14.3V, then jumped back up to 14.7V right at the end? What's with the jump in voltage?

The jump, or rebound, is normal. Load vs no load.

Jeff

 

[moodman]

Check out the gimbals on your controller. Do they stay in position when you release them? The st16 is known to have gimbal issues.

 

[PatR]

Reading the telemetry files from the flight, looks like it got down to 14.3V, then jumped back up to 14.7V right at the end? What's with the jump in voltage?

There is a thread dedicated to understanding and caring for your batteries. You need to spend a little time reading all that’s in it. Not reading it will be a great way to repeat this incident.