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Yet another flyway in the north

Yes, lots of trees but I quickly gained altitude, partly to avoid the risk of collision, partly because the goal was to take pictures from above. Other than that I don't think there were power lines or anything like that. There is this kind of big antenna-like structure on top of the hill but it was far away (at least in the beginning...).
 
Currently I have no glue how to detect IPS from the flight logs. Flight modes are not very helpful and some are unknown for H Plus.

ukaleq said:
Thanks, what do you think about my point regarding the speed of the aircraft and possible wind drift?
Click to expand...

I cannot say more as above. All is possible, I was not there. I can only refer to the data saved in flight2log. Whet there are wrong data in I'm totally lost. Wind is one possible explanation, but only one...

br HE
 
ukaleq said:
O.k. are you allowed to share that with us?
Click to expand...

Hello, as mentioned on the other page, I just had a thought. Have you even seen or been in IPS Mode? On the Plus, IPS (Internal Position System) is automatic and is essentially manual mode. My thought was; is it possible your Plus went into IPS but you just missed the little flyout message? I have, on several occasions while flying near and among trees; had my H Plus go into IPS mode. If for some reason the craft was in IPS (GPS off or manual) the RTH would likely not work.

Now this would not explain why the IPS was activated with good GPS signal, I am just wondering if some how it was triggered by mistake.
 
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@ukaleq I just had another thought, have you looked at the 'History Notes' on the ST-16S? I know anytime a flight mode is changed, not only is it shown in the telemetry but also it is added to the History notes. Would be curious to see if if the change to manual was noted as 'Manual Mode Activated' or if it actually says 'IPS Mode Activated'
 
@Ty Pilot Thanks for your message! I don't recall having seen anything like this and I didn't really fly close to the trees as my goal was - and almost always is - to be well above them :)
But I didn't know about the history notes and I will definitely check that tonight when I get back home! Where exactly is that file located?
 
On the screen at the very top, the first symbol is a quote box, tap that and you will see a drop down menu with all of the history notes. It take a while to be able to understand it all because there are many notes that are made before take off occurs so you'll want to find the last take off the everything above that will be your last flight. There will also be many previous flights so you can compare to see what a normal flight looks like
 
Great, thanks, I will have a look. Actually, in retrospect there were similar inexplicable drops to manual mode also in previous flights, only I was able to control the copter...I am curious to see what was logged.

I have prepared a letter for Yuneec. If they don't replace it that will be the end of my buying their products. Life expectancy so far: about 10 days.
 
So it was going into manual mode before? Sounds like something was faulty, maybe a bad GPS. Hope you get it squared away, I look forward to hearing what they say.
 
Is there a way to export the contents of the history window? There are zillions of messages...
 
I don't know of there is a possibility of export. But the textmessages in thze history should be the same as the text messages in the sensor files.
Here is a list of the last three files (two flights - see post #36). Please compare with your display. I think it should be the same.

Flight2Log_2_ukaleq\Sensor\Sensor_00030.txt
10 00:01:30 INFO: '(3,26)ANGLE MODE'
11 00:01:30 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
12 00:01:30 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
13 00:01:30 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
14 00:01:30 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
3021 00:02:16 CRITICAL: 'CAUTION: Avionics power low: 4.68 Volt'
3022 00:02:16 INFO: 'Armed by RC.'
3023 00:02:16 INFO: '(3,14)home: 66.1651286, 29.1397061, 365.24'
3032 00:02:16 INFO: '[logger] file: /fs/microsd/log/2019-02-22/06_16_4'
3349 00:02:20 INFO: '(2,86) altitude Less than 1.5m, obs not available'
3350 00:02:20 INFO: 'Takeoff detected.'
3542 00:02:23 INFO: '(3,81) obs open'
7169 00:03:18 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'
7603 00:03:25 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'

Flight2Log_2_ukaleq\Sensor\Sensor_00031.txt
39 00:05:04 INFO: 'Data link #0 lost.'
40 00:05:04 CRITICAL: 'ALL DATA LINKS LOST.'
41 00:05:04 INFO: 'Data link #0 regained.'
2390 00:05:39 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'
4083 00:06:05 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'
4535 00:06:12 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'
6821 00:06:46 CRITICAL: '(2,29) LOW BATTERY, RETURN TO LAUNCH ADVISED.'
6823 00:06:46 INFO: 'Altitude limit: 0 meters above home'
7176 00:06:52 INFO: '(2,86) altitude Less than 1.5m, obs not available'
7516 00:06:57 CRITICAL: 'NOT DISARMING: Not in manual mode or landed yet.'
7555 00:06:57 INFO: 'Landing detected.'
7556 00:06:57 INFO: 'Disarmed by RC.'
7557 00:06:57 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
7575 00:06:58 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'
7892 00:07:02 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
8231 00:07:07 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
8563 00:07:12 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
8820 00:07:16 CRITICAL: 'LOW BATTERY, TAKEOFF DISCOURAGED.'
8896 00:07:17 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'

Flight2Log_2_ukaleq\Sensor\Sensor_00032.txt
46 00:01:22 INFO: '(3,26)ANGLE MODE'
47 00:01:22 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
48 00:01:22 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
49 00:01:22 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
50 00:01:22 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
52 00:01:22 CRITICAL: 'No valid position. Switching to manual mode'
127 00:01:24 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
461 00:01:29 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
794 00:01:34 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
1123 00:01:39 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
1455 00:01:44 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
1788 00:01:49 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
2120 00:01:54 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
2454 00:01:59 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
2499 00:01:59 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'
2787 00:02:04 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
3121 00:02:09 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
3455 00:02:14 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
3788 00:02:19 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
4116 00:02:24 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
4445 00:02:29 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
4775 00:02:34 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
5107 00:02:39 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
5440 00:02:44 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
5769 00:02:49 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
6101 00:02:54 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
6434 00:02:59 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
6768 00:03:04 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
7094 00:03:09 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
7420 00:03:14 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
7753 00:03:19 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
8082 00:03:24 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
8410 00:03:29 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'
8737 00:03:34 INFO: 'Weak remote control GPS signal,Forbid set home po'

br HE
 
Thanks a lot, how did you extract them from the files? You're right it looks exactly the same.

Do you know when in principle this message is supposed to occur
"7575 00:06:58 INFO: '(1,7)Warn geomagnetic field is disturbed.'"

I don't know much about the earth's magnetic field and compass readings but I suspect it could pop up whenever the intensity is lower because I had it in West Greenland and again in Finland but not in South Greenland. Having looked at this calculator

NCEI Geomagnetic Calculators

www.ngdc.noaa.gov www.ngdc.noaa.gov
it appears that the horizontal intensity in both locations is pretty close, around 10,000nT

By comparison, in South Greenland it is 14,000 and our friends in Kaltenkirchen enjoy 18,000nT
 
Last edited:
Well, Yuneec's reply so far is not very encouraging... (nor is it surprising either)

Dear Mr. X,

I am very sorry about your lost. Unfortunately I must say, that almost all so called “flyaways” are user related. We never had an active Hplus “flyaway”. All that were reported, had an GPS failure and the drone was drifting away due to strong winds. It is very important that the pilot had learned how to handle this kind of situation. I am not saying that this was the case with you. We did test your new copter and the radio. All were ok and working without problems. Since you were flying in Finland, I hope you did a compass calibration before flight.

Please send the radio for investigation to us. Your RMA is XXX
 
ukaleq said:
Well, Yuneec's reply so far is not very encouraging... (nor is it surprising either)

Dear Mr. X,

I am very sorry about your lost. Unfortunately I must say, that almost all so called “flyaways” are user related. We never had an active Hplus “flyaway”. All that were reported, had an GPS failure and the drone was drifting away due to strong winds. It is very important that the pilot had learned how to handle this kind of situation. I am not saying that this was the case with you. We did test your new copter and the radio. All were ok and working without problems. Since you were flying in Finland, I hope you did a compass calibration before flight.

Please send the radio for investigation to us. Your RMA is XXX
Click to expand...

Had they requested FlightLog data and seen that your unit was going into Manual mode with GPS counts near 20 and the Remote had satellite counts in the high teens and was being classified as a weak GPS signal. That dinky test flight in Germany was a joke. They had it powered up inside the building a couple of times before the test flight, but GPS cannot be judged from inside a building.
 
I actually sent the flight log data via a wetransfer link and I saw that the data had been downloaded. To me, the answer sounds like he acknowledges that in this case, it was not simply that the drone dropped to manual mode due to a weak signal but that indeed the GPS failed. What is remarkable is that his view seems to be that even if the GPS fails, the pilot should be able to bring the drone back.
 
A pilot needs to be able to fly without GPS, but the system should be giving more than a message about going to manual mode. There should be an audible and tactile alert that the system is going to manual mode. If the system could not be flown without GPS there would have to be redundant circuits for GPS.

Yuneec is not alone when it comes to loss of GPS, all makes and models of multirotor aircraft have the same limitations when GPS is not available.

The one thing in your favor is that with the number of satellites detected your system should not have gone to manual mode, and the home position should have been recorded.

Sorry to hear Yuneec is taking this stance. Curious to see what they finally decide in this case.
 
Actually, I had already between 17 and 20 sats during my previous flyaway.

I flew a DJI Phantom 4 Pro in Northern Greenland (ca. 77°N) 2 years ago. It regularly dropped to ATTI mode but the GPS signal there was much weaker and we were pretty close to the magnetic pole. Definitely a challenging environment. But it made it clear that it was flying ATTI and the range was way larger: 1 km was not a problem. So I have always been able to bring it back.

However, and this is one of the reasons I ended up selling the phantom, it occasionally had bouts of madness, flying in loops at full speed for periods of 40-50sec perhaps. I guess this was because of the compass issue and in hindsight the remedy would probably have been to fly ONLY in ATTI mode. But as long as it didn't crash against an obstacle (which there weren't many), it didn't go very far and eventually "recovered".

If, on the other hand, after drifting 260m radio contact is severed, what can you do?
 
I cannot agree more with the loss of RC command at that short distance, especially when they advertise and cite in specifications a much greater distance. Best of luck in your quest with Yuneec.
 

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