20m height on go home and land with F40 ?

J.James · Apr 24, 2014

Has any one else had the FC40 when they are already flying higher then 20 meters and have it set in the naza software to come home and then land if in safe mode instead of staying up were it is when over 20 meter instead descend down to 20 meters on its own before it heads home? I know with other models if you are below 20 meters it will go up before going home. Which my FC40 will do. BUT I had seen a video that had some tips on how to avoid crashing in to any thing if there were things taller then 20 meters by just raising the elevation to make sure it was higher then 20 meters before flipping the switch in to fail safe. and that it should not change its altitude if its already higher then 20 meters or 66 feet.

BUT twice yesterday when I was up at 50 meters or so and tried to test the go home and land function. It did its hover that it does to allow you time to regain controll if needed then IT DROPPED down to the 20 meter area then mad a bee line home. First time it was not a problem cause there was nothing in its way and it came home and landed about 2 feet from the point it took off from.

BUT the 2nd time yesterday right after i took off it started getting real windy out and felt like a storm was coming in and it caught some head winds that must of been faster then its top speed cause flying straight it was either just staying still and at some points actually going back wards. and I had to bring her down some to find a spot were it was not stuck in such powerful head winds But then at one spot on its flight It went behide a spot were a really tall tree thats about 25 meters tall and and about 2 blocks away from me was making it hard to see it . SO I raised her up as far as she would go which I had it set in the limits to be 50 meters. and was having a hard time fighting the wind again and I wanted her to get home so I decided to flip the switch in to fail safe so it would come home and land and the lil bugger dropped in altitude down the 20meters then started to head some and I lost site of it. and it eventually ended up flying RIGHT IN TO THE tree top because to tree is about 80 feet tall. If she didnt drop down to the 20 meter mark on its own It would of way cleared it and made it home. I had a heck of a time getting it un stuck after I found it in the tree. freaking 20 meters in the air. I had to spend about 5 minutes hitting the throttle and the side to side stick till she finally was able to break free. But by then the battery was low and it just fell to the persons side walk way and busted 2 of my brand new prop guards that I just put on not 1/2 hour before. Tho I'm amazed at how tuff that like bugger is to take a fall from 20 meters up and not have any thing major broken. But really annoyed that the one time I had to have it clear some thing a few feet higher then the 200m mark and had plenty of room to go over that the fail safe made it go down before heading home.

I'm wondering Is it supposed to do that? and did they some how change the latest soft ware to make it not stay were its at if its already above the 20meter limit? and if so Is there any other work around for it. other then to when first taking off from home point to raise her up and then re-record the set point by toggling the s2 switch when its in the air over the home point so that if it goes up or down in fail safe it will go 20 meters about how ever high it was then the home point was re recorded?

OR does any one know if its all possible to hack the naza soft ware in any way shape or form so I can change the setting that tells it to go to 20 meters and make it be at some different height before heading home? 30m would be awesome and would clear any thing around were I'm at being the tree it got caught in is the tallest thing around and is so wide at the top its as wide as it is high.

J.James · Apr 25, 2014

Well what ever was the cause of my Weird situation with my FC40 descending from above 66 feet before heading home seems to be gone now. I reinstalled the firmware and reset all parameters and flew her out in a direction that nothing to tall would get in her way if she descended again and it worked perfect every time and she stayed at what ever height till over the home point before descending. Tho it does descend down till about 66 feet over the home point pretty fast and stops then comes down gently from there.

Harlequin · Apr 27, 2014

I've tested this once. Got full GPS lock, sent the FC40 out say 50 metres away and about 30 metres up and then shut off the transmitter.

It came back safely.

J.James · Apr 27, 2014

I've tested mine out a lot sence and its not doing it again. If I'm lower then the 20 meter limit it will go up to 20 then come home and if Im up high it will stay were its at and come home then drop down to about 20 meters and then start a slow descend.

Only thing I can thing if why it was dropping when it was not near the home point is a bad S2 switch I had that could cause it to of been rerecording the home point being if you toggle that switch on and off quickly in flight you can record a new home point. and it was also causing all sorts of other problems where would be in home lock or course lock and it would intermittently change modes on be if the switch wiggled or bumped around at all.

Sence fixing fixing the switch i have had no buggy erratic behavior Other then an unplanned low battery landing when she was 300m out. That so sucked spent all of Friday after noon and most of the night trying to find it and then it started raining all night and I didn't find her till yesterday morning laying on her back dead in some ones yard. Lucky the battery died completely long before the rain hit her. Took her home and theory dried her out and took her for 2 test flights and every thing seems ok still.

ElGuano · Apr 30, 2014

I've not heard of what you described happening with any NAZA controller. It pretty reliably stays at any height over 20m upon RTH. If it does happen again do let us know!

J.James · Apr 30, 2014

It hasn't done it sense I fixed my S2 switch. Its been flying great. and the return to home is working like it should. Other then it going on its own and flying around a restricted military instantiation the other day that was in the opposite direction of home. Were it flew around the site and over it a few times then when I was out looking for it in the direction she was heading when I lost site of her and could not find it only to come home and it had actually come home and landed. I have no ideal what the heck that was all about but watching the video it was pretty weird cause it spent a good 8 minutes over the place and looked like it was being deliberately controlled and flown back and forth over the place. and I never even had my hands on the controls from the time I lost site of her a lil over 2 minutes in to the flight going an opposite direction. and then flipped the switch down to have her come home. I was very happy to come home and seeing her only a few inches from were she started BUT horrified when I watched the vid and made me wonder if the thing was a Chinese spy. it also shot that one video were when played back it played completely upside down and its the only video that did that and unlike the normal set up for the FC40s camera mine is imposable to put the camera in the holder up side down. Because I made a tether for it so it wont ever get lost in flight if it were to fall out of the holder and the tether. Is to short to put the camera in upside down. Nore can I zoom the video in the way it looked to be. Being I was not using the FPV app and starte the video manually with the button on the camera and no way to zoom in when not using the wifi