Another Fly Away

[discv]

Shabby news my friend. Hope you find it.

Must say, though, this does not seem to be classic flyaway description. I get the impression you were losing power on all motors.

Anything you can add to relate what happened?

 

[rrmccabe]

As I am reading this it sounds like battery issue or auto land because of battery. Not a flyaway for sure.

Sorry for you loss. Tracking device would be nice to have on so much $$$ hardware.

 

[The Editor]

A slow an uneventful decent does not a Fly-Away make !

What were your First and Second stage voltage protections set at?

What had you set your 'loss under load' values to'?

Had you calibrated the Naza to the voltage from your Lipos at full charge?

 

[syotr]

Hope you had your name and number on it.

 

[N017RW]

A slow an uneventful decent does not a Fly-Away make !

What were your First and Second stage voltage protections set at?

What had you set your 'loss under load' values to'?

Had you calibrated the Naza to the voltage from your Lipos at full charge?

Regarding the last two sentences above... can you elaborate?

I've not see, heard, or done either.

What am I missing?

 

[The Editor]

A slow an uneventful decent does not a Fly-Away make !

What were your First and Second stage voltage protections set at?

What had you set your 'loss under load' values to'?

Had you calibrated the Naza to the voltage from your Lipos at full charge?

Regarding the last two sentences above... can you elaborate?

I've not see, heard, or done either.

What am I missing?

When you first set up your Naza you need to calibrate the voltage (after first selecting what packs you are flying i.e 2s-6s).

Taking a fully charged pack measure the voltage at rest using a good volt meter, then hit 'Calibrate' and enter this number in the Naza software and click 'OK''. You only really have to do this once although it is good practice to check this calibration from time to time.

For the loss values you would enter what your packs drop to under load and the loaded values are calculated from there to trigger the protections.

Personally, I do not use the loaded method as I dislike it - I enter zero in this field and enter a loaded voltage that I want the protections to kick in at since I know my packs will recover 0.5v after load.

I also NEVER use the the second level of protection so I enter a very low value in there (11.5v for a 4s pack). The reason I do this is two fold:

1. I do not want the second stage kicking in should a cell go faulty thus making the craft land whatever it happens to be over.
2. I would rather sacrifice a couple of packs by taking them below 3v per cell if it means I can struggle to get my craft back to me and not sacrifice the Hex ! :shock:

 

[N017RW]

Where are these 'settings'?

I've never seen them in/on my P2 assist.

EDIT: OK, I think I see, this is Naza proper parameters not a 'Phantom Naza' (No?,If so then).... in the words of Emily Latella: 'Nevermind".

 

[The Editor]

Where are these 'settings'?

I've never seen them in/on my P2 assist.

Naza Mode - Advanced - Voltage.

Having said that, the OP was talking about a 650 with Naza M v2 which is what I'm talking about.

 

[rrmccabe]

What version of firmware. I have not seen them either.

 

[The Editor]

Ahhh... my bad.

Apologies, I have just looked in the P2 software (which I don't use) and it isn't an option.

This is a Naza M v2 option (which the original poster was talking about)

Sorry for confusion guys.

 

[HarryT]

Good luck in your search. Didn't you say, though, that it was only about 200m away from you? That doesn't sound like a very large area to search if you know the approximate direction in which it went down. Did you have an IOSD display to get the distance from?

 

[The Editor]

I wasn't losing power because all my lights were still full bore, it was dusky dark so I don't think it was a power issue. I won't really know the issue unless I find it I guess :?

I go back to my original questions above regarding your settings for voltage protections.....

 

[rrmccabe]

1st and 2nd stage battery levels were set correctly, battery was calibrated correctly. At 200 meters LOS aircraft won't respond I don't know what else to call it. Trust me I am VERY meticulous with my equipment.

Not saying anything was not set correctly but an nice decent is not a fly away. Thats all we are saying.

But if you had a battery fail in flight and for whatever reason it thought it was at the critical point then its going to auto land. That is what it sounds like to us.

I hope you keep looking and can find it. I looked on the map and you are very wooded in your area so make sure you look up too.

 

[KwadKopter]

This is Detroit, so probably not yours.

Mystery drone lands in family's backyard

http://www.wxyz.com/news/mystery-drone-lands-in-familys-backyard

 

[rrmccabe]

Control loss is good enough

And with led lights they are not going to dim unless battery drops way off. So I would not consider bright as an indicator of good battery. I would not rule out cell failure at the last minute. I think there is not much warning for autoland if something goes bad. I have hovered until critical stage to see how it works.

 

[MadMitch88]

Ive lost a few dozen machines in my lifetime due to control glitches and my ******* mistakes. That's all part of RC and can accept that every time you put something in the air it may be the last time you see it. This has been by far the worst for some reason, not necessarily about the money involved, but the time and research I put into this project. Everything seemed so perfect with this machine and was a complete joy to fly. I can't help but wonder what the real issue was, did I solder a good joint here, did I configure some parameter wrong, mechanical failure of motors, ESCs, battery or software issue? I guess drones are so complicated they are a challenge that I love to partake of and the reason we all do it. I've learned probably all my 51 year old brain can handle for a while and have no regrets about the loss of my proudest build. Everywhere I flew it people were amazed what it was capable of and the technology inside of such a small package. Time to regroup, dust off, wipe tears, kick the dog in the ***, and take what I've learned and apply it to the next project!

I gotta be honest and say your loss is putting a serious damper on my burgeoning enthusiasm for this hobby.

I just bought the Vision+ a few weeks ago and I like it, but I'm already itching for something better. However, losing a $2,500 labor of love after all those hours of research and build time is PAINFUL just hearing about it. My discretionary spending just couldn't handle that kind of loss. Maybe I need to go back to Photoshop/After Effects tinkering as my main hobby. Worst that can happen there is that one of my composites goes ape-shat and I have to hit the Undo button a few times. :?

Hope you find that bird.....

 

[Robgunbuilder]

I had something similar happen on a high end FLIP FPV quad. 10 successful flts then suddenly a slow uncontrolled descent from 200ft into the ground. Giving it full throttle seemed to slow the descent at the last minute. I had a Eagletree OSD data logger on it and from the ground station DVR got the GPS location of its landing place and easily found it. To make a long sleuthing process short it was a ESC problem in one or more of the ESCs.Motors would run fine when cold but after awhile, there was a sudden loss of control into a slow descent. The ESCs were Luminere 40A and way overkill on a 3s quad. Analysis of the voltage and current data from the data logger helped diagnose the problem. Replaced all four ESCs and problem solved .

 

[HarryT]

I gotta be honest and say your loss is putting a serious damper on my burgeoning enthusiasm for this hobby.

I just bought the Vision+ a few weeks ago and I like it, but I'm already itching for something better. However, losing a $2,500 labor of love after all those hours of research and build time is PAINFUL just hearing about it. My discretionary spending just couldn't handle that kind of loss. Maybe I need to go back to Photoshop/After Effects tinkering as my main hobby. Worst that can happen there is that one of my composites goes ape-shat and I have to hit the Undo button a few times. :?

If it worries you, buy a GPS tracker and attach it to your Phantom. They aren't expensive, and will allow you to find your aircraft, as long as you're flying somewhere with a mobile phone signal.

 

[Wally]

So sorry to hear that man, I can imagine how f*cked up it must be for you...


Get another phantom to do an air-search for this one!

 

[The Editor]

I wasn't losing power because all my lights were still full bore, it was dusky dark so I don't think it was a power issue. I won't really know the issue unless I find it I guess :?

I go back to my original questions above regarding your settings for voltage protections.....

Voltage protections were set at 21.6 for 1st level, and 20v for second stage. I was nowhere near either one. Flight time was around 10 minutes out of a 35 minute battery.

OK - 21.6v (for a 6s) is dangerously low especially if you had a load off-set in there as well. If the load parameter was say 0.5v that would put you loaded voltage at 21.1v or 3.51v per cell. That means your pack is already depleted!

You say that you were nowhere near a low voltage situation so given that fact aside what esc/motor combination are you running. Are the esc's running Simon K firmware? If so, what version. Are you running pancake (flat) style motors? If you are some versions of Simon K firmware have trouble syncing with the motors especialy under load or fast speed changes.
What material were your props? - The reason for asking is the heavier the prop the more inertia it has and thus needs greater energy to speed up and slow down.

I'm curious to know what motor/prop combination you were running together with a 6s pack? What was your AUW?

Sorry.... lots of questions there but I have designed and built a fair few multicopters from scratch and there are many variables that sometimes people just forget to take into account.
eCalc is 'OK' but there are limitations with it and it is not the be all and end all of multicopter design.

Let me have your specs and I will try and help.