Crazy off course Litchi Flight

[Golotaguy]

I set up a way point mission on Litchi to fly over points of a golf course about 3 miles from my house, most of it out of signal.

It arrived back early, and after looking at the footage I was horrified. Instead of going to the golf course, it went about half way, descended from 400ft to the roof of a building and bounced around on top the building for several minutes, then did a RTH.

The whole thing is crazy and off course and was nothing like the mission. Here is the flight log. Can anyone tell me what happened?
Dropbox - CraxyLog

 

[LSDMT]

again - flying 3 miles away with absolutely no LOS and no direct control or even visual real-time feedback of a flying aircraft that could cause personal and/or property damage is completely irresponsible.

just because you program software that has proven time and time again to be far from perfect and accurate and reliable to fly over an area sparsely populated like a golf course *doesn’t mean it will*.

and just because you can doesn’t mean you should. all it’s going to take is one major catastrophe to **** this all up for everyone in your respective country and impose even more flight restrictions or outright bans because people are too stupid or apathetic to govern their own actions responsibly.

 

[Golotaguy]

My flight was not over 400ft and not in a restricted flight zone. I could have gotten a signal for most of it had I opted to stand there with my remote. I do not understand why that is such a big deal? I

 

[LSDMT]

exactly. you don’t understand.

there are multiple reports on these very forums of aircrafts just taking off in wild directions or dropping out of the sky for no reason. what if you’re tooling around at 300’ two miles away and you hit a bird or an ESC fails and it decides to drop out of the sky and smash into somebody’s face or into a car’s windshield causing a crash or onto the roof and catching fire or hit an electrical pole or a million other variables that you never take into consideration.

it doesn’t ever have to be a ‘restricted flight zone’ for you to cause personal or property damage.

go play golf somewhere where the very last thing you’d ever expect is an out of control drone traveling at 20, 30, 40mph and let me smash it into you or get hit by a 3lb free falling object from 400’ up.

go do the math. A 3lb object falling 400’ with a fall arrest distance of 1‘ has an approximate total force generated of 1203 pounds.

 

[Golotaguy]

The circumstances and events you are describing could just as easily happen while I am controlling it with my remote.

 

[LSDMT]

The circumstances and events you are describing could just as easily happen while I am controlling it with my remote.

gj on justifying your irresponsibility [emoji108]

if you flew VLOS LIKE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO you would have the maximum number of variables afforded to you to try and maintain control of *your* aircraft that *you* are responsible for flying SAFELY.

flying out 3 miles away and hoping it comes back when you have no idea where it is or what it is doing is completely ******* irresponsible. PERIOD.

 

[Golotaguy]

I agree. Even though you are being sarcastic. Some people, in particular people who start out yelling instead of talking have a hard time backtracking their views. I did nothing wrong or more dangerous than anyone who flies their drone more than a mile away. I am trying to understand and fix out what went wrong to avoid repeats and solve problems. Not argue with someone who cannot be reasoned with and would never admit he was wrong no matter what anyway.

 

[macoman]

This is why I will never buy the lichi app... It makes you fly irresponsible far away from the pilot view. If you don't have control over your aircraft, why people have so much trust in litchi? Nothing is perfect and an application is not going to be the perfect pilot.

 

[WV. Rootman]

I agree. Even though you are being sarcastic. Some people, in particular people who start out yelling instead of talking have a hard time backtracking their views. I did nothing wrong or more dangerous than anyone who flies their drone more than a mile away. I am trying to understand and fix out what went wrong to avoid repeats and solve problems. Not argue with someone who cannot be reasoned with and would never admit he was wrong no matter what anyway.

gj on justifying your irresponsibility [emoji108]

if you flew VLOS LIKE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO you would have the maximum number of variables afforded to you to try and maintain control of *your* aircraft that *you* are responsible fly flying SAFELY.

flying out 3 miles away and hoping it comes back when you have no idea where it is or what it is doing is completely f**king irresponsible. PERIOD.

You have a good point to make, but you undermine it by the manor you have taken on. You cause people to be very defensive. His post wasn't addressed either. To Golotaguy, you would have to download your flight records to be able to understand what happened.

 

[Golotaguy]

You have a good point to make, but you undermine it by the manor you have taken on. You cause people to be very defensive. His post wasn't addressed either. To Golotaguy, you would have to download your flight records to be able to understand what happened.

Thank you. I did and posted them to the dropbox link in my original post.

 

[LSDMT]

You have a good point to make, but you undermine it by the manor you have taken on. You cause people to be very defensive. His post wasn't addressed either. To Golotaguy, you would have to download your flight records to be able to understand what happened.

you’re right. let’s never get upset about having to explain second grade logic to adults that should know better for the *billionth time*. also – let’s further enable their poor decision-making abilities by helping them in such a way that they keep flying irresponsibly.

 

[Golotaguy]

you’re right. let’s never get upset about having to explain second grade logic to adults that should know better for the *billionth time*. also – let’s further enable their poor decision-making abilities by helping them in such a way that they keep flying irresponsibly.

The gap between how smart you are, and how smart you think you are is extremely wide. I genuinely suspect that you bully the people close to you in your life as a stress management tool. I would recommend counselling and less time on the internet.

 

[LSDMT]

The gap between how smart you are, and how smart you think you are is extremely wide. I genuinely suspect that you bully the people close to you in your life as a stress management tool. I would recommend counselling and less time on the internet.

diversion tactics 101. YOU flew YOUR drone irresponsibly and were ‘horrified’ by the FACT that your OUT OF CONTROL aircraft ‘bounced around on top of a random building for several minutes’ instead of going where you HOPED it would. YOU did it.

YOU.

—

but no. no accountability. the only card you play is one where you poorly attempt to tear someone else down instead. someone who is clearly smarter than you. someone who follows the rules so as not to be the clown (like you) who endangers our hobby/business by flying irresponsibly and THEN trying to JUSTIFY it.

what grade are you in?

 

[MapMaker53]

It's not only irresponsible. It's also illegal. Do some property damage, cause a car accident, or hurt someone and the serial number will be traced back to you. People are going to get upset when someone is ruining this pastime for everyone else.

 

[michaelts]

Golotaguy, thank you very much for posting the log file. I analyzed it using CsvView which is available at CsvView/DatCon . This is what I found:

1) The drone gradually reached altitude of ~122m relative to the take-off point, and was flying at that altitude for about 2km with speed of 10-12m/s; the number of satellites was about 18-19

2) About 3 minutes later, the number of satellites dropped to 11, but then recovered to 18-19

3) About 10 seconds later, the number of satellites dropped to 0, and the drone switched from NaviGo mode to GPS_ATTI. At that moment, the drone stopped flying, and was hovering.

4) The number of satellites reached 10, but then dropped to 5, then was gradually increasing; however, while the drone was searching for GPS signal, it kept switching the mode between ATTI and GPS_ATTI several times, until eventually it initiated auto landing.

5) As the drone started landing, the number of satellites was decreasing. When the altitude reached ~109m, there were only 6 satellites. At that moment, the drone activated RTH.

6) When the number of satellites dropped to 5, the drone again switched back and forth between GPS_ATTI and ATTI modes.

7) Then the number of satellites dropped to 0, and the drone again initiated auto landing.

8) Eventually the altitude dropped to 21m, and I think at this point the drone hit the roof of a building. The number of visible satellites was jumping like crazy.

9) Then the altitude was changing back and forth between 21m and 25m, as the mode was changing back and forth between auto landing, RTH and ATTI modes.

10) Eventually the drone saw 18-19 satellites while in RTH mode, reached 30-33m, and came home.

 

[Technical Bob]

The circumstances and events you are describing could just as easily happen while I am controlling it with my remote.

If the Golf Course was 3 miles away, and it only got half way,but if you were at the Golf Course thus LOS, it wouldnt have done the same, as it didnt reach the Golf Course with your method,
Using the correct method you would have driven to the Golf Course, and flown from there ensuring LOS.

 

[michaelts]

The address where the drone was misbehaving is 224 SE 4th St, Moore, OK 73160. Looking at Google's satellite map, I do not see anything unusual about that location. There are no mountains and no high rise building anywhere near that place. The landscape is completely flat. Considering that the drone was flying at approximately 400ft, it is even more a mystery why there was a problem with GPS at that particular place.

 

[Golotaguy]

Golotaguy, thank you very much for posting the log file. I analyzed it using CsvView which is available at CsvView/DatCon . This is what I found:

1) The drone gradually reached altitude of ~122m relative to the take-off point, and was flying at that altitude for about 2km with speed of 10-12m/s; the number of satellites was about 18-19

2) About 3 minutes later, the number of satellites dropped to 11, but then recovered to 18-19

3) About 10 seconds later, the number of satellites dropped to 0, and the drone switched from NaviGo mode to GPS_ATTI. At that moment, the drone stopped flying, and was hovering.

4) The number of satellites reached 10, but then dropped to 5, then was gradually increasing; however, while the drone was searching for GPS signal, it kept switching the mode between ATTI and GPS_ATTI several times, until eventually it initiated auto landing.

5) As the drone started landing, the number of satellites was decreasing. When the altitude reached ~109m, there were only 6 satellites. At that moment, the drone activated RTH.

6) When the number of satellites dropped to 5, the drone again switched back and forth between GPS_ATTI and ATTI modes.

7) Then the number of satellites dropped to 0, and the drone again initiated auto landing.

8) Eventually the altitude dropped to 21m, and I think at this point the drone hit the roof of a building. The number of visible satellites was jumping like crazy.

9) Then the altitude was changing back and forth between 21m and 25m, as the mode was changing back and forth between auto landing, RTH and ATTI modes.

10) Eventually the drone saw 18-19 satellites while in RTH mode, reached 30-33m, and came home.

Thank you so much for that. I think this drone loses satellites often for some reason.

 

[smiller]

Golotaguy, thank you very much for posting the log file. I analyzed it using CsvView which is available at CsvView/DatCon . This is what I found:

Thank you for that helpful analysis (much more helpful than a series of useless off-topic finger-wagging posts.)

It seems that the problem is likely related to defective GPS hardware on the aircraft. If it were my unit I'd fly a series of LOS flights is a safe area and an check the logs for GPS performance. If a similar pattern is observed then it's time to send the unit in for repair.

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

How about recalibrating everything? I did not see the data, but the flight is strange. But, this kind of thing is frustrating. People fly miles from their position, depend on technology to keep things right. But that is not the way it is supposed to be, you are not supposed to send your drone out on a mission, outside your line of sight and all, that is not what this hobby is supposed to be about. Yes, it is possible to do this, but when things go wrong, why is it that it is always the craft's fault?

What about Litchi, or interference? Some people are out there flying with enormous boosted antenna on their cars, cases or what ever. I don't know whether it is possible for that to interfere with another drone or not but it would be interesting to know. Also, 2.4 sand 5.8 ghz are common frequencies, used for Bluetooth, Wifi, and a lot of other things. You just never know when you might enter into a bad area, it will happen without warning, the drone may crash.

Still, I do understand that you are trying to find out what happened. I think you have the gist of that, but not the actual cause, that is still a mystery. But I would hope that in the future, you may consider your planned flight more carefully, weighing the possibilities.