New Flytrex Goodies

[amitregev]

Frank, as Amit said, when the motors stop due to low battery, there is still plenty of juice to power the FLT and maintain location to the flytrex servers as long as a data connection can be maintained. I would put money on the idea that, up until impact on the ground, that the FLT would still be transmitting to the best of its ability, and be far more accurate than the "find my phantom" -- because the phantom would already be off and no longer updating it's location via wifi.

However, the phantom will not sit up at altitude until the motors shut off.. so I think this is a needless hypothetical because it'd be on it's way down long before the motors shut off due to low voltage..

Regardless of that, if it were to drop out of the sky at altitude due to motor shut off, during impact many batteries are ejected and there would likely be no more updates.. in those cases I don't see why we couldn't use a lightweight 12v lipo (or close) in parallel with the power source (and a diode between the batteries's positive's, to prevent the phantom from drawing current from it, while allowing the smaller lipo to source current FROM the main battery).. I haven't seen the current requirements of the FLT anywhere yet.. but this should be easily feasible even if only as an upgrade.

In fact, I've seen a few people decide against soldering to their phantom and using an external lipo.. so a combination makes sense to me, even if I don't see it as necessary.

For anyone to bring up how much power is still left in the battery after the motors shut off in this case, is only wasting time & energy. When the Vision's battery shuts off, it's off. When it's off, it will not supply power to anything.

Jayson, you told us how if our quads lost power, they would drop to the ground like a rock and their last transmitted signal would be a zillion times more accurate then without a signal. I gave you a flight scenario and asked you to explain or even take a guess on the location of it's where abouts, and apparently you couldn't come up with anything. I mentioned it was not the actual events

The FLT is what it says it is. A Live Tracker...it only tracks when it Live. But with a small mod, it could be a kickass device.

Hi flyNfrank

*As far as I know*, I don't believe that the Phantom has any cut-off circuit that cuts the power completely at a certain point. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Live should have enough power to continue operating for hours (if not days..) long after the engines turn off. This is just the way batteries behave and the fact that the Live consumes much (much) less current from the LiPo compared to 4 (or more) engines..

With that said, if you prefer, you can easily hook the Live to a stand alone battery, so it won't rely on the Phantom's LiPo. This should work nicely and this way the Live won't rely on the Phantom main LiPo.

 

[amitregev]

Frank I did it just last night, so take a cup of STFU. My flytrex has the discharge "flight". I flew to 0% per the vision app (which isn't really 0%), let the motors shut off and caught it, then brought it inside and checked the cell voltages etc on the vision app, and since the motors were not running, the battery bounced back.. I turned it off and on, and logged 32 odd minutes of the flytrex still broadcasting.. before I got bored of the flashing yellow lights from my lanai. I even tried to "restart" the motors but it wouldn't let me due to the battery being so low.

And in case you hadn't seen such, objects on weather balloons can reach the edge of space and fall back relatively close to their take off -- and they drift in the wind slowly. A phantom at 2lbs that is more or less a true ROCK, might drift as it falls only a few hundred yards at best.

Therefore, if MY PHANTOM were to run out of battery at high altitude, and have the motors shut off, the battery will keep the flytrex LIVE, alive and broadcasting, for a LONG TIME as it free falls back to earth until it impacts.

That's the exact behavior you can expect. Technically, from the point the engines turned off the Live can most likely continue running for a few more hours, if not a day or two.. the current consumed by the engines and by the Live is of completely different scale, no place for comparison.

Regarding the small voltage spike once the engines are closed, this is also what you can expect to see. Once the current drawn by the engines stopped as the engines shut down, you'll always see a small bump up in the battery voltage. You can see this in almost all Flytrex Live missions uploaded to our site.

For example see this mission: http://www.flytrex.com/mission/hexacopt ... kov-73475/

You can see that the voltage at the end jumped up back again a bit after he landed and engines were shut off.

 

[amitregev]

What about the wind gust? Or are you saying from 3,000+ feet the quad will still fall straight down to the ground?

I would suggest you speakout on things you know to be factual, something you yourself has 1st hand experience with. .

Gee, why so belligerent?

I assume from your post that YOU have actually measured the drift of an object dropped from 3000 feet?

I havent. But then again, thats not my normal cruising altitude for my phantom to begin with... I would hypothesize, though, that from most NORMAL flight altitudes, the "drift" would be modest. That phantom is not very aerodynamic when the props aren't moving! I would think it WOULD tend to drop more or less like a rock if the engines died.

At any rate, peace.

I would guess that in high winds some drift is possible, but even in such case, the Live will continue streaming location details and you should get accurate location reading, including any drifting that might happen, or not.

 

[amitregev]

Ordered my Flytrex Live direct from Flytrex and now that the item has reached the UK the shipping status shows as "Inappropriate invoice". Any other UK pilots have this before? Assume customs will now want to drain my bank account even more.

Hi job2310

We've seen this before in the UK. Not completely sure why -- this shows on the status even with shipments to our dealers that are shipped in large packages..

From past experience, give it a day or two, it goes through eventually -- honestly no clue why. We tried to get more details in the past but didn't got any reply.

£20.26 in customs fees later and it should finally be here tomorrow. What a pain.

I'm really sorry for that Did you got any feedback from them why this happened? I don't think we're usually seeing such fee with shipments we send to the UK.

 

[amitregev]

Re: Flytrex Live Question ??

Ive been trying to setup my Flytrex Live and keep getting this error: "Live ID invalid. Please verify Live ID and try again" Ive been running a Flytrex Core...do I need to setup another account before it will recognize my Flytrex Live ?? Thanks for any help !!

Hi TxRider

You do not need to open a separate Flytrex account - Flytrex accounts are designed especially for use with multiple devices, Live or Core, and allows a pilot to define multiple aircraft/multirotor. So this definitely shouldn't cause any problem.

When registering a Live device you can either do it by manually typing the Live ID using your PC. Or, you can register it by scanning the QR code placed at the back of your Live device using a mobile phone.

If you tried registering your Live by manually typing the Live ID on your PC, please try instead to register your Live by scanning the QR code placed at the back of your Live device.

In many cases, manually typing the Live ID on your PC can cause trouble in case you mis-type a specific character that might look like a different one or a digit. Scanning the QR code is the best way to make sure you got the correct code entered since this is done automatically for you and you won't be asked to type the Live ID manually this way.

If this doesn't help, please send me a short email to amit[at]flytrex[dot]com including the Live ID you've been trying to register and I'll investigate quickly how we can help get things working for for you.

Have a great Sunday!

 

[amitregev]

Re: Flytrex Live Question ??

Ive been trying to setup my Flytrex Live and keep getting this error: "Live ID invalid. Please verify Live ID and try again" Ive been running a Flytrex Core...do I need to setup another account before it will recognize my Flytrex Live ?? Thanks for any help !!

Hi TxRider

We located and fixed a bug that was related to this and I suspect might have caused this issue for you - really sorry! We're doing a lot of work behind the scenes on upcoming new features and it seems like we killed this section by mistake.

Can you give it another try now and see if it is working better this time?

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

 

[amitregev]

Hi all,

When installing the flytrex live did any of you need to use extra solder? I'm a total solder noob and have had a go but the existing solder bead won't melt to allow me to add the flytrex power cables. Have tried with a standard 40w iron and also a butane, no luck with either. I've watched Jayson Hanes YouTube vid and it looks like it takes literally a second!

Thanks for any (constructive) advice.

Hi job2310

It is pretty common that a solder pad that came from the factory might need slightly higher temperature to melt initially. This is related to slightly different materials used with different types of solder. However, much like erasable markers on a white board, as soon as you touch it with a bit of new solder, you'll notice that the existing solder tip is starting to melt very quickly.

So the easiest way will be to add a tip of new solder on top of the existing one and you'll see that the two parts are attached together. 40W should be OK, although 60W might be easier for such relatively large pads.

When buying the solder verify at the store that it is in fact fresh. A bit funny term, but the solder includes a special paste in it which dries over the years and solder that is several years old might be a bit harder to work with than a new one.

 

[amitregev]

Another week has passed without any sign of progress. Where is the Live's Mission Uploader tool? How difficult can this be? The thing doesn't work properly at least give us the means to retrieve our flight logs! :twisted:

Really sorry for the delay! We've got a lot of progress done, just not released yet. We'll release the first version of the new Mission Uploader tool later on today.

We'll also release a new firmware that adds built-in logging, this should allow us to better investigate truncated mission issues and continue and improve things.

We'll post more details in the next couple of hours.

 

[amitregev]

I have just installed a new Flytrex Live Module on my Phantom Vision 2+ and when I go to register my device its giving me "Live ID Invalid" and also on the same screen the second part is a drop down which say: Link with Aircraft but when I click on it for the drop down its not showing my aircraft ?? What am I doing wrong ??

Thanks for any help !! I have sent several emails to Flytrex but have not received an answer yet !!

Hi, have you tried registering by scanning the QR barcode on the back of the Flytrex? I did that and it worked perfectly.

Yes ive tried that as well...ive also checked with T-Mobil today to make sure that my sim card was active and working and it is.....I figured it was because everytime I turn the Phantom on T-Mobile it charging me after another day !!

Hi TxRider

Please see my reply a few posts above this one on this matter. We had a bug that we located this morning and is now fixed. We already helped a few users with this issue via email earlier today, but I'm not completely sure if you are one of those (can't match your username here with the support emails we received..).

Please try registering your Live again today and let me know how it goes. With the bug fixed earlier this the registration should work better if you try it now. If you continue having this issue, please send me a short email to amit[at]flytrex[dot]com and I'll help with this right away.

Thanks!

 

[amitregev]

Another week has passed without any sign of progress. Where is the Live's Mission Uploader tool? How difficult can this be? The thing doesn't work properly at least give us the means to retrieve our flight logs! :twisted:

Hi Dirty Bird

We just released our new Flytrex Live firmware and new Live Programmer update -- adding the new Mission Uploader tool that lets you sync the Live's internal memory missions with your Flytrex account with a semi-automatic process. Our Programmer is currently available only for Windows, I hope this isn't a big issue.

Please check our latest blog post for full details and downloads. http://www.flytrex.com/blog/flytrex-live-firmware-41-and-mission-uploader-released/

Keep me updated how things are working for you. Thanks!

 

[flyNfrank]

With these updates, will they download on their own? And how does the user check in order to know their device is all set?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Please check our latest blog post for full details and downloads. http://www.flytrex.com/blog/flytrex-live-firmware-41-and-mission-uploader-released/

Keep me updated how things are working for you. Thanks!

Thank you! Just updated the firmware, now off to install the drivers & Mission Uploader.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Keep me updated how things are working for you. Thanks!

Amit - I installed the Live USB drivers and ran the Mission Uploader. Connected fine, but it only found 3 missions in memory which I am uploading now. One was very short so its probably just the "mission" from today where I carried it downstairs...lol.

How much user memory is available in the Live for storing missions, and how many missions should it be able to store? Are the oldest missions flushed out as memory is required? Do stored missions survive a firmware update? Kind of bummed because I have a LOT of missions that have never been fully uploaded, including my 6800'+ flight, but its only finding three in memory.

 

[flyNfrank]

Is there details to download, upload, or whatever needs done?

 

[nhoover]

Glad to see this update! Mine found 11 new missions on the Live and they are uploading now - takes quite a while.

 

[nhoover]

It's been over an hour since the 11 missions the Uploader tool found have been uploaded successfully. Shouldn't I see them on my Profile by now? There isn't another step I have to is there?

 

[allemtura]

Hi Amit,

I just want to say thank you very much for taking the time to answer questions on this forum. I'm sure a lot of your customers regularly monitor these pages, and it's really reassuring to hear about all the fixes and future updates you're implementing. Seeing regular answers to questions on here will benefit everyone - it'll save repeat questions to the support email, and it will help people find answers to questions they didn't know they had until reading it on here.

I don't have a Facebook account for example, so your post about the new firmware and mission uploader tool was really useful!

 

[amitregev]

With these updates, will they download on their own? And how does the user check in order to know their device is all set?

Hi flyNfrank

Technically we can force "push" new firmware updates to pilot's Live devices when critical fixes are included (we did this once in the past), but usually we don't force a new firmware update and leave it to the pilot to device when to perform the upgrade.

Upgrades are done Over The Air, so you don't need to connect your Live to your PC or anything like that. We prefer not to force-push new updates since the update might take ~2 minutes to complete and sometimes you might want to take-off quickly in the field and definitely not want to see that a new firmware update is taking place as you get ready to take off.

Please see the Firmware Upgrades section in the Live user manual for more details how to trigger a new firmware update and how to check if a new firmware update is available for your Live device(s). You can see the manual here: http://www.flytrex.com/support/flytrex-live/manual/#10

 

[amitregev]

Keep me updated how things are working for you. Thanks!

Amit - I installed the Live USB drivers and ran the Mission Uploader. Connected fine, but it only found 3 missions in memory which I am uploading now. One was very short so its probably just the "mission" from today where I carried it downstairs...lol.

How much user memory is available in the Live for storing missions, and how many missions should it be able to store? Are the oldest missions flushed out as memory is required? Do stored missions survive a firmware update? Kind of bummed because I have a LOT of missions that have never been fully uploaded, including my 6800'+ flight, but its only finding three in memory.

Hi Dirty Bird

Thanks for the update! The Live includes 16mb of internal storage. Apart from small portion that is allocated for specific tasks (fail-safe firmware, APN list and a few other bits), nearly all of the memory is used as flight data backup (about 15.5mb). This should be enough for ~16 hours of flight time or so -- might change a bit depending on the flight itself.

Technically, the internal storage wasn't designed for full long-term backup, but should allow you to easily re-sync your weekly or half-monthly missions with your profile without any problem. The Mission Uploader is also designed to automatically grab only new missions it finds, so re-syncing should go faster with future syncs. (Also doing some more efforts to speed things up in upcoming updates).

What I believe might be causing this issue is most likely related to a few recent fixes we included with just the previous firmware that will work properly with the new Mission Uploader. This means that we are unable to recover missions recorded to the internal memory with previous firmware versions I'm REALLY sorry for this! Our main goal at this stage is to get things working better and better moving forward and I'm very sorry for any previous missions that we can't recover at this stage and didn't got sync over the Live stream.

I hope the information itself helps a bit.

 

[amitregev]

Is there details to download, upload, or whatever needs done?

Please see my reply two posts above how to download and complete the new firmware update. Let me know if you have any other questions about this that I can help with.