The eclipse

[Discoverydave]

I had it hovering in front of me when it turned180 degrees and flew away from me. It was about about the 3M 30sec mark that it turned and flew away. I then hit the rth and when it started to return I cancelled the rth and took control. I brought it back to original position. Then about the 4m 00 sec it flew away again this time to a distance of 238 feet away from Home. I again did an rth and took control again as it came back. I then landed it as quickly as I could. (Totality was occurring)
Another note. I did notice when I first launched it did not hover but went back and forth several feet before settling in position. It was then left unattended while I worked my digital camera.. Then about 3:30 it flew off as I mentioned earlier. If you look at the photo in Airdata you will see where it went etc.
Thanks for your help.

 

[sar104]

I was only looking at altitude changes - I'll need to revisit the data to comment on horizontal excursions.

 

[Snakedoctor71]

I flew for five minutes and just did get my drone back through electro interference .

 

[Discoverydave]

I flew for five minutes and just did get my drone back through electro interference .

During the eclipse?

 

[sar104]

I flew for five minutes and just did get my drone back through electro interference .

What is electro interference?

 

[sar104]

I had it hovering in front of me when it turned180 degrees and flew away from me. It was about about the 3M 30sec mark that it turned and flew away. I then hit the rth and when it started to return I cancelled the rth and took control. I brought it back to original position. Then about the 4m 00 sec it flew away again this time to a distance of 238 feet away from Home. I again did an rth and took control again as it came back. I then landed it as quickly as I could. (Totality was occurring)
Another note. I did notice when I first launched it did not hover but went back and forth several feet before settling in position. It was then left unattended while I worked my digital camera.. Then about 3:30 it flew off as I mentioned earlier. If you look at the photo in Airdata you will see where it went etc.
Thanks for your help.

OK - I checked the horizontal data. According to the log it flew away twice, as you stated, commencing at 3' 12" and then again at 3' 52". Both times that was caused by the aircraft switching to ATTI, with the wind at 7 mph gusting 15 mph at 195° (airdata calculation).

Note that the first time it happened the aircraft did not turn and head away - its heading remained 170° - approximately facing you. It turned to a heading of 291° when you hit RTH at 3' 33" to bring it back and simultaneously applied right rudder for 2.8 seconds.

The second time it switched to ATTI at 3' 52" and drifted off it kept the heading of 291° until you hit RTH (but no rudder) at 4' 17", when it turned to a heading of 220° to return to your position.

The important question is why it switched to ATTI when, on both occasions, it had 16 satellites locked. There are no associated messages, which suggests that you made the switch, but it had also switched briefly to ATTI at 2' 37" for 1.6 seconds.

Also of interest is the initial position instability that you mentioned, and is apparent in the data. Those are surprisingly large fluctuations, and are not seen at all in the earlier flight. I still find it difficult to come up with a credible hypothesis as to how that could be due to the eclipse, but it is odd.

 

[happydays]

The ability to anlayse data like this is invaluable.

 

[Discoverydave]

OK - I checked the horizontal data. According to the log it flew away twice, as you stated, commencing at 3' 12" and then again at 3' 52". Both times that was caused by the aircraft switching to ATTI, with the wind at 7 mph gusting 15 mph at 195° (airdata calculation).

View attachment 87298

View attachment 87297

Note that the first time it happened the aircraft did not turn and head away - its heading remained 170° - approximately facing you. It turned to a heading of 291° when you hit RTH at 3' 33" to bring it back and simultaneously applied right rudder for 2.8 seconds.

The second time it switched to ATTI at 3' 52" and drifted off it kept the heading of 291° until you hit RTH (but no rudder) at 4' 17", when it turned to a heading of 220° to return to your position.

The important question is why it switched to ATTI when, on both occasions, it had 16 satellites locked. There are no associated messages, which suggests that you made the switch, but it had also switched briefly to ATTI at 2' 37" for 1.6 seconds.

Also of interest is the initial position instability that you mentioned, and is apparent in the data. Those are surprisingly large fluctuations, and are not seen at all in the earlier flight. I still find it difficult to come up with a credible hypothesis as to how that could be due to the eclipse, but it is odd.

 

[Discoverydave]

OK - I checked the horizontal data. According to the log it flew away twice, as you stated, commencing at 3' 12" and then again at 3' 52". Both times that was caused by the aircraft switching to ATTI, with the wind at 7 mph gusting 15 mph at 195° (airdata calculation).

View attachment 87298

View attachment 87297

Note that the first time it happened the aircraft did not turn and head away - its heading remained 170° - approximately facing you. It turned to a heading of 291° when you hit RTH at 3' 33" to bring it back and simultaneously applied right rudder for 2.8 seconds.

The second time it switched to ATTI at 3' 52" and drifted off it kept the heading of 291° until you hit RTH (but no rudder) at 4' 17", when it turned to a heading of 220° to return to your position.

The important question is why it switched to ATTI when, on both occasions, it had 16 satellites locked. There are no associated messages, which suggests that you made the switch, but it had also switched briefly to ATTI at 2' 37" for 1.6 seconds.

Also of interest is the initial position instability that you mentioned, and is apparent in the data. Those are surprisingly large fluctuations, and are not seen at all in the earlier flight. I still find it difficult to come up with a credible hypothesis as to how that could be due to the eclipse, but it is odd.

Thanks No I did not switch it to ATTI. Yep a mystery.

 

[Discoverydave]

Flight video after take off and before landing.

 

[Akaterrr]

I've read the posts, and maybe I missed someone else suggesting the possibility, but what about another remote controller causing this?

 

[sar104]

I've read the posts, and maybe I missed someone else suggesting the possibility, but what about another remote controller causing this?

The only unexplained aspects are the two switches to ATTI and the lateral instability at the start of the flight. And since I don't think two controllers can be linked to one aircraft at the same time, I'm not sure how that could explain those.

 

[Discoverydave]

I've read the posts, and maybe I missed someone else suggesting the possibility, but what about another remote controller causing this?

No other drone in close proximity. Plus I believe the controllers do not allow other controllers to take over through a form of frequency hopping similar to r/c cars and planes.

 

[sar104]

No other drone in close proximity. Plus I believe the controllers do not allow other controllers to take over through a form of frequency hopping similar to r/c cars and planes.

It's not so much the frequency hopping - it's an encrypted paired link. If another controller were to take over then the first controller would lose the link, which you didn't.

 

[Akaterrr]

It was just a suggestion. Because the way you described it seemed like someone trying to take off with their own drone and playing with the switches.

 

[ibkevman]

My P4P worked flawlessly during the eclipse

 

[Akaterrr]

how does it go? When you rule out everything else, The cause, however improbable, must be the answer.
IMHO, interference. probably not from the eclipse. For all we know it could have been some trucker with a CB radio

 

[Akaterrr]

One thing I did not think of until just now is that possibly somebody's trying to hack your bird

 

[Akaterrr]

Nice clip ibkevman!

 

[upthedowns]

Certainly a good lesson on not to just leave a drone to its own devices while you set up another camera.

VLOS means more than just being able to see a drone, it's also about having the ability to take control if it in the event of mishap. You did well in this case to spot it and retake control.