Hello,
I am struggling to understand why I crashed in Loiter mode with my Hexacopter. I took off and held the aircraft stable at about 2m, then it randomly flipped over and went straight into the ground. Ugh…
Running the following hardware:
All sensor values look OK to me when reviewing. Does anything stand out to you or can you suggest what I can look at?
Post the .bin flight log.
Here is the BIn from my flight
It looks like it started with thrust loss on Motor 5 which in typical fashion dropped the output to the opposite Motor 6. Then it was unstable and Motor 3 was commanded high and it’s opposite Motor 4 was dropped. It looks like you dropped the throttle when it pitched wildly from these events.
Interesting… I appreciate the quick analysis… Any thoughts on the motor5 thrust loss? Also, what tool did you use to plot this data?
ESC, motor or prop are the usual suspects. I suppose if the props were not damaged you could rule that out. APM Planner 2 has good graphing tools.
Which flow sensor are you running?
What ESCs are you using?
Vosair,
I am running the following:
Any other thoughts as to how I can determine the point of failure? I am worried about flying again if I am going to experience another crash.
Or should I just start replacing all of the components on Motor 5?
First of all I would try to replace the ESC’s with Multirotor ones. According to the datasheet and manual, Phoenix EDGE is a Traditional helicopeter ESC, not a multirotor one. A quick throttle changes that normal in multicopters can cause desync with non multirotor esc’s.
Second, I hope that your voltage meter is not configured, because it shows 6cell voltages, but your motors are designed for maximum 4cell.
Check cables, check ESC settings, configure voltage and current sensor. And go through the setup/tuning guide. Then try again but replace expensive components (lidar, px4flow) with dummy weight and only put them back when you sure that your copter is tuned well a flies without problems.
Thanks for the feedback, it is greatly appreciated!
Regarding the Phoenix Edge ESC… When we load the programming software, it allows us to tell the ESC that it is to operate in a Multirotor mode. I am assuming the helicopter mode is the “default” mode. We have read a few other forums where people are successfully using this ESC in a multirotrot config, assuming they changed the config in the ESC…
Correct, voltage meter is not configured.
I did a thorough review of the physical build, and all looks OK to me. HOWEVER, the voltage and current sensor do not report correctly. When the copter is powered but not armed, voltage reads correct (~16v). However, as soon as I arm it and the motors start to spin, voltage reading is about 25v. I assumed this was OK as long as I don’t look at these incorrect values.
Lastly, right before the flight I ran through the setup/tuning. The aircraft flew rather well and held relatively stable in the windy conditions. I didn’t see any strange oscillations and it seemed very responsive. Overall, I was happy with the flight characteristics.
