Took Iris to the park for my first real outing. She flew great for a few little hops and then she tumbled to the ground.
I was in Alt-Hold, I had both the TX on and MP running on my Windows Tablet connected getting telemetry.
Looks like it pitch forward a bit and then just tumbled. No battery warnings that we saw on MP, no audibles. Failsafe had RTL set with Low Battery at 10.5 reserved 0.0 (defaults ??)
Tested the battery with a multimeter and it showed 9.5
Initial triage: Lost prop set, and long black leg for which I don’t see a part yet.
I admit I really am just learning so any help would be great. I can’t seem to attach them so here is a dropbox link for them
I would have thought the Iris would have initiated a RTL at 10.5…
When I look at the logs it shows ERR to both radios
Appreciate you taking the time to look at this.
Lou[/quote]
I’m not an expert in deciphering logs but when graphing voltage and current they are both flat. Meaning the pixhawk was not seeing/reading either. This is why it never triggered the battery fail safe. There are also no error codes which confirms a fail safe was not triggered. I would take a look at you power module and cabling going between it and pixhawk.
[quote=“LouBnyc”]I have not seen an Iris exploded view that would show me these connections, any pointers would be helpful.
Should I post this log on the Log forum ???[/quote]
I don’t think there is much else to learn from the log since it wasn’t seeing the voltage or current data from the power module. It’s possible your parameters are not set correctly. I can take a closer look later. Have you adjusted any of the configuration settings or did something that could? Like maybe a firmware upgrade?
I still think it’s likely a hardware issue. I don’t know of an exploded view of the iris but I haven’t looked. I’m sure there is directions on how to pull the shell apart in the manual. Here is a link to the pixhawk infographic that shows which plug and cable goes to the power module. I would make sure it’s seated correctly. If that’s not the issue you will have to pin out the cable and module to determine if it’s sending voltage on the different lines for voltage and current. You will need a wiring diagram to determine which pins to check. If you are not accustomed to doing that sort of thing I advise against doing it since you could short something.out.
The frame type is set to 1 ‘X’, not the correct setting of 2 ‘V’ in that log. Also there is no logging of Batt Volt or Current as the PARM, BATT_MONITOR, 0.000000 was set to 0
You where in Loiter (not Alt-Hold)
Also, it was a long flight, so without data for voltage you probably ran low on power, and the wrong frame type would probably added to the instability. Not enough power to the motors to keep it up right.
With no battery monitor that was enough not to warn you of low voltage and time to land. Exacerbated by the wrong frame-type.
It seems that this was a setup issue and not a hardware issue
Did you connect a GCS at all? (Just curious how the frame type was incorrect)
Thanks for looking at this. I was connected to Mission Planner via the Radio links. I walked thru the Wizard when I first linked it, changed the flight modes to simple and then did these sets of flights. I didn’t know I had to enable all the battery monitoring, I thought Iris would have been configured that way from the factory. So I am sure I pushed the batteries as total time was probably around 10min.
Since then I went back and enabled all the battery monitoring in MP so now I see voltage and % on the gauge panel.
Have no idea where or how to change the frame type. I also see under full params list when Iris connected on the right side it shows a 3DR_Quad_X4_RYF Param. Not Iris params I think I should load that ???
Thanks
Lou
PS: what did you use to graph that ? I am finding it difficult to find a good log tutorial… I have looked at the wiki and am still confused.
Have no idea where or how to change the frame type. I also see under full params list when Iris connected on the right side it shows a 3DR_Quad_X4_RYF Param. Not Iris params I think I should load that ???
The Iris is ready to fly out of the box. There is no reason to go through the Setup Wizard. All of those settings are done at the factory, but this does present an interesting scenario. We do need to tell people they do not need to use the wizard.
Please go to initial Settings - Mandatory Hardware - Frame Type - Load Default Frame Parameters - Scroll down the list until you find iris. This drop down also appears in the Full Parameter list under Config / Tuning.
What happen was the frame type was changed to ‘X’ and the BATT_MONITOR was set to 0 disable from 4 (monitor voltage and current). Everything else was correct. You can install the iris.param file which is download from the net, so it always up-to-date. MP and APM Planner 2.0 can download and install that for you if you need to. APM Planner 2.0 will show you the differences between what is on your Iris and what the param file will change.
This is a good pre-flight checklist. copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/checklist/
It has one check Verify Battery Voltage. That would meant seeing it reading zero and being alerted to something not quite right.
