Just got my new hex built and running today and what does it do ? It flys off and crashes that’s what…
I was wondering if I was going to find it at all so I guess I can be grateful for that…
A months worth of work up the pipe in about 30 seconds… Man, Things went bad in a hurry…
I don’t have a clue as to where to start looking for what went wrong…
I’m downloading the logs now…
Guess I’ll start there… Any advice for figuring out what went wrong over the next month while I’m rebuilding it ?
My point being that I’m very new to this and don’t know where to start analyzing what happened…
Went wacky switching from Alt Hold to Loiter… Then I switched back to stabilize but quickly lost sight of the bird… Kind of looks like I just flew it into the ground… But I’d like to know why things got out of hand so quickly… Other than my lack of experience which is a given…
My quad flamewheel never got out of hand like this one did… Guess I went from a skateboard to a fighter jet…
You have set fence altitude to 50m - you hit that pretty quickly - then RTL were engaged.
It seems like you don’t knew what was going on, after a while, you switch to Alt_Hold then stabilize.
Then you again hit the Altitude fence again.
It’s now coming home in RTL mode, dropping altitude, Baro altitude goes from 55 to 6 meters, way below target altitude of 50m
At such low altitude - judging by that attitude (you did not log IMU), you do hit terrain or some obstable during RTL at about 6m.
The question is why it descended that low. - It seems like it was unable to maintain altitude at such high speed.
During RTL, your pitch was 45degree, throttle at max , your GPS/SPD was up to 18m/s while
WPNAV speed is set to 5m/s. - I do not see why it should RTL that fast.
What I do not know - is why it gained such speed - a proper developer may be able to answer that.
I too, Am wondering how it got so out of hand… Seems like when I hit RTL it just takes off at max angle…
I’m very surprised to find that the damage only took out two of the six booms…One was slightly damaged but epoxy will fix that till the new ones arrive…
So I’ve managed to rebuild it as a quad as it was originally designed…
But of course I’m afraid to fly it now as I don’t know what happened… Maybe just a little light testing… LOL !
Is there a way to clear out the autopilot and computer and start again with the default settings ?
Sorry for your crash. Not sure what is going on with the software, but I got the impression you are new to ardupilot. If you don’t mind…may I suggest a couple things first from my experiences.
Failsafe is not always your friend. Last year when I dove into purchasing my first AUV drone (with all the bells and whistles), I turned on Geo Fence and not remembering the range/ceiling limit few mine beyond the fence. Of course the software did want it was supposed to, but I panicked and started flipping modes because my stick inputs weren’t being accepted (my fault for not understanding RTL). I had a catastrophic crash luckily it didn’t fly off and all was repaired. Recommend NOT enabling the GeoFence unless you are confident of your radio setup (ie mode configuration with flap switch), and software configuration of your drone. I will say this the Battery failsafe is a must and a welcome addition to the ardupilot software.
This maybe redundant for you but have you utilized copter.ardupilot.com/ for their notes and instructions?
Lastly, If you are new to flying, may I suggest you conduct a few low level, relatively close hovers and only use Stabilize to get comfortable with aviating your drone. I found Simple mode to be helpful as a beginner while flying in Stabilized mode.
This is my second multi… An upgrade from my 550 flamewheel… But the APM on that one works perfectly and it’s never gotten out of hand in the several months I’ve flown it now…If it hits the fence, It just comes home…
I’m thinking about swapping the two APM’s to see if that is the problem… The loiter and really, All the modes on the flamwheel work flawlessly… It will loiter rock solid… This considerably more expensive one takes off on it’s own and if i put it into RTL then it’s a flyaway…And I can see how hitting the fence and causing the RTL is a hazard in itself… But I’m afraid it will fly away if I don’t have the fence set so I’m in catch-22 territory there… I just wish I knew where to go from here… I can fly it around in stabilize and it’ll work fine… Alt hold seems to work too… But put it in loiter and off it goes…
So, I’d really like someone to look at my log and perhaps tell me where to go next…
Something else… The APM is right over the two buss connectors I made to plug all the motors and electronics into… Just imagine 6-3.5mm female connectors soldered together into a block and the main power leads connect to that…So 6 positive and six negative all right under the APM… Could this be the issue ? Should I raise the APM up to the top level ?
you did not log MAG, so the log does not help. But both the description of wiring (unless you are using external magnetometer) and the behavior suggests you have trouble with magnetism.
Just looking at the image and not the logs I wonder:
The final blue section I assume is the geofence alt hit, and then RTL kicking in.
If RTL height is 15m (or lower if set) then it looks like it is both heading home but downward to 15m from 50m.
That could easily make it accelerate right?
If the motors/throttle are not quite calibrated correct then its recovery power (default to keep it flying) may have been to low, allowing it to overdrop the 15m
It looks like it hits over a large tree, which could easily be 10m+ tall?
So guess I would be curious (probably to late to check now) …but the setting of throttle set to keep it hovering steady (when stick is in centre for alt hold) does it actually keep it steady or drop slowly.
Im new also , so Im interested if this sort of logic/diagnostic makes sence in this situation, for my own expereince also.
