My post didn’t make it. Second attempt.
I was flying a mission I’ve flown many times. This time I got a FS and the plane circled into the side of a mountain, apparently without power???
I ran the auto analyzer and this what I got. I don’t understand the GPS Fail as I had 11 sats at the time of FS.
I tried to upload the log file but I think it choked the system. The plane was on the mountain for 5 days before I was able to retrieve it. Therefor the log file was pretty darned big!!
Test: Autotune = NA -
Test: Balance/Twist = NA -
Test: Brownout = GOOD -
Test: Compass = GOOD - mag_field interference within limits (17.43%)
Test: Dupe Log Data = GOOD -
Test: Empty = GOOD -
Test: Event/Failsafe = GOOD -
Test: GPS = FAIL - Min satellites: 0, Max HDop: 99.99
Test: IMU Mismatch = GOOD - (Mismatch: 0.20, WARN: 0.75, FAIL: 1.50)
Test: Parameters = GOOD -
Test: PM = NA -
Test: Pitch/Roll = NA -
Test: Thrust = NA -
Test: VCC = WARN - VCC min/max diff 0.443v, should be <0.3v
Appreciate any help. I would be glad to answer questions and I will attempt to upload the log file again.
Steven
I can’t seem to upload the log…too big?
File is too big!!! Any suggestions? Two days of logging while plane was on the side of a mountain!!!
Attached are params.
I’m not a plane person but from the logs I see two missions. The second one was a big one and was going to waypoint 7 when an RTL was signaled. Don’t know what your return path was but at 420 meters it cut the motor to get down to the proper height.
At that point the logs stop so I would assume it crashed into the mountain due to loss of altitude.
GPS was good no issues there.
Power was good also.
The only thing that was bad was that your home position did not record correctly.
[quote=“iseries”]I’m not a plane person but from the logs I see two missions. The second one was a big one and was going to waypoint 7 when an RTL was signaled. Don’t know what your return path was but at 420 meters it cut the motor to get down to the proper height.
At that point the logs stop so I would assume it crashed into the mountain due to loss of altitude.
GPS was good no issues there.
Power was good also.
The only thing that was bad was that your home position did not record correctly.
Mike[/quote]
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the response. The second mission is the one of interest, huge amount of data.
I have a different interpretation than you. First, I ALWAYS do a close in RTL before heading on a mission to be sure “home” is correct. Second, I set FS to also move the FPV camera slightly down and to the right so I can see the fail safe if I’m not watching telemetry. So, in this instance, the camera did a 1 second dance and stayed where I had it pointed and NOT in the FS position I set. Exactly like it would if there was a catastrophic power loss. The video still had signal for about 20 seconds after loss of radio control
(separate video battery, which saved me!) Right after the FS the mavlink data was lost, plane slowly circled into the ground. My belief from the video and data is that all power was lost and the plane stayed in the position it was when it was turning to the next way point. I realize the log data contradicts this theory as there appears to be power after it hits the ground. Btw the contact with the ground was more gentle than most landings I make, (I had a Mobius on the plane which I was able to retrieve along with the plane.)
I also had ekf enabled and terrain follow so the plane should have returned home fine. In addition, cuz a similar event happened to another plane (someone stole that one) I had two Rally Points that were close by where the event occurred.
Thanks,
Steven
Sorry, I’m not a plane person but thought I would give it a try since no one else seem to be stepping up.
Based on the GPS signal the plane did a left hand circle into the mountain and crashed. Why I don’t know as we have no way of knowing where home was or if it was heading there. Only that it made a turn into a mountain side.
[quote=“iseries”]Sorry, I’m not a plane person but thought I would give it a try since no one else seem to be stepping up.
Based on the GPS signal the plane did a left hand circle into the mountain and crashed. Why I don’t know as we have no way of knowing where home was or if it was heading there. Only that it made a turn into a mountain side.
Mike[/quote]
Hi Mike,
Thanks. The plane had just done a left hand turn towards the next WP, which also happened to be in the direction of home. As soon as the turn was completed, I saw the FS glitch and then Mavlink stopped, as well as the camera remained in the position I had it pointed rather than the FS setting. The video kept going, as I use a second batter for video. (so much for the guys that claim one battery is the only way to go!) If it wasn’t for the video cutting out much later, I would have had no idea where to search for the plane.
Yes the planes servos all seem to have frozen (or just became unpowered) and the plane just did a slow circle into the side of a mountain.
As I said, it looks like a catastrophic main power failure but the log seems to indicate otherwise. So did the FC lock up? That’s what I was hoping an expert could tell me.
Thanks for your effort. I really appreciate it! I will add a video of the last moments over the weekend. Perhaps it will clarify my story.
I’m more a multi guy than fixed wing, but fly both. I’ve found the logs a bit harder to interpret for fixed wing versus multis, but maybe that’s just me. But I had a look at yours.
First off, you can fly into Aliso Woods??! (I’m in OC and was surprised when I saw your map). I did not know that. Not a bad spot for a mission, but a bitch if you have to do a recovery. Anyways…
It looks like you had a serious power failure. If you plot your altitude against your battery voltage you see recording just stops at an altitude of a little over 400 meters. Your Pixhawk didn’t record the descent because it didn’t have any power to do so. Probably stopped your motor and locked your servos into their last position, or maybe did something wacky.
There is something possibly foreshadowing what happened in your Vcc plot. About 11 1/2 minutes into your log the Vcc to the Pixhawk, which had been solid to that point, starts doing very weird things and takes a big dip. It recovered, but at a lower voltage. Then it suddenly dies with everything else.
My preferred explanation is that your Power Module (or whatever you are powering the Pixhawk with) failed. If that is the case there would have still been power to the motor and servos, but not to the radio or control. That would explain the Vcc flakiness too. The other possibility is you had a failure in your power feed wiring, like a bad solder joint. But that shouldn’t have caused the Vcc swings.
Oh, and I just thought of a variant of this…There could have been a problem with the connector cable between the Power Module and the Pixhawk. If that connection wiggled loose or there was an intermittent wire, the Pixhawk would have lost power. And if you test it all later it might work fine. So consider that too.