FPV Video with failsafe demonstration
First off, nothing bad happened. In a recent FPV flight at Berkeley Marina, I inadvertently triggered my remote’s failsafe mechanism four times. You can observe the failsafe kick in at 1:04, 1.54, 2:34 and 3:02. Each time the plane banks sharply towards the launch position and the throttle increases aggressively.
The remote is a Turnigy 9XR with the FrSky transmitter module and receiver. On the transmitter I use the range enhancing FrSky patch antenna. The flight controller is an APM 1.5 with the latest ArduPlane 2.70. The failsafe mode is set to 50% throttle and Return to Launch (RLT). The plane is a Zephyr II with a NTM 35-30 1800KV motor and a 3300 mAh 4S battery.
As you can see from the map, some of the FS points are actually not very far from the remote at all. The mistake I made was that I pointed the patch antenna to the ground instead of the plane. But this mistake is hard to “see” when wearing FPV goggles.
Key takeaways:
- It’s important to own a remote with failsafe capability.
- If you own a remote with FS, it’s equally importance to setup the appropriate failsafe operation.
- All this could take a turn for the worse if GPS was not initialized properly, never take off before a GPS fix is established. Also a good idea to switch to the mode to see that it acts correctly after takeoff.
- Even a good remote can have limited range if the situation/arrangement is not ideal.
Fly safe!
-
Comment by Carl La France on March 19, 2013 at 6:07pm -
WoW! that was Awesome Andreas You were really Zooming Around ! what was that silo in the center of the park?
There sure is a lot of water around there ! Have a Great Day!
-
Comment by Andreas on March 19, 2013 at 6:29pm -
Hi Carl
This beautiful park used to be the Berkeley municipal dump. That silo is the vent/chimney for venting the dump.
Trappy has the Statue of Liberty and the Jesus statue in Rio to zoom around, all I have this ;)
-
Comment by Bill Bonney on March 19, 2013 at 6:31pm -
The radiation pattern of a patch antenna is such there is only minimal energy radiated out the back in a nodal pattern http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patch_antenna_pattern.gif
Not pointing at the aircraft location is very likely to end in signal loss. And this includes altitude and well as distance from home. I.e direct high overhead could also trigger loss of signal. For the flight posted you would have been much better with omniidirectional antenna.
Good work that you have previously spent the time setting and testing failsafe :-D
-
Comment by Carl La France on March 19, 2013 at 6:47pm
-
Andreas They did a good job of reclaiming the land! perfect your FVP skills "at the Dump!' then when you go on vacation you can take your equipment with you and do your own 'Trappy style videos !
-
Comment by Ramon L on March 19, 2013 at 9:33pm -
Great video! what camera is that?!
-
Comment by Andreas on March 19, 2013 at 9:57pm
-
Thanks! It's a GoPro 1.
-
Moderator Comment by Mark Harrison on March 20, 2013 at 2:10pm -
Andreas is nothing if not intrepid. Here's his first goround, *without* failsafe:
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/01/zii-in-east-bay.html
It's amazing, he was able to recover his floating Zii, pictured here:
-
Comment by Carl La France on March 20, 2013 at 4:23pm
-
Maby snorkel gear? since you fly near so much water1
Comment
Social Networking
Top Content
Contests
Season Two of the Trust Time Trial (T3) Contest has now begun. The fourth round is an accuracy round for multicopters, which requires contestants to fly a cube. The deadline is April 14th.A list of all T3 contests is here.
Groups
-
3D Models
15 members
-
Japan ArduCopter Group
50 members
-
Telemetry over cellular …
247 members
-
German Ardu-Group
106 members
-
ArduCopter User Group
1279 members
Advertisement
© 2013 Created by Chris Anderson.
Powered by
You need to be a member of DIY Drones to add comments!
Join DIY Drones