Ardupilot Crash - Help needed

Hi Guys,

We have been using Pixhawk in our fixed wings since a long time and have been quite successful with it so far. Today something strange happened:

We were tuning a new platform meant for aerial mapping. It was a bit windy day but manual take off went well and after trimming a the platform we switched to FBWA for finer tuning when suddenly the plane lost all the control and came down like a rock. It felt like it had no power and when it got inverted it could be recovered at all. We tried switching to manual mode but I dont think this was registered at all.

Following are the specs of the platforms:

3m span Glider

Hacker Motor

Castle Creations ESC

16000 mah 6S Tattu battery

Mauch Power Module

Hitech Servos

I am attaching the drive link below of the bin file and would be great if anyone could help us understand what went wrong. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-wBxBwIyRqVeTNfRUs0QnFfZHc/view?usp=sharing

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    • Hey Andre,

      Thankyou for your comment. The system was powered via the Mauch Power Module + Extra 5V supply from the ESCs (internal BEC). 

      Do you suggest doing something more than this?

      -Pravin

      • Was the extra 5v (on servo rail) actually within the range of what Pixhawk could use ? (or was it higher?)  - you need to measure  to be sure. 

        Also - you would need to verify that the power module actually supplied power, or else you could have been flying on servo rail power (possible to overload /or make overshoot - or by fed back by digital servos.) 

        in any case, check power.

        • We checked by powering with both the power module and servo rail and pixhawk was getting powered from it independently. 

          I do think a digital servo may have been the problem taking too much current at some point. I did have two Hitech Digital servos in Ailerons. However the voltage of the pixhawk has never gone below 4.8V as per the log.

          • That......

    • Great story. Thanks for sharing.
      If the Pixhawk lost power and flew away, then rebooted, how did it arm itself to be able to RTL again?
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