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Crash and freeze

Posted by Jahn Otto Andersen on December 17, 2011 at 11:01am

Now the following has happened to me quite a few times with different codes. Latest code I've tried is 2.1. APM is version 1:

I'm hovering in stable mode. In flight, the quad just tips over and crashes. After that, one of the motors is squeaking loudly without rotating.

Moreover, the arducopter does not respond to any stick movements. The leds are on, but I'm unable to disarm it. I need to disconnect and reconnect the battery to get it responding again.

Any ideas? Faulty APM?

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Replies

  • Arild February 7, 2012 at 5:23am

    @Jahn Otto

    I am still wondering why this APM needs a second battery while others can run from the BEC in one of the ESCs....

    Did the quad flip over surprisingly when it was new, or was this behavior something that developed over time?

    Arild

  • Arild February 6, 2012 at 5:38am

    There was one other thing I forgot to mention in my update.... I do not know if it matters. But I discovered that one of the components on the GPS-adapter was missing. So I removed the GPS before the indoor session yesterday. New adapter-board is purchased from the store.

    Is there any interest if I try to see what happens if I mount it and fly in stabilize mode only with the missing resistor/capasitor?

  • Arild February 6, 2012 at 1:29am

    Hi!

    Just an update to everyone find this thread with the same symptoms.

    I bought the quad from OP as spares to my ArduCopter Hexa, but before I took it apart I did some tests.

    The quad behaved very strange - it was rock solid stable in stabilized mode, but as OP stated it would surprisingly flip over and crash. But for me it did this within the first two minutes on every battery.

    So to rule out brownouts or power problems, I found a small 3S 500mAh battery and connected the BEC to the APM, RX and XBee. So there was only 5 cables from the PowerDistributionBoard to the APM: Ground and the four signalcables to the ESCs.

    After this small change I managed to fly two full batterypackages (3S 2200mAH). Unfortunately the winter came here in Norway and brought -15 degrees celsius so I was not able to do any further tests for some days.

    I then followed Randy's suggestion on updating the ppm firmware while waiting for warmer weather.

    (I did not want to fly in this cold weather as I am not sure how the sensors react on -15 deg celsius.)

    Yesterday I was able to fly 5 battery packs indoor with lots of space.

    There was no hickups at all. The Quad did fly so stable that I trusted it so much I let my 11 year old son fly the roll/pitch while I held the throttle/yaw stick (flying mode 2).

    So going from 5 or 6  crashes in a row, to 8 batterypackages without one single crash I am quite sure I solved the problem with a separate battery to the APM.

    So right now I have one Quad and one Hexa - and not so much spares :-)

    The only question still remaining is: Why does this APM need a separate battery/BEC, while other can power the APM from one of the ESCs (orig jDrones 20A ESCs)..... ?

    Thanks all!

    Best Regards,

    Arild

  • Nathan Li January 10, 2012 at 3:26am

    http://youtu.be/pDcoh-uH83M

    this is the vid before crash

  • Nathan Li January 10, 2012 at 1:09am

    My hexa before crash and after crash

    IMG_2221.jpg

    IMG_2269.jpg

  • Nathan Li January 10, 2012 at 1:06am

    would it be the radio problem? or would you check the ESC and motor individually and see if vibration is the cause?

    If the result still comes negative, will you use ACM? insist or give-up?

  • Nathan Li January 9, 2012 at 7:23pm

    I had a similar experience as you. My hexacopter flipped over to the right and the arms hit the ground. The result was a total loss. I crashed all motor shafts, aluminum arms, the centre frame and an Xbee 900 pro. I wondered the crash was due to the fragile frame which was made of plastic. Before it crashed, the invisible crack was present in the plastic frame as I did a few hard landings beforehand and the aluminum skid was deformed. I didn't perform preflight check and the second flight of the day was a crash.

    I suspect that the cracks caused too much vibration and the APM tried hard to balance it. The vigorous wobble was getting worse and finally the motors on the left arms were in full throttle to flip the frame over and hit the ground. I checked all electronics and luckily APM, IMU shield, mag, ESCs, motors one Xbee pro on USB are all working. But I'm lose confidence on ACM after reading your thread. 

    I also wonder if your crash was due to insufficient current from the BEC? try to use an external switching BEC and see if it works better.

  • Jahn Otto Andersen January 8, 2012 at 5:54am

    Well, it failed again today... but in a slightly different way :( It started spinning around the yaw axis uncontrollably, and then crashed. I had no control on throttle. Two of the motors (1 and 3) continued spinning after it crashed. I was unable to disarm the arducopter.

  • Jahn Otto Andersen January 5, 2012 at 6:48am

    Can a BEC brownout cause problems like this? I'm using the BEC in esc #1. I have a stock ArduCopter with telemetry, but no other electronics at the moment.

  • Jahn Otto Andersen December 28, 2011 at 7:59am

    Now I've tried replacing the ESC and motor that was just screeching. Same sad story.

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