I want to fly drones, so I bought the iris. It didn't listen half the time and has crashed so much it looks like an IED hit it. I thought I'd learned so I bought a y6 diy kit. It just fell out of the sky with the walkera g 3d gimbal and smashed itself to pieces.Is this typical for new rc pilots or am I just not ment for this?
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I am a master at repairing for sure by now. I wish the programing bits were included in the documentation that came with the uav. Just found out about apm autotune, that would have helped so much ealier.
Is there a good book on uav electronics?
hotelzululima > Andrew GaiennieOctober 5, 2014 at 12:21pm
best advice is get the very smallest quad you can find to practice on , I am personally using a Estes synch/proto nano(a flying pc board) for about 29.95 to practice literally everyplace(my penance for breaking a sk450 last weekend after no stick time for 3 months).
Also prepare a checklist with all applicable info(IRIS flash codes and TX settings to check etc) flight battery voltage check, telemetry check etc.. all these checked off before flight. USE the checklist prior to every flight it WILL cut down of preparedness mishaps that can cause crashes..
and of course something that size has a lot less mass in a crash.. if thats NOT large enough get yourself an indestructible shell from gameofdrones.biz and build that out with the appropriate parts
Sounds familiar to me also, and I have been there. I would recommend a sub 300 mm craft they do not break as easy. We have a 270 sized miniature version of the UAV 370 that is soon to be released as a RTF model.
The comments below are all good, and I think you could have allot of interference happening, do you use telemetry for your flights? Sometimes reviewing what happened is a good practice also.
For all the money you have spent on hardware and trying to learn new skills, you could have purchased a computer sim several times over. They come with an infinite crash budget. They also come with more model types than you could possible get tired of flying. Mix the video to a large screen TV and you have a superb learning experience.
Joe, Haygood, and Christopher are all spot on too. This stuff is an easy activity once you get past the learning curve hump but, like Robert L still finds out, these contraptions can still fall out of the sky even when we take our best shot at making them right.
Don't give up and you did the right thing asking for help.
Thanks for the encouragement and the offer. I live on the east boarder of texas, but I'd love to travel to the coast.
After recovering from the crash and making repairs, I ended up meeting an airforce pilot at my hobby shop. He said the airbase here uses a powerful guidance system for when the bombers are landing and that the system is designed to shut down interfering systems. Like multirotors. They fly over my house to land so that explanation works for me.
I know have an esc that gets super hot with just being turned on. Going to need to replace that but in the mean time should I be flying with it? It still works.
An ESC thats running hot like that is already broken. Dont fly with broken parts. If you do,you may get the mistaken impression that your cursed, your not cursed, your an R/C Modeler.
It's a fine line between "cursed" and "R/C Modeler". Much debate within the community over who is one or the other with many still "on the fence" waiting to see what you do next before they come down on one side or the other.....
I say if you come down on THIS side of the fence you have demonstrated some manner of control and you my friend are a Modeler.
If you come down on the side with the bull wearing a set of horns covered in little silhouettes of UAVs he's shot down.....
Your cursed.
Chris
How close are you to the west coast? What you need is a good ol fashioned weekend clinic.
If your not too far away, chances are I'll be on a business trip in your area before the end of the year.
I'll throw a bunch of stuff in the car and get you some stick time on a known good airframe.
And we can get yours in the air, trimmed up, so when I leave you've got something you know works.
A little training, hands on with a stable aircraft, making sure yours is "right".....
All these steps help build your confidence level. If your making marked progress, a crash becomes another learning experience and a funny YouTube video instead of a hobby ending "I told you so" from your wife, gut wrenching, you wish you never bought one, crash from which you can't emotionally or mentally walk away from.
It's not golf. You can learn to do this without losing losing your balls or wearing stupid clothing.
And your wife might even let you go by yourself.
C
Blade Nano QX. I've flown mine EVERYWHERE. I've always got it with me in my truck. If I've got a few minutes to spare, I fly.
In an RV, many hotel rooms, on a train.
In your apartment shouldn't be too hard. If you break something and get sent to your room...you can fly in there too.
Chris
Andrew, If you are doing all this on your own-then yes it's pretty typical for most. I have been flying R./C since the late 60's and the first two years back then were spend mostly fixing and rebuilding. Todays' gear is unbelievably great and works well, but flying is a skill that has to be learned. Get things patched up and try to get one or two flights a day in. Learn to fly in stabilize, learn to hover and fly a circle nose-in, and in all different orientations, go slow, stay close in at first, them further away from yourself. Don't push it. Crawl before you run.
It has been 2 years since I started with a multicopter and the first summer was almost like I never flew anything before! Orientation was difficult for me to sort out on a quad. So was learning to use the throttle constantly. I still am not as comfortable with a multi copter as I am with a fixed wing craft. If there is a hobby shop or model flying field around- get there. Every club I have been in spends a lot of time helping beginners. It's how most of learned to fly R/C when it was more a DIY hobby than sport with everything a credit card away. It was a lot harder before the internet to get advice, now it's almost too easy to get advice, sometimes too much advice is out there, and often it's the "blind leading the blind" which makes its even more difficult to figure out things. Besides; contrary to popular opinion " Life ain't easy son" You have to learn to deal with setbacks and not let things drag you down if you want to succeed- at anything.
I got one of the small - sub $100 indoor 'toy" quads that I played with for a long time to help get the feel of things before I started with my 3DR quad.
If you already spent the money and time to get a second machine, then great, you probably have the drive and desire to figure this all out. Stick with it, don't try to fly like "cool" dudes in the videos you see on You Tube, be SAFE and courteous and you may find a lifelong hobby that you can then share with others.
Good advice all around. Don't worry about attaching a gimbal or camera until you have the thing pretty well figured out, or unless your wallet can accomodate a desire to get lots of great crash footage.
Learn about battery voltages (i.e. how low a voltage is dangerous), and pay attention to things like HDOP values.
I'm sorry to be the one to say it, but your IRIS probably listened to exactly what you told it to do and did the best under the circumstances it was put in. No, they aren't perfect, but most drone setups out there, like most machines and computers, are pretty obedient, even when we wish they would figure stuff out on their own.
Stick with it. It takes some reading, some asking, and a lot of small steps to build proficiency over time. Don't try to impress anyone quite yet; not even yourself. Know what you would do if it started acting up (i.e. how to get to RTL, or loiter mode should always be on your mind).
Replies
Is there a good book on uav electronics?
best advice is get the very smallest quad you can find to practice on , I am personally using a Estes synch/proto nano(a flying pc board) for about 29.95 to practice literally everyplace(my penance for breaking a sk450 last weekend after no stick time for 3 months).
Also prepare a checklist with all applicable info(IRIS flash codes and TX settings to check etc) flight battery voltage check, telemetry check etc.. all these checked off before flight. USE the checklist prior to every flight it WILL cut down of preparedness mishaps that can cause crashes..
and of course something that size has a lot less mass in a crash.. if thats NOT large enough get yourself an indestructible shell from gameofdrones.biz and build that out with the appropriate parts
http://dronesarefun.com/ has a lot of useful info...
hzl
ps you are NOT cursed, my SO's nickname for me is "crash"
Sounds familiar to me also, and I have been there. I would recommend a sub 300 mm craft they do not break as easy. We have a 270 sized miniature version of the UAV 370 that is soon to be released as a RTF model.
The comments below are all good, and I think you could have allot of interference happening, do you use telemetry for your flights? Sometimes reviewing what happened is a good practice also.
If totally new to RC, one word - SIM.
For all the money you have spent on hardware and trying to learn new skills, you could have purchased a computer sim several times over. They come with an infinite crash budget. They also come with more model types than you could possible get tired of flying. Mix the video to a large screen TV and you have a superb learning experience.
Joe, Haygood, and Christopher are all spot on too. This stuff is an easy activity once you get past the learning curve hump but, like Robert L still finds out, these contraptions can still fall out of the sky even when we take our best shot at making them right.
Don't give up and you did the right thing asking for help.
-=Doug
After recovering from the crash and making repairs, I ended up meeting an airforce pilot at my hobby shop. He said the airbase here uses a powerful guidance system for when the bombers are landing and that the system is designed to shut down interfering systems. Like multirotors. They fly over my house to land so that explanation works for me.
I know have an esc that gets super hot with just being turned on. Going to need to replace that but in the mean time should I be flying with it? It still works.
It's a fine line between "cursed" and "R/C Modeler". Much debate within the community over who is one or the other with many still "on the fence" waiting to see what you do next before they come down on one side or the other.....
I say if you come down on THIS side of the fence you have demonstrated some manner of control and you my friend are a Modeler.
If you come down on the side with the bull wearing a set of horns covered in little silhouettes of UAVs he's shot down.....
Your cursed.
Chris
If your not too far away, chances are I'll be on a business trip in your area before the end of the year.
I'll throw a bunch of stuff in the car and get you some stick time on a known good airframe.
And we can get yours in the air, trimmed up, so when I leave you've got something you know works.
A little training, hands on with a stable aircraft, making sure yours is "right".....
All these steps help build your confidence level. If your making marked progress, a crash becomes another learning experience and a funny YouTube video instead of a hobby ending "I told you so" from your wife, gut wrenching, you wish you never bought one, crash from which you can't emotionally or mentally walk away from.
It's not golf. You can learn to do this without losing losing your balls or wearing stupid clothing.
And your wife might even let you go by yourself.
C
In an RV, many hotel rooms, on a train.
In your apartment shouldn't be too hard. If you break something and get sent to your room...you can fly in there too.
Chris
Andrew, If you are doing all this on your own-then yes it's pretty typical for most. I have been flying R./C since the late 60's and the first two years back then were spend mostly fixing and rebuilding. Todays' gear is unbelievably great and works well, but flying is a skill that has to be learned. Get things patched up and try to get one or two flights a day in. Learn to fly in stabilize, learn to hover and fly a circle nose-in, and in all different orientations, go slow, stay close in at first, them further away from yourself. Don't push it. Crawl before you run.
It has been 2 years since I started with a multicopter and the first summer was almost like I never flew anything before! Orientation was difficult for me to sort out on a quad. So was learning to use the throttle constantly. I still am not as comfortable with a multi copter as I am with a fixed wing craft. If there is a hobby shop or model flying field around- get there. Every club I have been in spends a lot of time helping beginners. It's how most of learned to fly R/C when it was more a DIY hobby than sport with everything a credit card away. It was a lot harder before the internet to get advice, now it's almost too easy to get advice, sometimes too much advice is out there, and often it's the "blind leading the blind" which makes its even more difficult to figure out things. Besides; contrary to popular opinion " Life ain't easy son" You have to learn to deal with setbacks and not let things drag you down if you want to succeed- at anything.
I got one of the small - sub $100 indoor 'toy" quads that I played with for a long time to help get the feel of things before I started with my 3DR quad.
If you already spent the money and time to get a second machine, then great, you probably have the drive and desire to figure this all out. Stick with it, don't try to fly like "cool" dudes in the videos you see on You Tube, be SAFE and courteous and you may find a lifelong hobby that you can then share with others.
Good luck and hang in there.
Joe
Good advice all around. Don't worry about attaching a gimbal or camera until you have the thing pretty well figured out, or unless your wallet can accomodate a desire to get lots of great crash footage.
Learn about battery voltages (i.e. how low a voltage is dangerous), and pay attention to things like HDOP values.
I'm sorry to be the one to say it, but your IRIS probably listened to exactly what you told it to do and did the best under the circumstances it was put in. No, they aren't perfect, but most drone setups out there, like most machines and computers, are pretty obedient, even when we wish they would figure stuff out on their own.
Stick with it. It takes some reading, some asking, and a lot of small steps to build proficiency over time. Don't try to impress anyone quite yet; not even yourself. Know what you would do if it started acting up (i.e. how to get to RTL, or loiter mode should always be on your mind).
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