Hi all,
I'm new here and new to droning in general - I'm struggling to understand why my UAV just suddenly landed during a long-ish auto mission. I have disabled the geo-fences, all the fail safes (except GPS) are set to return to land - GPS failsafe is set to altitude hold.
I've tried to analyze this data log from the drone and I just can't see anything. GPS looks good, battery looks good. What am I missing?
I have video from the Drone and basically it was merrily going on the mission, and then just suddenly decided to land - not crash/fall out of the sky - but actually land itself - in a bush unfortunately but all is OK.
I'd appreciate if someone with some experience can check out this log and tell me the mistake I'm making :(
Cheers,
D
PS: After the auto mission (and after I found the drone) I just did a quick loiter test to see if the Drone was still functioning, you can ignore this data (I guess).
Replies
Hi Donald,
I use a small cheap digital check meter on each battery from http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6589__Battery_Monitor_2_.....(you only need 1 meter :)
I number each battery also and keep a spread sheet of how many charges discharges(paper and pen in field).
and lastly I use a 4 channel "smart" charger from here http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__19676__HobbyKing_4B6_Bal... or the nearest HK warehouse..(READ THE MANUAL!! CONTROLS NON OBVIOUS!)
in addition to enable 4 channel charging I ordered 3 extra of these https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct...
as only one of each type is included with the HK4B6...
hope this helps.. btw exmaps showed 6869 ma out of a 5100 ma battery.. I think your battery may be toast...or exmaps has a bug etc.. ymmv
btw ALWAYS charge lipos in a lipo safe or a metal box away from flammable materials...
hzl
the charger above has extensive programming options for care of your lipos... including setting them up for a storage charge... etc
Thanx Rob that gives a bit more hint exmaps showed something like 6869ma coming out of that battery thought was a bug.. Donald is in SA very hot.. and I bet he is running stock IRIS+ props ie 9447
Donald the following may be of benefit https://www.cloud-surfer.net/2014/10/10/improving-lift-on-iris-with... ..
cheers
hzl
Hi hzl,
Yes it is quite warm here - and also at altitude of over 3000ft - which may have some impact on battery performance I guess.
I'll check those props out - thanks!
Cheers
its actually about atmospheric density , hot and at altitude NOT a good combo with the 9447 stock props..
Christians mod of 10x4.7 props may serve you well here...
his xcoptercalc models show the IRIS+ tends to be a bit high on the throttle when gopro and gimbal added ,
add in your altitude and the heat? best to get a milligram scale and get every bit of excess weight you can off the craft if any added beyond stock..
going to 3mm custom CF legs instead of stock can shave off another 10g.
Few things donald..
Glad to hear your is Drone OK:)
Whose model drone and whose flight controller first?
Were you using Tower?
Were you using mission planner?
if using MP to do flight planning did you have rally points defined?
Did you use a RCTX to initiate auto mission or did you initiate it from tower?
If using Tower/Mission planner did you use a powered on backup RCTX?
If above true(RCTX) what switch/stick settings including throttle were left on RCTX?
In MIssion Planner how are you flight mode switches defned
What brand and model of radio gear were you using.?
Did you note ANY warning tones/beeps from the RCTX?
BTW you can upload your bin logs at www.exmaps.com and chart/map your flight
Interesting countryside :)
your drone took off in auto and was switched to loiter mode and landed in same and sat there for a long time...
I uploaded your flight to http://exmaps.com/d52ad3 so that you could have a look .. you should get an account there its free and gives a fast quick look at flights.
the reason for all the questions is your symptom looks very similar to a bug I am chasing.....
so could you supply the above details all you can remember? Thanx...!
hzl
Apologies, such a n00b for not including those basic details.
It is a 3D Robotics IRIS+ with a Tarot Gimbal + GoPro. I'm using the stock standard included controllers from 3D Robotics with the IRIS+, I'm not 100% sure what they are.
Basically, I setup the mission using Tower and uploaded it to the drone. I then downloaded back from the drone to verify they were loaded properly. I placed the drone down on the ground, with the settings:
Mode: Auto, RTL: Off - and then armed and launched (it immediately follows the mission plan like this).
As for other settings on the controller, I'm not sure - I think its all standard - I'm concerned perhaps the Ch7 switch was on but I can't be sure (I don't usually use it).
Almost immediately after it launched it went for the first waypoints which progressively get further away - by the time it was around 600m away, the RCTX was beeping - NO DATA - but this I expected because I had configured the Drone to fly out of range on an autonomous mission. The default behaviour I had set on the Drone if losing signal is to continue with auto mission (not RTL immediately).
You can ignore the 'Loiter' mode at the end, as I said when I found my drone again I quickly put it down and flipped it to Loiter to test it. That Loiter happened post crash/recovery (unless there is some other loiter that took place).
Thanks for the tip on exmaps - I'll check it out! I'm on a farm in the country side of South Africa called the 'Karoo' its wide open and no traffic around - perfect for long range Drone missions! :) Attached is a pic just before it decided to randomly land itself.
Thanks for your help.
D
vlcsnap-2015-03-13-19h48m19s125.png
Hi Donald,
did you arm from Tower or did you arm from the RCTX?
btw did you have IRIS+ parameters loaded?? did you change any of them? is so which ones?
(need parameter file for analysis also :) if above true..
and same question for initiating Auto mode.. did you initiate from the RCTX or did you initiate from Tower?
its important..
hzl
ps never apologize for being a noob :).. we all were at one time..
btw this bug I am chasing they closed down because they did not believe it could happen
.. as you noticed your IRIS +mode switched to loiter(which I suspect is what you had the RCTX switches in for arming from tower in as the IRIS+ doesnt define STAB/ACRO as a flight mode like the original IRIS parameters did).
This occurs with the stock controllers at extreme range where its dicey and beeping but not completely enough or long enough for the Failsafes to be activated.
be very careful NOT to have the RCTX switches defined for STAB/ACRO mode.. mine were.. now need new gimbal and gopro..
I armed from RCTX as well as initiated from RCTX (throttle up once armed with mode set to Auto). I only used Tower to upload the mission.
nope if you armed from RCTX its NOT the precise same issue
did you change your RCTX to loiter somehow at 5:24 in the flight then??
as loiter WAS commanded ..by something...
hzl
No I definitely didn't change the RCTX to Loiter - and even if I did - at the crash site it was so far away from the Drone I don't think it would have mattered (with my standard antennas etc).
After I got back I went through all my settings to see what could possibly cause this and the only thing that gave me even the remotest of chance was the option CH7_OPT was set to 'Land' (18) - but I never flicked this switch (I think, and again, I was too far away for it to effect it) - is it possible something could interfere/send signal on this channel somehow and trigger a landing?
After the crash, I set this option to do nothing (0) and ran a similar flight (brave, I know) and it came back successfully. Whether its related or not, I don't know.
Here is the exmap from the 2nd trip just for reference: http://exmaps.com/77a16d
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