I went to fly my 3dr hexacopter the other night in particular to test out my gimbal/video tx for the first time. (note that I was flying LOS the entire time although when I did glance down occasionally I had a good video feed) Things started out great and I began a nice gentle flight until suddenly I saw "failsafe" temporarily flash on the screen. I initially didn't panic as the failsafe action was set to RTL and sure enough, telemetry reported it switched into RTL.
That emotional state was, however, short-lived. Although the hex was, indeed, coming back, it had sped up and was traveling at an alarming rate and pitch towards a group of trees. At this point, I managed to circle it back in time to avoid trees/buildings/grazing horses/a frightened pilot and crash at a particularly unpleasant velocity in a field. As a testament to the structural integrity of the hex, the only damage I sustained was the bolts on the two arms that hit the ground first had widened the drilled holes on the arms. It also managed to sheer the shaft of the roll axis motor of my gimbal. I'm otherwise thankful for the limited damage.
Basically my kung-fu is not near strong enough to decipher what initially went wrong and the erratic behavior triggered by RTL, so I shall solicit your help.
Specs:
APM 2.5 running Arducopter V3.0.1 (all initial calibrations had been performed)
3DR GPS uBlox LEA-6
3dr Hexa-B
Motor: AC2830-358, 850Kv
ESCs: Original 3dr 20A (non-SimonK)
APC Propeller 10X47
3000maH 40C Zippy
915mhz Telemetry
1258 video TX (with band pass filter)
9x radio with 9x8C v2 receiver
Attached are the logs
Many thanks in advance and safe/happy flying for all!
Replies