I built a DJI450 frame with the E305 motors and ESCs and Pixhawk FC and Taranis Plus RC. Started out with a 3s, 5,000 mah battery and had several good flights. Used Mission Planner autotune and everything seemed fine. Then switched to a 4s 5,000 mah battery. Had to lower the throttle midpoint to 325 as it was too twitchy otherwise. Started an autotune session. Went fine for about 10 min, at which point the quad shot straight up at what must have been full power and disappeared. I clicked out of autotune and tried to bring it back as it was in stabilize mode, but it was gone. Never saw it again. Building another one but am gunshy after what happened. Have added a Marco Polo tracker to the new one. Any thoughts/suggestions would be very welcome!
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Tony, what antennas are you using? I can cover that distances with plane but not with copter.
Why would a plane vs copter matter. Its all the same..
I agree that it's expensive. Marco Polo makes a sUAV version that weights about 12g with a battery that's good for 7 - 10 days. The beauty of the system is that if your sUAV flies out of telemetry range you can drive around using the handheld part of the system until you pick up a signal and then work in from there. I don't have a lot of specifics about the range - I think it can vary from hundreds of feet to a mile or more depending on intervening buildings, landscape, etc. I played a lot with Parrot AR2 drones before moving on to bigger things and the Marco Polo tracker helped me find drones 2 or 3 times that would otherwise have been lost, so I figure that it's paid for itself. Are there $20 units that are equally capable?
I agree with Tim. On your next one maybe invest on telemetry radios. Those have been extremely useful and fun to use especially with a tablet that runs Tower. Practical and full of live data.
Yeah, I had telemetry on the quad but wasn't using it (!!!!) Some lessons we learn the hard way. Thanks for reinforcing that point!
Its sad to hear.
I had a flyaway myself. My RC link died and failsafe was not set. It was in alt hold and the wind just drifted it away. Not really a flyaway more like a flot away.
What saved my drone was my telemetry link, I never fly without it. You should consider getting one. I ended up finding mine over 1km away in a farm field with GPS telling Tower where the drone was.
Sounds like a vibration issue. How was it in Althold before you did the autotune http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/autotune/ You say you clicked out which makes it sound like you were using a GCS and telemetry rather than just the radio?
It was twitchy in Althold before the autotune. There was a big difference with 4s rather than 3s. The Pixhawk was mounted to the F450 frame with 1/8" double-sided foam tape. Is this likely insufficient protection from vibration? Unfortunately, I had not started my ground station computer so there is no logfile from the flight. Another lesson learned.
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