Quadcopter First Flight Flipped Unexpectedly

Hi all,

Today was the first time that I took my quad out for a flight. As the wiki instructed, I used Stabilize Mode since it was the initial flight. The quad seemed to be holding relatively stable, though it drifted a lot. Then, for some reason, about 30 sec. into the flight, the quad flipped over and fell (luckily from only a few feet up). -- The video of the first flight is provided below.

I have two questions:

-Does anyone have any idea why the quad would suddenly flip over? Is it possible that it was an overcurrent issue and one of the motors shut off? Can you tell that from the logs? -- If so, is there any good way to fix that?

-Is the amount of drift somewhat normal for a first flight? It was a bit windy, but the quad seemed to drift apox. 20 ft very quickly. Would I likely have better results using a different flight mode (e.g. Position Hold)?

Here is a video of the flight and crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLzaeXTs5Aw

I've also included the dataflash file.

Any help would be very appreciated. I'd really like to solve this issue before trying to fly again. Thanks!

2013-02-20 14-08 108.log

Hi Nick,

It looks like you lost your front right motor both from looking at the video and your logs.

This could be because you didn't change your low voltage cutoff for your ESC's. It could also be a propeller coming loose (you need to make sure they are done up VERY tight). Then there could also be a wiring issue both in the power lines to the ESC and ESC to motor or the servo lead to the APM.

As for the drift, yeh this looks pretty normal. Don't worry you will get much better at correcting for it (it looks like you were very careful and only put in a little roll). You probably haven't got it perfectly trimmed for horizontal too and that makes it harder initially.

Good luck and welcome to the sport :)

Replies

Jeff Pinkston February 27, 2013 at 8:51am
Were you in simple mode? I noticed the flip occurred after you changed your orientation. The following copied from: http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_Simple
- When using Simple Mode, you (the pilot) must stay in the same orientation.
  
  If you turn 90°, then pitch will become roll!
  
  If you want to rotate yourself and keep Simple mode - - simple, you need to land, disarm and reorient the front of the copter to your new away from the pilot direction and then re-arm and take off.
novrizal herdananto February 22, 2013 at 9:25am

sudden throttle change and fell.. happened to me twice.

in my case it was an overheating esc..
Developer

leonardthall February 22, 2013 at 5:33am

Hi Nick,

It looks like you lost your front right motor both from looking at the video and your logs.

This could be because you didn't change your low voltage cutoff for your ESC's. It could also be a propeller coming loose (you need to make sure they are done up VERY tight). Then there could also be a wiring issue both in the power lines to the ESC and ESC to motor or the servo lead to the APM.

As for the drift, yeh this looks pretty normal. Don't worry you will get much better at correcting for it (it looks like you were very careful and only put in a little roll). You probably haven't got it perfectly trimmed for horizontal too and that makes it harder initially.

Good luck and welcome to the sport :)
T3

Richard Boyhan February 21, 2013 at 5:37am

Check your wires and make sure everything is still hooked up. Check your props and make sure they are tight and not loose. The logs can help. Did you turn them on?
When using stabilize flight mode you need to learn how to fly, by using your transmitter. Your copter is like a balloon in the wind and you need to control it with transmitter. It's really important to learn how to fly in stabilize mode before you try the more advance flight modes. You need flight skills if things go bad.
Good luck and fly safe.
Richard

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Quadcopter First Flight Flipped Unexpectedly

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