3DR Iris Screwed Me Again!

Posted by Justin M on July 1, 2015 at 10:08pm

Well I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  I had a horrific crash a couple of months ago, so I've been laying low.  Then last week I started to piece everything together and get back into it VERY SLOWLY and carefully.

Some of you (on facebook) helped me look at my logs from 3 simple flights just to foresee any problems, everything looked ok:  http://diydrones.com/group/iris/forum/topics/please-check-my-logs

So yesterday I assemble a brand new Tarot 2D gimbal, and also pieced together a couple of broken GoPros and made 1 that would record.  Just scraping up the pieces to get back into it slowly, ya know?

I took it to the park tonight, a different park and I made sure to STAY OVER THE GRASS AT ALL TIMES, and no higher than 10 meters for the most part.  I flew several auto missions I just drew up tonight in DroidPlanner2.  Just quick flights, relatively low to the ground, and I brought 3 batteries.

I was testing different flight patterns and waypoint functions in DroidPlanner, nothing too crazy.  A pause here for 10 seconds, a 10 meter circle around this area, point the camera here, no big deal, right???  

I'm in my 4th flight and using my 3rd and final battery for the night.  The audio comes on and says "Battery at 90%" so I'm like ok, cool.  I'm just letting it run it's auto mission that probably would have lasted a grand total of 3 minutes, and the son of a bitch drops out of the F#^%ing sky AGAIN like a rock, NO WARNING.  I break one of the blue arms, and my BRAND NEW F$*%ing gimbal snaps off of the Iris.

Is this a joke?  

So anyways, here I go again, I'll put this one in to 3DR support with almost ZERO confidence, let's see if they'll offer 30 bucks off of something again and find a way to suggest it was all my fault.

Here are the logs, and better yet I've got the video.  What else can I provide you fine folks?  I'll just share the Dropbox folder with all 4 logs from tonight, and of course the crash is the latest log.  I would absolutely love some analysis on what went wrong.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rn0h0q8msmbw87w/AAD3R6iA_sBKkO0SDxDphz00a?dl=0

And the video.  I can share the other videos from the earlier flights tonight, but they are uneventful, just going to a dozen waypoints, looking at points of interest, pausing, and landing.

The crash happens at 2:37, and I think it's just absolutely adorable how the motors continue to spin EVERY TIME it crashes even if it's upside down, as if there is no setting on the compass that can turn those damned motors off.

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Replies

  • Justin M July 9, 2015 at 11:28am

    Well I finally did it, I contacted support.  Let's see how it goes over the next few days.

  • Justin M July 9, 2015 at 10:32am

    Wow, lots of good feedback here, sorry I've been away for a bit, I'll try to read through it today and reply. Thanks!

  • This reply was deleted.
    • Justin M July 9, 2015 at 11:06am

      Sorry, just getting back to this.  Do you not have access to these files?  They should be public.

      How about Google Drive, would that work?

      And sorry, I get confused on which files to share.  There are 6 different file extensions for each flight, it seems.  bin, gpx, tlog, txt.....

  • This reply was deleted.
    • Justin M July 9, 2015 at 11:04am

      I'm just using the factory ESC that came with the IRIS+, The only modifications I've done to the craft is adding the gimbal and Liveview board and antenna, which wasn't present during this crash.

      Other than this, I have absolutely zero idea of what model everything is or how much voltage, amps, or temp it takes.

    • DavidFolts July 7, 2015 at 6:19pm

      Will - The Iris+ uses a V-VLSI ESC system.  Remove the bottom cover and its all crammed in there with little venting available for bleeding heat out of the fuse. 1 BIG hunk of silicon... kinda slick.

      I've developed a theory that the Iris overheats in direct sunlight and its Pixhawk, mounted above the ESC system is sensitive to heat (possibly causing gyro issues.... its what killed my first unit)

      I'm working on placing a micro cooling fan in the forward end of the fuse deck to blow air thru a slit in the "bow" and then out the "stern" of the fuse.... might help, might not.  Gotta try at least.

    • hotelzululima > DavidFolts July 7, 2015 at 9:40pm

      forget the fan simply make your IRIS+ preggers!

      ie pregnant IRIS with a up to 10mm air gap for bigger lipos and better air circ.

      btw there IS a rather thick LIPO in between the ESC and the pixhawk..

      http://ardupilot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=7272

            hzl

    • DavidFolts > hotelzululima July 8, 2015 at 9:08am

      And that lipo is also producing an amount of heat.

      To Christoph's point, I too fly in a hot, humid and sun intense environment (Houston area). And the sun at 29 degrees latitude heats-up a black object to 200 degrees...making the GPS module under the top cover hotter as well.

      My idea was to cut a 2-3 mm slit in both top and bottom covers on the forward end to let air in... and use a micro-fan to force air over the ESC & pixhawk especially whilst in hover.

  • Gregg July 2, 2015 at 7:01pm

    I feel your pain brother. I yard darted a dji 900..800.00 in damage! Total loss of power. Hardware failure!

  • hotelzululima July 2, 2015 at 6:52pm

     almost too tired for this.. btw did you have a backup RCTX powered on with switches in stab mode throttle=0?

    (required to do auto takeoffs in older versions of tower and droidplanner 2)..

         hzl

    • Justin M > hotelzululima July 9, 2015 at 11:09am

      honestly I have no idea.  If it wasn't included in the default parameters, then No, I didn't have this set.

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