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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Interesting, I hadn't noticed that yet. I wonder if my device has a bad clock in it, and if that could possibly affect performance somehow.
Or... is it possible that the timestamp reflects the time that the log was extracted from the Iris? That might have been about the time that I was taking the logs through Mission Planner.
Thanks for checking it out.
So, I'm back flying, after replacing more parts again and again and again and again.
Just a simple shot to try and catch the sunset, and to watch the kids play on the trampoline.
At this point, I have little faith in 3DR Support. It's been what... 2 weeks? "Sergio" responded asking me to send the mission to him, saying it looks like the parameters were changed, whatever that means. But that was 3 days ago. I am not counting on 3DR Support for any help, I'm completely relying on the community, so thanks for your support.
Thanks!
I have received my Capacity Controller today and I did a quick test on my 3 batteries to see if something was obviously wrong. Here is the video of those results. I do not know what to look for, would somebody be so kind as to give it a quick look?
Hi Justin. Not sure how your particular capacity controller works but you definitely NEED to read the instructions. LiPo Batteries are truly great but not without risk. read about them and use the LiPo charger "bag" So far I've not had any problems with my IRIS batteries but I have other smaller quads and those batteries seem to blow up often (2 out of 5 for me) I have a charger (TrakPower TK 950) which charges 4 IRIS batteries in about an hour. it will tell me starting mAh, ending mAh, and volts on each cell to tell me if they are balanced. and I record it all...every time..
BTW. I was looking at your logs from your crash...Were you really flying at 10:24PM when you crashed? Is it that light in Utah at that time?. I still can't be of much help. any updates from 3DR? If you don't hear back, I'd call them.
Food for thought. Magnetic &/or Radio interference. I noticed from the video that you are near large power lines.. I've not heard of them being a problem, but who knows...also..you are very close to the AFB. Dumb question maybe, but is there an active airport there? or did you file a NOTAM with the base to fly within 5 miles?
No it wasn't 10:24 pm, I wonder if it adjusted to your timezone? I believe it was closer to 7:30 ish my time. Would you mind sharing where it says 10:24?
I've also flown by these power lines multiple times in the past without any problems. Like I said, this was my 4th flight of the night in this same location. I could understand if there was interference from the power lines between my controller and the Iris, but this was an automated mission sent to the drone so I assume it wouldn't need any input from the controller. But I don't think that was the case anyways.
I'm leaning towards the heat issue from the 4th flight in a row.
I replaced the broken arm and took it for a simple test flight (I've been doing a lot of test flights lately!)
I just let it hover about 4 feet off the ground in my backyard and let the battery run all the way to the point of auto land, since I've never done it before, just to see if it worked.
Question; the time on the controller, is that flight time, or does that start once the controller is powered on?
Here's a video of the test. It's not eventful by any means, just shows it flying in Loiter mode and landing automatically when the battery reached 10.5.
Hi Justin:
I am also on my second IRIS from 3dr after a number of disappointments and a bad crash. I am happy to report that 3DR replaced my first drone at no cost, gimbal and all (this was a 60 day process). This all happened in March just before the official launch of SOLO.
Since I had my replacement, I've done all test flights and IRIS has performed very well. (28 flights & 5+ Hrs of flight time) I do check Bat. voltage and monitor each charge mAh , times, etc. and try to never let the bat. failsafe put me into autoland. My flights with gopro and gimbal are almost all 11 or 12 minutes. And I have 5 batteries and yes, I have run them consecutively. Perhaps not immediately after landing but very soon, like 5 minutes or so.
Since I received my replacement IRIS+ Iv'e been much more attentive to batteries, exact flight times and GPS and logging everything in a logbook. Date, weather, battery number, starting mAh, ending..charge mAh, etc. along with notes about the individual flights. Im hopeful to one day use this commercially and I'm betting FAA will require a certain amount of logged hours of flight time to demonstrate proficiency so logging is a good thing.
This particular group is a great learning tool as there is soooo much to learn. I"ll report back on my IRIS Temps. I will go fly today again. Good luck and try not to get discouraged.
Mark
Im sorry I can't offer much advice on your logs although it seems like the group has already ID'd that your crash was not your error.
I have had a similar experience Mark. Got a full replacement after a gyro fault-induced fly-away.
I too intend to use the Iris commercially, and will be in the FAA process once I conclude my current project .
I use the droneshare as my log. Don't know if this will suffice for FAA, but all data is retained from flights. My new Iris automatically added a record in that system, so I believe the Pixhawk has a unique ID for logging purposes. Well thought out!
Still no word back from 3DR Support. A week ago they sent me their automated response saying "We're receiving a high volume of inquiries about the global launch of Solo, so apologies in advance for not helping you immediately: we will get back to you within 1 to 3 days."
Sounds like I need to be a Solo customer to get any attention from 3DR.
In the meantime, it looks like I need to learn how to solder some wires back together just to replace a broken arm! Fun times.
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