And my Iris+ just went away...

Posted by Pascal P. on October 30, 2014 at 10:25am

Sad day. After good trials with original battery, very easy loiter mode, stable, gentle landing... real pleasure.

Today I changed to spare battery (Turnigy Multistar 5200 mAh 3S 11.1V). Switch on, proper blanking green, but as soon as I give some throttle the Iris jumped approx 20m in the air and started to run straight like crazy. Impossible to follow. Lost.

Do you think only the battery change could have done that ?

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  • Pascal P. October 31, 2014 at 7:44am

    Well, I succeed to extract the famous log.  I put also the viz of the kml. It was much shorter than I expected, and I must admit I searched much too far, down the hill near the forest.

    Surprise, it was the geofence who stopped the flight. We see the departure in loiter mode, than RTL activated. And finally not even a crash against the threes. Just a bit of plowing with my plastic propellers...

    GPS was good from start. I have no expertise to go further in analysis on what caused the fast start.

    2014-10-30 16-51-37.bin

    31-10-2014 15-30-57.jpg

    • F. C. Bearsch > Pascal P. November 1, 2014 at 11:26am

      Very well done!

  • hotelzululima October 31, 2014 at 6:41am

    That is REALLY good news Pascal, I am so glad you found your IRIS+. AND MAKE SURE your phone contact # /reward  note is visible and noticeably attached.

    I use metal foil orchard tags that I insulate with spray or plastic and wire to the bottom of one arm.

    I dont list address info to prevent unexpected guests showing up uninvited, hmm like the lost drone might have?  you may want to consider a SMS tracker if coverage in that area of operations is available(ebay ,25.00 size of a matchbook).

    I dont use one myself yet as dont want to share my flightplans with 3rd parties(phone company) for client legal reasons.

    I do use a loose checklist that I should at least turn into a tablet/paper form to work through prior to each mission launch to make sure items are NOT forgotten(its getting fairly long the IRIS is a complex beast :)

          but again very glad you recovered your precious!!

          hzl

    ps YES please upload the damned logs and don't keep all of us in suspense !

    we all want to see what went crazy for your flight so we can watch out for same/take precautions.

    • hotelzululima > hotelzululima October 31, 2014 at 7:04am

      also put that bent prop on a prop balance rig and make sure it still is tracking balanced and true to avoid video wave issues with attached gopro.

           hzl

  • Pascal P. October 31, 2014 at 4:54am

    Happy end !

    I finally found my Iris this morning during my last hope walk. In fact, hit a tree, fallen on the grassy ground, battery disconnected and ejected nearby (how is this possible ?). And absolutely no damage ! A propeller gently bend, not broken, easy to repair.

    Back home, test connection : all is ok. Change battery, test stationnary flight (with telemetry on this time) : ok.

    It seems that guys here are building robust machines. Thanks 3DR !

    And thanks to everybody for the valuable advices.

    Cheers,

    Pascal

  • This reply was deleted.
    • Pascal P. October 30, 2014 at 2:59pm

      Yes I am thinking like you. Something fired the auto mode and send it far away. I m sure TX switch was on LTR. Maybe a software issue ?

      I was trying first to launch Mission Planner, without success (no answer from software, frozen showing launchbox). Maybe some bad instructions were sent to the copter.

      But thanks to everybody for your advices. I am learning all this the hard way, but so far no one was injured. At least I hope ! I will check the local news tomorrow. But if you heard of this :

      http://www.suasnews.com/2014/10/32128/drones-spotted-over-seven-fre...

      I am not living close to a nuclear plant. It's not my drone !

  • Jim Jordan October 30, 2014 at 11:30am

    I had a similar incident caused because I did not correctly load a new mission and as soon as I switched to Auto it took off to find it's first incorrect way point which was over 100 miles away.   I am still not sure why the "firewalls' and fail safes did not work, but I did manage to find the Iris after a long hike.

    I check telemetry to see where it was going and where it was when I lost sight of it.   I then hiked there with both my controller and lap top.   I kept following a straight line, as close as I could, and eventually was able to get telemetry from the Iris which was upside down, 35 feet in elevation, disarmed, and about 1/4 mile away.  It will keep transmitting for a while since telemetry does not seem to take too much energy.  It took about 2 hours to find but thanks to my laptop and telemetry still being broadcast I was able to find it, my my GoPro, etc.  

    Afterwards and with great relief, it was fun to watch the Go Pro video of the flight.   I felt so stupid when I realized it was trying to follow the last mission, not this mission.   Needless to say I now transmit the new mission, clear it on my screen, and make sure the Iris transmits back to me the mission to double check the correct one is loaded.   

    FYI, good video of how to double check the right mission is loaded:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qg8IcietGs&list=PLzI-qUI5CdZ1W...

    Good luck!   I would not give up yet even if has been a few hours.

    • Pascal P. > Jim Jordan October 30, 2014 at 11:47am

      Thanks for your answers. I feel less guilty about my battery change.

      I was in loiter mode. As soon as the Iris start to move, i called for a RTL, without success. I then also expected an auto RTL when the radio link broke, but nothing happened.

      This event came 1 hour before night, and I had no telemetry. I was just planning to hover gently in the garden to test flight duration with a full charged battery. Sure I searched during this last hour. But in the flight direction, it is all about forest, valley and small farms (for those who know Pyrénées in France...).

    • hotelzululima > Pascal P. October 30, 2014 at 12:28pm

      Hi Pascal

      take a walk NOW with a charged tx even if you didnt have telemetry on and hook up telemetry on your tablet/laptop for that walk or drive.. the modems are sold configured so it will start coming in when in range ie the IRIS always xmits unless explicitly configured down... also the 2.4ghz TX will make an alert tone when the ASST rc protocol finds the RX it is linked to(its also a 2 way protocol and can get you in the ball park in heavy country) definitely attempt a line plot on google earth from where you were standing and the line it flew in.. start walking that line now with the TX before the 5200ma battery dies completely(the rx and telemetry will stay up sometime after the motors shutdown auto..

      dont give up and make sure your phone # is on the drone for sitreps like this..

      in addition IRIS+ has nav lights so if you have any form of starlight intensifier night vision then can also be seen this way more easily. Also good chance it hung up on a tree few km from the takeoff point at 20m altitude.

           hzl


      ps best of luck.. my flyaway was fortunately on a large federal ag facility on a 3300ma battery mostly discharged.. I did find it by using the above tricks

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