IRIS+ Fail, Flew Away and Crash

Hello everyone:

Yesterday, what it seemed like a nice day to fly, it became the end to my IRIS+. I just started flying over a wheat field and suddenly the IRIS+ stopped responding telemetry commands, raised up itselft for about 50 meters, then flew away and went side until it crashed, like if a motor had stopped working.

The results: all the four legs got crashed, the chasis is all with scratches, the front red leds didn't turn on anymore and the GoPro Hero3+ housing scratches too. Fortunately the Gimbal was not installed.

I'm feeling pretty dissapointed now on the IRIS+ since I spent so much money on it. Today sent an email to Help department at 3DRobotics hoping for an explanation of what happened and looking forward for some kind of warranty.

Here is the video and the photo showing how the IRIS+ ended up so I wondering if you guys could notice something wrong on this attempt to fly.

Thanks!

Log files: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1nzuiixs0lba4ju/QUADROTOR.zip?dl=0

I haven't seen the log file yet but I am having issues with a front mounted gopro like he was using. This may or may not be the culprit but others should know about it. My gopro is a 3+ Black Edition.

My Iris is an original Iris upgraded to Iris+ and is running 3.2. I have been running many tests to validate 3.2 since I was running 3.1.4 before the upgrade.

One of my tests was to fly and tune with a front mounted gopro. When I attempted that the copter would randomly move in horizontal directions at a very rapid pace in loiter mode. I was able to save it each time by quickly switching to stabilize mode. It seemed to only happen when the gopro was in record mode so I decided to do some bench testing to verify. This is how I did it.

1) take the props off the Iris

2) place the copter outdoors with a clear view for optimal GPS signal

3) Start up Mission Planner and zoom in on the map location so that you can watch the signal float meaning that once you have a good hdop you will see the unfiltered GPS location moving around slightly. With an HDOP less than 2 it shows to be floating around by about 2 to 4 meters.

4) Attach the gopro to the front and start recording.

when I perform this test after the recording gopro is attached I see the position of the GPS in Mission Planner suddenly shift by 20 to 100 meters. It gets pretty radical. Turn off the gopro and the problem goes away. The same exact test performed with the gopro on the gimbal yields no negative results. I performed each test at least 3 times for verification. Bottom line is : I don't fly with a front mounted gopro until the problem is solved.

One difference between my Iris and a stock one is that I have my GPS on a mast. The mast is mounted to the top board and protrudes a couple inches through the top cover. My theory is that when the gopro is recording, it is interfering with the GPS. The compass stays solid and is never affected.

The GPS and compass cables were not properly twisted like they should be so I did that and seems to slightly alleviate the issue but sudden position shifts are still there. My problems could be only because of the mast but it's definitely a show stopper. If you don't have enough flight experience to switch to a non-GPS mode and save it you are gonna crash.

I doubt seriously this has anything to do with 3.2 but I used to fly with a front mounted gopro(seldom though) before the upgrade and never noticed anything like this.

I also arm the Iris during these tests sometime and simulate a takeoff in stab mode by increasing the throttle and lifting the Iris up onto a platform at 1.5 meters off the ground. It then thinks it's hovering at 1.5 meters. I just do this so that it's armed and flying to be more of a simulation for the test.

A front mounted gopro is very close to the GPS. Just something to think about. I have verified the problem 100% on mine. I am going to try some shielding next to see how much difference it makes.

Replies

- Quauhtli Noel Martínez Zazueta > Michael Burmeister December 16, 2014 at 7:51am
  
  Thanks for your comments, Michael. As you said, Alt Hold might have save it, but as I'm novice on this, on that moment I completely forgot that mode, just tried to activate the RTL mode but it didnt worked as you recalled.
  
  Soon as I repaired (already purchased the 4 legs), I'm going to install the latest firmware as you suggest.
Michael Visser December 16, 2014 at 3:03am

What flight mode were you flying in?
- Quauhtli Noel Martínez Zazueta > Michael Visser December 16, 2014 at 7:47am
  
  I was flying in LTR mode
simon grech December 16, 2014 at 1:47am

get flight logs from sd card inside your iris+ and send BIN files to 3DR as soon as possible, they will know what really happened. mine was compass failure :(
simon grech December 16, 2014 at 1:45am

same destiny for my IRIS+ ...i have read about a lot of similar crashes and in similar circumstances this last week unfortunately
3D Robotics

Vu Tran December 15, 2014 at 8:21pm

Hi Quauhtli,
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Thank you for including the logs, we will review it and get back to you with an explanation of what happened.
- Quauhtli Noel Martínez Zazueta > Vu Tran December 17, 2014 at 10:00am
  
  Dear Vu Tran, has your team found something wrong already in the logs? :)
- Mark Prince > Vu Tran December 16, 2014 at 12:33pm
  
  I haven't seen the log file yet but I am having issues with a front mounted gopro like he was using. This may or may not be the culprit but others should know about it. My gopro is a 3+ Black Edition.
  
  My Iris is an original Iris upgraded to Iris+ and is running 3.2. I have been running many tests to validate 3.2 since I was running 3.1.4 before the upgrade.
  
  One of my tests was to fly and tune with a front mounted gopro. When I attempted that the copter would randomly move in horizontal directions at a very rapid pace in loiter mode. I was able to save it each time by quickly switching to stabilize mode. It seemed to only happen when the gopro was in record mode so I decided to do some bench testing to verify. This is how I did it.
  
  1) take the props off the Iris
  
  2) place the copter outdoors with a clear view for optimal GPS signal
  
  3) Start up Mission Planner and zoom in on the map location so that you can watch the signal float meaning that once you have a good hdop you will see the unfiltered GPS location moving around slightly. With an HDOP less than 2 it shows to be floating around by about 2 to 4 meters.
  
  4) Attach the gopro to the front and start recording.
  
  when I perform this test after the recording gopro is attached I see the position of the GPS in Mission Planner suddenly shift by 20 to 100 meters. It gets pretty radical. Turn off the gopro and the problem goes away. The same exact test performed with the gopro on the gimbal yields no negative results. I performed each test at least 3 times for verification. Bottom line is : I don't fly with a front mounted gopro until the problem is solved.
  
  One difference between my Iris and a stock one is that I have my GPS on a mast. The mast is mounted to the top board and protrudes a couple inches through the top cover. My theory is that when the gopro is recording, it is interfering with the GPS. The compass stays solid and is never affected.
  
  The GPS and compass cables were not properly twisted like they should be so I did that and seems to slightly alleviate the issue but sudden position shifts are still there. My problems could be only because of the mast but it's definitely a show stopper. If you don't have enough flight experience to switch to a non-GPS mode and save it you are gonna crash.
  
  I doubt seriously this has anything to do with 3.2 but I used to fly with a front mounted gopro(seldom though) before the upgrade and never noticed anything like this.
  
  I also arm the Iris during these tests sometime and simulate a takeoff in stab mode by increasing the throttle and lifting the Iris up onto a platform at 1.5 meters off the ground. It then thinks it's hovering at 1.5 meters. I just do this so that it's armed and flying to be more of a simulation for the test.
  
  A front mounted gopro is very close to the GPS. Just something to think about. I have verified the problem 100% on mine. I am going to try some shielding next to see how much difference it makes.
- Jim B > Mark Prince December 16, 2014 at 1:22pm
  
  This is good info! I was flying with a Garmin Virb (wifi off), and have printed a mount to relocated to the top, and more centered. I was more concerned about weight distribution, but will be interesting to mess with this a bit.
- Quauhtli Noel Martínez Zazueta > Vu Tran December 16, 2014 at 7:46am
  
  Glad to hear that! Appretiate your willingness to help :)

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