Quad is gone/fly-away



Benchmark

Member
Thanks benchmark, Do you use EZ OSD? I was thinking about going with DJI's OST.

yes i do, here is a short video showing it, the recorder i used is a wrong format so it did not get the bottom 1 cm of the screen i see with my goggles. the bottom screen has your battery voltage values and current used.

 
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abonto

Member
Ouch! Were you flying near power lines or anything that has magnetic field? I noticed that when my quad is getting near power lines, its glitchy and sometimes I lose control and the Naza would fly back. My other guess too is that your receiver got fried before it can tell the naza that channel 5 is already in failsafe. In finding it, I suggest your print the area using google earth, then start tracking it's path to whatever you can remember, then fly another FPV plane within the area,,,if not maybe plan a weekend hike, maybe you'll find it yourself. I sincerely hope you find it.
 

b0nafide

Member
The mere thought of my Hexa going missing scares the **** out of me. (My wife would kill me!)

So after a little research would this by a viable option for the OP?

It's a little GPS dongle made by Garmin.. come with a year of service with the purchase price. You can track it on your cellular phone. Works in combination with GPS and GSM technology. A little expensive but perhaps.... worth it?
 




helloman1976

Ziptie Relocation Expert
I saw this and it's pretty cool, 2500feet, no monthly, no subscription, and battery last 2 months. But still in testing phase though.
www.indiegogo.com/blutracker/

I would actually just buy this if it's available now. 100feet.
http://www.sticknfind.com/product/sticknfind

Something is always better than nothing. :)

The BluTracker looks interesting but if you watch the video it says, "...works up to LINE OF SIGHT 2,500 feet JUST LIKE YOUR WI-FI..." or something along those lines. Having been in the computer industry for 2 decades now I can tell you, that range is going to be more like 500 feet if you're lucky :) The GPS unit that uses the cell phone band, that's your ticket there...call it, it tells you where it's at.
 


Really sorry to hear about the fly away the same thing happened to me a few months ago. Out of the blue it started flying away. A simple YouTube search will many instances of Naza drift.

I know we like to blame everything else except the flight controller but chances are high that your flight controller just acted up.

Since my mishap now I am ready for anything. Just don't trust anything to be perfect.

I bet you will be up and running in no time.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
 

D Clev

New Member
Sorry about your news. I lost my quad two days ago. Same thing it just quit responding and sailed away like a balloon. Quit responding at less than 20 ft away. Scary stuff, fortunately I was in a forest preserve but I was really freaked out it would make it to highway or residential area and drop like a brick?! I had contacted my dealer before as my quad has acted up before, but my customer service for my naza to date was basically sending photos to dealer to prove props and gps were installed correctly. The fact that I'm new to this seemed to hold more weight than any of the problems I brought up (sudden flipping on take-off). I did have an issue with ESCs but had fixed that. I taped the naza so sunlight shouldn't have been an issue. Just can't understand what happened. I don't think it was my Flysky 9x tx or receiver because it obviously registered signal from both sticks to start up.
 

Hartz

Herpaderpinator
Oh man these flyaway stories are scary :|

Clev, so your quad would intermittently flip over on take-off for no apparent reason but other times it would take off and fly well?

Did you range test your tx/rx on the day your quad flew away? And were the batteries fully charged?

Did you have the failsafe settings configured and had you ever tested them before? And what did you have failsafe set to (land or rth)?

Could moisture have affected the flight controller or rx - do you live in a humid environment, or have you ever been flying in light rain/snow?
 

D Clev

New Member
Hartz... thanks for reply, yes scarry stuff.
Yes, it happened twice where quad flipped on take-off out of aprox 15 flights. Other times it was fine. I did notice it seemed to drift recently, whereas before in GPS mode or Attitude mode it held place pretty well. It was set for RTH on failsafe on the 3 position switch. Moisture is a possibility as it's a cold wet winter here but nothing in FC or rx, perhaps some on GPS which is mounted on outside but nothing I assumed would be a problem?
 

gtranquilla

RadioActive
I thought I read somewhere that a fly-away is often the result of motor/prop vibration eventually affecting the electronics. How well was your system balanced for vibration?

Hartz... thanks for reply, yes scarry stuff.
Yes, it happened twice where quad flipped on take-off out of aprox 15 flights. Other times it was fine. I did notice it seemed to drift recently, whereas before in GPS mode or Attitude mode it held place pretty well. It was set for RTH on failsafe on the 3 position switch. Moisture is a possibility as it's a cold wet winter here but nothing in FC or rx, perhaps some on GPS which is mounted on outside but nothing I assumed would be a problem?
 

abonto

Member
Sorry about your news. I lost my quad two days ago. Same thing it just quit responding and sailed away like a balloon. Quit responding at less than 20 ft away. Scary stuff, fortunately I was in a forest preserve but I was really freaked out it would make it to highway or residential area and drop like a brick?! I had contacted my dealer before as my quad has acted up before, but my customer service for my naza to date was basically sending photos to dealer to prove props and gps were installed correctly. The fact that I'm new to this seemed to hold more weight than any of the problems I brought up (sudden flipping on take-off). I did have an issue with ESCs but had fixed that. I taped the naza so sunlight shouldn't have been an issue. Just can't understand what happened. I don't think it was my Flysky 9x tx or receiver because it obviously registered signal from both sticks to start up.
Wow, another one. Did you check the GPS signal before flying? I also thought the Failsafe is on channel 5? What receiver do you have? I'm sorry to hear that...that's why I decided to pre-order the blu-tracker.
 

Badfrog

Member
The mere thought of my Hexa going missing scares the **** out of me. (My wife would kill me!)

So after a little research would this by a viable option for the OP?

It's a little GPS dongle made by Garmin.. come with a year of service with the purchase price. You can track it on your cellular phone. Works in combination with GPS and GSM technology. A little expensive but perhaps.... worth it?

Seems like a worthwhile insurance policy...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

helloman1976

Ziptie Relocation Expert
Oh man these flyaway stories are scary :|

Clev, so your quad would intermittently flip over on take-off for no apparent reason but other times it would take off and fly well?

Did you range test your tx/rx on the day your quad flew away? And were the batteries fully charged?

Did you have the failsafe settings configured and had you ever tested them before? And what did you have failsafe set to (land or rth)?

Could moisture have affected the flight controller or rx - do you live in a humid environment, or have you ever been flying in light rain/snow?


I agree, it's like the ghost in the machine. The thought of my multi flying away in front of me is like an adult version of The Boogieman lol...
 

hoggdoc

New-Bee
Lost 800 mm Hexa on the second flight. Equipment setup; Spektrum DX8 TX, Spektrum 8000X with TM1000 Telemetery unit, battery sensor, altitude sensor, motor temp sensor; Naza-M V1, GPS add-on.

After waiting for the GPS to lock and getting confirmation with the four green LED flashes my friend launched the new HEXA all seemed normal, in the GPS mode he commented that it was drifting back to him a bit, but continued the flight as it is not uncommon for the Naza to take some time to settled down and really hold position. He flex the Hexa gently as the goal of the flight was to test the run time of the two 4S 4000mHa batteries with the new configuration. NOTE: The config was completely checked and verified twice using the Assistant program, compass was calibrated as well.

About two to three minutes into the flight my friend hollered that he was having an issue. He told me he had lost control of the Hexa, and had thrown the Fail-Safe and it was not responding. He handed me the TX to see if I could do any thing. All the time the Hexa continued to fly like it was being flown, making turns, flying away from us in north east direction when it reached about 1/4 mile at estimated 100ft altitude, it started to make gentle circles, all the while I was trying to cancel the fail safe which never kicked in. After about a minute the Hexa was headed back to our location at a fast rate, and appeared it may be RTH finally. Well it didn't but after returning in the south-west direction it banked again heading this time to the north east and flew into the distance out of sight.

We gave chase and caught sight of it again about two miles from the take off location, this time traveling east, once again we lost sight of it, never to be seen again. Over 1400.00 USD gone....

Everyone I talk to can't understand whether the radio failed, but then again how is that the thing continued to fly. After reading some of the accounts in this thread I believe there is a bug or two in the DJI firmware.

Wouldn't be nice if they came forward acknowledging the program and told us it has been corrected in V2 of the Naza firmware. IMO I don't look to them to do that.

My friend I are now looking from a backup fail safe system. Maybe motor cutoff with parachute deployment via separate radio system.

Anyone else have a tested secondary backup fail safe system.

HD
 

Sorry to hear the bad news....... In High Power Rocketry, they use single and/or dual deployment systems that release parachutes at specific altitudes in response to specific pre-conditions.... Not sure if it can be configured for your situation but here is one that I use a lot in HPR.
http://www.featherweightaltimeters.com/The_Raven.php


As far as getting the props to stop rotating first, that is another issue. Don't want to cut your parachute lines.


Lost 800 mm Hexa on the second flight. Equipment setup; Spektrum DX8 TX, Spektrum 8000X with TM1000 Telemetery unit, battery sensor, altitude sensor, motor temp sensor; Naza-M V1, GPS add-on.

After waiting for the GPS to lock and getting confirmation with the four green LED flashes my friend launched the new HEXA all seemed normal, in the GPS mode he commented that it was drifting back to him a bit, but continued the flight as it is not uncommon for the Naza to take some time to settled down and really hold position. He flex the Hexa gently as the goal of the flight was to test the run time of the two 4S 4000mHa batteries with the new configuration. NOTE: The config was completely checked and verified twice using the Assistant program, compass was calibrated as well.

About two to three minutes into the flight my friend hollered that he was having an issue. He told me he had lost control of the Hexa, and had thrown the Fail-Safe and it was not responding. He handed me the TX to see if I could do any thing. All the time the Hexa continued to fly like it was being flown, making turns, flying away from us in north east direction when it reached about 1/4 mile at estimated 100ft altitude, it started to make gentle circles, all the while I was trying to cancel the fail safe which never kicked in. After about a minute the Hexa was headed back to our location at a fast rate, and appeared it may be RTH finally. Well it didn't but after returning in the south-west direction it banked again heading this time to the north east and flew into the distance out of sight.

We gave chase and caught sight of it again about two miles from the take off location, this time traveling east, once again we lost sight of it, never to be seen again. Over 1400.00 USD gone....

Everyone I talk to can't understand whether the radio failed, but then again how is that the thing continued to fly. After reading some of the accounts in this thread I believe there is a bug or two in the DJI firmware.

Wouldn't be nice if they came forward acknowledging the program and told us it has been corrected in V2 of the Naza firmware. IMO I don't look to them to do that.

My friend I are now looking from a backup fail safe system. Maybe motor cutoff with parachute deployment via separate radio system.

Anyone else have a tested secondary backup fail safe system.

HD
 

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