2 devastating crashes in a month using Wookong

So, it sounds like you are still suggesting that when I rebuild that I get a new radio as well?
I would see what others think before going off and buying something else. I know that the 8J does use frequency hoping, which was my initial concern before you mentioned it was the 8J. I know many people like the 8J and it has faired well for them.
 



turkeybird

That is very interesting to know that your S800 & electronics survived the water. I briefly entertained getting my scuba gear to look for it, but apart from the challenge of locating it somewhere in the general vicinity of where the folks I talked to pointed, I'm also struggling with a back problem and going to physical therapy. Can you tell me more about the esc failure? Thanks.

When the first s800's were released there was a problem with the esc's. At first it was recommended that we jump the 6 almost microscopic resistors on each esc, then they just offered to swap the old esc's for new ones. I did it, and it was a nightmare.The problem that occurred was almost exactly what you've described. What makes this seem unlikely in your case is the fact that you had the problem on two separate airframes. Did you use the same esc's?
 

When the first s800's were released there was a problem with the esc's. At first it was recommended that we jump the 6 almost microscopic resistors on each esc, then they just offered to swap the old esc's for new ones. I did it, and it was a nightmare.The problem that occurred was almost exactly what you've described. What makes this seem unlikely in your case is the fact that you had the problem on two separate airframes. Did you use the same esc's?

This was the mod... https://vimeo.com/45408203
 

and3ar

New Member
Hello all

Please sorry if my English isnt good I will do my best...

Assuming a S800 well magnetic north calibrated an COG centered, gains etc.

Bear in mind that when flying in AT mode... MC only level the hexa and maintain whatever altitude is hovering... by acelerometer and barometer means...
For a safe flight in AT-GPS mode... you need full sats and "fix"...
Also if you do not have good GPS signal and fix the master controller will not know where the hexa is...
Therefore the RTH function isnt viable... no bread crumb guide to home... :)
In ATT mode... never try to use gps position based functions...

I hope that my humble contribution is useful
Im really new with multicopters, I have decided to never fly in manual mode until I have confidence in ATT, or ATT-GPS

Sad about crashes...

Have a nice day.
Andrés
Far away in Patagonia.
 

Andrés
Far away in Patagonia.
Bienvenido Andrés! Otro hispano en el forum, y otro hispano volando éstas máquinas increíbles! Algún día voy para Argentina!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled forum thread... (Sorry, just had to great another hispanic with open arms!)
 

DennyR

Active Member
The most likely cause IMHO is the GPS unit. I had problems recently during the sun spot activity so I changed to a V2 GPS and the problem was solved. FWIW Flying in GPS mode will produce a less stable image than flying in Atti Mode. This is because even when hovering hands off at a fixed point there is a lot of corrections being made. These can be seen on a FPV camera.
 

Yeah but do you know what the esc's were programmed for with respect to battery detection type?

I do not know what the ESCs were programmed for, but assumed that they were set for my 660 set up since they were sold as part of a kit. Is this something that I always need to check? How? Thank you.
 


The most likely cause IMHO is the GPS unit. I had problems recently during the sun spot activity so I changed to a V2 GPS and the problem was solved. FWIW Flying in GPS mode will produce a less stable image than flying in Atti Mode. This is because even when hovering hands off at a fixed point there is a lot of corrections being made. These can be seen on a FPV camera.
Denny, you think that would be the case even though he was flying in ATTI mode? I didn't think the GPS unit played into ATTI mode.
 

Assuming a S800 well magnetic north calibrated an COG centered, gains etc.

Bear in mind that when flying in AT mode... MC only level the hexa and maintain whatever altitude is hovering... by acelerometer and barometer means...
For a safe flight in AT-GPS mode... you need full sats and "fix"...
Also if you do not have good GPS signal and fix the master controller will not know where the hexa is...
Therefore the RTH function isnt viable... no bread crumb guide to home... :)
In ATT mode... never try to use gps position based functions...

Andrés
Far away in Patagonia.

Hola from Seattle! I've truly enjoyed my 3 visits to Patagonia. I need to return again some day.

My compass & GPS was calibrated. When my NEO 660 flew away the other day, I had anywhere from 9 to 11 satellite signals.
 

ChrisViperM

Active Member
First of all, sorry for your crash....

As it looks like, you won't be able to pin down the source of your crashes, like many of us WooKong-crashers couldn't.....that's a fact.

The question is: What can you do to avoid future crashes.....?


Avoid to activate the built-in Power Protection..... complicated, useless and an ongoing source of troubles.....
Rather use one of those cheap LiPo alarms....they always work.

Get your GPS unit as far away as possible from any other electronics......

Make sure the GPS unit doesn't get too much vibrations......

When ever you go to a new location, perform the Compass calibration.....forgetting that might lead to a nice crash.....

If you fly close to a "critical" geomagnetic location like North-or South pole, just check with a normal "analog" compass if there is any strange behaviour of the compass needle. If it "dances" arround, don't fly.
GPS and compass work very closely together (althought nobody really knows exactly how....), so even a perfect Sat-lock might lead to a crash if the compass goes bananas....

Geomagnetic fields, power-lines, heavy WiFi traffic, concrete buildings, close-by airports....all that can lead to throw off the compass and lead to a crash.

There is a bunch of different smartphone Apps to make "magnetic" life" easier:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=de

http://www.hotto.de/mobileapps/iphonemagneticinclinationmeter.html

http://www.androidpit.de/de/android/market/apps/app/binaryearth.geomagneticfield/Geomagnetic-Field

....and a lot more.


Also always check for Solar activity....http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...-Firmware-5-24&p=120093&viewfull=1#post120093 Post # 18

When it's "cold" (below ~ 10° C ) warm up your LiPo's....flying with cold LiPo's caused some serious crashes already, since the LiPo's loose a lot of power when they are cold.

Try to train your flying skills in manual mode....most of the time it's the only thing what can get you out of trouble if the copter starts to act weired, since manual mode requires the least information from GPS/Compass/Altimeter

Since I never fly away too far, I set the Failsafe on my transmitter in a way that the copter just hoovers in Atti-Mode.....not GPS-Mode

Return-To-Home is a nice feature on paper, but according to the many reported crashes and Fly-aways, it's a feature which is at the very best in an early beta-state....It only works if GPS and compass are providing clean, useful data to the Flight Controller, but this is something you can never be sure of....

If you need it for some reason, make always sure that you get an indication by the LED that the home-position has been recorded successfully.....


Apart from that, the DJI hardware is - simply speaking - just cheap crap. Every smartphone and every cheap navigation system is 10x faster and more reliable to aquire a GPS-lock than (most) Multirotor GPS's. The DJI software has been developed into a patchwork of a lot of features, where non of the features work reliably.....there were so many Firmware updates already....and every update fixed one issue and raised 2 new ones. In it's existing form, the WooKong is just not reliable enough to trust it with a bunch of 1000's $$ worth of equipment attached.....

Have a look at the ZeroUAV YS-X6 or the Xaircraft SuperX Flight Controllers.......


Hope this helps a bit


Chris
 
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The most likely cause IMHO is the GPS unit. I had problems recently during the sun spot activity so I changed to a V2 GPS and the problem was solved. FWIW Flying in GPS mode will produce a less stable image than flying in Atti Mode. This is because even when hovering hands off at a fixed point there is a lot of corrections being made. These can be seen on a FPV camera.

Most of these replies have been about things other than the Wookong, so it is interesting to read someone say that it was a faulty GPS. I am thinking about rebuilding a NEO 660 using a NAZA V2 based on my familiarity with this equipment and the sub-$1000 cost. I just want to make sure that sticking with DJI electronics is a reasonable thing to do. Crashing and rebuilding is getting old, not to mention I would prefer not to go to prison for man-slaughter if one of these copters gets away from me again for no apparent reason.
 

http://www.multirotorforums.com/member.php?3150-ChrisViperM

Wow! You've shared a lot of valuable information. I'm going to re-read this a few times. It sounds like you've had some bad experiences with DJI stuff, too. I am particularly interested in the xaircraftamerica equipment. Have you used their FCC or copters? I'll give them a call now. Thank you!

PS-I just got off the phone with Drew at XAircraft America. Really nice & informative guy. Just the fact that I was able to get in touch with him means that I would be happy to give him my business, unlike DJI.
 
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stauntonflyer

Psychopath Labratories
Most of these replies have been about things other than the Wookong, so it is interesting to read someone say that it was a faulty GPS. I am thinking about rebuilding a NEO 660 using a NAZA V2 based on my familiarity with this equipment and the sub-$1000 cost. I just want to make sure that sticking with DJI electronics is a reasonable thing to do. Crashing and rebuilding is getting old, not to mention I would prefer not to go to prison for man-slaughter if one of these copters gets away from me again for no apparent reason.

Sorry to hear about the crashes, unexplained problems are the worst because you can never stop worrying about them.

On to my point.... my Quad is flying a Naza-M (upgraded to V2 firmware) and I have found it very reliable. I fly mostly in GPS or ATTI mode and as soon as I'm ready to come back to land I just flip to RTH and start packing my gear up as it comes back. I have only had 1 unexplained crash but the first 5 problems I can come up with are the pilot(me).

I don't know much about the wookong but the Naza seems very sensitive about the GPS signal. I even feel as though flying in ATTI, with the GPS not locked seems to make it twitchy even though it shouldn't. A sudden loss of GPS signal if flying in GPS equals flyaway. So I never take off till I have full lock and make sure to not fly under anymore overhangs in GPS.


I have heard a lot of gripes about WKM and seen a few videos of the flip of death taking out some really beautiful multirotors. Seems like a lot of issues for such and expensive FC.

If you are looking in to other FC I do like the NAZA and I also have a APM2.6 (3D Robotics/DIYDrones) on my hex. I'm kinda new to the APM but it seems solid and offers alot more features than the NAZA.

Sorry for the loss and Hope my rambling helps.
 

stauntonflyer That is a lot of great feedback that you are sharing with me. Thank you. I had a really nice conversation with Drem at XAircraft America about their flight controllers this morning. I like the fact that I was able to get ahold of someone who could answer my questions and address my concerns. Their SuperX isn't that much more expensive than NAZA. I don't think I can trust DJI any longer.
 

stauntonflyer

Psychopath Labratories
stauntonflyer That is a lot of great feedback that you are sharing with me. Thank you. I had a really nice conversation with Drem at XAircraft America about their flight controllers this morning. I like the fact that I was able to get ahold of someone who could answer my questions and address my concerns. Their SuperX isn't that much more expensive than NAZA. I don't think I can trust DJI any longer.

Can't blame you there, good luck with the next build. Also, you might want to post the location of your lake, might drum up some swimmers.:frog:
 

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
Well, I've had a lovely time with my DJI stuff and never had a problem with it. Many people do. It is the minority that do so don't allow some bad experiences to snow ball out of control.

Setup is key! There, I said it. There are many possible reasons for your crash. Same radio gear each time for one.

Do you have any photos of you ex-rig?

I would also highly recommend a diver to recover the craft. Fresh water isn't it? That's cool
 

I'm with Ben. I'm on my 3rd DJI based MR and I love the stuff... no faults other than my own so far, a couple of times due to my setup, a couple of times due to my lack of experience, a couple of times because I didn't account for certain things. I guess that's why I try to encourage fully investigating before blaming the big bad wolf DJI. If the data and facts point to DJI, then so be it.
 
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