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ALTA death spiral and crash

Discussion in 'ALTA' started by Adam Varadi, Nov 26, 2015.

  1. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    No words from FF since.
    But it loks like I will have an ALTA for sale. Ordering a Hammer X8 right now.
    So, if someone would buy a discounted (after repair ofc) ALTA let me know.
     
  2. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    Ethic statement:
    Since we don't know anything for sure, I just want to apologise for my heated comments here from Freefly.
     
  3. Alberto matulaitis

    Alberto matulaitis New Member

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    Good night Adam
    how many flights your alta had before the accident?
     
  4. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Great post Mike. I would think that Freefly would want to see the Alta first before making a determination of what they are willing or not willing to do. Not sure how an evaluation through emails can make that determination. On one hand you have people that know what they are doing and are responsible flyers on the other hand you have inexperienced people and those that do not pay attention to every detail that end up crashing their unit. So I can see how Freefly has to be very careful with how each situation is handled. I just thought they would say send it in and we'll evaluate what happened especially after Andy's detailed detective work leads to believe that there might be a malfunction.
     
  5. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    Not anymore my friend. They just announced a price increase for the Alta to $11,999.
     
  6. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    Alta is on it's way to Freefly.
     
  7. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    They have it for a while now, still no news... :-(
    Curious to see what they find, but my new bird is flying like a champ!
     
  8. Rolf Ableiter

    Rolf Ableiter Active Member

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    what flightcontroll do you use on your new copter?
     
  9. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    DJI A2. Love how it flies with it!
     
  10. Rolf Ableiter

    Rolf Ableiter Active Member

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    my copters with dji never had that height hold performance like the ALTA but i can understand that you now trust it more.
    But: I had 4 serious problems with dji in 5 years and didn't get any help from nobody.
    things like it suddenly flew away (even without GPS mode on) or shut down all motors for a second in flight with no reason.
    I think that your ALTA will be checked by freefly and may this will last a bit but after that you will sure know what happened.
    Thats a huge benefit. you won't get this with your DIY Copter (what it actually is when it comes to trouble).
    I wouldn't sell the ALTA (when i look at your signature money is not your problem i guess :) ) when it comes back to you.
    but for sure: i can understand that you need a copter to work with.
     
  11. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    I use DJI for 4 years now, never had any problem with them. :) But yes, DJI support is the worst...
    The height hold is not perfect on the Hammer, but I've got used to it after a few flight. The hammer has Herkules ESC that has a black box too, and as far as I know the A2 does something similar too.
    The ALTA flies like a dream, height hold and everything else is way more precise than any other copter, but!!! The max lift capacity is not enough for professional work. I have the total Movi rig around 7-8 kg usually, and the ALTA can't handle that safely. ( you can see the video I posted on the ALexa mini thread when I flew a barebone mini with an SDI converter, and small lens, gross weight was 15.4 kg and the ALTA wobbled too much) Also if 1 motor stops on the Hammer it will fly like nothing happened, not sure the same would happen on the ALTA with my camera setup... And if I have to fly 8 kg camera over water, I trust the X8 more. Hammer has a total lift capacity of 40kg, this is wayway more then enough.
    I flew 16 times in 2 day in 0 celsius with 9 kg payload over a lake. The hammer flew like nothing was on the Movi, and muc more stable than a flat hexa/octo. :)

    Regardless what they will find about the ALTA, I will sell it. In my eyes it's perfect for small cameras (5D, GH4) but not for big ones.
     
  12. Rolf Ableiter

    Rolf Ableiter Active Member

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    true - ALTA is perfect for cameras like the FS5, FS700, FS100, 5D, GH4, etc.
    but flying over lakes and the sea is what i do very often and flying 1m over the water when the copter is 80-100me away in the night while it is raining is something i never would do with a dji copter but i did it with the ALTA.
    btw: i used herkules II and herkules III on my dji copters. A2 has a blackbox? i think it hasn't but may i am wrong.
    still i am very curious about what went wrong with your ALTA. hope you'll keep us updated even if you are not interested in it anymore.
     
  13. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    Well I did it with my Cinestar, and did it just a few days ago with the Hammer. :)
    I'm curious too what happened with my ALTA, have to say I'm a bit dissapointed that Freefly has my copter for more than 2 weeks and still no info. Sent them a message a few days ago, but no response...
     
  14. Kim Hoogervorst

    Kim Hoogervorst New Member

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    Ouch, this hurts the ALTA. Wondering what freefly will find....

    @Adam:
    What motors do u have on the hammer?
     
  15. Andreas Riem

    Andreas Riem Member

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    Ouch!!! Adam, sorry to hear your Alta grounded... To break up the cudgels for the Freefly-Support - I had three or four questions to them the last 5 weeks - they've replied every time in less than 24hrs. Going back to your issue - I think that they will analyze the case very well, and that takes it's time. We've grounded a DJI A2 System this summer - reason was a compass-fault. Took nearly 4 weeks that they just agree to have a look at and doing an analysis... And with look onto the arm-issue - I think that they will find a proper solution if your grounding was a synapse based problem. Looking forward to hear the final end of the story!
     
  16. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    Kim!

    The Hammer has T-Motor U7 motors, and they are a beast. Each motor has more than 4kg thrust!

    Andreas!

    I had question before and FF was really quick to answee them. But now I didn't hear from them for weeks. Since this copter is quite expensive In my opponion at least they shoudl tell me that they are working on it, not simply ignoring me.
    I don't mind the waiting for the results, but I'm more and more glad that I investend in another copter.
    This whole crash/support is not what I expected. :-(
     
  17. Andreas Riem

    Andreas Riem Member

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    Adam, did you use antispark plugs on your Alta? And do you use them on your Hammer as well?
     
  18. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    Yes in both copter.
    I was using EC5 for more than 3 years, but I've got tired of the lightning every time I connected the battery. Since february I'm using XT90S, and yes I know it only for 60A, but I did some extensive tests and found that it can handle up to 100A and be 35-40 celsius max.
    Since I've got the Hammer I'm checking them every time I fly to see any heat problem.
     
  19. Andreas Riem

    Andreas Riem Member

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    Not good!! Yes, DJI uses antispark on its S1000/ S900 etc - but Globe-Flight and many other big importers say that it is hardly recommended to leave antisparks in its blister packs. At the A2 antispark can cause the problem that not all systems boot in a proper way - especially while using big ESC/Motor setups that consume massive power due plugging. The only way to see this at the A2 is the led indicator in the IMU which you can see through the small hole on the side - if you have more than one red bling, you've an issue. A lot of the A2 flips are caused by this problem I've heard... Have heard from the same source, that you will not see antisparks at DJI team copters.... Maybe theres a reason why Freefly has left the anti sparks in the box... Sure that was not a pricing issue.:)
     
    Steve Maller likes this.
  20. Adam Varadi

    Adam Varadi Member

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    Thanks for the info. Until now I never heard anything like this.
    I boot up the system in paralell, so 2 people connect them like this. (quickly)
    1 battery connected only to the point where it start to connect via the resistor, then 2nd battery is connected completly, so all the way, then the 1st battery connected all the way.
    I found booting issues when I connected 1 battery and left it to boot up, the ESC's won't work properly. But with this method I've got rid of the sparks and everything works well.
    (Fun fact, just lifted 14 kg with Hammer, hovering was around 210A, and the connectros were hand warm, outside temp. 5 cesius)
     

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