If it was a FC failure you would have been in the river. Has to be something else. Did you go manual to recover? Dave
Yes I had to go into manual to recover...if attitude mode does what it did...would that not be considered it failing? I mean, it definitely wasn't working...
Sorry all and Tristan but i'm very surprised at some of the so called 'safe flying practice' advocates here! No one mentioned how absolutely dangerous and irresponsible this is. Flying over a bridge full of traffic at night no less...the near failure was a warning. That craft is at least 15 pounds...i'll let our imagination do the rest. The video headline and image thumbnail showing a very recognizable skyline with the bridge dead center underneath scares me...that video isn't helping you solve your issue at all, I see it as potentially doing more damage. Sorry guys and Tristan i'm usually not this way but I cringe when I see stuff like this.
Yea good point. Howard, I know the video is not helping solve my issue. The ad company we where working for had all the permits needed to shoot there. There is always going to be some danger in anything we do. Whether it Is full scale or rc flying over buildings, cars, etc. You could be safely flying in an open field and have a fly away and potentially hurt people as well. Nothing is full proof and everything has the possibility for failure. I have seen a lot of videos much more dangerous than this. But everyone has there own opinion and I respect yours but in my opinion the dumbest thing i did was fly it so far away that it was almost impossible to see when it went haywire.
Much respect Tristan. True indeed but we can certainly limit the resulting damage/injury in the event of an accident by following a strict set of no fly rules. The drivers on that bridged were not part of the production. There are a couple recent post here where members mentioned turning down jobs becuase of unsafe and unreasonable request from production. At the end of the day, if something bad happens, it's not the production company that hired you who will get bad press...it's your company and the infamous 'drone' that will be mentioned in the news. Remember, as of now, we're not actually working legally according to some government agencies.
That would make sense. The only thing that doesn't make sense is I have had it happen recently in the middle of no where with no water, power lines, or bridges etc that could disrupt it.
Dave yes you can do downloads. Only limitation is that it records for approximately 1 hour and then when the memory is full it stops rather overwriting old data. And if you have a CS8 you have to download them one at a time.
The more i look at that video the more I would be looking at the ESC's. The WKM looks like it was trying to recover the craft. I really dont see it being the WKM. I have flown multiple WKM's is circumstances to prove reliability with total renumeration guaranteed by the contractor upon failure and steel structures are pussy food! Tristan I would be looking at doing some serious flight test logging on them ESC's
Dave, why then would the WKM fly fine once switched into manual mode but not in Atti or GPS? And as for as the crash that just happened that was the PMU that failed that caused total power failure and a crash.
Total failure is easy to diagnose. Erratic flight is harder. I had a esc overheat for some bazzar reason and go to safe mode. I cant explain why and the only way I got it down was by going manual and my instincts took over. That was before the WKM had motor failure mode to. I still broke bits and bobs but I got it down as safely as I could. In two years of flyin WKM it has been the most reliable and bomb proof system I have flown. From -35c 67 degrees North to good owd Lancashire black soil farmland, phone masts and other serious test scenarios including big steel structures up close and personal! If it were my machine I would be looking closely at the ESC's. Gary says they have loggiong capability. Fly um, log um and read the logs. Pound to a pinch its an ESC and it would not be the first time I have herd of CC Ice fail. They have been modified for MR's not designed for them. Dave PS Ducking now for the flack that may be on my way!
No flack from me but I have now had 2 LED modules go bad on my WKM, one compass, one complete WKM due to white flashes, and now a PMU. Maybe it's just my luck I don't know. As far as ESC issues I have never had an issue, my system last time i checked the logs never drew more than 15-20amps. All of my motors and ESC run cool. I have however had a motor fail and cause an esc to fail but i was able to land it safely flying on 7 motors. With all that being said, I am not ruling anything out but my WKM will be getting replaced with a new one and soon a synapse, and all of my ESC will be getting replaced as well. Gonna try the FreeFly esc setup.
Code: No flack from me but I have now had 2 LED modules go bad on my WKM, one compass, one complete WKM due to white flashes, and now a PMU. I recon they send all the duff stuff to the US on some sort of revenge thing! Code: Gonna try the FreeFly esc setup. ?? What is that? forgive me I anit been on here for a while! Dave PS if you want to see a real WKM test that should have ditched the machine check this out
It was a planned shoot and proof of concept... The safety and FC reliability side was well and truly proved! As well as operating around steel structures. It was the end shot I thought I could get for them. I did it once but thought I would get it again. That was 18months ago and one of my first proof of concept demos.. We live and learn.... 18 months on and me thumbs work better now!
What actually happened to the bird (apart from the obvious impact). It makes a whining noise for a second or two -- but did you manage to get it airborne and back to base without problems? I'm surprised it didn't throw a prop! Andy.
Broke front plate but velco held it together until I got control back and landed her to the amazment of the observers.. That was two days before I had to leave for Finland so the rebuild kept me up a while. Yep I was one lucky bunny I did not prop strike, but I guess sometimes as well as skills lady luck is on your side and everything turns out OK. I recon we all live to share and learn, I am Guessing Tristan started the thread believing it was FC failure, I am just trying to make everyone look at the whole picture not just what springs to mind and is the easiest thing to blame. These things fly on a very fine line, that line can be broken by more than Just a FC, which of cause the easiest thing to blame. Dave