Hey Guys, Not sure how many of you do this or have done this but I just finished helping a buddy build his CS8 and we decided to test the failsafe system. He is running full MK electronics so it has the auto ascend, return home, and land feature if it looses a connection from the TX. So to simulate it we took the copter out a few hundred feet. Hovered it a few feet off the ground and turned off the Tx. The landing is a little hard but hey, it all came back in one piece and it was able to fly after a through look-over! Heres the video for you. Anyone else try this out? Josh
Josh Thanks for the video. Can you share a couple of data points? What settings did you use on the Misc tab what did you use for Emergency gas? Assuming percentage method but what percentage. Also the CH portion didn't look like the rather violent typical default movement. Did you change any of the other settings to make it more gentle, especially on the initial pitch over? Thanks Gary
I believe we had the EG % at 65. Might turn that up a bit to closer to 75. It was a rough landing as you saw... and that was without a big camera on there. I didn't change any of the settings for the CH part.
Thanks for doing this. I've not had the chutzpah to try it out myself. Nice to know that it is likely to work, though. Thanks Andy.
Josh, thanks so much for posting this! I'm working up the courage to test this myself (the last thing on my checklist from my original build). Can you confirm the settings that you used? I know you've moved on to the HF stack, right? But do you have a record of what settings you used? And do any others of you care to share how you have Failsafe configured? I've seen at least one recent crash that I suspect was the result of losing contact with the TX. It was a quadcopter, but I really don't want to overlook anything, especially if there's a system like Failsafe/CH available to defend against it! Thanks, my friends.
I didn't fly it all the way to landing but have mine set at 85%. I asked the guys at QC if they had flown one to landing and if my memory is correct they said that they had and used about the 85%. Maybe if they see this post they can chime in.
Does the emergency gas need to be higher if you're flying a heavy-ish C8? Say with a 5D on board? Best, Ben
As a matter of practice, I test my RTH every couple months ( about the same frequency I re-calibrate my compass ). I have altitude set to 50M. I haven't take it to landing either, but I guess I'll set EG to 80 or 85 (based on the footage of 75) and give it a go. -m
The percentage gas is calculated by the FC software. It determines the hover point automagically by tweaking the gas up and down until it detects "hover." Then it calculates the percentage. So, to use the phrase from the software industry that strikes terror to my heart, "it should work" with the heavier cameras because of the auto-detect-hover-point logic. That said, I've not been brave enough to allow an autolanding. I really should, but I'm a flying coward.... I have my CH normally set to 25 meters depending on where I'm flying, and the Emergency Gas at 95%. Why 95%? Well I was hoping that would do a better landing than I normally do.... Andy.
I've tested RTH quite a bit, but not with the TX off (the "failsafe" scenario that Josh did in his video), and not all the way to a landing. That's my question. How different is the RTH logic from the "dead TX" failsafe logic? Is it one and the same?
As I recall the code, it's the same. Going from memory, there's a flag in the code that says "Emergency Fail Safe" so that it knows to descend when it gets Home. Andy.
I have also seen while the initial descent is pretty rapid that it slows within 5-10 meters of the ground. i think Holger has 65% in his video and the landing was 'fine'. Guess there is a balance between too high vs too low. I can just imagine having it slowed down (higher setting) and simply run out of battery juice while it is lolly gagging in a nice slow descent...
Yeah...I do have my doubts about that -- my theory (yet to be tested) is that if the battery started to fade then the descent rate would increase as a result....hopefully not to the point of free-fall.... Andy.
Hey guys, great info! Just a question: does the failsafe system work without GPS and navy? I am a bit suspicious of trusting GPS after a couple of flights away while I expected to come home... Gonzalo
Tha MK failsafe requires the Navi and GPS to work. Others are probably the same. What happened when you tried it? What hardware are you using? If you’re using MK, do you have a GPX file from the failed attempt to “come home”?
Thanks for your reply Steve! I use MK on a cinestar 8 but unfortunatly dont have the GPX file of those flights. I will update the firmware, definitly reinstall the navy and gps and do some tests
So what happens in the case you flight just with FC and loose signal? emergency gas activates?? I dont think anyone tried that right?
If you lose signal with just a FC, my guess is that the copter will just do whatever it was last commanded to do. But that’s just a guess. I can tell you that there’s no chance that it’d “come home” if it doesn’t know where home is.