I wanted to do this for so long but didn't have the guts. But I really wanted to test it as it would make me feel better knowing that the safety system works. So with the copter about 40 meters high and about 40 meters away from me I shut the radio off It went into come home position, climbed to 75 meters where I have come home set to and came home right where I started it and hovered there for about 20 seconds. Then it went into emergency gas mode and it started to deaccerate a tad faster than I would have liked so I turned the radio back on quickly and took command of the bird If I had to guess the copter would have landed at a rate that would have definitely damaged the landing gear legs but not fast enough to have major damage. I have my emergency gas set at 85% and I weighed my CS8 at a flight weight of 12 pounds 10 ounces. I have the vario control for failsafe altitude checked. I'd say the emergency gas is probably closer to 90% for my setup at least. I thought I would pass on my test for others who may have a similar setup (CS8, 2 QC 6200 batteries, 3 axis gimbal, Sony 760 setup)
Dave not sure how low you let it get but according to the wiki and a previous discussion with QC the descent rate slows as it get closer to the ground. That being said I still have mine set at 95% but have never tested it.
I turned on the radio with about 40 meters (it started descending at 75 meters) and by the time it reestablished communication it was about 10 meters off the ground and ascending a little too fast.
I set my emergency gas to 95% too. I think the default is based on MK's own copters which are considerably lighter -- and therefore dissipate less kinetic energy when they touch down. Andy.
Can we see a GPX file on the test, I would be interested in seeing when it goes into landing sequence. I just bought an 12C to PWM converter I am going to install my MK stack on my cheap Hexa and do several test flights with different scenarios. First I will have the Fail safes set 1. Shut the controller off immediately after takeoff. 2. Jam the RC controller with a WIFI hot spot using a high gain antenna after takeoff then unjam it than jam it again to see if the appropriate actions for a partial loss of signal is to turn off the controller to recover the A/C 3. Fly out to a distance 40m away then jam the aircraft with the wifi hotspot I will repeat this with different E-gas settings 1. 95 2. 90 3. 85 I will turn off fail safes and force it into emergency gas using the same above methodology. The goal will be to answer several unresolved questions about how the failsafes work in different scenarios.
When I did testing with my MK setups even with emergency gas set to 99 it was a terrifyingly fast descent. Fast enough that I never let it complete the actual landing. I asked Holger about the possibility of extending the power range of the e-gas values but never heard back. nick
Good to know, Nick. That was that funny feeling that I had, that the descent rate might be more in tune with an MK copter than a Cinestar. Andy.
I think that's exactly right. Holger is flying comparatively light setups. I also asked him about setting a descent rate in feet or meters per second instead of an arbitrary value, but again, never heard back. nick
Nick: He emailed me to say that the next version of the firmware would allow a user-settable descent rate. Andy.
Nick your wish has been answered. From the Beta release of v .91. This is from the section on Auto Takeoff/Landing. This landing speed is also used for emergency landing in failsafe-case (RC-Lost).
That's great! I'll have to dust off one of the MK ships and give it a go. If you guys do any testing please let us know.