I got bit, badly...
- Thread starter RTRyder
- Start date
Billywiz1307
Member
Get well soon Ken. We've ALL done something silly one time or another so don't feel bad, just don't do it again 
Lycra - suits your style?
helloman1976
Ziptie Relocation Expert
Dang!!!! Hope you're alright man!
R_Lefebvre
Arducopter Developer
Ken, I'm interested in making the system as safe as possible. Your input is valuable as it sounds like you know what you're doing, and have procedures to act safely, but still have had an accident.
So you're saying most of the rest spin the motors, presumably at minimum throttle, when they are armed but with the stick all the way down? Would that have helped in this case? Wouldn't they still have started spinning as soon as they armed, and still cause injury?
I have thought about making it so that the motors spin at min throttle for 2 seconds as soon as you arm it, regardless of the stick position. So if you arm, and then jam the stick up, they'll still only spin at low RPM for 2 seconds. Maybe could make it more. Do you think this would help?
yeehaanow
Member
Thanks for sharing, Ken. It is a good reminder not to get too comfy around the flying Cuisinarts we have.
In addition to the new beep, I programmed a throttle hold switch, so that there's double protection against an unplanned motor start when not armed, and very good protection when it is armed.
This is also how I fly from a boat safely and still be able to switch battery packs without going to land. (switch one at a time so the bird is always armed)
In addition to the new beep, I programmed a throttle hold switch, so that there's double protection against an unplanned motor start when not armed, and very good protection when it is armed.
This is also how I fly from a boat safely and still be able to switch battery packs without going to land. (switch one at a time so the bird is always armed)
DJI starts the motors spinning once you do the stick command to arm it, if you don't throttle up within 10 seconds they shutdown automatically, probably the safest setup I've seen so far. MK start the motors spinning at idle but first you have to initialize the gyros with a stick command and then do another to actually start the motors which will continue to spin until you do the motor stop. The Multiwii code allows you to choose if you want them to spin or not and also allows the selection of stick command for arming, default setting in the sketch is motors spin on arming. In my case it wouldn't have changed the fact the motors spun up but I might have caught it before the half throttle stick bump and limiting the injury to no more than a minor cut or two instead of a Cuisinart meat grinder injury. The best solution I guess would be to spin the motors on arming with a failsafe timeout for both inactivity as well as a wait time on any throttle input especially if the input is over some unreasonable amount within a short time like 50% within 1 second of motor start. It might be a PITA to have to wait 10 seconds with the motors spinning at idle before you can throttle up but if it saves someone from going through what I did it's worth it IMO. A true solution might be to prevent the motors from restarting after a disarm command without a power cycle that scenario would have prevented what happened to me.
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R_Lefebvre
Arducopter Developer
Ken, that's almost the exact same idea and reasoning I had. It wouldn't completely eliminate the chance of injury, but being hit with minimum throttle is a lot better than... well anything higher than that. So lock it in to minimum throttle for at least 2-3 seconds. Before allowing it to respond to real throttle inputs.
At least until a beeper is built in, this seems like the best, the only thing, we can really do.
At least until a beeper is built in, this seems like the best, the only thing, we can really do.
I do think the no restart after disarm without power cycle would be a worthwhile feature as well, would prevent any post flight injuries caused by being careless with the TX or forgetting to unplug the pack. I think there may be more injuries after the fact than on startup outside of the ones that occur on the bench where the props should always be off the motors anyway...
Ken,
That sucks man... I feel your pain... I made a stupid mistake myself when I was testing the Tri in the house with the props on (Duh!) and the FC mistakenly setup incorrectly. My Tri jumped up and bit me in the back of my left arm. The prop made a nice cut but I got lucky and did not need stitches; still have a scare to show for it. I play by the rule now and try my best to avoid these troubles. I even have to caution my 7 year old son all the time when we are out in the yard or at the field to never get near a plane or multirotor unless dad give you the ok that it's safe to do so. That's all I need is to have my son hurt over a stupid mistake that could have been easly avoided.
Joe
That sucks man... I feel your pain... I made a stupid mistake myself when I was testing the Tri in the house with the props on (Duh!) and the FC mistakenly setup incorrectly. My Tri jumped up and bit me in the back of my left arm. The prop made a nice cut but I got lucky and did not need stitches; still have a scare to show for it. I play by the rule now and try my best to avoid these troubles. I even have to caution my 7 year old son all the time when we are out in the yard or at the field to never get near a plane or multirotor unless dad give you the ok that it's safe to do so. That's all I need is to have my son hurt over a stupid mistake that could have been easly avoided.
Joe