Naza falls out of the sky... Attitude Mode / Intelligent cut off problem

[Dune]

Sorry if there is already a thread here for this issue. If there is, it isn't getting enough attention, because I haven't seen it! :highly_amused:

Tonight I tried attitude mode for the first time. When I flew the other day, I couldn't get it to go into attitude mode. I have a Dx6i, which only has two-position switches and is kind of a pain to calibrate the mode control because you have to hit them right on the dot.. Even though at home it was working, when I got to the park only manual mode worked.

Anyway, this is besides the point. 15 seconds into my first flight, the motors stop spinning. I swear I was in Intelligent cut-off. It dropped out of the sky and I broke my last prop - game over till I can order some more.

This is an issue that people have been trying to draw attention to over in the Naza rcgroups thread. They really need a naza forum over there...the thread is way too fast moving and it would be difficult to assemble the full conversation. But in a nutshell, DJI kind of ignored the problem and blamed it on the user. More and more people are experiencing this, though.

Here is one guy's crash and a follow up video that makes it really clear what the problem is.

Here is an edited onboard video of my crash. Sorry the video is such bad quality (I was using really bad triblade props because they were all I had). Just submitting as proof. When I got home I tested everything out by holding the quad in my hand and arming, disarming. Everything worked normally - the motors did not cut when I brought the throttle down. When I was in the air...that's another story.

 

[kloner]

dunno what to say...... i've had brownouts in other rc lipo stuff in the past that were cold solder joint related, but have also had great solder on clone deans and had em just not make connection at the other end at one point or another that would come and go. i'd definatley keep screwing with it propless till you hit the problem that causes it

You said manual and atti is hard to program, whats that about? I'd start there, when you put it on assistant, is it going out of range on the scale? What are you using to calibrate the switch to the naza? if it's wiggling and impossible to hit the mode, i'd guess you got a pot issue in the transmitter

That's alot of vibrations. When a motor is vibrating it is making friction and heat. heat makes the esc load up drawing extra amps, etc. Was or do any of the motors or escs feel hot when they run or more importantly after the crash? When an esc gets hot it'll go into thermal shutdown, but it looked like all 4 motors shut off right? hit the ground motionless......

Just kinda throwin ideas out there, sucks to be down

 

[Tomstoy2]

DX6i's are known for the potts to get flaky if they get dirty. Try opening it up and spraying some contact cleaner in them. Always good to do from time to time.

Also, concerning Dean's, if the load spring breaks at the end of the blade, an intermittant contact can occur. There are better connectors. I use Dean's exclusivly, ( known to not take my own advise ), and it has bit me from time to time.

Often it's the simple little stuff that hurts us the most.

 

[GGoodrum]

I too had a recent Naza/F450 crash, that happened to be while I was descending, but I think that was just a coincidence. In my case, I'm pretty sure it was a bad Deans connection. Every time power is initially connected, there's a spark/zap that occurs. This ends up putting a almost imperceptible layer of carbon on the connector blades. I could usually go a couple flights, with no problem, but if I forget, and try to do 3-4 flights, I get an intermittent loss of power, just long enough for the quad to fall like a rock. :dread:

Anyway, no more Deans, or "Cheans", for me. I'm replacing everything with XT-60s.

-- Gary

 

[Dune]

I was being a little presumptuous blaming it on the Naza, I apologize. In any case, I was unable to reproduce what happened when I tried just after the crash. I need to do some more testing. It's interesting to hear about the Dean's issues. Someone on rcgroups said the excessive vibration could have caused the MC to shut everything down, I don't know if I buy that theory though.

 

[kloner]

it would be a good idea to get it running a little smoother, they fly alot better

 

[Dune]

Yeah check out the triblade props I was using...Not exactly the correct props for this copter. :shame: They were just what I had. I ordered some 1045's from quadrocopter.us with 3mm bore thinking I could just bore them out to 8mm...when they arrived, I realized the outer diameter of the hub on those is like 10 mm so that wouldn't have worked. I'm going to order a bunch of APC's; time to learn how to balance and tune everything.

 

[mailman35]

yeah ive recently run in to bad solder joints, it seems this recent cold spell up here has made them known.
i dunno if it was because my iron was to hot when i did the soldering( past soldering was done around 4, but the past few times it was around 5) while this worked well for the 8awg wire i think it had the opposite effect on the smaller wire... :O

also are the xt-60s that much better? cuz ive been getting that spark on connecting too and throught nothing of it till i read your post, gary.

 

[Billywiz1307]

The NAZA is good but the choice between immediate and intelligent for the motor control is poor. I like the idea of intelligent when it cuts the motors when it goes beyond 70 degrees tilt but I hate the lag. I like the immediacy of Immediate and I like the 70 degree shut off but seemingly you can't have both. Unless I've misunderstood the manual in which case what I've just said is all bollocks.

 

[Jackella]

does the Naza do the 70 degree cut off thing in manual mode also? surely not?

 

[mailman35]

dont think so , ive held the quad in my hand and flipped it all the way around with no cut off. so here is hopin to a flip at some point

 

[kloner]

billy, i'm pretty sure your missunderstanding something you read. i never saw anything about it, haven't seen it. i like mailman have had the thing all over the place in my hand in both immediate and the other and it's never shut off unless a. i shut the throttle all the way down in immediate or b. if i click the sticks into the startup in inteligent. in either if the throttle isn't moved soon enough it'll shut off, but hard to get that far without moving the throttle in the sky

pretty sure the shutoff intelligent thing is so while flying you can't shut em off so you gotta do the startup sequence to get em going while it's falling and your trying to figure out what happened. I also though it leaned 45 degrees in atti and unlimited in manual. it doesn't shut off at 45 degrees, just makes it go forward, back, whatever direction your pointing it and corresponding to the throttle gaining or dumping altitude.

 

[Shoryuken]

In intelligent mode, if you lean it over 70 degree and throt 10% below, in Atti/GPS mode, motors will stop right away. The purpose is to protect the motors if it is tipped over in an accident.

 

[Shoryuken]

In manual mode, motors won't stop unless you do CSC.

 

[Billywiz1307]

I too have had it in my hand and tilted it over, both up to and beyond 70 degrees and still no shut off. Not sure why. But on a number of forums, people are describing NAZA based copters dropping out of the sky for unknown reasons. My guess is that the NAZA is somehow erroneously misinterpreting some inputs as a motor shutdown command.

I have re-read the 1.4 Manual for NAZA and it states this:-

Intelligent Mode: By using this mode, different control mode has different way of stopping
motors. In Manual Mode, only executing CSC can stop motors. In Atti Mode, any one of
following four cases will stop motors:
a) You don’t push throttle stick after motors start in three seconds;
b) Executing CSC;
c) Throttle stick under 10%, and after landing 3 seconds.
d) The slope angle of multi-rotor is over 70°, and throttle stick under 10%.

 

[mailman35]

ive had the motors stop when i first got the naza, it was because i was in intelligent mode, and the throttle was under 10% but i was able to throttle up and get them going again before crashing...
i have not had any problems since then.

 

[kloner]

the only possible way to get to 70 degrees is a crash in atti, no?

View attachment 2710

 

[mailman35]

had mine fall out of the sky this afternoon, all power related, heard the esc's power back up as it fell. :O fell from ~15-20ft stupid battery, need to retip everything for the remainder of this weekend.

 

[mailman35]

just got done retipping everything, also added new battery cable to the f450 frame power connector. must say i like the connectors so far.

 

[Dune]

You get some Xt60's then? I'm waiting for mine to come in, and I'm going to swap them in everywhere. I would be really surprised if my problem was poor joints...I had an EE standing over my shoulder and helping hold the wires in places.