Hoverfly Hoverfly Pro catastrophe.

[DucktileMedia]

Hoverfly Pro first experience

I have spent over a month getting this XY8 set up and making sure every end has been checked and checked again. I still feel absolutely confident that I have done nothing wrong construction wise or software wise. So today I found a moment of time to try out the hoverfly pro and give her some flight time. I checked all the parameters again on the software, I made sure all the props were rotating the right way, all connections secure. The alt sensor was covred. I flew inside my warehouse so there is no excuse for sun or wind being the cause. All lights look normal, all beeps sounded normal. First flight in manual mode, altitude double checked to be off. Flight was very stable. Hovered for about 20 seconds and landed it. I then flipped it into attitude mode and gave it another try. This time it was borderline uncontrollable. Had flight characteristics similar to DJI with gains way too high, very very wobbly. I was barely able to land it without damage. Next flight, I put it back in manual mode and increased the gains of attitude mode to +40 from +25. heres where things went bad and i dont think its from the gains but the heli started to hover somewhat normally, but then in the oddest way started to lose control but not elevate nor shut the motors off. I could not get the motors to turn off!!! I also could not get the heli to lift any further. So if it was an alt hold I think its possible but the fact I couldnt turn the motors off was very dangerous. I was not sure what to do at this point since I realized I either had to go through a whole set of batteries and let it die out or intentionally crash it as to make sure things didnt get worse. As I tried to hold a hover the heli seemed to lose more and more control. I had to intentionally drift it into a piece of machinery in the shop as to take her down. i didnt want to risk it flying up and doing massive damage to me or the shop or the heli. So now all props are completely broken or messed up, horrible sounds are coming from the thing and I am obviously wondering how the hell to turn this things off. the funny thing is that right before I took off I went and put on a pair of work gloves just in case something like this happened. I walked over to the heli as it seemed to be in a position that was more or less helpless. But when I went in to grab the battery cable it bit me in the arm and made 3 nice deep wounds.




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[skivvie]

Bummer man I had high hopes for that rig so I can't imagine how you feel. Sorry to see that and glad your injuries weren't worse. Sigh... Next eh?

 

[DucktileMedia]

I really just want to know why this happened. The ONLY thing that i can think of is that altitude hold was activated. but would that prevent the throttle from shutting the motors down or being able to climb? I was stuck at 3" off the ground with minor cyclic control. I'm willing to give this another try when my mental and physical wounds heal but if this was erratic behavior, then forget it. I might as well go MK. I'm just glad I decided to make a practice set of landing gear instead of using my new av200/360!

 

[Stacky]

Go here and do a RMA https://hoverflytech.zendesk.com/home


Give the guys as much info as you can. What firmware version, etc etc etc. What motors, esc's props etc.

If you can, upload the flight log also if you have any video footage and include photos of the craft.

The HF guys will help you work this out.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Photronix]

I really just want to know why this happened. The ONLY thing that i can think of is that altitude hold was activated. but would that prevent the throttle from shutting the motors down or being able to climb? I was stuck at 3" off the ground with minor cyclic control. I'm willing to give this another try when my mental and physical wounds heal but if this was erratic behavior, then forget it. I might as well go MK. I'm just glad I decided to make a practice set of landing gear instead of using my new av200/360!

I would also like to understand what happened. If you would like to speak to me please call me Monday if you can (I'll PM the number). I have never heard of a similar problem so I am anxious to hear the details.

 

[DucktileMedia]

thanks for the offer. I'll call tomorrow. I am dying to know what went wrong. This was certainly a first for me as well. Normally when things lose control they go quickly. This was not a radio loss of signal nor a complete failure to interpret signal into function.

 

[Bartman]

Yuri,
Sorry to hear it's rough going. I'm sure Al will help get things sorted out when you speak to him.

If the gains are too sensitive the Auto-level feature will appear to be very wild even though it's just aggressively trying to keep level. Inside, or in calm winds, it will appear to be fighting itself and over-correcting in trying to stay level. The solution is to increase the value in the travel adjustment within the radio while you're flying so the -25 that you started with would be changed to -30 or -40 or whatever it takes to feel smooth to you in the conditions you're in. From the numbers you posted in the first post, it looks like you increased the number for the other position of that switch which would have been manual (or attitude where auto-level is off) mode and left auto-level at -25 ("I put it back in manual mode and increased the gains of attitude mode to +40 from +25).

Is it possible that the throttle trim was bumped to a higher position between flights? That would have kept the motors from turning off. I don't know if having altitude hold on would have kept the motors turning.

Flying indoors for first flights isn't such a great idea since anything can happen and having some room to maneuver is usually helpful. sorry it didn't go so well but I wouldn't give up on the flight control system so quickly. a friend's wookong flew off and away into the distance last week for no apparent reason four flights into his day so it's going to happen that things don't go smoothly and constantly buying/selling won't get you anywhere in the long run.

good luck with it, talk to you when i get back.

 

[DucktileMedia]

Bart the only reason i agree with you on flying in doors is the fact that there are concrete floors. Flying in tall grass is ideal for a soft landing but if the thing flies off it can harm others. This way i confine my heli to my own space and I know any wobbling I see is not from wind. What happened was plain odd.

I think we all need to come up with a standard method for test flying our first few flights. there has to be an economical remote kill switch available. Or some way of tethering a cord to the batteries such that if it flies off it yanks the battery cables. Magnetic release, bungee cord, or something as complicated as a "heart beat" to/from the cpu. A lot of experimental units have these where a signal is sent back and forth 100 times per second and if that rhythm is lost, the power is cut. Not to different from fail-safe but instead of coming home or hovering it completely kills power. I can guarantee you that if/when the FAA starts licensing these UAS's, they will require a kill system like this that is separate from the main FC.

 

[Breezemont]

Throw a towel, sheet, rags, coat, shirt, anything like that in the props if something like that ever happens again.
I learned the hard way too.

 

[RTRyder]

Throw a towel, sheet, rags, coat, shirt, anything like that in the props if something like that ever happens again.
I learned the hard way too.

I always keep a large old bath towel on hand for test flights for exactly that reason. I'd rather stall the motors and be able to uplug the battery as safely as possible under the circumstances and even if an ESC or two burn out it's still better and cheaper than a trip to the Emergency room at the local hospital.

So far in over two years of building and testing multirotors I've only had to use it twice and I was quite happy to have it on hand when needed.

Ken

 

[DucktileMedia]

An excellent and simple idea that I didn't think of at the time. Sucks because i had one about 10' from me. When in the moment of panic it is easy to not make coherent decisions.

So I talked with Hoverfly this morning, amazingly helpful people. They told me that the Hoverfly Pro doesnt work in the northern hemisphere or when it is past sunrise. Kidding. I think the conclusion was that my alt hold got activated at startup, which prevented the heli from climbing and from shutting off. As i checked this before the flight on the software and the boxes were highlighted in relation to the proper switch position, I didnt think twice about it. but it MUST have been activated because the symptoms were exactly as they would be if AH is on at take off. My problem is that I am used to DJI's layout on my radio and the HF is completely different so I didnt have time to look at the radio and think about it. At the end of the day I learned a few lessons and Al at Hoverfly has made a great effort to get me back on track. They even offered to replace some components which they did not have to do. It will probably take a week to rebuild the heli and give her another try.

Hopefully others can learn from this that are going Hoverfly. Make sure your switches work and know them well before taking it up. also, have a backup plan. leather gloves, a towel and maybe a fire extinguisher! I dont know what happens to ESC's and betteries when you stop the props under full load and the build up that much heat. It cant be good for anything.

 

[kloner]

most esc's go into "prop strike" mode and sit there beeping to let ya know there not armed anymore. others sit there studdering, it's the going underwater under power that really lets em smoke

Sucks to be the "guy", hope it gets better from here

 

[Jake Bullit]

Mere flesh wounds:black_eyed:

Strangely I clicked on the photos of your damaged MR before I looked at your wounds.

Hope you heal quick.Glad to know that HF diagnosed your problem,and hopefully you`ll be airborne with confidence real soon.:tennis:

 

[DucktileMedia]

It took me a year to get over my Xaircraft experience. that permanently damaged my confidence in flying knowing that 5 of your props could break mid air. But since this was not erratic failure I dont think it will phase me much. The wound was not much but could have been worse.

 

[PaNt]

Guys on these systems isnt their a way to put a hold switch or cut off switch??

 

[DucktileMedia]

So i rebuilt the heli last few days and flew it today. It flies very stable. A nice change of pace. you guys would laugh though if you saw how I dressed for the preflight. I was wearing a big leather jacket with welding gloves and a face mask, a stick and a towel a few feet away.

I am curious though how you tune gains as there is only 1 gain and if the yaw or throttle is overly sensitive you only have transmitter control. At first i didnt like that the Tx controlled gain but then I thought about it and I actually like that I dont need to plug in the computer everytime. I can see this thing flying very very well once I figure it all out.

Some suggestions for Hoverfly would be:

1. get rid of the color coding and use numbers for the motor configuration. Some are color blind and it makes it impossible to label plugs.
2. double check the wording on wether it is + or - that activates the auto-level and alt. hold. I think they are backward. Not 100% sure.
3. the visual throttle indicator on the software will snap up to the middle position when I bring my throttle on the tx all the way down.
4. I cant export a flight log larger than 0 kb.

 

[Stacky]

On your point #3 you might want to try reading this especially if you have a Futaba radio. Hopefully this might help with that problem https://hoverflytech.zendesk.com/en...-setup-your-throttle-range-on-the-hoverflypro

Also on their zendesk help site Hoverfly have a suggestions section. I know from my experience they read this stuff and discuss it. Pop your suggestions in there.

Cheers
Mike

 

[DucktileMedia]

I just assumed it was an issue since I talked about with them and they said the new software might fix it. it's really not that big of a deal other than if you do what I did, which is to compensate by raising the throttle trim and then the heli wont start. Seemes simple but I totally forgot about the fact that if your ESC's beep constantly it is telling you your throttle is not lowered all the way. Just one more thing to think about.

 

[Stacky]

Yeah it had been a new issue that might have been there for a while but not causing problems, im not sure. When they upgraded the firmware from v3 to V4 they made some major improvements in flight quality and within that some of us experienced issues when going full throttle. It took them a week or so to identify the problem and that throttle calibration solved it.

 

[PaNt]

On your point #3 you might want to try reading this especially if you have a Futaba radio. Hopefully this might help with that problem https://hoverflytech.zendesk.com/en...-setup-your-throttle-range-on-the-hoverflypro

Also on their zendesk help site Hoverfly have a suggestions section. I know from my experience they read this stuff and discuss it. Pop your suggestions in there.

Cheers
Mike

One min if i calibrate my escs and then i calibrate the throttle on HFP is there a need to calibrate the escs again??

Thank you!