F550 Crash

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xahhax

Member
Ok I was on my second flight getting some footage of Lobo rice terraces in the Philippines.
All of a sudden my F550 just went crazy. I could not stabilize and it went down full speed at 45 degree angle.
It hit a knee deep mud pool which absorbed most of the impact. Visually only the zenmuse gimbal is destroyed. The go pro survived. No idea about the electronics...Any idea/trick how to clean mud??

Now the real question is: WTF happened???

Drone conf:
F550
Naza V2
4S 5000mah lipo
Stock propellers, motor, ESC.
Zenmuse H3-3D

 
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Old Man

Old Man

Active Member
Regrettably, this type of activity is not uncommon with DJI. Go to You Tube and watch the Gold Rush set filming footage of the DJI 800/1000 doing the same thing.
 

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xahhax

Member
but is this linked to airframe or the flight controller?
for sure i am not confident at all to fly this things... :(
 

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David Lee

Member
Some of the DJI problems can be traced to poor bullet connector soldering. My F550 flew fine for the first 20 or 30 flights, then it started getting more and more erratic, then crashing on a regular basis. My problems were solved when I re-soldered all the bullet connectors, in fact I soldered the motors directly to the ESCs. It flys great now. Good luck.
 

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38super

Member
Ok motors were still running Yes? ...If batt problem would have just fallen out of sky . To me it looks like something let go . ESC let go or failed ? Motor failed? I just found a motor problem that I would never have found if I did not go through each motor .... The C clamp came off on bottom of motor . I could pull motor out of housing with ease. Damm luck I found it .
Look at bullet connection YESSSSSS...... I ck everything before I fly
 

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38super

Member
One more thing if it was your second flight .....Sorry to say it may have been something you did on build. If it was your 50th flight then I might go along with DJI problem
Sorry about crash I have been there a few times and was never sure what it was . Bad feeling
 


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xahhax

Member
That was my second flight...of the day...sorry if I was not clear. Listening to the audio it sounds to me the motors had still plenty of power (one seems to scream tough). Actually after this crash I totally lost confidence in the DJI platform. I had a meeting today to place an order at the shop for a s1000+a2+zenmuse Gh3. But after the crash and a bif of googling as OldMan suggested there is indeed a plague of problems with those flight controllers. Scares me to put $10K in the air like that. I need a reliable platform for shooting. What are the alternative options to DJI for flight controllers? Note > I am new to multirotors, but I have well over 1000 acrobatic flights on 3d helis (nitro & electric)...so I tend to think those were not my build or flying skills...Now I am going into this as my wife is a professional photographer and we can offer an additional service to her clients. So absolute reliability is a must for me.
 

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fj_montilla

Member
hey xahhax,

Looking at the video, it seems like you were flying in Manual mode. Notice that you had control as you were correcting your flight path, the F550 was changing direction and orientation, but not in the predictable way that Attitude/GPS mode would give you. Flying in Manual is like flying a helicopter, where you're constantly correcting your rotor's tilt. My advice, get comfortable with your 550 before spending the 10K. Nothing beats practice. And always carry a pre-flight check list. Its easy to forget a detail like what mode your radio is in before takeoff. The 550 is a great platform, I have one, and I know from experience these things happen. Hang in there.
 

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xahhax

Member
..euh, well i was not flying in manual - but GPS mode...and I fly 3D on single rotor so I don't think I need flying practice ...unless you tell me this is harder to fly in which case indeed I need practice.
What you see on video is when i no longer had control the thing was doing it's own stuff...But this little experience saved me from further DJI purchases...just by seeing how many similar issues happened to others. Scary stuff...
 

dazzab

dazzab

Member
Unless your flight controller provides logging then you can only guess about what causes a crash. As for total reliability, based on what I read on various forums, the only way to get that is not to fly. You can mitigate known issues but I'm sure you can find examples of every controller and every brand having behaved badly for someone/somewhere/sometime.
 

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fj_montilla

Member
xahhax said:
..euh, well i was not flying in manual - but GPS mode...and I fly 3D on single rotor so I don't think I need flying practice ...unless you tell me this is harder to fly in which case indeed I need practice.
What you see on video is when i no longer had control the thing was doing it's own stuff...But this little experience saved me from further DJI purchases...just by seeing how many similar issues happened to others. Scary stuff...
Click to expand...

In that case, it IS strange. I've been flying and building with DJI (naza, naza v2, wookong M, A2, and now with Lightbridge) for over 2yrs. I've had my share of crashes, most of the time I can trace it to my own screw up. Although it happens, It's very easy to blame the gear. BTW, were you flying FPV? Just curious.
 

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xahhax

Member
So I dismantled and cleaned everything. Total damage: Zemuse and 2 ESCs. Absolutely no other part was mechanically or electrically destroyed!
Since I lost 2 ESC, i remounted the F550 frame with 4 motors and reconfigured as a quad. Flies ok but I don't trust the electronics with a gimbal and a camera.
I will reconvert as FPV fun rig...
 

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38super

Member
This may sound stupid but might be crash related. It is such a little thing it would go unnoticed unless you knew just where to look . Each motor has a small washer and C clamp on the bottom .
It takes nothing to have them come off, It they do the motor will come right out of the housing with a strong forward stick movement causing a crash. When you find your craft it will look normal
because the magnet pull's it right back into the housing leaving you scratching your head . That's one reason I ck each motor by looking to make sure c lamp is still there
Just a thought
William
 


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