Freefly Alta was recalled... Anyone see this???

[SleepyC]

http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/altas-grounded-critical-issue-please-read.7039/

Today we discovered an issue with the ALTA wiring and are recommending an immediate grounding of the in-service fleet.

We have identified that motor signal wires may fray after around 200 open and closing cycles on the folding boom.

If the connection is damaged, the ALTA will not initialize. But there is the possibility that an ALTA could have a compromised wire and still pass the initialization checks. This leaves a scenario where if the connection were lost in flight one of the motors could shut down.

As such the safest option is to ground the fleet and repair the faulty wiring.

Freefly discovered this information today and is acting swiftly to issue the service bulletin same day. Our customer’s safety is top priority and we are committing to a transparent and expedient resolution.

We have not received any reports of motor signal wire failures from customers in the field. Our Engineering team has identified a solution and is presently putting together a resolution plan. We will provide an update within 48 hours.

We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience that we know this will cause you. We hope you keep in mind our commitment to our customers and our products as we make this right.


Tabb


We will be sending out a service bulletin shortly....

That was SEPT 28th!!

Just a HEADS UP!!

 

[maxwelltub]

Wha?????

 

[Old Man]

Probably went out to customers in possession. Too bad there's an issue but mighty damn grand they told people about it before bad things started to happen. We should not forget some other makers find it fitting to conceal and deny defects or dangerous conditions.

 

[violetwolf]

Yup, good on them. I suspect the liability department pulled the trigger on that. It could've gotten really messy if they didn't.

Food for thought with all the Chinese junk out there eh.

 

[Carapau]

Yet another step the industry takes to becoming a genuinely professional avaition segment. Still a long way to go but step by step we are getting there.

 

[dark_star]

sleepy, this is old news. yea, every single alta has been recalled. we also have gotten service notifications that they only email directly to owners.

 

[BogotaMatt]

What an awesome customer service... Would love to see that happening with the other brand...

 

[Old Man]

Ain't never gonna happen.

 

[dark_star]

What an awesome customer service... Would love to see that happening with the other brand...

yea, it is nice. i would say its comforting but between the recall and the other notifications we have received it's also kind of scary. seems like the release might have been premature. very slick machine, thou. love the foldability and convenience. hate the weight limit of 6.8kg but we are pushing that already and so far so good.

 

[BogotaMatt]

How does it fly ? Compared to an A-2 based bird ?

 

[violetwolf]

yea, it is nice. i would say its comforting but between the recall and the other notifications we have received it's also kind of scary. seems like the release might have been premature. very slick machine, thou. love the foldability and convenience. hate the weight limit of 6.8kg but we are pushing that already and so far so good.

I didn't want to be negative, but I agree. My first thought was "not very rigorous testing if they're failing after 200 folds". Wire chafing seems like an obvious place to test.

These guys do have a history of over-hyping. The early servo gimbals were abysmal for instance.

 

[dark_star]

i've done this for a while and the early servo gimbals were a hell I lived with for years. it's easy to forget now, especially with all the new peple getting into this who think a phantom 3 gimbal is always the way it been. when that zenmuse z15 came out that was a real game changer. the servo gimbals were junkk but of all of them the free fly one was the best. it just sucked less LOL

the alta has a good feel. i like the manual mode. the altitude hold went krazy on me a few times and I was told that it uses GPS to help determine altitude and it can sometimes get errors. i get that but scared the hell out of me. i never really liked the A2. have always used WKM's on our machines for the most part. that and superX.

what i'm personally most excited about is the U1. it could be hype but if half of the claims are true it might be the next huge step in the business. i wish the timing was more good for me- we already bought an alta but would prob have been better to wait for the U1. then again, can you have too many kopters?

 

[Javajack]

I'm probably going to purchase an Alta and will be using a Gremsy H16 and Raven camera. We're now shooting a lot of feature films and the old GH4 doesn't quite cut it anymore. The image is great but everyone wants at least 4K raw. 8 bit 4-2-0 is a bit of compromise. Anyway, you mention U1. What is that, an update to the Alta in some way? I agree about Wookong over A2. We've had several A2s go crazy on us.

 

[stevemaller]

Yup, good on them. I suspect the liability department pulled the trigger on that. It could've gotten really messy if they didn't.
Food for thought with all the Chinese junk out there eh.

I don't think Freefly have a "liability department". From my experience with them, the entire company considers themselves to be the "liability department". I'm sure they have lawyers (maybe just a lawyer), but I sincerely doubt they were consulted in this. Freefly are just fanatics, and supremely conscientious of their reputation. This is just what we'd all do in this situation, right?

I sent mine in, got it back in about 8 days, and not only was the issue at hand addressed with a complete rewiring of the control network for the ESCs, but they also applied several other "SBs" (service bulletins) while it was there. If you recall, my ALTA was the very first production bird off the line, and consequently there have been a number of (mostly minor) updates that they've made, such as replacing screws in the GPS enclosure with less magnetic ones.

I have flown the ALTA since getting it back, and especially because of several improvements in the new firmware version 1.1, it flies even better than before. Position and Height hold are rock solid, and the velocity clamping seems even steadier than before.

Release notes for the new firmware and app are here: https://freeflysystems.zendesk.com/...p-and-Firmware-Release-Notes-Synapse-20151020

Still a fan,
Steve

 

[violetwolf]

If they're such fanatics why were they using ferrous screws on the compass module in the first place.. Engineering 101 man... And on and on.

Not a fan (as you can tell)

And I'll just drop it. I don't want to quarrel.

 

[Shifted Cinema]

The steel screws on early GCU boards were an error when moving into full production, the prototype birds had non-ferrous hardware. It was noticed fairly quickly and adjusted for. There are commonly minor running changes when moving into full production with any product, at least Freefly acknowledges and addresses them as fast as possible. The rework for the PWM cables is simple and reliable. Overall, we have utmost trust in our Alta and it's been a great machine to work with.