Hoverfly Twitchy HoverFly Pro XHex issue with Version 4.6 Firmware

[ross_badger]

I've been having some issues with my HFly Pro black board with version 4.6 firmware. When I get up to about 10-15 feet off the ground, I get a twitch in the hex that usually drops the left arm and then quickly tries to compensate which makes it very unstable. I've almost crashed a few times, as shown in the attached videos. The sensor diagnostics run through fine. I tried to download a logfile right after the attached movie, and the setup utility says it does, but there is nothing in the file.....

I get the same twitch with and without the GPS board attached and with all levels of main gain. Nothing really seems to help. I've been flying HFPros over the last 2 years or so and I've never had any issue that I couldn't solve. I've replaced the left ESC and motor (the one that seems to drop out), but it still twitches.

Here is my set-up and some pics:

Hoverfly twitch when flying:
Firmware V 4.6
HoverFly Pro V2 “black” board
HoverFly GPS board
GS407 GPS Module
Avroto M2814-11S short shaft motors
HobbyKing F-30A 30A ESCs with SimonK firmware - all center power wires removed
Homemade “spider” power distribution
APC slow-fly 11x4.7 props
Futaba R6008HS 8-channel receiver
HKU3 5V 3A UBEC power for receiver
Turnigy 6000mAh 25-50C nano-tech batteries
Rusty’s UAP1 frame in XHex format
Rusty’s clamp-on landing gear set
Rusty’s floating camera mount with 6 soft threaded dampers
Photo Higher AV130 camera gimbal

The twitches can be seen in these vids near the end, before I land....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G46bjLepPKk&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOAUogu7bgw&feature=youtu.be

 

[PaNt]

With 4.386 it was ok??!

 

[Stacky]

Ross that looks remarkably similar to the problem i had 5 or 6 months ago with my quad. In the end I put it down to my thrust to weight ratio not being close enough to 50% but never really was 100% certain of that. I tried all sorts of things to eliminate as much as possible. I havent flown in quad mode since with my HFP. Mine would have a twitch and then become increasingly unstable till I would crash if i didnt land quick enough. Does that sound similar?

 

[Efliernz]

I upgraded my DW VM-6 X-Hexa in the weekend and have 4 batteries through it so far - flying at 3400grams on 4S.

I am still fine-tuning the gains (I appear to be the only one in the world who has increased the gain... but I have only 8 batteries on the new machine so it was still in the test period...) but it is flying well. I did a mixture of climb and descents, gentle and tight turns, 40-deg nose-down fast fwd and apart from a slight pitch zoom after releasing the rudder/yaw too quickly at the end of a turn, it flew nicely.

No help to you sorry... but the firmware as far as I see is ok.

Pete

...after Stacky's message, I'm hovering at 45-50%

 

[ross_badger]

With 4.386 it was ok??!

Yes, with Ver 4.386 and previous firmware it was fine.

However, I did change the stock Plush 30A ESCs to SimonK flashed HK F-30A ESCs at the same time I loaded Ver 4.6 firmware. I have another XHex with the V1 "green" HFPro board flying just fine on Ver 4.6 firmware and SimonK flashed ESCs. In fact, my green board hex is flying as smooth or smoother than it ever has.

I suppose I can go back and reload Ver 4.386 and try it......maybe this coming week.

 

[ross_badger]

Ross that looks remarkably similar to the problem i had 5 or 6 months ago with my quad. In the end I put it down to my thrust to weight ratio not being close enough to 50% but never really was 100% certain of that. I tried all sorts of things to eliminate as much as possible. I havent flown in quad mode since with my HFP. Mine would have a twitch and then become increasingly unstable till I would crash if i didnt land quick enough. Does that sound similar?

Stacky - yes, that does sound like the same symptoms with my hex. It twitches to the left and then either the board or I overcompensate trying to get it stable, and then it swings wildly to the right. It does start to hover at just at or slightly under 1/2 throttle position.....just like it did before.

I keep thinking about not being able to get a flight log from the Setup Utility. It says that it has saved the file, and it is on my desktop, but there is nothing in the file. I'm starting to think that there is something else wrong with the board. I vaguely remember in one of these forums that the firmware in another board was corrupted, causing it to act strangely. I wonder if that is what is going on in mine?

 

[ross_badger]

I upgraded my DW VM-6 X-Hexa in the weekend and have 4 batteries through it so far - flying at 3400grams on 4S.

I am still fine-tuning the gains (I appear to be the only one in the world who has increased the gain... but I have only 8 batteries on the new machine so it was still in the test period...) but it is flying well. I did a mixture of climb and descents, gentle and tight turns, 40-deg nose-down fast fwd and apart from a slight pitch zoom after releasing the rudder/yaw too quickly at the end of a turn, it flew nicely.

No help to you sorry... but the firmware as far as I see is ok.

Pete

...after Stacky's message, I'm hovering at 45-50%

Pete - good to know that the firmware is working for you. It works really well on my other XHex as well. I'm just baffled and have worked all week trying different things to get this twitchy one to stop twitching!

 

[PaNt]

Pete - good to know that the firmware is working for you. It works really well on my other XHex as well. I'm just baffled and have worked all week trying different things to get this twitchy one to stop twitching!

Maybe the Simonk escs have a problem.. ! what you think?? on what throttle percentage do you hover??

 

[PaNt]

I keep thinking about not being able to get a flight log from the Setup Utility. It says that it has saved the file, and it is on my desktop, but there is nothing in the file. I'm starting to think that there is something else wrong with the board. I vaguely remember in one of these forums that the firmware in another board was corrupted, causing it to act strangely. I wonder if that is what is going on in mine?

Lol i had this problem on 4.386 too..!!!

 

[Aerovideo]

I had a problem similar to this once where I would get some random twitches which would nearly lead to crashes/flips. Turned out to be a bad solder job on one of my bullet connectors. Since you also changed escs this could be a possibility.

 

[ross_badger]

Maybe the Simonk escs have a problem.. ! what you think?? on what throttle percentage do you hover??

I hover at almost 50% thottle, which is the same as before....

 

[ross_badger]

I had a problem similar to this once where I would get some random twitches which would nearly lead to crashes/flips. Turned out to be a bad solder job on one of my bullet connectors. Since you also changed escs this could be a possibility.

Paul - thanks for the input......sigh...yes, I should probably go through every solder joint and check it out. I wonder if there is an easier way than to tear off the shrink tube and inspect the joints?

 

[Bartman]

Paul - thanks for the input......sigh...yes, I should probably go through every solder joint and check it out. I wonder if there is an easier way than to tear off the shrink tube and inspect the joints?

I also had similar problems that were attributed to a bad ESC. After a few minutes the twitchiness would appear and flight control would quickly suffer followed by a crash if I didn't land immediately.

Letting everything sit for a few minutes it would return to normal but then go through the same loss of control as the bad ESC heated up and began to fail. My Turnigy Plush 30A ESC's were getting hot so I switched to 40A and it's all been fine ever since with the same flight controller.

Bart

 

[ross_badger]

I also had similar problems that were attributed to a bad ESC. After a few minutes the twitchiness would appear and flight control would quickly suffer followed by a crash if I didn't land immediately.

Letting everything sit for a few minutes it would return to normal but then go through the same loss of control as the bad ESC heated up and began to fail. My Turnigy Plush 30A ESC's were getting hot so I switched to 40A and it's all been fine ever since with the same flight controller.

Bart

After every flight, I check the ESCs and motors and all are just warm to the touch. Maybe there is an internal solder joint coming loose....i.e. wires to the ESC board connections. I'll have to start unwrapping them to see...lol.

 

[PaNt]

After every flight, I check the ESCs and motors and all are just warm to the touch. Maybe there is an internal solder joint coming loose....i.e. wires to the ESC board connections. I'll have to start unwrapping them to see...lol.

WHEN YOU find the problem pls post it..

 

[ross_badger]

WHEN YOU find the problem pls post it..

Will do! However, I'm still waiting on the HoverFly folks to chime in and put in their 2 cents. Especially about the log file not showing up....:upset:

 

[Bartman]

generally speaking it isn't such a great idea to make major changes more than one at a time. if you could go back to the original ESC's you'd probably find the problem isn't the firmware update. once that is established you could put the new ESC's back on and see if/what changes.

 

[octocine]

It's a long shot, but I've had similar problems that I traced back to a loose, and occasionally slipping propellor.

 

[ross_badger]

It's a long shot, but I've had similar problems that I traced back to a loose, and occasionally slipping propellor.

Thanks for the input.....this is an easy one to check! :tennis:

Ross

 

[S11D336B]

To solve another issue, we stopped recording flight logs on the HoverflyPro. They are only recorded on the HoverflyGPS now. This is why the file is empty. Haven't had a chance to update the setup client to reflect this.

It sounds like you have a power / ESC issue based on the symptoms you described.

Will do! However, I'm still waiting on the HoverFly folks to chime in and put in their 2 cents. Especially about the log file not showing up....:upset: