What went wrong? Was WKM at fault?

[iceman]

What went wrong? I'm still trying to work that out. 1st flight of the day yesterday went great, filmed a stream and lifted over a bridge to reveal a splendid country house hotel, moved in for some closer shots and landed to change batt. after 10 mins flight. Walked to the other end of hotel switched on, waited for GPS lock which took less than a minute and took off. After I got out of ground effect I noticed that control just didn't feel quite right, drifting left and had to correct with right stick, things seemed to settle but within seconds got hairy again, checking my TX I was in GPS ATT mode as usual but X2 was switched to the new IOC home lock mode I immediately switched IOC off as I didn't want to be in this mode of flight. This is when things went wrong, my AD6 drifted quickly off to the left and when I tried to correct it it just seemed to have a mind of it's own! It started to climb so I reduced power, some how got it back to my right and as it was now over some bushes I killed the throttle and it droped into said bushes. This saved the hexa from major damage (confidence damaged beyond repair) I took the hexa indoors and quickly put my nose to the electronics to smell if anything was hot or burnt ( I have a nose for this as an electronics engineer) nothing felt hot or burnt. So now I'm trying to figure out what went wrong, was it something to do with the new IOC function? Would loss of GPS cause loss of control? Not powered up yet as I'm checking for any damage to airframe. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Droider]

What went wrong? Was WKM at fault?

I Doubt it

@UP Iceman... wooow scary pants or what.. I have NEVER been a fan of comfort flying as MK calls it OR the new WKM mode. I have tried it and got a tad confused and had similar happenings... was losing my quad and could not figure out why but held it together and switched to JUST ATT mode and recovered it..

I then went back and RTFM.... AGAIN TWICE. Then things made sense. I really suggest that before anyone goes into the so called Comfort flying they are perfectly skilled in everything like nose in and the full spectrum of flying with out the comfort mode. ONLY then give it a whirl in the full knowledge that what ever orientation your copter is in you can recover it by going to JUST ATTi or even manual.

Get back on the sticks and just do a few houses left and right in ATTI to check things are ok..

Dave

 

[iceman]

Hi Dave

Thanks for your emotional support! I didn't intend to fly comfort mode and when things went wrong it was switched off, now I'm going to disable X2 for that function and keep it on remote gain so it can't happen again (if it was something to do with that) My other thought is this, what would happen if your flying in GPS Attitude mode and you loose GPS, would make it fly out of control/ go unstable? Perhaps I should have switched to ATT or manual. BTW where can I purchase the metal Droidworx adapter (the one with Dridworkx cut in both sides) is it a Photohigher part or Droidworkx, my plate got bent, that was the only damage.

Andy

 

[Tahoe Ed]

It is very difficult when flying in "comfort" or "Carefree" if you loose orientation or the machine flies behind you. I friend of mine had $1500 in damage when he was flying his MK in carefree and it got behind him. I have flown my MK in Carefree with no problem. It is actually quite fun doing piros while moving in any direction. I like it for A/P But it is not for everyone. I have not had a chance to fly my WKM using IOC. Hopefully tomorrow after I move the switch from a lever to a three position switch.

 

[Droider]

BTW where can I purchase the metal Droidworx adapter

Eh! post a pic..

 

[iceman]

Hi Dave

Sorry can't post a picture from my iPad but it's the part pictured on page 5 of the PDF manual on Photohighers website for the 360 upgrade for AV200 it's the adapter to mount gimbal to gear rail with "Droidworx" cut into it. I'll post a picture from my pc tomorrow if your not sure.

Andy

 

[iceman]

Just had word back from Linda at DW, it's a Photohigher part (even though it's cut with Droidworx in it) Linda has passed my request for a replacement to Sue. Great help and quick response from DW as usual.

 

[Dudez]

Happened to me couple of days ago.

It was a claudy day and the sky was grey - It took the WKM few minutes to acquire all satelites (normally within a minute). Flew the craft in GPS mode up to about 100 feet and hovered. I was yawing the craft and playing with the gimbal tilting to video the surrounding views when I lost control of the craft and it wouldn't respond to my stick anymore but the camera gimbal still works ( I found out when I playback the video) which tells me that the connection between my TX and RX was still connected. Very luckily the craft did RTH safely. I didn't switch to ATT or MANUAL mode when I lost the control of the craft because I was panicking :-( - I would've been able to take the control back if I have done that.

Now my question is, will losing all satelites when flying in GPS mode put it is safe mode?
I tried to replicate the issue to try to get the LED to turn BLUE on the ground without the props by trying different things like shaking the RX, IMU, massaging all the connectors on the RX, Flight control "U" port etc but none of them put it in safe mode except when I turned the TX off.

Maybe I missed something in the manual and need to RTFM again?

Also, what will happen if I am flying in ATT mode and there is no satelites detected and I lose connection between the TX and RX or RX and IMU? will it go to Fail safe and RTH or Hover??

 

[GGoodrum]

When the WK-M loses sats, it reverts to ATTI mode and I believe a failsafe condition will cause it to simply autoland where it is, like the Naza does. One thing I'd like to see changed in the RTH function is that it seems that once initiated, there's no way to regain control, and cancel the RTH function. I had a case where my GPS module came loose, which caused a toilet bowl effect, where the position hold function was causing it to make approximately 30-foot circles. I tried the RTH function and it did a 30-foot spiral, right over my head. It just missed a tree behind me, and then skidded along the ground, when it got close, causing it to roll over and break two props.

-- Gary

 

[iceman]

Hi Gary

that’s interesting, I was flying in GPS mode but I'm not sure if I lost Sat lock, it all seemed to happen quite quickly. On reflection I should have landed as soon as I felt like control was not as it should have been. I have not flow since the crash because I'm still waiting for a part from Photohigher in NZ, it's on its way. Before the next flight I will make sure all electronics and WKM work as expected. Perhaps a thread should be started whereby we all report on our “Air crash investigations” and prevent others from suffering the same problems, things to look out for pre and post flight.

Andy