Wookong M Fly Off

[Droider]

You need to get a LIPO alarm. Anyone flying with out one is daft! for a few bucks you get a flashing light and a VERY loud beep. Easy to find within 500m when the alarm goes off. There are also TX triggered systems that can enable beacons lights alarms etc. Hawk trackers are also very light but expensive to set up.

I know this does not help you now but if you get it back it would be the lipo alarm should be the first thing you buy for when you fly again.
Good luck.

Dave

 

[Dax]

Ebernard, any luck finding it ?

 

[Ebernard]

Hey guys as of 5:23 PM EST my bird was recovered. It doesn't have as much as a scratch on it. Lipo (Turnigy Nano Tech 4S 5000 MAh) was laying 3 feet from the hex. We had 45 MPH winds over the weekend that no doubt blew it loose. Hard to believe that its in perfect condition.

 

[Kilby]

Awesome follow up! So what are the details? Was it up a tree at the location you suspected? How did you finally get it back?

 

[kloner]

right on,,, yea, details please... what all was on it?

i've crashed alot of rc. often the lipo gets ejected, it's actualy the problem with them and crashing and fires cause it just has to get punctured..... good deal though. if she didn't see any rain your right back where you were. now what made the interference or whatever that did this?

 

[Razzil]

Did it fly home haha
Good to hear you have it back.

 

[Kentjjl]

Glad to you found it.

 

[3dheliguy]

I heard a similar incident with a Big copter, and Apperantly this one was caused by not calibrating the compass at the start of the flight. If you fly the wookong you should always calibrate the compass before attempting flight. I'm not 100 percent that is what caused this but it's not the first time this has happened from non calibration of compass that I have heard.

 

[3dheliguy]

Iris, I was wondering when you wanted to throw that I love Wookong party. WooKong For Life I'm going to get that tattoed on my bicepts and it's all because of you Iris you inspire me to fly Wookong.

 

[ChrisViperM]

I hope you guys are aware of the the new development chief at DJI, Mr. Chen WanKing......lot's of screwed up firmware to be expected......especially the new officially released "Return-to-China" feature....


Chris

 

[Jodde73]

Time to buy a $3 alarm...

 

[Ebernard]

So here are the details:
As you guys prob would, I went out almost every afternoon trying to spot the hex. Having 2 grand hanging in a tree wasn't getting it done for me.
I went to the coordinates Google Earth and DJI Ground Station showed using my smartphone. After stammering around for 5 minutes (this past time), I walked right up on the little guy laying on the ground with the purple turnigy lipo laying 4 feet away. It was almost hard to believe. I had looked in that same spot at least half a dozen times prior. It was almost like someone laid it there for me to retrieve. The lipo was noticably swelled up, so its a loss, but the 550 itself didn't have as much as a broken prop on it.
After dinner last night, I decided to plug in a fresh lipo and connect it to the DJI software. Plugged the battery in, and she came right up online. I did a rigorous pre-flight and propeller inspection then decided to see if she would fly. She did. No service required. Not even a wobble. Not bad considering the unit laid in a tree at 51 feet for 10 days and survived temps from 32-90, rain, fog, dust and dirt. Tested the RTH feature and it worked great. Very lucky here. Like I said it's almost unbeleiveable. And yes, time for a $3 battery alarm!

:nevreness:

 

[Jrocks]

Overall - Great Happy Ending!

 

[v84x4]

WOW..............Glad you found it Ebernard

I am new to this so I never heard of anything like this happening............

I am reading on this forum and learning so much everyday (Thanks to you guys)
And as Iv'e said before "I Am Hooked" .......

but I dont want to have an experience like this when I purchase my DJI S800 and Z15-N next year

Exactly why I switched to Hoverfly! This kind of story scared the hell out of me every time I would go fly. Do you have any idea why it flew off? Did you flip a switch?

So Why do you say "Exactly why I switched to Hoverfly!" "IrisAerial" ?

Regards, Rick

 

[Bartman]

a lot of tree trimmers will have a guy on staff that climbs them for a living. they usually have a small chain saw and will climb up to do pruning and trimming. if you call a few local tree service companies you might be able to find someone to do this.

i didn't look at your map images so sorry if the heli's lost in the middle of yosemite.

bart

 

[Bartman]

a lot of tree trimmers will have a guy on staff that climbs them for a living. they usually have a small chain saw and will climb up to do pruning and trimming. if you call a few local tree service companies you might be able to find someone to do this.

i didn't look at your map images so sorry if the heli's lost in the middle of yosemite.

bart

just read the end of the story, glad you found it!

 

[RTRyder]

WOW..............Glad you found it Ebernard

I am new to this so I never heard of anything like this happening............

I am reading on this forum and learning so much everyday (Thanks to you guys)
And as Iv'e said before "I Am Hooked" .......

but I dont want to have an experience like this when I purchase my DJI S800 and Z15-N next year (APROX $4100.00)

Exactly why I switched to Hoverfly! This kind of story scared the hell out of me every time I would go fly. Do you have any idea why it flew off? Did you flip a switch?

So Why do you say "Exactly why I switched to Hoverfly!" "IrisAerial" ?

Regards, Rick

That's funny, out of all the various flight controllers I own and have flown, which includes Mikrokopter, DJI Wookong-m and Naza, plus the YS-X6, the ONLY one that has ever attempted to fly off on its own is the Hoverfly Pro I have. Not once but numerous times, usually after turning on autolevel, and occasionally just because it apparently felt like it after flying around for 3/4 of a battery pack. The autolevel works great now, sitting in a box on the shelf it's perfectly level 100% of the time now that I reverted my Droidworx AD6 from H/F back to MK electronics !

Sorry, but I'll trust my Cinestar 6, AV130, and Sony Nex 5N to the Wookong-M they're flying under every day of the week, been absolutely 100% reliable with all functions working exactly as they should since the day I first set it up over a year ago now, wish I could say the same for the H/F Pro that I've had for roughly twice as long but I can't.

Ken

 

[v84x4]

That's funny, out of all the various flight controllers I own and have flown, which includes Mikrokopter, DJI Wookong-m and Naza, plus the YS-X6, the ONLY one that has ever attempted to fly off on its own is the Hoverfly Pro I have. Not once but numerous times, usually after turning on autolevel, and occasionally just because it apparently felt like it after flying around for 3/4 of a battery pack. The autolevel works great now, sitting in a box on the shelf it's perfectly level 100% of the time now that I reverted my Droidworx AD6 from H/F back to MK electronics !

Sorry, but I'll trust my Cinestar 6, AV130, and Sony Nex 5N to the Wookong-M they're flying under every day of the week, been absolutely 100% reliable with all functions working exactly as they should since the day I first set it up over a year ago now, wish I could say the same for the H/F Pro that I've had for roughly twice as long but I can't.

Ken

OK, Thanks Ken...........

It's hard to decide on the proper platform as there are so many opinions and you know, everyone has one !!
I'm sure there are ppl with just as many problems with every controller and I'm sure it's all in how you set it up and placement of electronics
as well as other variables But I'm with you when I say "I don't want my $9000.00 worth of equipment to just fly away"

I have a year to collect my parts as I've already started with a NEX 5N
So I will continue to read this entire forum over the next year (Or Less) before I pull the plug

I'm just happy then Ebernard found his MR

Best Regards, Rick

 

[Gump]

So I keep reading about these horrible lost craft situations on forums all over the net, and about the huge amount of time and effort it takes to recover the craft. I have an idea from something else I was thinking about that might be adaptable into something very useful in these cases.
Ever since I've been involved in surface R/C I've always wanted to create a very large scale (1/2 or 1/3), very high performance (high output snowmobile engine w/cvt) off road buggy. One of the major worries I always had with such a contraption is what the heck would you do to prevent a very dangerous runaway situation? What kind of safety kill system would be highly reliable in the event of a major electrical or mechanical failure?
I came up with the ideal of having a completely separate backup system installed that relies on its own transmitter (worn hanging around the neck in the form of a kill switch), its own receiver and power source (all specially bundled up and strategically located on board), connected to its own engine kill and fuel cut devices. The idea is its on board, but separate, and will still function if the main system fails.
So can't this kind of idea be made to work for a recovery? Something like a nice, small receiver bound to a separate model on your transmitter with a small lipo and one of those small but loud alarms plugged in (rigged to sound from your input from your transmitter). Bundle it all up and mount it in a way that makes it crash proof, and maybe even water resistant. When you crash in a place that's hard to search, you can simply use your transmitter to make the device sound so you can attempt to track it down. Think this would work?
And how nice would it be if one of the manufacturers made one of these devices all in one, and nice and small and light so that it could be mounted on even some of the smaller crafts out there? I'd be down for some of that!

 

[Gump]

Seems I should have searched before I posted.....
http://lostmodelalarm.com/Products.html
You'd still have to bundle it with its own receiver and power source in case the battery got ejected.... but it would do the job.
And I had even another idea to add to it. Add to it a small cluster of those very tiny but bright surface mount LED's to the equation. Mount many of them in the shape of a dome so that they emit bright light in many directions when triggered.