Quad crash - Onboard video

[Humphreys dad]

Here you go... This is what happened when the RTH feature took a little too long to RTH. I cut the margin too fine and paid a hefty price for the lesson! The quad was very high and it just took too long to descend. Everything was broken at the end except for the ESCs and GoPro, thankfully! I had to replace the Naza, GPS, frame, motors, receiver, lipo, camera gimbal, servos. Thankfully, Tim was able to repair the VTX for me! 

Look closely during the last few seconds... You can see Tim contemplating trying to catch it!!!

http://youtu.be/RcXP9k9YTe8?hd=1

[Gaza07]

Ouch that wasnt good sounded quite bad, is it a common prob with the naza if the battery gets low does it just give up as there seems to be a few videos with power loss 

[Humphreys dad]

I'm not sure Gaza. I do know that I had left the ESC settings on 'lipo' which may not have been wise. I guess one of them just cut out once the voltage fell below a certain value. In any case though, the battery was done for - I just took too much out of it but there was little I could do. I should have hit the RTH much sooner. Naturally, it landed upsidedown!

[BYOD]

That was the best worst crash I have seen for a while HD, the issue is not just on a Naza, I lost a quad with an Ardupilot Mega on same type of flip and fall.... The battery must have dipped a lot at the end, I have run out a battery on a Naza and it kinda fell like leaf, not as much roll and yaw going on. What ESC's were fitted? Were they set to cut off at a voltage? I have seen a few quads binned by an ESC shutting down to save the battery and has caused the whole setup to crash, I now disable this function on builds that I do in the ESC's, I would rather toast a battery and save the frame and parts....

Regards

Martin.

[Humphreys dad]

I think one of the ESCs cut out at low voltage. I had forgotten to disable the feature - DOH!

[usnooz]

Wow. everything gone a part from the gopro. They are tough little buggers.

hope you're up and running again soon.

[sakiskoz]

I am so sorry to bad crash.
I understand you how you feel.
Next time you must have better goalkeeper. : :huh

[Gav]

Owwww CRUNCH.   Swap low voltage shut down with a parachute.  I saw a quad at the 1st DroneZone meet which had a parachute system.  The chap flying it said he lands using the chute on every landing !  ;D

[sausageroll]

I did quite a bit of real sciency research into parachutes after my first catastrophic crash. I did a lot of experimentation with explosive parachute deployment (may as well use my pyro licence for something)

I was gonna use it for a real serious emergency, and only rely on it once or twice etc. It was a pain to pack and the parachute got a bit burnt as it opened so fast.

Its a good idea I think.

[sausageroll]

Mr Dad, what actually happened here, did the battery just literally run all the way out, or did it cut out for some other reason? Maybe put the warnings and failsafe on the naza at a higher voltage? Also have you thought about telemetery, hobbyking do some very cheap telemetery systems that will feed voltage to a little screen you clip onto your TX. might be worth it.

Failing that, maybe two batteries of half the capacity each, so if one dies the other one takes over? This is the reason I have multiple batteries on mine, and I also wire them all into a central paralel loop (like the M25) individually, so if for whatever reason, unlikely as it seems, a solder joint breaks or something, theres still two more batteries to feed power to the system.

Pete.

[Gav]

thats cool if you have space and big enough multirotor to take the weight of additional lipos.

or have a container that 'POPS' open with a spring hinge.  Using a servo horn acting as a latch, so when it turns it releases container.  Parachute boings out.  What could possibly go wrong 

[sausageroll]

I also thought about putting one of those really compact pop out umbrellas on the top, it wouldn't slow it down as much as a parachute but it would make it fall on its legs which is the best way for it. Its called the Poppins Recovery System (PRS)

[Gaza07]

Is that the same as the MPRS (Mary Poppins Recovery System)  ::)

I also thought about putting one of those really compact pop out umbrellas on the top, it wouldn't slow it down as much as a parachute but it would make it fall on its legs which is the best way for it. Its called the Poppins Recovery System (PRS)

[sausageroll]

The MPRS and the PRS recovery systems differ slightly, the MPRS has a small duck carved of wood on the bottom of the main recovery shaft that talks to you. The PRS does not have this.

[sausageroll]

Infact in my crash a few weeks ago, where it flipped over in the sky, the naza realised and got it back level again before it hit. It bent the ****** out of the legs but nothing else was damaged. Bent the legs back into shape and im now still flying with the same legs that were bent in the crash. No harm done.

[Gaza07]

oh now you mention it  have heard about the duck being an advanced recovery system but it can send you quackers trying to set it up