EKF Flyaway, not recoverable

[Aussie in AZ]

G'day all,
I was trying to film the Tanque Verde Falls today when very shortly after 3D fix and launch, Solo lost connection with the controller and flew away. Due to the terrain, I was unable to follow and locate the vehicle.
I have sent a trouble ticket to 3DR in the hope they will help me out. It's only a month old.
Lost my Solo, Gimbal and Hero 4 Black with Polar Pro filter and Peau Productions Lens.
Here is the log I got from the controller if any one can give me an idea of what happened. I wonder why it didn't Smart Rewind or RTL with loss of communication with controller.

As I couldn't figure out how to upload the log, here is a link to the file on my Google Drive
solo.tlog

Cheers
Aussie

 

[SteveReno]

G'day all,
I was trying to film the Tanque Verde Falls today when very shortly after 3D fix and launch, Solo lost connection with the controller and flew away. Due to the terrain, I was unable to follow and locate the vehicle.
I have sent a trouble ticket to 3DR in the hope they will help me out. It's only a month old.
Lost my Solo, Gimbal and Hero 4 Black with Polar Pro filter and Peau Productions Lens.
Here is the log I got from the controller if any one can give me an idea of what happened. I wonder why it didn't Smart Rewind or RTL with loss of communication with controller.

As I couldn't figure out how to upload the log, here is a link to the file on my Google Drive
solo.tlog

Cheers
Aussie

Don't know if your looking for your Solo now? but here's' the last recorded position.
I also think it's right side up, it may not have crashed, but just landed?
Someone here hill read you logs better then !.
Hope this helps.

 

[Aussie in AZ]

Thanks mate. I was able to get that pic also but not until I got all the way home to my PC. It's an hour back. Maybe tomorrow in the morning when its cooler again.

I am wondering why it didn't rewind or RTL when the controller lost communication?

Aussie

 

[Aussie in AZ]

I'm also wondering what the "Vibe" in red means. I'm guessing that a combination of Vibe and EKF error put it into Alt Hold mode after I lost communication and it drifted to it's resting place. Obviously, with no controller communication, I couldn't bring it home manually.

Thoughts anyone?

Aussie

 

[cameraguy]

Don't know if your looking for your Solo now? but here's' the last recorded position.
I also think it's right side up, it may not have crashed, but just landed?
Someone here hill read you logs better then !.
Hope this helps.
View attachment 3995

Steve, that's outstanding detective work. It's great you could locate it to an exact spot, and that you have an opinion that it is right side up and didn't crash but landed... Very impressed!!

 

[SteveReno]

I'm also wondering what the "Vibe" in red means. I'm guessing that a combination of Vibe and EKF error put it into Alt Hold mode after I lost communication and it drifted to it's resting place. Obviously, with no controller communication, I couldn't bring it home manually.

Thoughts anyone?

Aussie

There are more qualified people here tell will chime in i'm sure that they can tell everything you need to know.
Tracked several errors. Even before you took off, Solo had AHRS errors "Attitude and Heading Reference System" Usually, after a crash this error would pop up, but it was happening Just before & just after you took off?
& i must revise my first observation of that it may not have crashed?
Last info was 128ft. altitude a speed of 26 Mph Then nothing?

I don't have the time to find a typographical map of the area you were flying in, but was there a higher point between you & this area last known?
spot?
Or any obstructions? I see a Air Force base not too far away?

 

[SteveReno]

Update.... Error with compass..
I think it's hardware failure ether case on 3 DR's part.
Your are all good with there warranty

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Tack another onto the growing list....

 

[Jubalr]

Hey Aussie, It will be interesting to see what 3DR comes up with. 1st of all, you never had better the 1.4 HDOP or more than 7 satellites from take off. So marginal at best in the sense that you did not have any margin left. At 33:52 you lost position accuracy due to EKF errors and the Solo went into manual mode, as it should. You still had good signal to the controller and flying in manual for the next 8-10 seconds. Did you realize you were in manual? I ask because it did not appear there was any stick input from the controller. When it lost contact with the controller, it was on a heading of 135 and still in manual mode. It looks like it may have been drifting with the wind. With no controller signal and EKF/Position errors, it should have landed and at last contact it was travelling at 135deg. Looks like some trails in that area, you may get lucky and find it tomorrow.

 

[Aussie in AZ]

Jubalr
Thanks for your input. I can assure you that I was trying to control it as it disappeared from view. I had line of site for quite some time. I did not not know that it was in manual mode as I took off in GPS Fly mode and had no voice alert to the contrary, but I had the stick at full lift as I was trying to get it higher. I can see the WiFi signal shows it had about 96% but the controller showed "waiting for solo" on the display hence, no reaction from the craft.
I can see it put it's self into manual mode from the log, trust me, that wasn't me. I do practice in manual but this was not a practice run.
It never put it's self into Land mode so I doubt it came down safely
BTW, there wasn't any wind so any drift would have been momentum.
Strange that when playing the log file, it jumps at warp speed in the last second from not far from me to where GPS last tracked it.

Aussie

 

[Jubalr]

Jubalr
Thanks for your input. I can assure you that I was trying to control it as it disappeared from view. I had line of site for quite some time. I did not not know that it was in manual mode as I took off in GPS Fly mode and had no voice alert to the contrary, but I had the stick at full lift as I was trying to get it higher. I can see the WiFi signal shows it had about 96% but the controller showed "waiting for solo" on the display hence, no reaction from the craft.
I can see it put it's self into manual mode from the log, trust me, that wasn't me. I do practice in manual but this was not a practice run.
It never put it's self into Land mode so I doubt it came down safely
BTW, there wasn't any wind so any drift would have been momentum.
Strange that when playing the log file, it jumps at warp speed in the last second from not far from me to where GPS last tracked it.

Aussie

OK, No problem. I thought that may have been the case. It looked like it went to manual on it's own. 'Waiting For solo' would seem to indicate that it lost pairing during flight. Should have a good shot at full replacement for everything.

 

[Rex Barlow]

Find it yet?

 

[Scientific11]

OK, No problem. I thought that may have been the case. It looked like it went to manual on it's own. 'Waiting For solo' would seem to indicate that it lost pairing during flight. Should have a good shot at full replacement for everything.

Jubalr, i have a question. so say i'm lose signal from controller and solo. the controller says controller signal lost in red. and app says return to home. now the question is after the app says return to home, the controller screen says waiting for solo, does that mean its lost pairing between solo and controller, on solo is indeed returning home and while i'm "waiting for solo" thats just means the controller is waiting to have a signal again to solo. and not that it lost PAIRING?

 

[fpvsteve]

Jubalr
Thanks for your input. I can assure you that I was trying to control it as it disappeared from view. I had line of site for quite some time. I did not not know that it was in manual mode as I took off in GPS Fly mode and had no voice alert to the contrary, but I had the stick at full lift as I was trying to get it higher. I can see the WiFi signal shows it had about 96% but the controller showed "waiting for solo" on the display hence, no reaction from the craft.
I can see it put it's self into manual mode from the log, trust me, that wasn't me. I do practice in manual but this was not a practice run.
It never put it's self into Land mode so I doubt it came down safely
BTW, there wasn't any wind so any drift would have been momentum.
Strange that when playing the log file, it jumps at warp speed in the last second from not far from me to where GPS last tracked it.

Aussie

The classic EKF-2 error. Hope you can find your Solo.
If you get it back, could you please retrieve the dataflash log from Solo and post it here. The dataflash contains more data than the tlog and would help to track down the root cause.

 

[Jubalr]

Jubalr, i have a question. so say i'm lose signal from controller and solo. the controller says controller signal lost in red. and app says return to home. now the question is after the app says return to home, the controller screen says waiting for solo, does that mean its lost pairing between solo and controller, on solo is indeed returning home and while i'm "waiting for solo" thats just means the controller is waiting to have a signal again to solo. and not that it lost PAIRING?

That really depends on what happened during flight. I only said that because the Solo was still very close to the controller. If the WiFi was lost due to an issue with one of the WiFi cards, it's possible to lose pairing. He could also range test the controller using a WiFi app to check the controller even without the Solo.

 

[Jubalr]

The classic EKF-2 error. Hope you can find your Solo.
If you get it back, could you please retrieve the dataflash log from Solo and post it here. The dataflash contains more data than the tlog and would help to track down the root cause.

Hi Steve, With an EKF2 error like that, I would assume that Solo treats it the same as losing GPS and that is why it went into manual?

 

[pyrate]

EKF-2 errors seem to have this nasty habit of making them just fly very quickly off in one direction, like a GPS glitch
Good thing is the latest firmware should correct all of that since they went back to EKF-1

 

[Aussie in AZ]

pyrate,
I have the latest iOS firmware and the solo and gimbal also had the latest S.W.

 

[fpvsteve]

Hi Steve, With an EKF2 error like that, I would assume that Solo treats it the same as losing GPS and that is why it went into manual?

I don't know. Looking at the Tlog, Aussie experienced the same behavior as I did a couple of weeks back. The flightcontroller ran into an EKF error, Solo went into Manual and speeded away full throttle in one direction, not responding to the controls anymore.
GPS was good all the time.
As far as I could see in my incident, eventually Solo regains back control after a few seconds of uncontrolled behavior. In this case however it likely crashed somewhere before control could be regained.

Notably, Aussie has a "bad AHRS" message before arming, the "Attitude and Heading Reference System"
Usually this can happen if you move the copter during startup, but should not be an issue since the message went away before he armed Solo.

 

[Jubalr]

Notably, Aussie has a "bad AHRS" message before arming, the "Attitude and Heading Reference System"
Usually this can happen if you move the copter during startup, but should not be an issue since the message went away before he armed Solo.

Yes, I noticed that too. But like you, I assumed that since it went away before arming it was corrected during initializing/calibration. I hope he finds it and can retrieve the DF logs.