Finally it happened, lost my Solo today | edit : Found & Alive again

[SPP]

Awesome Pete...McGyver indeed !! Two thumbs up.

 

[Ian [P13]]

I was going to buy another second hand Solo to have a spare one for my upcoming trip to the remote outback but that deal didn't go through and when trying to order directly from 3DR then my order is getting cancelled, I tried already 4x and it got cancelled every time, maybe you can help me with that. It's just that I find it very funny while dealing with your sales department and trying to give you money for new Solo, they cancel it every time and promptly refund my credit card next day, but then at the same time different department of yours sends me random email offering me new Solo free of charge.

View attachment 2966

The cart will have its own logic to block countries where for whatever reason 3DR doesn't normally ship, often this can be because there are local approved dealers. If you're having trouble drop Vu an e-mail as he'll be able to explain why and will likely be able to work out a solution.

 

[nvpowerdoc]

You need these guys next time! Recovery at 1:56.

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I always get a kick out of this. Great you were able to recover your Solo!

 

[Jubalr]

You need these guys next time! Recovery at 1:56.

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I always get a kick out of this. Great you were able to recover your Solo!

Awesome Video!! Thanks for posting.

 

[SteveReno]

Glad you got her back Pete.

 

[cameraguy]

Those guys need a financial reward from all of us. How about we find them and send $5 each. The more pilots we can find, the better for those heroes!

 

[SPP]

Wow wow wow....awesome rescue !!
Good thing no side wind....

 

[pete]

Do you know a reason why Solo malfunctioned ?

motor no.4 malfunction

https://p4.zdusercontent.com/attach...FpvD0JeIdTy80TG6J3J5lg.C48E4q5GmmEiE6DWyaGS4w

 

[Nerius]

motor no.4 malfunction

https://p4.zdusercontent.com/attach...FpvD0JeIdTy80TG6J3J5lg.C48E4q5GmmEiE6DWyaGS4w

Thank you for info.

 

[pete]

final update.

while letting it dry for 48 hours (just in case as I couldn't find any water anyway), I changed the colour scheme to cover some of the scratches and to hopefully improve visibility at distance when in front of dark background (usually I can't see Solo in front of trees), I left enough black elements to still keep it easily visible against bright sky.

I also took the opportunity to do the MikroTik R11e-2HND Wi-fi card upgrade and GPS isolation plate mod.

I replaced all 4 motor pods (the other 3 are actually still working, I keep them as spares).

the "damage" :
- 1x motor pod
- 3x props
- 1x battery (dislodged after impact and then lying in wet ground for 4 days)

Remarkably everything else is as good as new, or so it seems, no damage to GoPro (this was one of my big concerns because I have shortly before the flight installed 3.80mm lens in Peau GP4 with profile removed),
no damage to Gimbal (this is incredible, it must have been quite a hit as the battery got dislodged and gimbal was resting against a branch of a tree that it must have hit on impact).

Solo is flying just fine.

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if anyone is thinking of DJI mod, here is an idea :


but I prefer it like this :



heading back to the "crime" scene tomorrow...

 

[pete]

If you are able to let it dry completely, you should be able to pull the logs and see if there was any additional info after the controller logs ended.

there wasn't much data in addition to what we already knew from the Tlogs, Solo descended only by additional 3m before the dataflash logs end. before battery got dislodged, Solo lost and regained the signal 3 times (unless that's some error reporting). this explains why Solo was in the exact location as shown on the Tlogs from the controller.




Solo is really Smart.
malfunctioning motor, ok it can happen, but it didn't flip in the air and didn't fall down. it couldn't hold the altitude so it did the next best thing - tried to descend slowly with available control and without deviating, it was descending straight down in vertical line and kept on sending its position to the controller all the time, until the signal was lost. so even if it was descending behind 200m cliff, it would still try its best to descend in straight line so that we have best chance finding it, even if the signal was lost for a minute and we had only 1 minute old GPS position.

 

[SPP]

Pete,
Isn't a a SERVO is this unit :
Servo — Copter documentation

and Solo using digital speed controller, unlike old days when I play RC cars where speed control is variable resistor and a servo must be used to adjust speed ...mechanically linked to the variable resistor board.
.
To the in house experts........question please.
Other than reading total current amperage value, is there a way to read individual motor amperage draw ?
I am confused when reading ArduCopter information on the web as I know Solo is not 100% the same. So some parameters I read online is not available from Solo.

Example MOTOR
Diagnosing possible ESC failure with motor logs.

The post shown after MODE, there is MOT ( motor paremeter ).
In Mission Planner I am seeing after MODE is MSG ( message ) and can't any parameter called MOT

Thanks

 

[pete]

Pete,
Isn't a a SERVO is this unit :
Servo — Copter documentation

The post shown after MODE, there is MOT ( motor paremeter ).
In Mission Planner I am seeing after MODE is MSG ( message ) and can't any parameter called MOT

there are no parameters "MOT" in Solo logs.

I believe "servo" in Solo logs refers to "servomotor'

definition of "servomotor" from Wikipedia :
"A servomotor is a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or linear position, velocity and acceleration. It consists of a suitable motor coupled to a sensor for position feedback. It also requires a relatively sophisticated controller, often a dedicated module designed specifically for use with servomotors."

when investigating logs after the incident I found some documentation on diydrones website explaining that to check performance of motors, one needs to check parameters "servo1, 2, 3 & 4" under "Servo_output_raw"

There I also found among other things that "A differential in power between motors 1 and 2 should correlate pretty much directly with your rollspeed. A difference between motors 3 and 4 should match your pitchspeed. If it doesn't, then your motors aren't doing their job."

in other words differential between SERVO_OUTPUT_RAW.servo1_raw and SERVO_OUTPUT_RAW.servo2_raw should correspond to
ATTITUDE.rollspeed

and

SERVO_OUTPUT_RAW.servo3_raw and SERVO_OUTPUT_RAW.servo4_raw should correspond to
ATTITUDE.pitchspeed

while APM 2 cannot draw a graph with differential of the 2 values I have posted both graphs in one of my previous posts (post no.31) :
Finally it happened, lost my Solo today | edit : Found & Alive again


incidentally reply I received from 3DR support few days later confirmed motor no.4 malfunction and they attached this graph from Mission Planner :


this is corresponding graph to the one I posted few days earlier in that post #31, as you can see they were also looking at servo1, 2, 3 & 4 to determine the cause of the accident.

EDIT: I ran a test with motor no.4 actually, it's still running but I have no idea whether it's running at correct RPM, it's quite possible that there is nothing wrong with the motor and it may be just a case of malfunctioning sensor sending wrong data to the control unit

 

[Nerius]

It makes sense, if problem is with motor bearings: failing bearing turns with higher resistance and produces more heat. With more heat resistance increases even more and in one moment motor will be unable to keep required rpms, so Solo will descend rapidly. But after some cool down period motor can work again for some time. I had similar situation with my Solo: motor failed, Solo descended rapidly, but after I found it I was able to fly normally. 3DR support told it's motor problem and recommend not to fly till motor pod gets replaced. After motor pod replacement everything was back to normal, so it indeed was 99.99% motor pod problem. Tested same (failed) motor pod ESC with different motor: working OK, so it's definitely motor (bearing) problem. Another parameter to take look into is current consumption: if current consumption increases by a huge amount this also can confirm motor bearing problem: failing bearing increases resistance and to keep required rpms motor will draw more current. On my Solo, curent consumption increased till maybe 35+ Amps at peek, when Solo was dropping.

 

[SPP]

I see Pete..Ok ok, thanks.
Must learn what those values means the 1800. It can't be 1.8 amps or 1,800mA, its too low even when multiplied by 4 motors.

I find it odd that the Tlogs contains CURRENT draw, but not in dataflashlog.
I been under the assumption that dataflash log has more data than Tlog. for devices on the Solo itself, like motor.
Learning...learning...

 

[RolandS888]

I see Pete..Ok ok, thanks.
Must learn what those values means the 1800. It can't be 1.8 amps or 1,800mA, its too low even when multiplied by 4 motors.

I find it odd that the Tlogs contains CURRENT draw, but not in dataflashlog.
I been under the assumption that dataflash log has more data than Tlog. for devices on the Solo itself, like motor.
Learning...learning...

SPP, its not current. 1800 refers to the millisecond signal that is being fed to the ESC of the motor pod.
ESCs use the same control signal as a servo, thus it is called servo output #4.
In this case pod 4 is not responding correctly and the PX4 is sending it a higher signal and looking for a correction response and not getting it.
The flat purple line is the signal maxed out.
Pod 4 failure is the correct diagnosis in this case.

 

[RichWest]

Sorry if this drives off-topic, but it seems relevant to the conversation. I find it interesting that this turns out to be a #4 motor issue. Why is it that motor #4 has a history of issues? Why not #3 motor pod, its equal in all respects?

Does #4 motor control circuit have an issue outside of the pod/ESC? If it were a pod issue, I'd expect a 50/50 comparable issue rate between the two pods.

And correct me if I'm wrong, haven't run a motor test in a while. But in MP's motor test Motor #1(A) is Solo #1 and MP-Motor #2(B) is Solo's #3. I'd assume the .tlog files assign motors as 1-2-3-4 rather than Solo's 1-3-2-4 sequence.

 

[Nerius]

Motor pod #3 failed on my Solo

 

[SPP]

SPP, its not current. 1800 refers to the millisecond signal that is being fed to the ESC of the motor pod.
ESCs use the same control signal as a servo, thus it is called servo output #4.
In this case pod 4 is not responding correctly and the PX4 is sending it a higher signal and looking for a correction response and not getting it.
The flat purple line is the signal maxed out.
Pod 4 failure is the correct diagnosis in this case.

Now I know how to quote....

I see, Ok... Roland, thanks a lot. New learning.

 

[cameraguy]

Great news on getting your bird back!