Loss of TX signal to Solo flying around large mansion!

[Onezoso]

Thought I'd give a field report to everyone on the results on my 1st "Tower" Circle mode flight around a very large mansion (two stories, 8,000 sq feet) owned by a good friend of mine.

I drew out the way points, expanded my Circle radius (In Tower) and engaged Solo on auto mode to perform the 360 fly-around at 55 foot altitude. We were in the rear of the home. As soon as Solo got to the far side (after flying approx 1/4 of the circle) once Solo was out of visual site going around the house, it quickly lost signal!!

I will post the video (that Solo shot) of this as soon as I get it edited and uploaded to YouTube, so you all can study it. It clearly shows everything that happened and where.

Thankfully RTH kicked in after approx 6 seconds of getting the "lost signal warning" and Solo flew a straight line over the home and started to descent over it's home position to land.

I thought I read on one of the boards about "Tower" of guys losing TX signal but Solo continuing on with the uploaded mission? So when I got the "lost signal" alert initially I was expecting Solo to keep flying the circle and executing the uploaded mission. This was NOT the case and again Solo went immediately into RTH mode safely.

I'm wondering now what is the work-around to be able to successfully "Orbit" large houses/structures without losing TX signal once Solo is on the blind side of said structure? Anyone?

I need to add that at one point when I was in manual mode and attempting to land, when Solo was approx 3 feet from landing it got VERY twitchy as if it perhaps lost "GPS position hold" and it almost crashed! The ONLY reason it did not crash was because I knew how to fly manually as I have been flying self-built quads/hexa's for over 3 years now.

I truly believe had a "newbie" flyer (someone who buys for 1st time from BestBuy etc) gotten in that scary situation, it would have crashed and at the very least broken some props for sure.

Just a heads up to always be on your guard with these things, (especially around other people/property) as they ALL still come with that unpredictability factor!....Such as life, right?!

Cheers everyone!

 

[nacjr]

How many total waypoints did you program?
How many completed successfully before RTH?

Thanks

 

[Rajaholic]

Thanks for defining newbie for us.

 

[Onezoso]

How many total waypoints did you program?
How many completed successfully before RTH?

Thanks

Good question. I had three programmed in.

1. WP-1 was out from the house approx 25 yards at 55 ft altitude (hold for 10 sec before next WP)
2. WP-2 (set to circle) alt setting 55 ft, circle radius set at 85ft I believe.
3. WP-3 set to fly back out near WP-1 alt 55 ft.

It should be noted I did NOT add a "Land" WP as my area of land was VERY small and tight and I could not get a close enough "Google earth map resolution) to accurately place a "Land" WP on the map screen when dotting them out with my finger.

As you probably know, when you plot out a Way Point (WP) pattern and do NOT add a "land" WP as the final WP, "Tower" app (when you tap "Upload Way points") a dialog screen will pop up and ask you if you want to add RTH properties to the mission. It gives you Yes or No options. I chose yes, it verified upload successful.

Then I armed Solo, then the TX said "way points received" I then tapped take-off, slid the (on screen) "take off" confirmation slider left to right and Solo lifted off, settled to it's default altitude of approx 35 feet and waited for me to tap the onscreen "Auto" button which as you know executes mission start.

Cheers

 

[Onezoso]

Thanks for defining newbie for us.

Anytime!

Look, "Newbie" as it pertains to Solo is emphasized here because I come from the background of custom self-built, hi performance, professional level drones. So any Joe or Jane six-pack is NOT going to simply walk into a BestBuy and buy one of these types of drones, until now with Solo.

It is only very recently that the average consumer has been able to simply walk into a large chain store and buy something like this. So there is a BIG difference in THAT type of newbie and someone who has taken a deep enough interest to actually build them by hand, fly on a simulator for many hours, understand flight dynamics and goes out and hones their chops by flying!

Here I am taking the time to share flight experience and what do you have to offer everyone here?....."Thanks for defining newbie for us."

Don't even get me started with that. Why not offer something we can ALL benefit from instead of a useless"nit-pick" Good lord, dude!

 

[Rajaholic]

I'm just pickin'; no need to get ruffled by it. Me being that guy who walked into a Best Buy cold for my first copter I felt I deserved the honor. I do appreciate all of the experiences shared by the more experienced folks. Cheers.

 

[Onezoso]

I'm just pickin'; no need to get ruffled by it. Me being that guy who walked into a Best Buy cold for my first copter I felt I deserved the honor. I do appreciate all of the experiences shared by the more experienced folks. Cheers.

Cool man! Happy flying.
Cheers

 

[rrmccabe]

Need to shut of your fence when doing missions like this. Good idea to raise rth height if you are clear above too. I prefer mine heading for home at about 200'.

I assume you cleared everything

 

[Onezoso]

Need to shut of your fence when doing missions like this. Good idea to raise rth height if you are clear above too. I prefer mine heading for home at about 200'.

I assume you cleared everything

Ah, the fence, I will try that! And yes thankfully I had plenty of altitude when it headed home! I'll get the video uploaded here ASAP.

 

[Jubalr]

Ah, the fence, I will try that! And yes thankfully I had plenty of altitude when it headed home! I'll get the video uploaded here ASAP.

To continue the mission on loss of signal, you need to change a parameter. Your choices are RTL, Land, or continue mission. Here is the procedure:

From http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/configuration/arducopter-parameters/

Ground Station Failsafe Enable (ArduCopter:FS_GCS_ENABLE)
Controls whether failsafe will be invoked (and what action to take) when connection with Ground station is lost for at least 5 seconds. NB. The GCS Failsafe is only active when RC_OVERRIDE is being used to control the vehicle.

• 
  VALUE MEANING
  0 Disabled
  1 Enabled always RTL
  2 Enabled Continue with Mission in Auto Mode

 

[Onezoso]

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As promised here's the video of Solo losing tx com and going into RTH mode at video time marker 3:28

I was halfway through the "money shot" Tower programmed Circle mode when it disengaged and went RTH.

Of course this is shot with no Gimbal. But can you imagine with a Gimbal the shot's we will all be getting?! This is my friend/business partners beautiful Burbank, CA mansion.

We will will shoot it again once Gimbnal arrives. This was simply a test as we could NOT wait!

Solo piloting, video editing & music by your's truly.

Cheers!
Lo