Video of possible EKF fly away

[pyrate]

seems pretty simple to me, if you were moving it around when the manual says don't move it around, and by the way that makes a lot of sense,
If the machine is trying to orient itself and the users is moving it around you have to put at least some of the possibility of failure on the user.
My guess is 3dr will stand behind it. But its kind of like the silly argument going on about wanting all the new features of gopro firmware but bitching about the trade off that you now have to manually power on the camera

don't upgrade or do
it is a simple choice

 

[RichWest]

To bring this thread to a close and for a link to the answer for those that read this later.

It does appear to have been a FW issue...but still don't move the bird around during startup...

important firmware update

 

[erikgraham]

View attachment 4068 Sorry guys. Not a flyaway.
I looked at the logs.
Root cause was that Solo was constantly moved around over several minutes during prearms, causing bad AHRS and position variance errors, then level cal'ed, further moved around then put finally really close to a building wall before acquisition of GPS fix and takeoff - likely adding multipath interferences to the equation.

So not a surprise that the EKF finally threw an exception and put Solo into AltHold. Solo went incommunicado for a few seconds- long enough to crash.
No hardware failure, not even software, simply user error.

Flyaways have happened with Solo, but this one wasn't one I am afraid.

If it quacks like a duck, and it looks like a duck, then it's a duck.

This was a fly away. Whatever the cause, whoever is to blame, this was a flyaway (the dead giveaway was the part when it flew away and crashed through a window at 45 mph).

It doesn't matter whether he moved it, kicked it, or dropped it down the stairs.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

CRITICAL UPDATE

The brains at 3DR along with several volunteers found a bug in the firmware that was causing these incidents. That bug has been removed from a firmware update released yesterday evening. Firmware version 2.4.1-6 is now out and every solo should be updated prior to your next flight.

important firmware update

The issue was unrelated to moving the solo around prior to takeoff. You still need to leave it still while it is powering up and initializing, which is stated in the manual as well. But once it is powered up and initialized, you can safely move it around,.

 

[Jubalr]

Actually, Phillips Rowse exact quote was "I want to stress that neither crash was in any way caused by moving it while disarmed. However, that can have some negative side effects" . That's always been my practice as well. Best practice is to not move it after turning it on. Is it possible to move it after initializing and be OK? Sure. But the risk to "Negative Side Effects" is still there. So why risk it and simply power down if you did not start up where you want to take off from. Just my opinion, and you are certainly welcome to move it all you want, just don't fly over me..

 

[yt lee]

To bring this thread to a close and for a link to the answer for those that read this later.

It does appear to have been a FW issue...but still don't move the bird around during startup...

important firmware update

It was user error,,,incorrect startup.

 

[PdxSteve]

Incorrect startup....It shouldn't fly if there is an incorrect startup. A user pressing the FLY button shouldn't matter, if solo says it's ready to fly it should be. If it was user error I don't think they'd spend so much time trying to fix it, and then issue an official patch.

 

[SARDG]

It was user error,,,incorrect startup.

IF you read two other threads on this forum you will find that 3DR said it was NOT the user error many had speculated - AND Phillip Rowse even quoted this specific event, which 3DR is painfully aware of.

 

[Jubalr]

Incorrect startup....It shouldn't fly if there is an incorrect startup. A user pressing the FLY button shouldn't matter, if solo says it's ready to fly it should be. If it was user error I don't think they'd spend so much time trying to fix it, and then issue an official patch.

Ahh Yes.. One of my favorite words..'Should'.

 

[erikgraham]

Ahh Yes.. One of my favorite words..'Should'.

Are you saying that this wasn't a fly away because the user "should" have known that a level calibration wasn't enough and he "should" have ignored the green safe to fly signal?

Edit: rereading this, it sounds a little more confrontational than I intended. Meant it as friendly jibe.

 

[Jubalr]

Not at all, my response was to Steve explaining how the system SHOULD work, which I agree with. As we have seen in the last 2-3 months, that has not been the case. We all want Solo to work like it SHOULD have since launch. But then, there wouldn't be all the updates that have had to add and fix features, like any software.

 

[erikgraham]

Not at all, my response was to Steve explaining how the system SHOULD work, which I agree with. As we have seen in the last 2-3 months, that has not been the case. We all want Solo to work like it SHOULD have since launch. But then, there wouldn't be all the updates that have had to add and fix features, like any software.

Damn. I should have known that's what you meant.

 

[Jubalr]

Damn. I should have known that's what you meant.

Haha.. I thought so. I mean after all; If the pre-arm checks were so good and thorough we SHOULDN't have these compass and EKF errors After the checks and Ok To Fly..

 

[PdxSteve]

Do or do not, there is no such thing as try. Or should.

 

[fpvsteve]

Is quite simple: You MUST not move your drone during the pre-arms and GPS acquisition. And you must not arm your drone right beside of a structure. Otherwise you may risk a situation like in the OP video.
And this CAN happen with any GPS drone. As well as with the new FW I am afraid.

 

[erikgraham]

Is quite simple: You MUST not move your drone during the pre-arms and GPS acquisition. And you must not arm your drone right beside of a structure. Otherwise you may risk a situation like in the OP video.
And this CAN happen with any GPS drone. As well as with the new FW I am afraid.

Your right. It is simple. But not one person here is arguing that it's perfectly safe to move a Solo around during pre-arm, or that taking off next to a building is a good idea.

 

[nuggetz]

I had something similar to this but I was experiencing multiple problems at the time and I lost track of the few cases I had opened. Factory reset straightened me out. I bought a portable computer capable of running mission planner (Surface Book) and take a peek at EKF prior to flying as MP tells you way more than the Solo app and controller do. I like to make sure nothing funny is going on while I'm still on the ground.



Sent from my SM-T237P using Tapatalk

 

[tinker bot]

Since I started using Solex, which was only a couple of flights after flying the Solo for the first time, I always seem to get an EKF Variance Warning. I wondered what is was, but kept right on flying because I never saw it with the solo app (still dont) and my Solo seems to be flying correctly. I have two solo's and they both display this message after arming and preparing for launch. How can I put a stop to this? Do I need to use Mission Planner as the last post suggest to better understand and correct this?

 

[fpvsteve]

Since I started using Solex, which was only a couple of flights after flying the Solo for the first time, I always seem to get an EKF Variance Warning. I wondered what is was, but kept right on flying because I never saw it with the solo app (still dont) and my Solo seems to be flying correctly. I have two solo's and they both display this message after arming and preparing for launch. How can I put a stop to this? Do I need to use Mission Planner as the last post suggest to better understand and correct this?

You don't see this with the original 3DR app since it's not transmitting all the error messages from the flight controller. Solex fortunately does.
I strongly suggest to do a level and compass calibration before next flight and check that this warning then disappears. An EKF variance error can result in a crash.

 

[tinker bot]

I will do that. Should I be doing it at the start of each flight event (only once before using several batteries)?