Here we go again - my own personal flyaway. In the field where I've flown basically all of my FPV flawlessly for nigh on 3 years now. There is no issue with my quad setup whatsoever, all soldering is spot on, bullet connectors checked, VTX wasn't even switched on to interfere with GPS ... and still it decides to fly off into the field. All I had was "on" or "off" on my throttle, nothing proportional .. so I had to ditch it before it went back home to china. I have zero faith in this Naza Lite controller or GPS now, I spent ages checking everytghing over before this flight and ... well, all it's cost me is a £4 arm and a broken GoPro mount but who the hell wants this kind of crap happening over a crowd of people? Anyone who says there isn't an issue with Naza is kidding themselves and sitting on a timebomb. Willing to cost yourself > £1,000 for a software bug? I'm out.
Anyone selling a KK board heh.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/q84/s720x720/1011662_256617151163400_467539143_n.jpg)
Basically I took off in atti mode, got it up to about 15 feet then flicked to GPS .. took it a little higher and made it loiter for a little while in the high winds. Then I decided to see what it would be like while I yawed around in the wind, to see how well the FC would compensate by tilting the craft. So I hit the rudder veeeryyy slowly. And it started to move forwards faster and faster until I had no control at all. I tried flicking from GPS to atti then to manual but no difference at all (normally flicking to manual will cause the multi to drop lower due to the throttle curve) but it didn't, it just kept it more or less level in a slow descent. Then I realised I had basic on/off throttle control so I ditched it, tried to throttle up a bit to slow the descent at the end but it didn't work. SLAM.
Not amused!!
I have a theory on this. I have my gains set fairly high ... 140 on pitch and roll, 120 on yaw and 120 on atti ... my theory is this:
When you increase the gains too high, the IMU goes into all kinds of weird LED modes. In my garden when I did this a while ago, when starting up, it was flashing red, yellow green etc etc and when starting the quad with the sticks, it ended up sort of "pumping" the throttle by itself which was fairly unnerving.
I turned the gains down and it was fine again after that.
I'm thinking that if the gains are too high, and the conditions too extreme (i.e. high winds like today), the Naza kinda becomes unable to cope, and concentrates on simply righting itself in atti mode, ignoring any user input. Mine was certainly going away with the wind today as it would in atti mode with no stick input. The worrying part is that it didn't slip to manual mode when commanded, so I'm wondering if this is an error trapping issue that DJI just haven't considered?
I'm going to dial the gains right down tonight to defaults and see what it's like in the wind tomorrow.
I've fixed the quad now, it flies in the kitchen perfectly so it's not a hardware issue .. this is definitely something to do with the Naza itself. I'm interested in hearing everyone's gain settings (it may even be specific to prop configs too as smaller props can spool up/down quicker to compensate with the gain settings).
The jury is still out but at least it's only cost me £4 for a new leg. I didn't even break a prop.
The main casualty is my confidence in the quad :(
Vid
TBS Discovery Naza Lite Flyaway (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHFEd7_bF70#ws)
Hi
Not good, I'm currently fitting a Naza in a hex, I'm concerned.
Could I ask If you are using DJI ESCs?
Glad the damage wasn't too bad.
Cheers
Sorry to hear it steve - ive never owed a Naza (never will) but it sounded awfully high gained rite from the getgo?
Yeah looking at how twitchy it was in the wind the gains do seem very very high
QuoteNot good, I'm currently fitting a Naza in a hex, I'm concerned.
Been flying a Naza Hex for 1 year now, no crashes, no problem, perfect every time, no concern at all here :)
From what has been said about the modes not changing or it not responding its either a Naza fail, or also to be considered could be a receiver fail too
That sounds like a similar bug that the A2 had.. switching from Atti to GPS causing fly-aways.. wonder how much of the code is common across the DJI flight controllers.. hummm
Looks like is just been fixed on the A2 with a new firmware upgrade.. time will tell though...
Yea but I didn't switch before it started flying away.
I think it's gain related - it may be gain related in conjunction with large props (i.e. it's trying to compensate quickly, but can't spin the big 10" props up and down fast enough)
I nearly forgot, I went down the local park yesterday for a quick couple of batteries worth and on the park gate was a laminated notice with 'LOST', a picture of a Phantom and 'REWARD OFFERED', looks like someone lost their Christmas Present.
I was going to get his number on the way out, give the guy a text and ask him what happened but the notice was gone when we left, just the string remained, probably kids ripped it down.