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  3. Voxl starling crashed all motors stop working mid air

Voxl starling crashed all motors stop working mid air

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  • Manu VermaM Offline
    Manu VermaM Offline
    Manu Verma
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    My Starlink drone crashed while it was in mid-air, all 4 motors ceased working suddenly. After the crash, I saw qgc was not connected. Has anyone faced this problem? If so can anyone point out the reason and how to solve it? I am assuming it is because the communication failed or the Voxl restarted its services mid-air which led to the crash. If anyone has faced this problem can you please tell me how to sort this out?

    Eric KatzfeyE Alex KushleyevA 2 Replies Last reply
    0
    • Manu VermaM Manu Verma

      My Starlink drone crashed while it was in mid-air, all 4 motors ceased working suddenly. After the crash, I saw qgc was not connected. Has anyone faced this problem? If so can anyone point out the reason and how to solve it? I am assuming it is because the communication failed or the Voxl restarted its services mid-air which led to the crash. If anyone has faced this problem can you please tell me how to sort this out?

      Eric KatzfeyE Offline
      Eric KatzfeyE Offline
      Eric Katzfey
      ModalAI Team
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      @Manu-Verma This needs to be debugged. Obviously, that should never happen. The best way to debug this is to provide log information that can be analyzed for clues. If you see this happen and you can extract the log from dmesg, journalctl -b -u voxl-px4, and the px4 log from /data/px4/log directory that will really help to understand what went wrong.

      Manu VermaM 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

        @Manu-Verma This needs to be debugged. Obviously, that should never happen. The best way to debug this is to provide log information that can be analyzed for clues. If you see this happen and you can extract the log from dmesg, journalctl -b -u voxl-px4, and the px4 log from /data/px4/log directory that will really help to understand what went wrong.

        Manu VermaM Offline
        Manu VermaM Offline
        Manu Verma
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        @Eric-Katzfey Following is the system_data logs and PX4 logs recorded during last flight.

        Link Preview Image
        Flight Review

        favicon

        (review.px4.io)

        Eric KatzfeyE 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • Manu VermaM Manu Verma

          @Eric-Katzfey Following is the system_data logs and PX4 logs recorded during last flight.

          Link Preview Image
          Flight Review

          favicon

          (review.px4.io)

          Eric KatzfeyE Offline
          Eric KatzfeyE Offline
          Eric Katzfey
          ModalAI Team
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          @Manu-Verma That log does show that the throttle was pulled all the way down towards the end of the log. Are you sure this is the log from the crash? Did the 4 motors all stop completely or were they still spinning at a lower speed? Were they spinning at all after the vehicle crashed?

          Manu VermaM 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • Manu VermaM Manu Verma

            My Starlink drone crashed while it was in mid-air, all 4 motors ceased working suddenly. After the crash, I saw qgc was not connected. Has anyone faced this problem? If so can anyone point out the reason and how to solve it? I am assuming it is because the communication failed or the Voxl restarted its services mid-air which led to the crash. If anyone has faced this problem can you please tell me how to sort this out?

            Alex KushleyevA Offline
            Alex KushleyevA Offline
            Alex Kushleyev
            ModalAI Team
            wrote on last edited by Alex Kushleyev
            #5

            @Manu-Verma,

            some useful plots:

            515ca992-e2e4-4a50-93da-04fd95b40d8d-image.png

            Zooming into the Manual Control Inputs,
            manual_control_input.png

            It looks like the vehicle switched from altitude hold mode to position mode, but then the operator dropped throttle to minimum. Does that sound like something that might have happened?

            The commanded and actual ESC commands went to minimum (it looks like around 3000rpm), the vehicle was not able to control attitude and flipped over, then motors were commanded to turn off.

            Manu VermaM 2 Replies Last reply
            0
            • Alex KushleyevA Alex Kushleyev

              @Manu-Verma,

              some useful plots:

              515ca992-e2e4-4a50-93da-04fd95b40d8d-image.png

              Zooming into the Manual Control Inputs,
              manual_control_input.png

              It looks like the vehicle switched from altitude hold mode to position mode, but then the operator dropped throttle to minimum. Does that sound like something that might have happened?

              The commanded and actual ESC commands went to minimum (it looks like around 3000rpm), the vehicle was not able to control attitude and flipped over, then motors were commanded to turn off.

              Manu VermaM Offline
              Manu VermaM Offline
              Manu Verma
              wrote on last edited by Manu Verma
              #6

              @Alex-Kushleyev How can I send you the system data logs from Voxl not the px4 logs, since I can't attach any file here, can you tell by checking the system data logs? And how can I share that file here? Also, I gave the throttle to zero after it crashed.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

                @Manu-Verma That log does show that the throttle was pulled all the way down towards the end of the log. Are you sure this is the log from the crash? Did the 4 motors all stop completely or were they still spinning at a lower speed? Were they spinning at all after the vehicle crashed?

                Manu VermaM Offline
                Manu VermaM Offline
                Manu Verma
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @Eric-Katzfey All 4 motors ceased at the same time it was not spinning at a lower speed after the crash.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • Alex KushleyevA Alex Kushleyev

                  @Manu-Verma,

                  some useful plots:

                  515ca992-e2e4-4a50-93da-04fd95b40d8d-image.png

                  Zooming into the Manual Control Inputs,
                  manual_control_input.png

                  It looks like the vehicle switched from altitude hold mode to position mode, but then the operator dropped throttle to minimum. Does that sound like something that might have happened?

                  The commanded and actual ESC commands went to minimum (it looks like around 3000rpm), the vehicle was not able to control attitude and flipped over, then motors were commanded to turn off.

                  Manu VermaM Offline
                  Manu VermaM Offline
                  Manu Verma
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  @Alex-Kushleyev Just figured out why the motors were ceasing mid-air, it was the power module wire that was loose, so whenever I took off, the board was rebooting, (coz of the loose connection to the power module.)

                  Alex KushleyevA 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Manu VermaM Manu Verma

                    @Alex-Kushleyev Just figured out why the motors were ceasing mid-air, it was the power module wire that was loose, so whenever I took off, the board was rebooting, (coz of the loose connection to the power module.)

                    Alex KushleyevA Offline
                    Alex KushleyevA Offline
                    Alex Kushleyev
                    ModalAI Team
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    @Manu-Verma , that is great that you figured it out!

                    Can you please help us understand where exactly the loose connection was? Could you please take a picture and mark the location of the issue? That would be really appreciated!

                    Alex

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