1 Topic by b00mb00mchuck (edited by b00mb00mchuck 06-02-2012 19:42:54)

  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Topic: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

So bummed today... just passed 1200 minutes flight time yesterday... with no crashes since the first and third day... been taking great care of this bad boy and it has flown great the whole time... got some glow in the dark paint the other day and painted the tips of my blades and it came out awesome... flew indoors yesterday to test with the painted blades to see if it affected flight at all... flew beautiful ... you wouldn't even know the difference... no detrimental effects whatsoever... didn't hardly use any paint ... and i've been flying with white painted tips for weeks so i didn't expect anything unusual...  wanted to test the bottom camera today in a dark room to see how much light it would need to track and hover low to the ground... plugged in the battery... all red lights on motors for two seconds and then nothing... everything went dead... unplugged the battery... plugged back in... all red lights on the motors for two seconds and then dead... no matter what i do i get this the same result... i can't believe this garbage!!! Flew fine yesterday for 10 minutes on the stock battery with a beautiful soft landing on carpet... today i can't even initialize the motors or boot up... reset button don't help... different battery don't help... checked connections are all good to the solder points on the main board... just dead on boot up... nuthin...

Dammit... and i know parrots answer will be to send it in and go without a drone for a month... crap... CRAP!! And it will get blamed on me somehow because i had modded this thing with led lights previously... but i took them all off weeks ago because i didn't like the way it flew with the weight... but the evidence is there... the holes for the wires etc...

wish i knew if it was the main board or the nav boards that were giving me the problem... or maybe i should just order both to be sure... anybody have any advice or had this problem???

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here
  • From: Kansas
  • Registered: 01-18-2012
  • Posts: 33

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Battery draw on lights short something out?

Hope it helps.

imike's Website

  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

I haven't had lights on this thing for weeks now

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here
  • From: UK
  • Registered: 04-20-2012
  • Posts: 283

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

has it tried to do a firmware update without you knowing and failed? purhaps try the firmware manager available from itunes? sad

www.droneshop.co.uk
Official Parrot AR. Drone Reseller for all genuine spares and upgrades.

www.ardroneownersclub.co.uk

droneshop's Website

  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Negative on the firmware... my last flight i plugged in and took off... flew 10min... got the low batt warning and landed and unplugged... there was no free time for it to go into an update without me noticing ... next time i plugged in i had this problem... so it died on the shelf overnight... i got a new main board coming now anyway so we'll see how that goes i guess

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here
  • From: USA
  • Registered: 05-18-2012
  • Posts: 314

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

b00mb00mchuck wrote:

i got a new main board coming now anyway so we'll see how that goes i guess

Pray tell--you called Parrot and they agreed to send a new main board instead of requiring you to return the entire bird? Under warranty?

AR.Drone 2.0 FW 2.2.3
iPad 1stGen WiFi-only iOS 5.1.1
  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Hiflyer wrote:
b00mb00mchuck wrote:

i got a new main board coming now anyway so we'll see how that goes i guess

Pray tell--you called Parrot and they agreed to send a new main board instead of requiring you to return the entire bird? Under warranty?

Naw man... i've done so much tinkering with this thing... i know how that would go... i even had my power leads for my hover light soldered to the main power leads on the board so i could just plug in the battery and go... that was a while back and everything has been removed but all the evidence of tampering is there... so i would have to pay for shipping and wait... then get the bad news that it's not covered... then wait... and wait... i'm not interested in going without the drone for three weeks so i ordered a board... i got money so that's not the problem... i'm just bummed i didn't plan for this and have some stuff on hand in case of this type of failure ... i got motors and shafts and gears and central cross all sitting here but i never ordered boards.

Just sucks because i know it died sitting on the shelf that night... but i could never prove that with all the hacking and screwing around i did a few weeks ago messing with LED lights... live and learn i guess

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here

8 Reply by Geezer (edited by Geezer 06-04-2012 18:46:08)

  • Registered: 12-15-2011
  • Posts: 123

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

If it won't even initialize, I would suspect something in the power management circuit. When you look at the main board up close can you spot any discoloration or warpage that might indicate where something has blown? Also, have you checked the current flow from the power plug to the contact point on the main board? You might just use an Ohmeter to check that no short or breakage has happened somewhere between the battery and the board.

By the way, I miss your little doggie doing his thing!

  • Registered: 04-25-2012
  • Posts: 6

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Hiflyer wrote:
b00mb00mchuck wrote:

i got a new main board coming now anyway so we'll see how that goes i guess

Pray tell--you called Parrot and they agreed to send a new main board instead of requiring you to return the entire bird? Under warranty?


I had the exact thing happen to my Drone 2.0.  I called Parrot and it took the rep 30 seconds to diagnose as a bad main board.  Parrot paid for my shipping to send it back to them, and I just got it back on Saturday.  Haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

10 Reply by Hiflyer (edited by Hiflyer 06-04-2012 21:30:53)

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 05-18-2012
  • Posts: 314

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Hiflyer wrote:
b00mb00mchuck wrote:

i got a new main board coming now anyway so we'll see how that goes i guess

Pray tell--you called Parrot and they agreed to send a new main board instead of requiring you to return the entire bird? Under warranty?

b00mb00mchuck wrote:

Naw man... i've done so much tinkering with this thing... live and learn i guess

I feel your pain. I usually (make every effort to...) resist tinkering with a new high-tech gadget until after the warranty period is over (not even sure what this is with the Drone 2.0).

My neck is stuck-out though by using Drone Control 2.0 3rd-party app with it--no doubt Parrot can tell if the bird has been flown using another app.

I suppose the way we oughta think about this thing is that it is (truly) dirt cheap for what you get, and just buy a 2nd so you can never be without a working unit.

cool

AR.Drone 2.0 FW 2.2.3
iPad 1stGen WiFi-only iOS 5.1.1
  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Hiflyer wrote:

I suppose the way we oughta think about this thing is that it is (truly) dirt cheap for what you get, and just buy a 2nd so you can never be without a working unit.

cool

I think that's what i'm about to do... as almost all the important repair parts are showing "out of stock" everywhere... can't beat the price that's for sure hmm

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here

12 Reply by thedoode (edited by thedoode 06-05-2012 19:49:22)

  • Registered: 06-03-2012
  • Posts: 34

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

My drone won't initialize either... No mods.
Oh btw, what are your LED mods?

"Simplification is the greatest friend and foe of the engineer." -Me
Looking for drones and drone flyers in NJ area!
  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

I had hover lights mounted to the belly for night flights and flashing scrolling blue led strips on the sides... all of it added up to some serious weight and i didn't like how the drone was flying so i stripped it down a few weeks ago... i wasn't flying much at night anyways

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here
  • Registered: 07-29-2012
  • Posts: 5

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Hiflyer wrote:

I suppose the way we oughta think about this thing is that it is (truly) dirt cheap for what you get, and just buy a 2nd so you can never be without a working unit.

I'm parting mine out! I bought it about 3 weeks ago and had a handful of nice flights. On my last flight, however, it was about 6 feet off the ground when it wigged out and oriented itself vertically, then dropped straight down. The cross broke, the HD cam video cable severed right near the connection to the main board, and the motor controller connector was pulled of the main board. I don't have time to monkey with it right now, so I'm selling the parts to try to recoup some of the cost. The motors, props, and gears are all good. The indoor and outdoor hulls are good. The main board is probably repairable if you have the time anid skills. If anyone is interested, PM me! I'd love to be spared the hassle of eBay!

-Steve

  • From: Singapore
  • Registered: 06-28-2012
  • Posts: 36

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Chuck - Sooo sad to hear that you are props down!  I've become so attached to The Claymore that I know what my response would be to a situation like yours - head to Brookstone, and if they were out of stock, get on Amazon.com and order another one - it is, very honestly, an addiction to fly the damn thing.  Hey, look at it this way - you flew for 1200 minutes - that works out to $15 and hour (not counting all the hours you enjoyed modding the beast) - was it worth it?  I would guess the answer is a resounding YES!

Oh, and your experience is valuable to me from another perspective - not to say that your light modding had anything to do with the ultimate demise of your maching, but it probably is a good idea to stay away from heavy internal modifications and stick to stuff that is non-intrusive and easily removed if it doesn't work out as planned.  I was considering some gut-mods, but will probably stay away from it.

Hope you get some props in the air soon,
Ken

HARDWARE:  Drone 2.1,  Inertial: 2.3,    Motors: 5.0
FIRMWARE:   2.1.18,       Inertial: 5.32,  Motors: 1.41
SOFTWARE:   FreeFlight:  2.0.21,  DroneAce*: 2.75,  Drone Control: 2.0.4
CONTROLS:   iPod Touch 4G*,  iPhone 4S,  iPad 1   (* = Preferred)
  • Registered: 04-21-2012
  • Posts: 1,665

Re: damn... dead drone after 1200 minutes in the air

Hey warlock

If you look at the date of that post it was 6/2/12... I think about three days later I came home and my wife had a brand new one sitting here with the batteries all charged up... big_smile ... and same advice as you give... "don't mess with the guts"

1.4mile (2.25kilometer) World Record AR.Drone 2.0 long range flight
December 16th 2012.................YouTube Link here