Warning re GoPro aerial photography

[nick123]

Just thought I might relate a sad little tale. Was flying my Trex 600ePro EFL (skookum SK720 + GPS) with a GoPro attached to the front skid, using 2.4Ghz. GoPro was in Wifi mode, so monitoring the camera on my iPhone on the ground. All went well for about 2 minutes when I suddenly had a power loss. Full control of servos, so did a very poor auto, landed on skids, did some damage but it could have been worse (blades, torque tube, 1 skid, boom, R frame). After a few emails, I have heard from Clint at Castle who suggested that 2.4Ghz wifi broadcasting from the camera in close proximity to the esc was probably OK, but it would likely cause the receiver (dual satellites) to go into failsafe mode. I think that is probably exactly what happened, so to any GoProers out there, dont activate your wifi on the camera if you are on 2.4Ghz !
link to the evidence
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqp9mr0o83...huffyField.m4v

[panosg]

I think there was a video no long ago in here, with someone flying with a gopro and wifi enabled and the same thing happened to him!

[MarkG_R1]

And to add insult to injury you hear the esc re-arm after it hits the deck

[Snaaakeey]

I know that my laptop drops wifi connection when I turn on my tx. Didn't know it would have the opposite effect at the Rx end! Live and learn!

[debrooker]

sorry to hear, this also happended at one of my clubs

[kieranar]

Good point you hear the ESC rearm ? If it was just a rxer loosing signal due to interference from the go pro wifi , surely the ESC would not rearm if the signal returned ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[PorscheBoy]

Great message. Thanks very much. I am about to get a go-pro black and was going to use the wireless function, but not now. Thanks again for saving me a potential crash.

[helimadness]

Bummer

I have been using my laptop for a FPV screen while playing around. Might put it in flight mode next time to be sure.

Would have thought the protocol would have been more robust that that. Scary when there is so much 2.4g around.

[Nick B]

I used my wifi app during a photo shoot of a big house on monday,i had no probs but when i go back to finish i won't be using it...thanks for the heads up,Nick

[Rob Barnes]

This has happened on several occasion taking to various people. you cant fly with the GoPro WiFi switched on basically ! Glen Bishop crashed his Logo Xxtreme last year doing exactly the same thing.

[jimmyhorns]

If you had full control of the servos, it doesnt make sense that it was the 2.4 interference. You will either lose all signal and go to failsafe, or have a functioning signal, you wont just lose a channel.

[RcRotaryMadness]

I was working on my heli yesterday while on my phone to someone (on speaker) - putting the phone close to RX/Vbar seems to upset it with initialising. Removed phone.. worked fine. The phone also has WiFi, its like beam me up scotty!

I suppose in short you just have keep other transmitters away from these things.

[RcRotaryMadness]

...nice video btw - not often you see an inflight failure like that from the Helis perspective.. had to happen up high too lol.

[scallybert]

If you had full control of the servos, it doesnt make sense that it was the 2.4 interference. You will either lose all signal and go to failsafe, or have a functioning signal, you wont just lose a channel.

It might make sense.

If you lose contact long enough to failsafe, the ESC will shutdown the motor. If you then get contact back, you'll have control - but the ESC will need to soft-start & spin up the motor. So you'll have several seconds that feel like the motor is shut down, while having control of the rest.

So I think the scenario is possible.

[kieranar]

Would the esc do a full initalisation ?


Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 4