Well, I think that the controls issue has finally manifested itself fully. What was a control problem, and a minor fly-away where my quad didn't respond to my lateral control inputs. It did allow me to land it but somewhat unsmoothly (a soft crash in the weeds). Subsequent starts gave me no confidence that I truly was in control of the quad and finally, it reported "No MAV Data" and will not arm the ESC's. Rats!
I've searched all I can on the web, tried everything that I can find so far and wrote to technical support at Banggood. Still waiting for a response.
Update - June 11th
I heard back from Banggood. But to keep it in context, I need to share what I wrote to them using the Amazon message system on my order:
I own Serial Number *12PXXXXXXXXX that I purchased on this order. I've had 87 successful flights before the quad stopped communicating properly. I'm getting "No MAV Data" now exclusively and am unable to arm the motors, just prior to this, the quad began to fly erratically though I was able to safely capture it by grabbing it in the air without crashing.. I have sucessfully run both the controller calibration and rebinding procedures successfully. (https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=37549964&postcount=3203) but the problem remains. Is there another procedure that I might follow? I was assuming that it should last longer than this.
I specifically included the actual Serial Number on an email message from Amazon so they would have proof of purchase.
This is what I heard in reply:
Regarding the issue,please help to check the following details for confirmation:
1.The SN code on your drone
2.Please try to turn off the drone and controller and restart again to see
if the problem still exist.
3.Please turn on your drone and controller, check the led light on the photography transmitssion block,
controller light,receiver light on the drone,drone light ,camera light, taking us photos to show the
light status,this will help our engineer to confirm the problem.
4.Do you have picture on the screen when it shows"NO MAV DATA"?
We looking forwards to hearing from you soon.`
Thank you for your cooperation.
Regards,
Chelsia from UPair customer service
Really? This is obviously a form letter that I believe weeds out many people. I included the serial number in my letter and a detailed explanation of what I had done. Have I tried turning it off and on again? Really? Can I take a picture of the screen when it shows "NO MAV DATA?". I bet they've received hundreds of these complaints so far.
Now I've done lot's of modifications in the three weeks that I've owned and flown this drown almost every day successfully for 87 flights without a mishap. I don't really expect Banggood or Amazon to refund me anything. I've learned a ton about quads and fully expect to find a new PX4 board on Ebay sometime soon to get this quad going again. I'm not worried.
In my opinion, the UPair is a great quad to learn on. I flies pretty well and may have lasted longer for others than I experienced. I did have a defective motor that would have caused a crash had it become disassembled in flight. I was able to repair that just fine and got another 65 flights in so I'm not too terribly disappointed. However, the quality of build is not exceptional and it's obvious if you take one of these apart. It's worth the $295 that I spent, I've learned that much and I expect to get this working again.
I'll keep working to get my UPair back on the air, meanwhile I'm eagerly waiting for my new DJI Phantom 3 Professional that will be here next week. I can't wait!
Update June 12th: Ok, I calmed down and photographed the quad naked and sent it to Banggood (Chelsia) along with the serial number of my craft (again). I also included a short video showing the status of the internal lights. I also let them know that I'm not looking for a replacement or a refund, just some help fixing my quad and hopefully I'll be able to purchase the parts they recommend. Heck, it's either the GPS board or the PX4 main board.
This was the video that I sent to Banggood to explain my problem.
Update - July 5th
Wow, it's been under 3 weeks and my repaired quad arrived back. It's the same fuselage and motors and the same antennas. I'm not sure about the controller or the camera but I'll let you know when I do. I fired it up and what do you know? It has MAV data now!
I'm almost positive that the problem was in the GPS board but I suppose it could have been in the camera controller. After working with the DJI Phantom 3 Professional over the past 3 weeks, the differences in construction are striking but hey, it works now!
Thank you Banggood, I couldn't have asked for better service!
Update - July 5th - Evening after 2 flights.
Ok, I took the quad out 1200+ feet and flew around, but on the way back, at about 50 feet, my upair fell out of the sky! I've troubleshooted down to an intermittent connection on the camera gimbal control board feeding the VTX. I've lost all FPV also though the gimbal still works and the gimbal pitch still functions. For now, I've pulled off the camera and gimbal assembly.
So after receiving the quad back from the G10 repair facility, here is what I found... The only change that I can observe is that the SD card has been superglued into it's holder. That's it. I suspect that it was a software change or SD card corruption that caused the "NO MAV DATA" error and replacing or replacing the SD card fixed it. You can see the change in these two images:
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| Before returning the quad |
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