Today I had something very strange happen. After two normal flights with some setup adjustments, I switched batts for the 3rd flight. Spirit initialized (pitch pump), light on, but there was no response to stick movements and no ESC intialization. I cycled power again and did the same to the transmitter thinking that the Jeti Rx did not initialize properly. Exactly same result (Spirit initialized, no servo response to sticks, no ESC). The Spirit GT was no longer visible in my Jeti Tx either. I left the filed and when I connected to a computer back home I saw that the unit was in factory reset status, completely blank.
It is on fw 3.4.3. After loading a backup file it was all OK.

Is there any sequence of events that can lead to a factory reset just by turning the unit on/off by connecting disconnecting the battery or by a low input voltage? If this is a random reset it is very scary. Anything similar happened to anyone else?
Apostolos

Hello,
you may have accidentally performed a factory reset during your adjustment work, I couldn't explain it any other way - I haven't experienced the FBL resetting itself yet - the integration is good, but it can lead to the possibility of making relevant mistakes - Maybe it would be safer to have a mode for the settings on the field where the system settings cannot be changed, I also mentioned this before here in the forum...

Regards

I have to correct myself, you can't do a factory reset in the integrations menu, I checked again, that was a wrong statement - 24.12.22 16.00 Uhr

Between landing and getting fresh batteries in, no changes were made to the unit. I didn't even go into the spirit menu. It seems to be random.
Btw you can't do factory reset from the integration menu on jeti.

I have no Jeti transmitter so therefore I can't say nothing about that -

Hello,

in a normal circumstances this should not happen.
But from technical point of view this can only occur when settings are being saved but exactly during this process power is plugged off
or drops under 1.8V.
At any moment during flight this can`t happen because unit is not saving any settings and also unit is not changing any settings without user input also at the bench.
But there are conditions when some pilots have pre-programmed switches for changing Home position for GeoLink for example.
Or just execute programming of new Home/Geo-fence position and during this programming the power was plugged off.

Even when this scenario will happen there is quite small chance the settings could be corrupted. However it could be reason.

When only disconnecting and connecting battery unit is only loading settings. So the actual problem developed likely during the very last battery when model was flying/operating normally.

Another possibility is if there was connected a bluetooth module or Wifi-Link then it is possible to access it and make the factory reset.

The least probable possibility is that the flash memory inside the unit is failing, however from our experience this never happened to any yet.

I guess it was not caused by a static discharge, it would rather affect whole memory and unit would be not operating normally.

In any case, if it will happen again, it can`t cause a troubles in flight,

My question is - Have you started the JETI integration during the last flight?
If yes, have you closed it by "> Close menu" ?
If no, the unit is still in a programming mode which is getting closer to the problem.

If the problem will happen more times with no prior adjustments then it is definitively issue of the unit.

_________________
Spirit System developer

Thanks for this information. There are no F functions programmed so no setup changes during flight.
No wifi or BT module connected.
I had started Jeti integration before the previous flight and I cannot confirm for certain that I closed by "close menu".

The precise sequence of events is as follows:
- Power heli
- use integration (don't remember if I closed by 'close menu', but certainly did a 'save settings')
- normal flight
- power down ESC
- buffer pack still connected
- Spirit did a reboot (despite having no power interuption)
- Spirit completely blank

From your input, it seems that the most likely scenarion is that the unit was still in programming mode and there was some kind of power disruption when turning off ESC with buffer pack connected and it erased itself completely. Still, a full erase of the unit is very unexpected.
I will take extra care to 'close memu' when using integration.

Apostolos

Thank you for description.
Now it is much more clear.

When using buffer pack then more of uncertain conditions might happen.
Some of the ESCs are not comfortable with them, some might even burn or behave unexpectedly.

In any case I am confident that exactly at the moment when Spirit unit rebooted itself the problem developed.

What I think that happened was:
1. You disconnected battery from ESC
2. Unit was operating from buffer pack
3. Voltage dropped under limit when receiver stopped operating.
4. Spirit unit triggered failsafe and possibly Bank changed from what was set
5. Because some settings were unsaved and integration menu was possibly unclosed it performed settings save during bank change.
6. At this moment voltage dropped way too much also for Spirit so settings save was interrupted in the middle.

To resolve the problem I recommend to always close the menu or to wire the bufferpack differently.

_________________
Spirit System developer

As far as buffer pack goes, the exact reason for it, is to support the system in case of esc failure. Manufacturers recommend the use. They have to be in parallel so a different connection is not possible. No voltage drop below 5.4 but of course telemetry would not catch a short spike or dip.
To me it is obvious that being in setup mode is the key factor and the menu must be closed in all cses before any action on the heli.

Edit:
Could you please explain why this cannot happen in flight e.g. during a voltage drop when high demand from servos?

I understand that a reading can be corrupted if there is an interruption when saving it, but how can the unit be completely blank? Could it be something else?

Actually, there are many ESCs (around 90%) that are not designed for running with bufferpacks at all.
For bufferpacks there should be special electronic modules that will switch them ON only when main source will fail.
Otherwise they could cause various problems to the electronics (mainly ESC) from overloading to burns.
But if you are using at least a diode or something similar, it should be OK.

The most recent modern (rather expensive) ESCs are however usually fine when running bufferpack directly wired to BEC in parallel.

During flight there is no situation when unit will rewrite settings, except if some pilot will do this intentionally in the integration menu for example - which is bad idea in any case. For this reason in normal circumstances it can`t happen during flight.

I tried to describe how it could happen technically, because I know all Spirit units perfectly as I developed them all.
Anyway such issue never happened within timeframe Spirit units exists at any case.
So what I described is really very rare possibility. But the only explanation I can see.

_________________
Spirit System developer

If a buffer pack in parallel can in some way affect the spirit even on a rare occasion, I will look to get one of the new super cap buffer packs with electronics that 'turn them on' when needed and seem to regulate the supplied power.
For now the unit runs normally and I could not reproduce the error on the bench.
Apostolos