RE:RE:Procyon CommentaryBart, I'm surprised you want to do this publicly. You really should be dealing with NOVAerial Robotics Inc. directly. I wasn't with the company for months by the time your helicopter crashed and am in no way responsible, legally or otherwise. However, I did hear the details of the crash, I do not think you really want me to go into those details.
I will respond to your accusations, however.
I'm at a bit of a disadvantage as I no longer have access to all of my files. I did manage to find the "proof of life" video of your first helicopter, you will find it attached. This was recorded March 2nd, 2017, and uploaded today.
Yes, there were problems. And I also have those emails. You were informed of the problems, but insisted on me shipping the system anyway as you wanted to present it at a show on March 11th.
Several months after you took possession of the unit, you had a servo burn out. Cause is unknown. I want to say it "just happened" but fact is it doesn't actually, something caused it to burn out. Futaba BLS275SV is the highest quality and most expensive unit available on the market. Same part as used on the Pulse/Aerovironment Vapor helicopters that sell for 4 times the price. Same part used on other military grade systems. Despite the Procyon not carrying a warranty, I shipped you a new servo at my expense, no questions asked. Despite my protest, you insisted on installing it yourself instead of shipping the system back, to save expense. And I spent hours walking you through that.
It is not normal in the industry for a UAV to feature a warranty. There are only rare exceptions to this. Usually when the system selling price is 100X the hardware costs. This is because the prevalence of user-caused crashes.
As for this 2nd system, I only know a little about what you received. You are right, the change to the fixed pitch tail rotor was a recent change to the design. This was because the commonality of pilots hitting the tail rotor on things during takeoff/landing. (not surprisingly, the same issue with full-size helicopters). The new system is much more robust, and field-repairable. I wrote the code to enable this new system, and test flew it a handful of times on a small test helicopter. However I did not design the system that ended up on your Procyon, and did not test it at all. That all occurred after I left. However I can say that I believe the motor was a Tmotor U5 400KV fitted with a 12" propeller. Again, this is one of the highest quality motors available on the market. And it was dramaticly under-loaded with just a 12" propeller when it's rated for a 16" propeller. I highly doubt it would just burn out by itself in flight.
https://youtu.be/slEtFrXeVFY