5 ms·
This is relatively old "news" and the problem has since been resolved. It had to do with the coating used on one of the coils interfering with the software--as
by sk8ingdom 11y ago
This is relatively old "news" and the problem has since been resolved. It had to do with the coating used on one of the coils interfering with the software--as the article mentions, there is no redundancy for this system. The part was supplied by a subcontractor. General Atomics [1] is VERY vertically integrated (even making servos) and uses few COTS parts. Engines (and components), unfortunately, are pretty difficult to make--many of the engines were initially purchased second hand.
Once the problem was diagnosed, fielding the solution is / was another challenge. Some of these aircraft are in pretty remote areas.
These aircraft gained popularity and rapid adoption because they're substantially less expensive and VASTLY quicker to manufacture than any other option. Almost all customers prioritized cost and acquisition speed over long term reliability, which of course comes with a certain amount of risk. Testing and certifying an airframe to standards is expensive and time consuming [2] but has the advantage of improving reliability.
Also, this is just hogwash journalism.
> Last year, the Army reported four major drone crashes, each involving the Gray Eagle — a model identical to the Predator.
Warrior / Gray Eagle / MQ-1C [3] is a 40% payload increase over Predator / MQ-1 [4] and the airframe was almost completely redesigned. Hell, the engine is even different. It's a different aircraft.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_Aeronautical_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_Aeronautical_S...
[2] http://www.ga-asi.com/certifiable-predator-b http://www.ga-asi.com/certifiable-predator-b
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1C_Gray_Eagle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1C_Gray_Eag...
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator
- irishcoffee 11y agoI can speak professionally about the Grey Eagle program if anyone is interested. But yes, you are very correct about the redesign. Shoddy journalism.
- option_greek 11y agoYes please. Looking forward for some blog post or a long comment :)
- fsloth 11y agoYes please. Detailed technical comments are the salt of HN (IMO).
- ambicapter 11y ago> It had to do with the coating used on one of the coils interfering with the software Any more details on this?
- pistle 11y agoRelatively old and unhelpful news which begs the question... Why was the article produced and disseminated? Why now? Why with the noted quality issues? Fishy
- wnoise 11y agoWait, how does a coating interfere with software?
- mey 11y agoSome guesses Strong EMF next to an un-shielded chip? (Bit flips, no ECC and no lockstep systems to validate against) Improper coating causing a thermal problem, either causing a sensor to fail, lie or some electronic component to break it's solder. Some wild ass guesses on my part
- sk8ingdom 11y ago> Improper coating causing a thermal problem, either causing a sensor to fail, lie or some electronic component to break it's solder. This is the leading theory. Most of the observed failures seem heat related and are likely due to an increased resistance of the brush to shunt connection. This can be caused by quality issues of the brush rivet during initial manufacturing (coil coating) and/or improper torque of the brush shunt screw during assembly (installation error). The variation in resistance at individual brush sets can lead to uneven current density, causing high heat at the brush to commutator interface which results in excessive wear and damage to the commutator surface and/or brush and ultimately leads to a starter generator failure. In addition, the software wasn't reporting failure of the component. I should add a disclaimer that root cause failure investigation is extremely complicated and difficult. It's possible that not all failures were / are the same and there are many other possible contributing causes.
- digikata 11y agoI'm not sure I'd consider any of those a software failure....
- mchahn 11y agoThey should have an exception handler for cpus melting.