New Hubsan H501S firmware unexpectedly disarms

I'm using the .INI file described here and Devo 10 with Deviation v5.0.0-2017-05-08. Everything worked fine until I upgraded the quad to the latest firmware versions, 1.1.36 for the FC, 1.2.20 for the RX and 4.2.24 for the TX.

Even if I manage to arm it ( which may be tricky ), it automatically disarms whenever I hold the throttle down to -100 for even a very short time. (It looks like 1 second while in altitude hold mode and far less than that while in manual mode.)

This^^^ is extremely dangerous. There is no reason whatsoever to stop the motors without the corect disarm gesture. What I think is happening: IIRC, the original TX, exposes a poorly documented feature that can actually disarm the quad in flight. This involves something like pushing the right stick (sticks are also push buttons on the original TX) and holding the throttle all the way down for a while. That said, it looks as though Deviation was actually sending the safety part of this emergency procedure protocol, an equivalent of the FollowMe button, pretty much all the time; then holding the throttle at -100 for a while indeed stops the motors.

I often flip the quad and flipping a quad without acro mode requires zero throttle for an instant. Have there been any changes to the protocol? There were no such surprising motor stops with the older firmware. It would be great to ensure that minimum throttle won't disarm the quad in mid air.

Now i have a hubsan h501 and the irange irx-ir8m .
While reading the topics !
I stumbled on your short one, and asking myself.
How are things going today with you, and your hobby.
Can you still help us with info ?

Sincerely Frits

frits183 wrote: Now i have a hubsan h501 and the irange irx-ir8m .
While reading the topics !
I stumbled on your short one, and asking myself.
How are things going today with you, and your hobby.
Can you still help us with info ?

Sincerely Frits

Well, I still have the Hubsan somewhere, but don’t fly it any more. First, there were these proprietary protocol gitches — just as if Hubsan did it on purpose, to make each new version incompatible with whatever open-source implementations there may have been — and second, Betaflight has gone such a long way in the mean time that flying some of the old and (partially or fully) proprietary drones from 2–3 years back is like driving something ready for the scrapyard (Hubsan H501s, JJRC X1, HiSky HMX280 etc.).

I can still flash the Hubsan and perform some experiments if need be, but the question is: Is it worth it?

The Hubsan H501s was well ahead its time back in 2015–2016. It was the first small and compact drone with a sleek design and at least some camera support. It came years before the Mavic. It was way better and cheaper than the first Phantom from 2013 (which had no camera). It had a good endurance, a reasonable range and many interesting features. I mean, it has definitely earned its permanent place in technical museums’ Halls of Fame; that’s for sure.

But all that said, times have changed. To get something that does triple flips with precision and pulls 8g easily, you’ll need a Betaflight-based solution. For something that makes stabilized 4k videos, you’ll have to go the Mavic / Phantom / Inspire way. I picked the first option, because I’m not much of a video lover and for videos I do take, a RunCam Split is perfectly fine. Also, after the Hubsan experience, I decided to stop buying closed-source proprietary solutions when I don’t have to.

Shortly, as long as Hubsan doesn’t publish their control protocol, reverse-engineering is just a cat and mouse game with diminishing benefits.

Wel Andrej
You did a lot of effort writing to me
I startea year ago with the 501 because of the gps, this was the easiest way to have one wich got back to me. Here in the Netherlands i think it helps so it will nit be lost.
Later on while following the guy's on you tube " to learn something" they recently start talking about the GPS to avoid that the Drone get lost.
But I have invested in hubsan spare parts and now i am building 7" folding hubsan drone's.
So i can not easy switch .
Now i baugth the irx-ir8m to training on the pc and fly the Hubsan.
And see here there are difficult to connect .
Hubsan recently started over sinds the new model they are also working on there app. and YouTube.
Do you also support a YouTube channel ? " So i can learne something " from you.

Sincerely Frits.