1st flight - Observations and issues

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Hello All,

After all of my years in RC, I feel like I finally graduated to something really great.

Before the flight I updated the firmware, and there was receiver update as well. I restored the defaults, performed an advanced calibration (per a video on YouTube), and turned on IOC. I also set the bottom atti to the return to home feature. My first issue was with an audible error code which after some google searching, meant the transmitter was not connected. The fix is to set the transmitter to DBUS in the RC screen. I was also alerted to calibrate the compass which I did. I also did a transmitter calibration.

I took it out to a local softball field and went to work. First, I did a calibration again which I think was successful (i'm still confused by the lights. But, I did get rapid green lights then a slow pulsating green. It went up and was pretty darn stable in some gusting wind. Great! I switched to course lock because I'm a quad nube and flew it around a bit - amazing. Then, I decided to try the return to home feature... (ominous scary music).

I flicked the RTH switch down and it looked like it was going to come back to me. But, it kept going past me over the fence towards a compressed gas factory across from the field! I remembered to flick the switch back up to atti mode to regain control (from what I remember) and I got it back momentarily to bring it down with a rough landing! The camera came off, and it had some grass burns, but all good - no damage!

Why no home lock? I'm in an open field with clear skies. What am I missing with the RTH feature?

On another note, the button to activate the camera from the housing wont turn it on as it doesn't make contact. Is there a fix for this?

Thanks
 
my home lock always works, but remember, it's going to go to the point where you started, not necessarily where you took off from. Also, within about 25' it goes to course lock (lets face it, the gps drift is probably 10-20' depending upon the number of satellites it's got a lock on).

I only use my home lock when I lose sight of the quad which is usually about 1000' or so away.
 
ace5000 said:
........(i'm still confused by the lights. But, I did get rapid green lights then a slow pulsating green.

Depends how many greens it was:

A FAQ on DJI's site said:
After power on and before the motors start-up, the LED blinks Green 6 times quickly - If the PHANTOM is stationary, IMU calibration is necessary.

Could be your compass was out of wack and not properly calibrated.
 
"Could be your compass was out of wack and not properly calibrated"

OK, then I will do another IMU calibration.

Anyone know anythong about the camera on off switch in the housing?
 
This is one of the important reasons they stress you should be very familiar with what the blinking lights mean. Yes, his compass might have been out of whack as you suggest. But it might also be that he didn't get a good recording of his "Home Point." And as a result, it might have been trying to go to a previously recorded one.
 
Also make sure the compass isn't wet from dew (tall grass/weeds). I had about the same experience when i had mine for 2 days. Finally had the guts to try RTH but it flew to the lake instead. Never could determine what caused it. Bad battery connection could have (that's why I switched to 2 batteries, for redundancy). But I also tried to make floats that afternoon and tried if the Phantom would float. The compass may have become moist I now realize. Always perform an advanced calibration after you change anything to the quad, but also when the compass has become wet for any reason.

I performed a reinstall of the latest firmware and did advanced calibration as well as the transmitter calibration through the USB port in the transmitter. After that, my Phantom faithfully returns to home from then on. It doesn't hurt to do the advanced calibration regularly.
Before I start flying around I always check if the home point has been recorded right. I do this by switching to homelock and fly out some 60 feet, sideways, and see if it returns to the startup position by moving the right stick towards me. If it does, I can be quite sure the home position is recorded.

I use the RTH switch almost every time now. It brings the quad back quite fast and efficient. As soon as it's hovering above me at 30 feet or so I take back control and catch it. Landing is not always an option in tall wet grass.
 
And one other thing:

if you open the transmitter for calibration with USB cable, please be very careful when removing the bottom shell. I janked off my antenna cable because the bottom shell came off with a lot of friction and the antenna cable was not tied down and caught by the bottom shell extensions inside. I just had to solder it back on since the connector on the Tx board was totally ruined. Lucky I managed to solder it quite OK because the range still is over 400 meters.

And I now suddenly recall that my IOC switch didn't function as it should, after the near fly away (I didn't do the Homelock check routine yet at that time). After the USB calibration of the transmitter everything worked flawlessly, even the soldered antenna wire :).......
 
Guys - thanks so much for the information. I now know how to check my home point by going to HP mode. I will also calibrate again.
 
ace5000 said:
Hello All,

I flicked the RTH switch down and it looked like it was going to come back to me. But, it kept going past me over the fence towards a compressed gas factory across from the field! I remembered to flick the switch back up to atti mode to regain control (from what I remember) and I got it back momentarily to bring it down with a rough landing! The camera came off, and it had some grass burns, but all good - no damage!


I'm curious, did you change the switch configuration in the Naza software? Because there is no "RTH" switch with default settings. If you're talking about switching to Home Lock, then pulling the right stick down, your Phantom is behaving correctly; it should overshoot you by around 20 meters, I believe, because the Home Lock mode is only active outside that range. Within 20 meters, it acts like it's in standard flight mode, so it would continue moving in "reverse" until it exceeds that distance.
 
baby steps. get to know your bird in gps mode very well before trying anything. there are so many things that can go wrong from battery failure to turning off the controller by accident. if you use this as a camera platform, learn how to get great shots, use flytex and dashware to display your beautiful videos. or you can post here about how when testing failsafe things went wrong. either way, good luck
 
zerodb said:
ace5000 said:
Hello All,

I flicked the RTH switch down and it looked like it was going to come back to me. But, it kept going past me over the fence towards a compressed gas factory across from the field! I remembered to flick the switch back up to atti mode to regain control (from what I remember) and I got it back momentarily to bring it down with a rough landing! The camera came off, and it had some grass burns, but all good - no damage!


I'm curious, did you change the switch configuration in the Naza software? Because there is no "RTH" switch with default settings. If you're talking about switching to Home Lock, then pulling the right stick down, your Phantom is behaving correctly; it should overshoot you by around 20 meters, I believe, because the Home Lock mode is only active outside that range. Within 20 meters, it acts like it's in standard flight mode, so it would continue moving in "reverse" until it exceeds that distance.

Actually, it changes to CourseLock mode within that range and holding the stick back makes the quad fly in the opposite direction of the recorded nose direction, whatever that was. I tried it (accidentally) and it is pretty scary if you are not aware of it, it instantly shoots in a certain direction as soon as it's over you head.
 
ace5000 said:
"Could be your compass was out of wack and not properly calibrated"

OK, then I will do another IMU calibration.

Anyone know anythong about the camera on off switch in the housing?

On one side of the camera housing you see a button right under one of the side mounting points. That should work because all it does is move a tiny lever just a tiny notch to press the button on the camera. But if it doesn't work maybe it is stuck or broken. Another way to switch the camera on or off is by inserting a toothpick or matchstick through the rubber bumper. It is right over the button so you can't miss it. I think even pressing on the bumper is enough to turn it on or off.
 
lake_flyer said:
Actually, it changes to CourseLock mode within that range and holding the stick back makes the quad fly in the opposite direction of the recorded nose direction, whatever that was. I tried it (accidentally) and it is pretty scary if you are not aware of it, it instantly shoots in a certain direction as soon as it's over you head.


That's right! I knew it did something potentially very unpredictable.

Either way, I've noticed that most new flyers have a fundamental misunderstanding of what RTH means and how it's activated, and most don't realize that the left switch does absolutely nothing in out-of-the-box configuration. The manual isn't great, but if you read it a few times it does make sense eventually.
 
The switch on the camera housing is useless. I usually turn the camera on before putting it in the housing then control the video and photo recording from my android phone.
 
This is why I don't use course lock

Home lock for the return to home should flash a rapid green

I suggest like the others on here fly in GPS mode till you have got the feel of it

Another tip(and this really helped me till I got used to flying mine) is set the limits in the computer software for the naza
The hight works in both GPS and atti mode the radius works in GPS mode

I use it when I let someone else pilot it so they don't go flying into the wild blue without a hope of return
 

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