Airborne

[Tom Franzson]

So, after much procrastinating, and double guessing myself, I hooked my Phantom up to my computer and just followed a video on you- tube. I actually downloaded two programs, I assume the other program is for very advanced flyers. Anyway, the net net is, the Phantom went very high, very, very fast, and soon flew out of sight. I had activated return home, released the throttle and back it came, three time's altogether! I am really impressed!
Thank you all, that help make this possible!

 

[darwin-t]

Did you set the limits - both for range and altitude? The defaults are ridiculously high.

 

[stony30]

Defaulted at like 2000meters !!!! Crazy :lol:

 

[KimBrown]

Hmmmmm I have a thought about the crazy high limits.
From what I understand the altitude is read from the GPS data, so say yo set the limit to 200m.
Ok so the first time you fly your near sea level, so you can go up 200m roughly....
The next day you fly from the top of a 150m hill, now the Phantom will only go up 50m.
It depends on where you are.... But with that said the 2000m default limit is crazy.... I'm going to guess that with the standard radio it might reach 500m and then loose the radio signal. I always fly LOS, so 300m in any direction is enough for me. I do like seeing the high flier videos thou, even if it's not for me...

 

[lostkiwi]

I'm pretty sure that not correct Kim. The limit is from last good home lock. So assuming you always fly after homelock (rapid green flashing lights) then the limit is the distance from that point. Irrespective 2000m is a stupid setting. Like you I fly using VFR (legal requirement in the UK) so have set mine to 300m as thats about far as I want it to go out.

 

[KimBrown]

Ok Kiwi, I doubt know, but that might make sense....
I normaly fly in areas that are about 10-300ft above sea level, and if it goes to high then I can't see it anyway, so even 300m would be pushing it for me.
My flying time is very limited, so I don't really want to set it at a low limit, to check, and loose a good flying day....

 

[Lonewolf]

I actually downloaded two programs, I assume the other program is for very advanced flyers.

There's actually 5 downloads you need. Of course you no doubt downloaded and installed the driver otherwise, the NASAM and RC Sys programs wouldn't work. So that took care of the 3 of the 5. Did you also download and install/upload the "Phantom Configuration Parameters" to your system? Without it this may be why it acts strangely. The 5th one I mentioned was the all important, MANUAL!

 

[Tom Franzson]

Lonewolf, thank you, I will download the parameters software today!

 

[lake_flyer]

I'm pretty sure that not correct Kim. The limit is from last good home lock. So assuming you always fly after homelock (rapid green flashing lights) then the limit is the distance from that point. Irrespective 2000m is a stupid setting. Like you I fly using VFR (legal requirement in the UK) so have set mine to 300m as thats about far as I want it to go out.

Not as stupid as you might think. If you start flying from the homepoint and walk, drive, bike, sail,or fly (sailplane, Para glider) whatever, behind (or in front) of your quad, maybe 2000 meters is barely enough to stay in GPS or Atti mode and get the shots you want. The quad will stay in the box while you sail or drive on eventually you loose control and it will invoke RTH and returns to the homepoint.

The Phantom cannot leave the box (if all is functioning well), unless in full manual. That's why it defaults to 2000m. I believe for this purpose you can even set it to higher values, but never tried that. There's always a limit when flying in GPS or Atti, you can only change the distance and height but you can't disable them unless in Manual mode.

You can always record a new homepoint (in the air) and have a new box from there.

 

[J.James]

If flying in atti it will go past the set radius limits from the home point. But if past the boundary and you flip it back in to gps it will move back with in the limit zone.

 

[lake_flyer]

If flying in atti it will go past the set radius limits from the home point. But if past the boundary and you flip it back in to gps it will move back with in the limit zone.

You're right. And it makes sense too!
Thanks for correcting me.

 

[lake_flyer]

Thinking about this, I would like the option to turn limits on also for Atti. It would enable us to fly Atti in windy conditions but still trust that it stays within a controlled space. However, flipping back to GPS every now and then does the trick. Going to play with that.
It's windy enough right now. Was waiting for calmer weather but now at least the gusty wind serves a purpose.