Altitude changes while hovering

[Horton]

G'day, anyone had their drone keep moving up and down in altitude after they release the stick? I had to intervene to stop the movement. The problem is inconsistent. Calibration done prior to take off, IMU calibration completed prior to this flight as well.
Oh great news, finally receiving my battery after a month and a half of waiting! DJI never ceases to amaze...

 

[sdharris]

What firmware are you on?

 

[LShap421]

G'day, anyone had their drone keep moving up and down in altitude after they release the stick? I had to intervene to stop the movement. The problem is inconsistent. Calibration done prior to take off, IMU calibration completed prior to this flight as well.
Oh great news, finally receiving my battery after a month and a half of waiting! DJI never ceases to amaze...

Guaranteed that it started happening after you upgraded to 1.2.6. Many of us are having this problem. DJI knows about the problem. They have offered to let me send it in for 2 months. I am opting to keep mine grounded until the next firmware comes out...or DJI addresses the problem and patches their firmware. 1.2.6 caused vertical drifting on many P3P's. If you look at your altitude reading, I guarantee it is not changing on your pilot app during the drift as well. Have you seen any Ultrasonic System Errors on your pilot app as well. I'm waiting for the first person to come out and accuse user error. Wait for it...

 

[Bratinov]

Disabling VPS fixed this for me, it's in the advanced sensor settings.

 

[Phantom751874]

1.2.6 fixed my off horizon but introduced the vertical lifting on it own very slowly up to about 20ft, even with VPS off. Barometer is way off too with negative values.

Notice the slow upwards ascent all on its own. And then the negative altitude values.

 

[IflyinWY]

I think with enough stuff going wrong at one time, any Phantom can have altitude issues. Mine may have been remedied. I'm not sure how the brain works in the P3, nor if any of what's in the thread will help, but here's 40 seconds of WTH???

http://www.phantompilots.com/thread...antom-do-this-i-need-some-serious-help.44805/

 

[Balad]

Newbie here...I have a P3P - have NOT upgraded software yet. However, yesterday, hovering near ground, I had similar issues. Mine kept drifting downward as well as horizontally. Had 18 satellites. VPS was on. Any thoughts? I've also done an IMU check - but that was 10 days ago. How often should I do an IMU calibration?

 

[dysan911]

Try toggling VPS On and then back off and check it. I've read that sometimes the app can falsely indicate its off but really its still on and possibly vice versa.

.

 

[Balad]

Thank you. I'll give that a try.

 

[Dov]

I disabled VPS and have not had any more problems, even the long exposures are perfect

 

[Bratinov]

I took a low altitude flight over a sunflower field with VPS off, no issues with keeping altitude.

 

[F6Rider]

I should not read these threads, might jinx my bird, which is on the latest firmware with VPS on and hovers like a rock (knock, knock) I wonder why it affects some birds and not others. It was the same with my P2, I never experienced the issues others were having, just leading a charmed life here.....

 

[rmfa]

I should not read these threads, might jinx my bird, which is on the latest firmware with VPS on and hovers like a rock (knock, knock) I wonder why it affects some birds and not others. It was the same with my P2, I never experienced the issues others were having, just leading a charmed life here.....

I think some people are flying with damaged/unbalanced props. Just my 2c!

 

[Buckaye]

I had the weird altitude drifting issue right after I did the upgrade... but I immediately did a stick calibration and it went away... maybe coincidence? I also turned off the VPS just to be safe later that week - but I have not seen the problem since I did the re-calibration of the sticks.

 

[cqr35]

I searched the manual for stick, and calibration and found no instructions for stick calibration.... How do you do it?

 

[F6Rider]

Hmmm, I didn't think there was a auto stick calibration on the P3, P2 yes. You can adjust the gain of every axis individually within a certain limit but I have yet to see a calibration option, perhaps that is part of the start up, resets to center every time.

 

[Horton]

What firmware are you on?

Sorry, I am running on the current firmware. I upgraded the app and it hasn't done it since.

 

[Fplvert]

I searched the manual for stick, and calibration and found no instructions for stick calibration.... How do you do it?

In the app, click the four dot icon in the top right corner, go to the little tx. icon. The app will tell you to turn off the Phantom, then do the sticks and the camera tilt to their max positions.

 

[Oso]

Several people have commented that the calibration does not complete, but then they realized that they also had to do the gimbal wheel. Fplvert did mention the camera tilt in his post, so I'm just emphasizing that part of the calibration since it seems to get missed. Cheers!

 

[carty87]

Having this same issue as well. Will try do all the fixes mentioned.