Be wary of IOC at distance

[wattage]

Got my new FPV setup on the go yesterday and tried a bit of range testing. Had the FC-40 out to 1 mile from home point when the video started to become a bit too snowy so I put the quad into IOC Homelock mode and started pulling it back towards me. Video was patchy but in between the interference I could see it was starting to slowly move back in my direction. After some more video loss and reconnection, I started to notice that the quad was now flying at 90º from where it should've been and despite still pulling the pitch stick back to me, the aircraft was getting further away. Failsafe on the S1 switch sorted it out and it started coming back as expected.

Studying the GoPro footage afterwards I could see the point at which Homelock gave up with a little wobble of the quad, some irregular motor noise and then its direction changing from the expected westerly bearing to heading south. I think it'd be wise to be very suspicious of Homelock if it can potentially cause your aircraft to fly in almost the opposite direction from expected when at the extremes of its range.

 

[nintendrone64]

Got my new FPV setup on the go yesterday and tried a bit of range testing. Had the FC-40 out to 1 mile from home point when the video started to become a bit too snowy so I put the quad into IOC Homelock mode and started pulling it back towards me. Video was patchy but in between the interference I could see it was starting to slowly move back in my direction. After some more video loss and reconnection, I started to notice that the quad was now flying at 90º from where it should've been and despite still pulling the pitch stick back to me, the aircraft was getting further away. Failsafe on the S1 switch sorted it out and it started coming back as expected.

Studying the GoPro footage afterwards I could see the point at which Homelock gave up with a little wobble of the quad, some irregular motor noise and then its direction changing from the expected westerly bearing to heading south. I think it'd be wise to be very suspicious of Homelock if it can potentially cause your aircraft to fly in almost the opposite direction from expected when at the extremes of its range.

I would put my money on it that it only happened because you're using an FC-40.

 

[wattage]

I would put my money on it that it only happened because you're using an FC-40.

Why do you say that? Inferior firmware or flight controller to full fat Phantom2?

 

[sohail99]

Got my new FPV setup on the go yesterday and tried a bit of range testing. Had the FC-40 out to 1 mile from home point when the video started to become a bit too snowy so I put the quad into IOC Homelock mode and started pulling it back towards me. Video was patchy but in between the interference I could see it was starting to slowly move back in my direction. After some more video loss and reconnection, I started to notice that the quad was now flying at 90º from where it should've been and despite still pulling the pitch stick back to me, the aircraft was getting further away. Failsafe on the S1 switch sorted it out and it started coming back as expected.

Studying the GoPro footage afterwards I could see the point at which Homelock gave up with a little wobble of the quad, some irregular motor noise and then its direction changing from the expected westerly bearing to heading south. I think it'd be wise to be very suspicious of Homelock if it can potentially cause your aircraft to fly in almost the opposite direction from expected when at the extremes of its range.

I would put my money on it that it only happened because you're using an FC-40.

Fc40 is the camera running at 2.4ghz band while the phantom quad (1.1.1) uses 5.8ghz band.
Couldn't be the interference!

 

[lake_flyer]

I would gladly take that money so bring it up!

Possible reason is that the S1 switch might have failed and put it in Course Lock mode instead of Home Lock. That could explain the direction backwards. You could also check the calibration of the switches. I had it a couple of times that my phantom only did CL when I switched to HL. But a calibration always fixed it so far. I don't think it has anything to do with GPS or compass.

Also, every time I use the software I check if all the settings are still there. I often see that the software clears the IOC switch settings once you hook up the phantom.

 

[lake_flyer]

That could explain the direction backwards.

I see now that you mentioned it acted like expected in HL but suddenly changed course 90 degrees. That almost confirms my suspicion of the switch being either faulty or not calibrated. The same thing happens when you are coming close to the Home Point while in Home Lock. It suddenly changes to Course Lock and the quad will move backwards relative to the recorded nose position. And usually that is a totally different direction.

And sorry, I meant the S2 switch. Keep messing that up. Normally 1 should be left and 2 should be right, right? Confusing.... :lol:

Cheers
Jan

 

[tobbe]

This happens to me also, it either work With the home Lock or it doesnt..
Tha failsafe does work, i have messed up my camera at the moment With rthe external antenna mod so i fpv after 30-40 metres now.. very funny!

So i i have to be so Close that i can see whats forward and backward.. i have put a led in front so that helps but only when its dark etc..

 

[lake_flyer]

40 meters sucks.
I hope you get it sorted out somehow.

I found that for external view orientation, flying high gives the best view on the red and green LED's. They are in the shadow of the Phantom that way. If you stay quite low it is very hard to see what front or back is. With my new colour scheme (see other thread) the main LED' colours remain distinctly visible from about 250-300 meters high and 150 meters out, beyond that they blur together.

 

[darwin-t]

You guys have better eyes than me!

I have heard that the switches on the transmitters are junk. I replaced mine with better (albeit much larger) switches.

Another strategy is to activate the Return To Home. After a few seconds, it is facing you. You can then switch back to GPS and push the stick away from you. It moves faster this way than it does in RTH mode.

I suppose you can switch to ATT instead, but then you have the wind drift to contend with.

 

[wattage]

Thanks for the responses. Nintendrone64, I'm not using the FC-40 camera; in fact I don't even know where that little white plastic box of disappointment is. I use a GoPro connected to a thumbnail sized 200ma 2.4GHz video TX for my FPV which has about the same range as my RC TX.

Homelock is usually reliable and I've noted the change to courselock when within 10m. I don't think what I experienced on the 1 mile flight was a change to courselock as based on the easterly orientation of the Phantom at power-up it should have steered back west in my general direction and not veered off south which was what it ended up doing. I could see from the patchy video that my control inputs were eventually having no effect on its southerly direction in homelock so I switched S1 to bottom position for failsafe. Presumably if I'd left it doing its thing on courselock it would've got way out of range and crashed/landed somewhere. I do wonder how many of these types of incident are what people call flyaways.

Still baffled by the reasons for its sticking in the wrong direction other than I was probably far exceeding the expected abilities of the hardware at that range and I should behave myself! Possibly time for a better antennae on the RC TX? Or more sensibly just leave my aspirations at the golden mile.

If any of you are bored you can check out the video evidence.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcNmteGqWr8[/youtube]

 

[Cajvol94]

I always have to switch out of Atti mode to GPS on the S1 switch to make the HL and CL work.

 

[Damon]

I always have to switch out of Atti mode to GPS on the S1 switch to make the HL and CL work.

I have noticed that same issue with my P2.

 

[Cajvol94]

I always have to switch out of Atti mode to GPS on the S1 switch to make the HL and CL work.

I have noticed that same issue with my P2.

I think that's how it's suppose to work. Anyone able to use there IOC functions while in Atti or manual modes?

 

[Damon]

I always have to switch out of Atti mode to GPS on the S1 switch to make the HL and CL work.

I have noticed that same issue with my P2.

I think that's how it's suppose to work. Anyone able to use there IOC functions while in Atti or manual modes?

Makes sense, with GPS being ignored in ATTI mode.