firts dji first problems

faardrone · Jun 27, 2014

hi,

I bought my first drone dji phantom2 vision+ and I need some help for dummy

I have some problems with gps and compass...

my phantom needs a lot of time to take more of 6 satellites for assisted fly mode...I'm a beginner and I have too difficult without gps assistance for me...

when phantom takes 6 sats I start but when it takes off, if lost gps I lost the phantom, and I'm not able to drive it anymore.

usually it take more than 10minutes to find sats and i can't seen not more thane of 6-7 sats, in different open space....

the compass asks me to calibrate every time in same place...

it's normal ?!

WessexWyvern · Jun 27, 2014

No. I found the first few times when I used my Phantom it did take longer and it is/was normal for a GPS to get its first fix after moving a long distance ie from the factory to where you are now for example, but GPSs have come a long way since those days. Before finally deciding that there is a hardware problem I would suggest making sure the firmware is up to date using the NAZA assistant, watching the videos on You Tube videos on resetting the compass (and checking the compas raw data values are in range) and calibrating the compass. Then taking it to an open place (I realise you may have done this), and waiting for a good fix. If this fails you may want to consider contacting your dealer.

Dirty Bird · Jun 27, 2014

faardrone said:
my phantom needs a lot of time to take more of 6 satellites for assisted fly mode...I'm a beginner and I have too difficult without gps assistance for me...

the compass asks me to calibrate every time in same place...

it's normal ?!

If you are in an area with an obstructed view of the sky it can take time, or sometimes prove impossible, to obtain 6 satellite fixes. Last night I flew from my driveway. There are trees and houses all around to well above 45 degrees, and the only clear view of the sky is pretty much overhead. It took me 10 minutes before I finally locked a sixth satellite. You need to take your Phantom to a wide open area, with a clear view of the sky all around, and test if you have better luck obtaining a fix.

Its not normal to ask for a compass calibration every time, but it could be depending on where you are launching. Once I launched for several flights from the concrete deck of an old bridge. Every time I powered up on the bridge, my Phantom requested a calibration. I imagine this is because there was a lot of steel in the bridge and rebarb in the concrete roadway. As soon as I launched elsewhere, the issue stopped. You might also try plugging your Phantom into the Assistant software and checking the compass reading to see if it has been magnetized.

pyrophantom · Jun 27, 2014

You have to bear in mind your phantom has come from China - you need to do what is called an "advanced IMU calibration" using the phantom assistant and it will check all your settings for you, just remember to put it on a level surface and leave it there while it does its thing.

* Plug your phantom into your laptop/pc and open up the DJI Phantom 2 Assistant
* It may tell you there is an update which it will do automatically. just follow its instructions
* if there are no updates, then click on the "tools" tab on the top menu
* there is a box on the bottom left hand side with 2 tabs......click on "advanced" and click on the box to start the advanced calibration (do this on a level desk and dont move it)
* it only takes a few minutes and it will reset your settings so that when you go out into the field and do your normal compass calibration, it should get better response

Please note when you do your normal in field compass calibration do it in a large open space away from keys, phones, anything metallic for best results

Your LEDs will be flashing yellow until you do your first horizontal rotation, then turn green when its happy. They will flash yellow again whilst you do your vertical rotation (nose down) until its complete and will go green again. You should then get rapid flashing green LEDs which tells you its set its home point, then they will turn slower flashing green which tells you its ready to go.

There's a lot to learn for your first flight. I wouldnt recommend you fly in a wifi rich environment. Go out in the open somehwere. Turn off your "airplane" mode on your device, and check how many satts you have (6 + recommended). Just hover 10' feet or so for 30 secs and check everything over, position, sattelites, LEDs, etc and if happy off you go.

The calibration is one of the most important things and you should only really have to do the advanced IMU calibration once (unless you have crashed it) and a normal field calibration if using a different location each time.

Apologies if any of this you already knew.

XL-Studios · Jun 27, 2014

More often than most people think there are just not enough satellites around. I STRONGLY advice you to use tools like the app GPS Plan and/or http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com to make sure you have >6 satellites during you flight!
My firm belief is that >75% of reported flyways are due to lost GPS lock (<6 satellites) I had a couple of close calls myself before I stared to use mentioned tools. Now it´s a walk in the park and trouble free.

pyrophantom · Jun 27, 2014

Yeah I use that and its always nice to know if you have glonass functionality on your device as you will pick up more satellites for a given time.

XL-Studios · Jun 27, 2014

pyrophantom said:
Yeah I use that and its always nice to know if you have glonass functionality on your device as you will pick up more satellites for a given time.

Absolutely. Unfortunately the Phantom don´t listen to Glonass :-( If it did it would be so much safer and get GPS lock much faster.