Frank's Story

[Frankc]

Thank for the story Frank. Excellent and hilarious good read. Did you get Follow me to work?
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Thank you for the compliment.

A man from Bill Bryson country. Sounds very nice. Love his books.

Yes I did thanks. There are so many things to try and practice on these heli's. I have yet to try it from my car though. I want to get to know all these functions so they become second nature. Trying to get out there everyday to practice. I want to hover the heli in front of the car, at height of course. Drive towards it and undertake it and see if it spins around and follows me. I have the road. I have the heli, just need decent weather. Mid winter here. Damp and orible as they say. Roll on spring.

 

[Frankc]

Tree Hugging and Airplane Mode..............

Lets get the tech bit out of the way first. The camp seems divided on the Forum. The "Turn off Airplane mode or the wifi will interfere with you heli and it will crash and burn" and the "You must turn it on or you wont be able to use some of the F mode features" So all set up I had the Airplane Mode ON. I put it into F mode and sure enough I got a warning basically saying "hey you, you silly beggar you have a very poor GPS signal so you can not use these functions". So I turned Airplane Mode OFF and yep you guessed it it had a GPS signal and you can use it. I am NOT saying its the same for every device etc. Just telling you what happened with mine.

So its time to go flying. Again its a bit gusty out there but the sun was shining and I got in the shelter of a big bush, yep I am officially a wimp, and started off. Practiced with the home function. Tried to get as close to the tree's as I dared. I must have got close as one of the tiny branches moved from the heli downdraft. So video below. I edited most of the boring bits out as I was just doing local practise today.

If can stand the tension and wait till tomorrow(ish) I may just tell you about my new gimbal lock. You wont be able to sleep now will you? and........... I have my phone turned off when I am flying so that mode does not matter. It's probably only the Mrs telling me she has driven off a cliff or something anyway.

 

[Frankc]

I forgot my Franks Tip.

When you go flying take the Micro SD card adaptor with you. So before you pack up you can remove your card from the heli. Put it in the adaptor. Stick it in your pocket along with your used battery for recharging.

Gimbal Lock.

To be honest I think the one DJI provides is far too complicated. Takes ages just to work out how to get it on. So I bought one of these below.

So easy and straightforward. It just slips over the camera lens to protect it and the U bit has a long thin locating strip that just naturally fits into a slot on the gimbal holder. Fixed solid and safe. I did however have to fit a 'flag', just a bit of foam and string, to it so I remember to remove it before I start up the heli. Dont want to damage the gimbal trying to save it do I?

 

[Readester]

I have just ordered on of these as well and also a carbon fibre gimbal guard. I agree the DJI gimbal lock is complicated and is crap anyway as I find it just falls out.

 

[Frankc]

I have just ordered on of these as well and also a carbon fibre gimbal guard. I agree the DJI gimbal lock is complicated and is crap anyway as I find it just falls out.

Very sensible. Let me know how you get on with the gimbal guard, I have contemplated fitting one myself.

 

[Frankc]

How to frighten the ****** out of you.

Well it started off quite well. Went through all my checks. SD card in. Record pressed. Safe to fly in the green. I had decided to fly today in a spot which had a wide open field in front of me. Did one or two maneuvers to get my hand in so to speak then spotted a tiny lake to my left, more like a big deep puddle really. So I thought fly over it. Get the drone centred. Then practice the "point of interest" on F. So I fly towards it was starting to get the heli in the centre to start the POI and I noticed two horse riders out for ride heading for the pond. Did I mention that once again it was very strong winds? So I thought play safe. Climb. So I climbed. 300 feet going up..................

Then it happened. The green "Safe To Fly" turned red. RC signal lost. Then it came back. Then it went again. Then the message popped up "Battery Signal Low", then "Battery Level Low". Sugar! So I pressed RTH. Message back, I cant remember what it said but it was equivalent to RTH not available. Please fly back to you via the RC. But the RC was not working! So at this point the drone was flying upwards and I dont know in what direction. RTH was not working. Battery failing. hmmmmmmmm. Luckily I was wearing brown trousers.

I still had a picture though. So I pointed the camera downwards. I was, what felt like, miles off course. Well away from the open fields flying over farm houses. So I tried the F and the Home whatevers. Message back No RC signal etc. I decided no matter what the app said I would try and turn it into a direction I knew. So I hoped for the best and tried to turn it in the direction of the nearby hills. At least then I would know where to look, give or take 5 miles. I do not know if that worked or not. Then I heard the distant drone, I think. I tried the RTH button once more. Again the no signal reply. I tried it again as the drone noise was slightly louder. The RTH suddenly started its bleeping. Yes it was heading back to me. A few loooooooooooooooooooong mins later it was in sight. Descending above my head. I soon had it. I did notice ALL the lights on the heli were on non flashing red. This sort of ruins your confidence in flying at distance. So decided to call it a day and pack up. Was my hobby at an end?

I could not work it out. Before flying I always ensure everything is fully charged. Batteries, Remote controler. Tablet. I knew all were fully charged. I took off the props, well the wind actually spun them off for me. Removed the SD card and put it in the adaptor. Went to get the Heli battery out...... It was not fully in! It had not gone fully in and had not locked into place. So I am hoping that was my problem. A not fully inserted battery.

I put the heli back together, if you fall off a horse get back on straight away strategy, made sure the battery was fully in this time. Back to normal. No warning messages. Went for a local flight, did the F POI etc no problems at all. At this point the wind was blowing so strong I had to put my foot on the rucksack to stop it blowing away I thought it prudent to quit whilst I was ahead.

So what does four non flashing red lights mean on the Heli?

The pond of doom.

 

[4wd]

It was an issue with the P2 range too, that if not very firmly pushed in the clips might not engage and even a 1mm gap would not give a firm contact on the data pins,
It seems to have given you a bewildering rage of error messages, would be a good one to upload to healthy drones perhaps.
If contact is already lost the RTH button can't work, but turning the controller off would ensure it isn't just hovering waiting for a command.
It does sometimes seem you can be 'partially' disconnected and it won't decide itself to RTH because it is still getting some response from the radio.

Worth doing a serious practice with using RTH from the button or by switching off.
One thing you will notice is that it doesn't start the return immediately - almost as if it needs to think about it - or give you chance to change your mind.
If you assume it's not going to work and press again you will in fact cancel it.

All red lights usually means low battery.
It could have wrongly interpreted the battery voltage if the battery data pins weren't firmly contacting.
Probably once it detects voltage issues it won't go back to normal state.

 

[Readester]

When pressing the RTH button on the RC do you have to keep it pressed down for a couple of seconds? I had a similar issue yesterday. It was only my 2nd flight out and I got a bit giddy and went further than I should. The wind was quite strong and I couldn't seem to get it back to me, possibly because I was panicking and was confused about the orientation and the wind direction. I decided to hit the RTH button on the RC but nothing! so I hit it again! I waited about 30 secs while my trousers filled up so decided to try the button again but this time I kept it pressed for a couple of secs. To my relief the confirmation from the app that RTH was initiated and it was relief to see it come straight back. I checked my flight details after and it never lost GPS at all, so can only assume either I cancelled the initial RTH or you need to hold down briefly?

 

[Monte Olsen]

Very nice car! I drove with my son in his Ford Focus along a country road and had the P3A capture his car. Very cool.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Frankc]

Very nice car!

Which car are you talking about?

 

[richardhurst]

had exactly the same the other day with the fact that I hadn't pushed my battery fully in, all started off fine and was about 40feet up when I got the power failure message. brought the drone back down saw the battery wasn't quite in and gave it a little push then off again and all good.

 

[Brian T]

Ok been for a flight. Must admit I now have the bug. As I write this the drone is downloading to the computer the film taken on the SD card. Being a micro SD in the machine and me not having an adapter I wondered how I could transfer files. Then I thought USB on aircraft to USB on computer? So I got the long charging lead from the Samsung 6 phone and plugged both ends in.......... It worked! So now I am just awaiting the transfer to finish. A none edited video I think so record my first ever RC flight.

Now I have to find out how to get out of beginner mode etc. It does give you re-assurance when you start but I soon found it quite restrictive.

Is there anyway I can turn off that loud noise the drone makes when it starts up?

Micro SD cards in Tesco are dirt cheap at the moment with free full size adaptor, 16Gb for £4.50 I paid locally. Kingston as well.

 

[happydays]

Micro SD cards in Tesco are dirt cheap at the moment with free full size adaptor, 16Gb for £4.50 I paid locally. Kingston as well.

What speed are they? Class?

 

[Brian T]

What speed are they? Class?

What speed are they? Class?

Can't see a speed on them but "Ultra" if that helps, not as fast as the "Extreme" I know but good enough .

 

[happydays]

Can't see a speed on them but "Ultra" if that helps, not as fast as the "Extreme" I know but good enough .

Sandisk Ultra 16Gb Sd Card Class 10 - H4u - Groceries - Tesco Groceries

 

[Brian T]

Sandisk Ultra 16Gb Sd Card Class 10 - H4u - Groceries - Tesco Groceries

I got Kingston and 50p cheaper in Exeter.

 

[Frankc]

Compass Error of the weird kind.

Ok after the weird fly away type of even that happened the other day I thought id keep it local. Returning to my old spot where I have not had problems before.

We are just on the edge of Storm Henry's passing so it gets a bit gusty. I did all the usual checks, this time really ensuring the battery and SD card were in. First thing I noticed was the green for the camera and the red arrow were pointing the opposite way to where they were truly pointing on the ground. I swithed off the app and re-started it. This time it looked right. I got a green to fly so I took off. Did a few runs then I noticed the direction was wrong again. Also had a brief RC signal low, but then it went back to normal. Taking no chances I landed this time.

So I went into Compass Calibration, could not do any harm. Did the usual 360* dance around and on the side. Got the message "Cannot calibrate due to intense Electro Magnetic Activity." I have never heard of anyone even mentioning that message. The Green Safe To Fly went into Fly none GPS mode. I was in the middle of a field, will put up a picture, no cars buildings even my phone was switched off and lay in the rucksack. Then I had a thought. Within 2-3 miles at the most is the RRE Royal Radar Establishment. Top secret stuff goes on there. Its where radar was developed in the second world war. Could it be that? Tried several times to do the compass on the fourth try it worked. So I flew again.

What happens if the controller goes off?

Often wondered what would happen if the RC lost control of the Heli. I took it up to around 40 feet got brave and turned off the controller. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... it rose into the air .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. then headed my way and started to descend. Yes it seemed like ages......... So i then switched on the controller. The app came back up where I had left it. But the app said "disconnected" as it came lower and lower I tried the "up" and the Heli responded so obviously it was not that disconnected. I managed to turn off the props. Start them up again. Still showing disconnected. For the next long mins I tried everything I could think of to regain connection. Heli battery off, RC off, tablet off, all off and on again in different combinations. Tried so many I do not know which one of them worked. Eventually it did. Flew a bit more with no problems.

So the questions are :-
1. What was the intense Magnetic Interference?
2. What is the best was to re-connect after you have switched off and back on again?

 

[Frankc]

This was the area of Intense Electromagnetic Interference. Can you see what was causing it? I can't.

 

[4wd]

I suppose it's unlikely there's any underground gas or water pipes or power lines?
If there were any history of mining or smelting there could be a metallic abnormality - clearly the phantom is detecting something wrong - which is reassuring really.

 

[John Locke]

Very good question, the area looks innocent enough, but you never know what lurks underground.

I carry a cheap compass with me in my bag, that might help. Although I've never needed it with my Phantom, I keep it anyway. I used it for compass calibration with my Yuneec 500, in which case I needed to know which way magnetic north is.

In your case, you might take a cheap compass to this spot to see if it works as expected, pointing toward north reliably. Walk around the area and see if it goes wacky at all. You might find your problem with a simple compass.

You never know what's buried underground, especially in the old world where so much has occurred of the ages. Ruins are uncovered all the time. You may have found something nobody knows about.