Ground Station Success BUT...

SaltWaterNole · Jul 28, 2014

Hello everyone and thank you to all those who made this forum possible. Im happy I stumbled upon it.

I purchased my Phantom 2 w/ ground station (FPV Combo) about a month ago and been taking my time with the entire process. Ive become a pretty solid manual pilot and really learned the personality of the Phantom. FUN!

I decided to do my first ground station run at a local park. I kept it simple. I did a pre set mission prior to leaving my house. A simple square with all waypoints at 20M, vertical lift off at 1.5m/s, 4 complete way points w/ phantom moving a 8m/s, stop and turn setting @ each point, and assisted launch and land.

Turned on ground station, turned on phantom, turned on main controller. Waited for GPS to lock in, uploaded mission and then connected the Ground-Staion.

HIT GO.... it launched on its own, completed the course but when it got to the last waypoint it just hovered. I clicked the Ground Station "Auto Land" but it wasn't receiving the command. A picture of a joystick and keyboard kept appearing. If i clicked the keyboard it would show a check mark. I'm thinking there might be a keyboard command to land the phantom other then clicking the "Auto Land" button? Not sure.

I stayed calm, switched into ATTI mode and manually lowered the Phantom, flip back into GPS for better stability and landed her. Any reason why i experienced this? All ideas and suggestions are welcome with open mind and greatly appreciated. Hope you all have a great day.

SaltWaterNole · Jul 28, 2014

Anyone? Help?

nintendrone64 · Jul 29, 2014

SaltWaterNole said:
Hello everyone and thank you to all those who made this forum possible. Im happy I stumbled upon it.

I purchased my Phantom 2 w/ ground station (FPV Combo) about a month ago and been taking my time with the entire process. Ive become a pretty solid manual pilot and really learned the personality of the Phantom. FUN!

I decided to do my first ground station run at a local park. I kept it simple. I did a pre set mission prior to leaving my house. A simple square with all waypoints at 20M, vertical lift off at 1.5m/s, 4 complete way points w/ phantom moving a 8m/s, stop and turn setting @ each point, and assisted launch and land.

Turned on ground station, turned on phantom, turned on main controller. Waited for GPS to lock in, uploaded mission and then connected the Ground-Staion.

HIT GO.... it launched on its own, completed the course but when it got to the last waypoint it just hovered. I clicked the Ground Station "Auto Land" but it wasn't receiving the command. A picture of a joystick and keyboard kept appearing. If i clicked the keyboard it would show a check mark. I'm thinking there might be a keyboard command to land the phantom other then clicking the "Auto Land" button? Not sure.

I stayed calm, switched into ATTI mode and manually lowered the Phantom, flip back into GPS for better stability and landed her. Any reason why i experienced this? All ideas and suggestions are welcome with open mind and greatly appreciated. Hope you all have a great day.

In theory, the land button should have worked for you! That's really really weird. Maybe something was...miss...wired? ****. It should have worked. My other mates say they like landing by switching in to ATTI mode anyway, but that doesn't always make everyone happy.

SaltWaterNole · Jul 29, 2014

Thank you for the reply. At least we know I can bring it down using ATTi. Hope i didn't get lucky on my first GS mission and get a fly away next time out. Wish me luck!!!

ChuckMRN · Aug 4, 2014

SaltWaterNole said:
If i clicked the keyboard it would show a check mark. I'm thinking there might be a keyboard command to land the phantom other then clicking the "Auto Land" button? Not sure.

I tried this this weekend. In order for me to use the "auto land" I had to click on "pause" then "keyboard" and that would activate the "auto land" button. I am using the PC version

SaltWaterNole · Aug 4, 2014

Chuck thats great news and perfect timing. Im headed to the park in 30 to give it another try.

Hey while I have your attention. Have you tried the "Head Degree" option on PC? If so, can you brief me on it when you have some free time. Once I learn how to keep the GoPro on its target while flying from waypoint to waypoint, ill be pretty confident and happy with the software. Thanks!

ChuckMRN · Aug 4, 2014

I just starting using this "heading option" my self. I need to use it a little more to see if it is repeatable/does the same thing every time. If so then I can test it with some known missions. Kind of boring to do the same thing over and over, but it is the only way I can offer up anything worth while.

SaltWaterNole · Aug 5, 2014

Same here. Im comfortable with manual flight but once I'm not in control i get a little nervous. Ive been running simple missions over and over again. Essentially, I'm making the phantom prove itself to me using its waypoint technology. lol