Oh my god...first two flights = HARD CRASHES.

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

So today was a beautiful day out and I decided to fly the Phantom for the 1st time. Everything was fine and dandy until the Phantom started gaining altitude (without me controlling) and started veered toward my right in a fixed path until it crashed into the ground. This occurred maybe a little after 4-5 minutes of flying and I wouldn't say the Phantom hovered above 100 ft before the crash. I went home and replaced one of the broken propellers and went out again. I crashed hard this time, again. Same situation where it gains altitude before getting on a "fixed path" toward the crash. Everything is up to date...compass was calibrated (unless I should have had re calibrated after my 1st crash few nights ago that did not last more than 1 minute?) Everything seems to be in working order. The range extender was pointed toward the Phantom....


My 1st crash, there was a chopper circling around my area (like literally circling around ME as if they were interested)...could them being in the air affect the transmission between the phantom & the controller? i was at my old middle school which did not really have many power lines...but there were some. I had at least 10 satellites locked in and I waited about a minute or two confirming there was a GPS lock. When I started noticing it flying away from me where I lost connection with my iPhone, I just figured it would go into fail safe mode and fly itself back (i did not adjust S1/S2 switches at this time). As I have stated in other threads, I'm not so savvy with RC technology so I fear that I may have made a rookie mistake or something.


My 2nd crash, everything was fine until I increased my phantom's altitude level to about 400 ft in the air and all of sudden it lost connection with my iPhone and started veering toward the right on a fixed path until its crash few moments later. When this occurred, the helicopter was not around at this time thus possibly eliminating the theory of the helicopter blocking communications (waiting for confirmation from you guys) so I am not sure what happened here, again.


As for the motors....I can tell there is a definite amount of semi-wet dirt that is stuck inside one of the black propellers' motor thing. Any ideas if I can pop open the shell assuming it doesn't take too much wiring (unplugging and reconnecting after) to clean it out? When I twist the motors using my fingr, i can tell there is dirt underneath one of the motors because of the "bumpiness" like as if you're driving on gravel. I'm not savvy like you all when it comes to putting things together. Especially when wiring is included. I'm going to do more research this evening and hopefully locate the reasoning(s) for my hard crashes today. I really hope I can adjust this issue because the Phantom is really cool. Would be a terrible shame to see $1.2k go down the drain after two flights, haha.Thanks guys, I hope to hear some useful troubleshooting recommendations from some people here!

-Anthony


P.S. Really wish I didn't disable "stop recording" feature when losing connection with the power. Would have been really interesting and useful to review footage before crashe(s). Oh well!

 

[Sleigh]

You did't say if you were streaming video but I'm assuming you were since you mentioned the iPhone. I know with the Phantom one like I have, you're not supposed to stream video or use the remote control for the GoPro because it will interfere with the 2.4 ghz tx signal; and that sounds like what's happening.

To get the case open you need to remove a bunch of 2mm Allen screws and it comes apart pretty easily. The GPS is attached to the top part of the shell but there is enough wire that you don't need to unplug anything. I'd try again without any video or iPhone stuff involved and see if it flys ok then.

Steve

 

[ericdes]

Did you ever plug the phantom in the computer and run the calibrations?
What are the numbers in you settings page?
Did you wait for the two sets of rapid green led flashes before take off?
Both switches on each end of the transmitter are all the way up?

It sounds like you may have not done, or read the basic preliminary steps in order for a successful flight.

If you lose control of the phantom and it decides to fly itself and crash hard, you don't just change a prop and fly again!!

Hope hi damage was done. Blow some air into the motor to remove the dirt.

 

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

You did't say if you were streaming video but I'm assuming you were since you mentioned the iPhone. I know with the Phantom one like I have, you're not supposed to stream video or use the remote control for the GoPro because it will interfere with the 2.4 ghz tx signal; and that sounds like what's happening.

To get the case open you need to remove a bunch of 2mm Allen screws and it comes apart pretty easily. The GPS is attached to the top part of the shell but there is enough wire that you don't need to unplug anything. I'd try again without any video or iPhone stuff involved and see if it flys ok then.

Steve

Well I am not sure if this is the same with P2V. I have the P2V with the onboard camera and I distinctly remember Colin doing a video of how to avoid flyways and he literally had the same equipment as me, stock transmitter and whatnot. His phantom flew beyond 1k ft before losing connection and it flew back to him! Im jealous because I was hoping it would do that if I just let go during my 2nd flight when it was getting away from me. I will try do that without the iPhone but how else can I record footage if I can't use my phone? I noticed there's a switch on the back of the camera where it says "cam on" "with wifi on" and "off". I've had it on under "with WIFI" so I don't know. Unfortunately I cannot unscrew the shell anymore now. Somehow I did not notice the dirt inside one of the screws and I sort of messed up the top so its unscrewable now. Thank you for your help, hopefully this will help because I don't plan on flying anytime soon until my prop guards comes in along with extra props. Hopefully this issue will be corrected by then

Did you ever plug the phantom in the computer and run the calibrations?
What are the numbers in you settings page?
Did you wait for the two sets of rapid green led flashes before take off?
Both switches on each end of the transmitter are all the way up?

It sounds like you may have not done, or read the basic preliminary steps in order for a successful flight.

If you lose control of the phantom and it decides to fly itself and crash hard, you don't just change a prop and fly again!!

Hope hi damage was done. Blow some air into the motor to remove the dirt.

I hope the screenshots provided can offer you insight on my Phantom. Please do let me know if you need more information or have suggestions to what I can do to avoid this next time and hopefully I'll be able to learn from it.

I did wait for the green lights but I am not too positive if they were rapidly beeping, though. I was under the assumption (still am) that blinking green light indicates there is a definite GPS lock and you are good to take off. That is what it says on the piece of paper that came with it, haha. The only reason why I flew again is because I thought the helicopter was the reasoning for my 1st flight's crash....it was circling around me for a solid 15 minutes or so and I have no idea why. I went back home to replace props and came back where I did not notice the helicopter flying around so I decided to try flying again. Same results, unfortunately. However like I said before in the past, I am amazed to how durable this Phantom is. THey were really hard crashes no doubt. Just grateful it wasn't on pavement. I hope no damage was done, either! Please do offer me your insight or advice based on the settings you see on my Phantom. Thanks for posting in my thread!


Edit: for some reason my mac file screenshots (.jpg type) will not make itself available for selecting when uploading images....I am going to .zip the file and email it to myself and try again on my destkop where I can re-save it in .jpg format using a PC instead. If you want me to email you the screenshots instead where you can just DL and view the SS's, PM me your email address otherwise give me 20-25 minutes so I can try get the SS's up here. Thanks!

 

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

Okay so I noticed some things...


1) my Phantom is now not turning on
2) My controller indicator light is showing yellow. Once I turn it on, it turns green but then quickly flashes yellow until it stays lit few seconds later
3) There seems to be a really bad job by whoever produced this particular phantom....what the heck is this component and could this be the reason why my phantom is acting quirky?

Edit: I have no idea why no image uploading website or this website will accept the .jpg file I've saved onto my desktop but it is starting to get on my nerves. It is located on the inside shell of the controller closest to the (your left) when the controller is facing flat down. It is a rectangular block of metal and on the bottom end of it lies a black wire that is completely covered in white glue (i assume this was done via soldering...however there is a little amount of soldering that made its way onto the metal plate...same on the second level right beneath the metal plate (black/goldish looking). Isn't that unusual, to have soldering on the metal plate? It looks sloppy...

 

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

Here are the screenshots of my current settings for the Phantom. I am going to be speaking with the seller I bought my Phantom from and see if I can't get a new one. I strongly believe this thing on the metal plate on the inside of my controller resulted in hard crashes with the Phantom. Hopefully someone can help me here because I'm stumped

 

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

Continued from post above

 

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

Last post....sorry the site only allows 3 picture upload per post

 

[PinkFloyd4Runner]

I have calibrated my controller and it seems like it is good to go... (no more constant yellow lit color but instead, green now). Turned on the phantom and everything started up just fine. Now waiting for suggestions or advice from others regarding the main issue I am having... /fingers crossed

 

[Quadro]

I don't have any quick fixes for you, but here are a couple of observations.

A hard crash can mess up both the Naza and the compass. If the controller needs calibration (the numbers in your screen shot suggests it probably doesn't) the P2 Assistant will tell you to perform a basic calibration.

Be sure you know how to perform the compass calibration and until you've solved your crash problem, I would recalibrate the compass every day that you fly.

Be sure that the blinking green leds are the slow, steady blink that indicates the home position has been recorded and not the long series of fast blinks that indicate the Naza is searching for GPS lock.

Once you get your P2 airborne, take it up to 12 or 15 feet, let it hover for 60 seconds and study its behavior. Assuming you are in GPS mode, are the green leds slowly blinking? Is it stable, or does the P2 rock, yaw, or wander? If it seems unsteady at first, does it settle down into a stable hover after 30 to 60 seconds.

If it doesn,t achieve a stable hover after 60 seconds, land and redo the compass calibration. Be sure you arent on reinforced concrete, near powelines or cars or any other source of interference.

Restart and try again to attain a stable hover. If the hover is solid, then try a little climb -- maybe to 20 to 30 feet and practice steering left, right, ahead and backward. For the first couple flights, I wouldn,t go more than 60 feet high and maybe 200 feet away in any direction. Climbing to 400 feet on your first or second flight is a recipe for trouble.

For one thing, according to you screen captures, your HL has not been activated, which means that if you loose track of the P2s orientation, things could get ugly fast. Take it easy and learn how the P2 behaves and responds before going too high or too far.

Finally, I assume you're flying a stock P2, but if there have been any modifications, be sure the Phantom is balanced.

Good Luck,

 

[Pull_Up]

Hello,
The White stuff is a silicone type sealant, not solder. It's designed to stop the antenna wire from coming loose and shows they've done a better job than just rely on the solder joint to take the strain if you pull it when opening the transmitter.

In one of your screenshots you can see where one of the control sticks was not centred. Although they looked fine in the RC Assistant (which looks at the physical centring of the sticks) it was out as far as the aircraft receiver was concerned. Now you have calibrated the receiver's view of the sticks using the Vision Assistant (as well as the actual centring via the RC Assistant) you should be fine.

Your IMU and compass settings look within range, but before another flight I'd plug it in again and run an IMU calibration on a flat, level, vibration-free surface. I would recommend to do this immediately after any crash rather than fly straight away just in case - sometimes the IMU can get thrown by a knock and needs it's view of straight and level reset.

If you need to open the shell (and I'd advise you to in order to check everything out) there's a "how to" video in my signature below, including what tools you need. If there's any chance of crap being in the motors then clean those out, and generally inspect all the wiring and plugs inside in case anything's come loose in the two bangs.

Hope some of this helps.