P2V+ Piles of junk... Totally P***ed off with DJI

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As some of you may be aware my first P2V+ fell out of the sky, camera/gimbal destroyed. Well....

I've just received the so-called 'new one' I ordered.... Took it out of the box & sat it on the kitchen bench top, put batteries in the controller and took it outside (no props fitted) to check things were working. Took the plastic gimbal lock off, lens cover off. Turned on the controller, range extender and finally the P2V+.... Or tried to... Nothing, dead as. Replaced the battery with a fully charged one, ahhh that did it. Camera did its little dance thing on the gimbal but didn't settle horizontally. It's leaning down to the L/H side. Got my laptop out, plugged it in & did a calibration of the transmitter then the same plugged into the Phantom. Camera still tilted down on L/H side. Then I notice when I moved the left stick to the left or right, the camera is turning left & right, WTF? It will not stay pointed straight ahead. I thought ok, maybe it's in FPV mode on the app... Nope. So I thought ok, I'll come back to that. Put both sticks in CSC to start the motors.... Nothing. Again I thought ok, I'll come back to that. Flipped the S1 switch a few times to activate calibration mode & the rear lights went solid yellow, ahhhh something works! Did the ballerina dance, lights still solid yellow. Did this 4 times & my blood started boiling. Turned everything off, grabbed some props & put it all in the car. Went down to the local park, huge open area nothing but grass for hundreds of metres (incidentally, the same location as the ill-fated crash of my first P2V+). Went through the whole routine again, nothing, Solid yellow lights & motors won't spin up.
I begin using words Richard Pryor himself had probably never heard before... Plugged the mongrel into the laptop, did an IMU cal & advanced IMU cal, stick calibration etc... (Also noticed unable to set lower S1 switch position to failsafe in non-NAZA mode) Nothing. Solid yellow lights & motors as dead as convent on a Friday night...
I began wondering how far I could actually throw the thing but common sense prevailed... Put it all back in the car, got home put it all back in the box & flung it in the cupboard with the first P2V+.
So now I have a cupboard with $3000.00AUD worth of junk in it....

Not a happy chap....
 
Yes thats a problem with buying overseas. You mentioned you spent x amount in AUD. So i take it your in Australia right? Give the people at Rise above aerials or camzilla in sydney a call. Im sure they will help you get the drones flying again.
 
Disheartening, to say the least, and I am sure you are ticked.

One point though, it is normal for the camera to pan when you push the left stick left or right. Its the gimbal compensating for yaw.
 
Constant yellow is supposed to signify to start horizontal compass calibration after flipping S1 to initiate a calibration. Some attention to the compass sensor would seem appropriate.

Is the ribbon cable properly connected to the compass sensor? Do you see normal compass values in the Assistant software?
 
I understand you're a bit frazzled but you said things like: "I'll come back to that."

Sit back, take a breath, and methodically go through every procedure carefully.
 
There are a lot of defective units out there, but once you get one that works, people seem really happy with it. I always upgrade to the latest firmware (we are all going to anyway when the new features come out) and I always do an advanced IMU calibration right on power on to not get the too hot message just once after firmware upgrade. I always do a compass calibration when I start the flying "session"

I'm on my 4th, if I had sense I would have given up, but I am very confident I finally found one that works:

1st - Falls out of the sky, sounds similar to your 1st one
2nd - Flew nice but the gimbal was off, everything was crooked. No way to fix it.
3rd - Had a bunch of issues. I was getting gimbal errors that needed a reboot to clear. I always calibrate the compass at a new site, but I was getting a message that I needed to calibrate the compass after the first flight. One of the two front banks of light didn't work

4th - I have 10+ flights and all is good. I don't think the gimbal is perfectly level, but it's only off a touch and I can live with it. I'm confident I've finally found "the one."
 
jalpert said:
I always do a compass calibration when I start the session

You need to stop doing this IMO. It does not require compass cal on every session. Only if you move to a different distant location where the earth's magnetic field is significantly different. You are putting undue stress on S1 with the constant rapid switching. You are also wasting your time. Just check the heading on the radar to see if it makes sense. Touch the icon to see the needle and the phantom in an enlarged detailed view. Remember north for the Phantom is magnetic north not true north. Which I believe is true for your phone as well.
 
The gimbal moves left and right when you move the yaw stick and its not flying.
I think your not doing something right. Go in the settings and and check everything.
You said you got slapped a battery in and tried to fly.
I bet there's nothing wrong with it.
 
jalpert said:
There are a lot of defective units out there, but once you get one that works, people seem really happy with it. I always upgrade to the latest firmware (we are all going to anyway when the new features come out) and I always do an advanced IMU calibration right on power on to not get the too hot message just once after firmware upgrade. I always do a compass calibration when I start the flying "session"

I'm on my 4th, if I had sense I would have given up, but I am very confident I finally found one that works:

1st - Falls out of the sky, sounds similar to your 1st one
2nd - Flew nice but the gimbal was off, everything was crooked. No way to fix it.
3rd - Had a bunch of issues. I was getting gimbal errors that needed a reboot to clear. I always calibrate the compass at a new site, but I was getting a message that I needed to calibrate the compass after the first flight. One of the two front banks of light didn't work

4th - I have 10+ flights and all is good. I don't think the gimbal is perfectly level, but it's only off a touch and I can live with it. I'm confident I've finally found "the one."

You're on your 4th one!? See that's the problem right there, fair enough someone gets a dud one, but to have issues with 2nd, 3rd? that's just not good enough, it's not like it's a $50 toy.... Ridiculous
 
BlackTracer said:
jalpert said:
I always do a compass calibration when I start the session

You need to stop doing this IMO. It does not require compass cal on every session. Only if you move to a different distant location where the earth's magnetic field is significantly different. You are putting undue stress on S1 with the constant rapid switching. You are also wasting your time. Just check the heading on the radar to see if it makes sense. Touch the icon to see the needle and the phantom in an enlarged detailed view. Remember north for the Phantom is magnetic north not true north. Which I believe is true for your phone as well.

The solid yellow lights stayed on the very first time the compass calibration was attempted. Had to do the compass cal or the **** thing would think it's still in China. As for wasting time, why then does it state in the manual to do the tribal dance thing before every flight? My waste of time was buying the first one, then stupidity led to the 2nd one
 
Mori55 said:
The gimbal moves left and right when you move the yaw stick and its not flying.
I think your not doing something right. Go in the settings and and check everything.
You said you got slapped a battery in and tried to fly.
I bet there's nothing wrong with it.

When I took it out of the box, the battery that was in it was completely flat. So flat that when I put it on charge it wouldn't charge. I had to turn the battery on for it to start charging. What do you mean you bet there's nothing wrong with it? The motors won't spin up at all, the CSC procedure does nothing. So how could i try to fly it? I 1st took it outside without props to calibrate the compass. When it didn't work I took it down to a big open area in case it did fire up so I could fly it.... Anyway, it's a 1.2kg paper weight at the moment....
 
Yea, it does state 'before every flight'.

This is probably good avice if you travel from spot to spot to fly, have exposed your a/c to strong magnetic fields (trunk of car), or have just added, deleted, or re-arranged some items in your a/c.

If your hopping into to the back yard, back 40 or whatever, or always flying in the same general area (I know that's vague) then there is no need for this.

You can research and see they types of errors that occur and what the calibration routine does to correct them for these electronic compass modules. It's more about characterizing the effect of nearby ferromagnetic components (motors, gimbal motor magnets, battery, etc.).

I fly in my 'hood' from the same area and have not calibrated in 30+ flights.
 
The manual does not say to calibrate before every flight. Folks should really read the manual and think about what the compass does. It merely gathers geomagnetic information. DJI's Chinglish recommends "at different location to last flight" and is a great way to limit their liability.

I have calibrated 3 times over 100s of flights/dozens of locations up to 300 miles from home with a P1 and a P2. No problems.

If calibrating every time makes you feel better (like repeatedly pushing the elevator button because you think that is going to make it get there faster) then by all means do it.
 
verisimilitude said:
The manual does not say to calibrate before every flight. Folks should really read the manual and think about what the compass does. It merely gathers geomagnetic information. DJI's Chinglish recommends "at different location to last flight" and is a great way to limit their liability.

I have calibrated 3 times over 100s of flights/dozens of locations up to 300 miles from home with a P1 and a P2. No problems.

If calibrating every time makes you feel better (like repeatedly pushing the elevator button because you think that is going to make it get there faster) then by all means do it.

Get it out man... what's with all the rage?

As for me, I read the manual and thought about it. As I pretty much agree with you above except for the 'assuming' parts.

I mistakenly referred to my 'P2' manual (4/30/14), page 21, Section 5, Paragraph 5.2 'Calibration proceedures', instead of the P2V+.


(Oh, and I agree about the liability part.)
 
Phantom_Menace66 said:
As some of you may be aware my first P2V+ fell out of the sky, camera/gimbal destroyed. Well....

I've just received the so-called 'new one' I ordered.... Took it out of the box & sat it on the kitchen bench top, put batteries in the controller and took it outside (no props fitted) to check things were working. Took the plastic gimbal lock off, lens cover off. Turned on the controller, range extender and finally the P2V+.... Or tried to... Nothing, dead as. Replaced the battery with a fully charged one, ahhh that did it. Camera did its little dance thing on the gimbal but didn't settle horizontally. It's leaning down to the L/H side. Got my laptop out, plugged it in & did a calibration of the transmitter then the same plugged into the Phantom. Camera still tilted down on L/H side. Then I notice when I moved the left stick to the left or right, the camera is turning left & right, WTF? It will not stay pointed straight ahead. I thought ok, maybe it's in FPV mode on the app... Nope. So I thought ok, I'll come back to that. Put both sticks in CSC to start the motors.... Nothing. Again I thought ok, I'll come back to that. Flipped the S1 switch a few times to activate calibration mode & the rear lights went solid yellow, ahhhh something works! Did the ballerina dance, lights still solid yellow. Did this 4 times & my blood started boiling. Turned everything off, grabbed some props & put it all in the car. Went down to the local park, huge open area nothing but grass for hundreds of metres (incidentally, the same location as the ill-fated crash of my first P2V+). Went through the whole routine again, nothing, Solid yellow lights & motors won't spin up.
I begin using words Richard Pryor himself had probably never heard before... Plugged the mongrel into the laptop, did an IMU cal & advanced IMU cal, stick calibration etc... (Also noticed unable to set lower S1 switch position to failsafe in non-NAZA mode) Nothing. Solid yellow lights & motors as dead as convent on a Friday night...
I began wondering how far I could actually throw the thing but common sense prevailed... Put it all back in the car, got home put it all back in the box & flung it in the cupboard with the first P2V+.
So now I have a cupboard with $3000.00AUD worth of junk in it....

Not a happy chap....

Ok, lets get that thing working.
#1. Take off props
#2. Power up wifi extender, transmitter (place S1 and S2 switches in full up position), phone, then Phantom.
#3 Connect app to Phantom: Do you have connection? Does it give you a warning box? Do you have satellites? I suspect that solid yellow is a compass calibration error. Fix it and she should start up.
How to calibrate: hold Phantom level and slowly spin 360 degrees until light changes. Hold Phantom at 90 degrees (front facing ground) and slowly spin 360. Light will change. If you followed this exactly, it should work. Slow down, relax and try it. Let me know where you get to. If this does not work, we will next visit the computer and look at the DJI Assistant info.

The Phantom CSC will not work (and engines will not start) if you require compass calibration. Not knowing that tells me your not really up on the operation of your Phantom, which is OK, just relax an realize its probably user error. Probably.
 
N017RW said:
verisimilitude said:
The manual does not say to calibrate before every flight. Folks should really read the manual and think about what the compass does. It merely gathers geomagnetic information. DJI's Chinglish recommends "at different location to last flight" and is a great way to limit their liability.

I have calibrated 3 times over 100s of flights/dozens of locations up to 300 miles from home with a P1 and a P2. No problems.

If calibrating every time makes you feel better (like repeatedly pushing the elevator button because you think that is going to make it get there faster) then by all means do it.

Get it out man... what's with all the rage?

Huh? What rage?

"I mistakenly referred to my 'P2' manual (4/30/14), page 21, Section 5, Paragraph 5.2 'Calibration proceedures',"

It doesn't say to calibrate 'before every flight'" there either.
 

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