Phantom Doing Circles

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Hi everyone,

I'm new here, but lurk and read very frequently. I got my Phantom 2 Vision + a little less than a month ago, and have a few questions regarding some observations I've made with it...

When I first got it, the Phantom hovered and stayed in place beautifully, barely drifting, even in a breeze. Now it frequently does circles as much as 10 feet across. I don't want to lift it higher than 15 feet off the ground when it's doing those circles that low. I've calibrated the compass and the IMU, as well as upgraded to the latest firmware.

What can I do to help resolve, this, or what could the issue be? Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Brandon
 
Brandon1351 said:
Hi everyone,

I'm new here, but lurk and read very frequently. I got my Phantom 2 Vision + a little less than a month ago, and have a few questions regarding some observations I've made with it...

When I first got it, the Phantom hovered and stayed in place beautifully, barely drifting, even in a breeze. Now it frequently does circles as much as 10 feet across. I don't want to lift it higher than 15 feet off the ground when it's doing those circles that low. I've calibrated the compass and the IMU, as well as upgraded to the latest firmware.

What can I do to help resolve, this, or what could the issue be? Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Brandon

During compass calibration, take a magnet and do circles around the leg that houses the compass. The shut everything off and do the compass calibration as normal. That should do the trick
 
offtosleep said:
During compass calibration, take a magnet and do circles around the leg that houses the compass. The shut everything off and do the compass calibration as normal. That should do the trick

I would try just calibrating normally...

Don't just randomly do that magnet thing

By doing that you could throw the compass so far out of whack that it won't calibrate anymore... that magnet trick is supposed to be done only when you have a bad compass that can't be calibrated ... and then only while you are connected to the assistant software so you can view the numbers and bring the compass back from "way out of spec" ... DJI has a video on this

http://youtu.be/kCT1rRE_UIg
 
Brandon1351 said:
Hi everyone,

I'm new here, but lurk and read very frequently. I got my Phantom 2 Vision + a little less than a month ago, and have a few questions regarding some observations I've made with it...

When I first got it, the Phantom hovered and stayed in place beautifully, barely drifting, even in a breeze. Now it frequently does circles as much as 10 feet across. I don't want to lift it higher than 15 feet off the ground when it's doing those circles that low. I've calibrated the compass and the IMU, as well as upgraded to the latest firmware.

What can I do to help resolve, this, or what could the issue be? Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Brandon

It might be drunk....
 
I've noticed mine doing circles once. I was only able to acquire 6 satellites so I didn't fly that day. The problem hasn't shown up since.
 
Ok I've got to ask. I can understand why it would be preferable to have 6 or more satellites but why does it act like it is blind when it has 3,4 or 5? Shouldn't it still know where it is?
 
denofr said:
Ok I've got to ask. I can understand why it would be preferable to have 6 or more satellites but why does it act like it is blind when it has 3,4 or 5? Shouldn't it still know where it is?
mine always locks at least 10. had 12 today most of my flight :shock:
 
denofr said:
Ok I've got to ask. I can understand why it would be preferable to have 6 or more satellites but why does it act like it is blind when it has 3,4 or 5? Shouldn't it still know where it is?

Because with less than 6 satellites locked it automatically goes into Atti mode which will hold its height but can be blown around in the wind, basically it no longer has automatic air brakes like it does in gps mode.
 
Kelso Kubat said:
denofr said:
Ok I've got to ask. I can understand why it would be preferable to have 6 or more satellites but why does it act like it is blind when it has 3,4 or 5? Shouldn't it still know where it is?
mine always locks at least 10. had 12 today most of my flight :shock:

It locks onto however many are visible in the sky at the time you fly.

Remember that the best accuracy you will get will have possible error between 10-16 feet, anything better is reserved for the government. The phantom actually does an excellent job as far as the GPS.
The circling could be due to how the GPS satellites were positioned in the sky at the time but is more likely due to the compass needing calibration.
 
Brandon1351 said:
Hi everyone,

I'm new here, but lurk and read very frequently. I got my Phantom 2 Vision + a little less than a month ago, and have a few questions regarding some observations I've made with it...

When I first got it, the Phantom hovered and stayed in place beautifully, barely drifting, even in a breeze. Now it frequently does circles as much as 10 feet across. I don't want to lift it higher than 15 feet off the ground when it's doing those circles that low. I've calibrated the compass and the IMU, as well as upgraded to the latest firmware.

What can I do to help resolve, this, or what could the issue be? Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Brandon

One thing you might want to try is switch to atti mode while this is happening. That would isolate it to a GPS problem if it stops the circling. I don't say this with a lot of confidence because I haven't quite figured out the full relationship between the compass and the GPS. Just be careful in atti if you have never done it before.
 
Here is a great explanation of what it is doing. Some people call it toilet bowl'ing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfaRpNp-__k

Mine was doing the same thing. It would circle for awhile and then eventually steady out.
Here is a video I made of it doing that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqJMBzDlSZM

I solved this buy plugging in the usb and checking compass. It was really off, but I was able to recalibrate it back into line.
Tested it today and it was good.
Hope that helps
 

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