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- Jan 17, 2014
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I have had the opportunity to fly my FC40 on three days outdoors now. Each time three flights (3 batteries). It's mainly been testing things work as they should and are reliable. Of course I've also shot video from increasing heights. After these flights I notice two issues about which I'd like to know whether these are 'normal' and others experience these too and may signify shortcomings in the firmware or whether they signify a problem with my particular FC40.
All flights were made from an enclosed playing field which offers protection from the wind near the ground but where the Phantom is exposed to the full force of the wind higher up. All firmwares are latest versions. All flights after CL and HP rapid green flashes and with single green flashes indicating >6 satellites.
The first day the wind was about 9m/s. Near the ground it was much more relaxed but when after a while I went a bit higher the effects became very noticeable. I didn't go very high and everything was too new to make any reliable observations about the two issues.
The second day, yesterday, wind was much less at around 5m/s. I noticed when I let the Phantom hover 1,5m above ground (GPS mode) it tended to yaw left spontaneously. I had to correct it regularly. Two compass calibrations didn't change this. I decided to do an advanced calibration later at home. I did and calibrated the Tx too and flew indoors where I still noticed this effect (ATTI mode).
I reset all gains to their default and flew it again this morning (wind 7m/s) before the weather takes a turn for the worse as it is expected to do (more wind/rain *sigh*). I tested the hover on all three flights (GPS mode). Mostly it went well but during the second flight in one of those tests with hands off the sticks after 40 seconds of holding orientation nicely it rotated about 135 degrees left and remained there until I took over again because time was towards the end of the battery life and I wanted to check the signal light. Indoors it was much more prevalent. I'm getting the impression that it only happens in less turbulent air when the Phantom doesn't need to make very strong corrections. When it is very actively holding position the orientation is held too. When the air quiets down it starts to rotate left. If that's the case this would obviously be very undesirable in still air when you should be able to shoot the best video. Can't have constant spontaneous panning.
So my question is whether others experience similar behaviour and of course any suggestions to fix this are welcomed too. I did every calibration available and don't really know what's left for me to do to fix this.
The second issue is that although near the ground the Phantom holds its horizontal position when I go to greater altitudes with stronger winds (yesterday 30m high and today 50m) the Phantom tends to drift downwind in GPS mode. Much more than should be within its GPS position's accuracy. I regularly have to actively direct it back to where I wanted it to be. This is not what I expect nor want. The whole point of position hold is that you don't have to actively fly the Phantom but can focus on shooting the video. In the stronger wind I cannot do that at the moment. Do others experience this too?
I have since realised both yesterday and today I was at the geofence ceiling level. This could be a factor. Maybe another bug. Maybe when it momentarily goes beyond the vertical geofence limit which it probably does on occasion when at that limit it changes its 'horizontal hold coordinates' values (too). Next time I will try to move below that level and see whether it has any influence. I'd be interested in others experimenting with this too. I don't think there's more flying for me today with wind being 11m/s now (25mph) and rising. Next few days not looking good either. :roll:
With the wind forces I already experienced the benefits of a gimbal become very noticeable in my videos. Today at 50m the bank angle was above 20 degrees in order to overcome the wind and hold position. I'm really waiting for a day without any wind at all. Should be nice.
All flights were made from an enclosed playing field which offers protection from the wind near the ground but where the Phantom is exposed to the full force of the wind higher up. All firmwares are latest versions. All flights after CL and HP rapid green flashes and with single green flashes indicating >6 satellites.
The first day the wind was about 9m/s. Near the ground it was much more relaxed but when after a while I went a bit higher the effects became very noticeable. I didn't go very high and everything was too new to make any reliable observations about the two issues.
The second day, yesterday, wind was much less at around 5m/s. I noticed when I let the Phantom hover 1,5m above ground (GPS mode) it tended to yaw left spontaneously. I had to correct it regularly. Two compass calibrations didn't change this. I decided to do an advanced calibration later at home. I did and calibrated the Tx too and flew indoors where I still noticed this effect (ATTI mode).
I reset all gains to their default and flew it again this morning (wind 7m/s) before the weather takes a turn for the worse as it is expected to do (more wind/rain *sigh*). I tested the hover on all three flights (GPS mode). Mostly it went well but during the second flight in one of those tests with hands off the sticks after 40 seconds of holding orientation nicely it rotated about 135 degrees left and remained there until I took over again because time was towards the end of the battery life and I wanted to check the signal light. Indoors it was much more prevalent. I'm getting the impression that it only happens in less turbulent air when the Phantom doesn't need to make very strong corrections. When it is very actively holding position the orientation is held too. When the air quiets down it starts to rotate left. If that's the case this would obviously be very undesirable in still air when you should be able to shoot the best video. Can't have constant spontaneous panning.
So my question is whether others experience similar behaviour and of course any suggestions to fix this are welcomed too. I did every calibration available and don't really know what's left for me to do to fix this.
The second issue is that although near the ground the Phantom holds its horizontal position when I go to greater altitudes with stronger winds (yesterday 30m high and today 50m) the Phantom tends to drift downwind in GPS mode. Much more than should be within its GPS position's accuracy. I regularly have to actively direct it back to where I wanted it to be. This is not what I expect nor want. The whole point of position hold is that you don't have to actively fly the Phantom but can focus on shooting the video. In the stronger wind I cannot do that at the moment. Do others experience this too?
I have since realised both yesterday and today I was at the geofence ceiling level. This could be a factor. Maybe another bug. Maybe when it momentarily goes beyond the vertical geofence limit which it probably does on occasion when at that limit it changes its 'horizontal hold coordinates' values (too). Next time I will try to move below that level and see whether it has any influence. I'd be interested in others experimenting with this too. I don't think there's more flying for me today with wind being 11m/s now (25mph) and rising. Next few days not looking good either. :roll:
With the wind forces I already experienced the benefits of a gimbal become very noticeable in my videos. Today at 50m the bank angle was above 20 degrees in order to overcome the wind and hold position. I'm really waiting for a day without any wind at all. Should be nice.