3/5 Updated Autopilot firmware v3.12 released

[Pull_Up]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Have you seen our very own Shrimpfarmer's video? First part is how to open it successfully:

http://youtu.be/8IRvPYl9DpY

 

[gunslinger]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Have you seen our very own Shrimpfarmer's video? First part is how to open it successfully:

http://youtu.be/8IRvPYl9DpY

Off topic alert:

Shrimpfarmer... I'm curious. Are you a short gentleman who raises corn, radishes and peas? Or do you raise my favorite delicacy from the sea?

-slinger

 

[PropsPete]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Have you seen our very own Shrimpfarmer's video? First part is how to open it successfully:

http://youtu.be/8IRvPYl9DpY

Thanks for the link! The video was very helpful and I was able to get the case open without damaging any internal parts. The wires to the switches were glued to the bottom half for some reason and I had to detach them in order to get the case fully open.

 

[iDrone]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

I've added Shrimpfarmer's vid to the Update Instructional...

iDrone

 

[gunslinger]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

I've added Shrimpfarmer's vid to the Update Instructional...

iDrone

Cool... I thought you would.

 

[garygid]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

From above:

As always, you can test your compass calibration by doing a 10' hover to see if it holds station, or send your Vision out 10m and execute an RTH by turning off the transmitter. Vision should ascend to 20m, fly home, hover 15-sec, then begin a slow descent. It should come straight down without circling (except if compensating for wind shear). If it starts circling in greater diameters in what's been fondly called the "toilet bowl" effect, switch on the transmitter and flip S1 to middle position to disconnect GPS NAV then takeover flight control to bring it in for a safe landing, then perform a compass calibration. If it doesn't relinquish control, flip S1 up & down a couple times until you have sticks back with the switch in the middle position. Once landed: Left stick throttle down for approx 3-secs to shutdown the motors.

Question: Is this description of flipping S1 to the middle position
ONLY applicable to flying in Naza mode?

In Vision mode, one would flip S1 Down, then back Up, to regain control
from the failsafe landing process, I believe. However, there is no way
to recover from the spiral, since there is no non-GPS flying mode (no S1
middle position function) when not in Naza mode, right?

Or, am I missing some very important S1 middle position function in Vision mode?

Thanks mucho.

 

[Pull_Up]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

From memory, when I used to fly in Vision mode flipping the switch would interrupt the rth sequence if you were in range and if you left it in the middle position, it would still fly in GPS mode same as if it was in the top position. That's the default mode assuming it can see at least 6 sats, otherwise it will give you the yellows and you'd effectively be in atti mode until it saw the sats again, then it would go full gps - that's all autonomous. The only way to manually get it out of GPS mode would be if you have selected NAZA in the Assistant and set up S1 to have atti mode in the middle position. That or deliberately fly it into a building or under some solid cover in Vision mode until it lost satellite lock!

 

[iDrone]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Out-of-the-box Vision is setup for Vision mode. S1 Up is what DJI calls Ready-To-Fly GPS Mode, and S1 Middle is what they call Ready-To-Fly non-GPS Mode. During RTH, switching S1 from Up to Middle breaks-off RTH and returns manual flight control back to the pilot. Whether that's really non-GPS mode is debatable.

iDrone

 

[garygid]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Where do you find this description of Vision mode S1 middle position as non-GPS?
thanks, Gary

 

[Pull_Up]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Thanks for clarifying iDrone - it's been a while and I had no memory of middle position doing anything at all in Vision mode. Seems a long time ago, but in reality I only switched to naza mode about a month ago!

 

[BigPig]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Thanks for the write-up! This is a great read for me as I just got my PV today from B&H based on other recommendations in this forum. It's also my first post. So much help here. Anyway, I haven't flown mine yet, but was able to successfully upgrade the Vision, transmitter and camera all to the latest firmware without a hitch. My question is this: do I have to re-calibrate the transmitter since updating the firmware or should everything "just work". I was able to calibrate to compass and spin up the motors a few times before the firmware update outside before the rains came, but no lift off was done. Do I need to re-calibrate to Vision's compass again also? Thanks!

You're welcome! Welcome to the fold! One of beauties of the Assistant's is that they read the Controller & Vision and let you know if anything looks awry and needs recalibrating. If your sticks zero w/hands off and the numbers are identical limit-to-limit, then I'd say your Controller is fine. If you check the IMU and it says its fine, then you're done there too, 'tho it cant hurt if you want to calibrate it. As for recalibrating the compass, you picked an interesting day to do your first one as there was a "CME" (coronal mass ejection / aka solar flare) yesterday, all bets are off on most all compasses unless they're gyro-based. So yes, you might want to do another one just before you fly.

As always, you can test your compass calibration by doing a 10' hover to see if it holds station, or send your Vision out 10m and execute an RTH by turning off the transmitter. Vision should ascend to 20m, fly home, hover 15-sec, then begin a slow descent. It should come straight down without circling (except if compensating for wind shear). If it starts circling in greater diameters in what's been fondly called the "toilet bowl" effect, switch on the transmitter and flip S1 to middle position to disconnect GPS NAV then takeover flight control to bring it in for a safe landing, then perform a compass calibration. If it doesn't relinquish control, flip S1 up & down a couple times until you have sticks back with the switch in the middle position. Once landed: Left stick throttle down for approx 3-secs to shutdown the motors.

iDrone

Thanks iDrone! So I guess that means I'll have to open up the transmitter again and plug it back in to see what the values are? And just to be sure, I'm supposed to launch the TC Assistant in order to see these values, right? I was REALLY hoping that since I just bought my PV Sunday and it arrived from B&H yesterday that it would have the talked about external USB connector.

 

[garygid]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

It would be the RC Assistant, to connect directly to your RC Transmitter.

However, power on the RC, and the P2V, connecting the P2V via USB to the PC,
and run the Phantom Assistant, and you can see the RC inputs, as received by the
P2V, without opening the RC Transmitter. Much Easier.

 

[BigPig]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Thank you!!

 

[iDrone]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Where do you find this description of Vision mode S1 middle position as non-GPS?
thanks, Gary

Therein lies the dilemma and why I say S1 Middle = non-GPS mode is debatable. Haven't found it in the docs or going thru Colin's vid's, must look further. Meanwhile I took mine out for a spin in Vision Mode to check. Starting out with S1 Up I was able to boot up, Home Lock, get 6+ sats & slow greens on the beacons, & take-off as usual. Once hovering a few feet (too gusty to go higher today) I switched to S1 Middle: no change in the beacons (slow green) and no detectable changes in flight behavior. Yet I know from past flights on v1.05 & v1.08 firmware when I've lost Control Signal and Vision is in RTH Mode, the beacons will flash fast yellow and won't return control until I flip S1 in & out of Up position... So it may be -me- confusing the yellow beacon w/"non-GPS mode" because: slow yellow = "non-GPS mode" but fast yellow = "Control Signal lost".

Thanks for clarifying iDrone - it's been a while and I had no memory of middle position doing anything at all in Vision mode. Seems a long time ago, but in reality I only switched to naza mode about a month ago!

Don't say yes, yet... From the test I just did its looking like flicking S1 only initiates a "request to override" an RTH in-progress. When playing back its recordings we can see the PV "kick" whenever I flick the switch (during RTH), as if handing flight control back 'n forth between RTH control & TX control. More testing needed, and maybe an inquiry to DJI (if they would be inclined to oblige). I'll have to update the info about recovering from fly-away's if this is the case. Again, DJI's feedback would be invaluable here. If anyone else has info, feel free to comment.

Thanks iDrone! So I guess that means I'll have to open up the transmitter again and plug it back in to see what the values are? And just to be sure, I'm supposed to launch the TC Assistant in order to see these values, right? I was REALLY hoping that since I just bought my PV Sunday and it arrived from B&H yesterday that it would have the talked about external USB connector.

If your NAZA-M firmware is already at v1.05 your TX/Controller should already be upgraded (they were released together). So you should be able to upgrade your Vision to v1.08 without worries (there were no further updates to the Controller after v1.05). Can't hurt to check, but if you're itchin' to fly, I think you're good to go... Get a few flights in, then take the time to check your Controller firmware for peace of mind & upgrade if necessary.

iDrone

 

[iResq]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Thanks iDrone! So I guess that means I'll have to open up the transmitter again and plug it back in to see what the values are? And just to be sure, I'm supposed to launch the TC Assistant in order to see these values, right? I was REALLY hoping that since I just bought my PV Sunday and it arrived from B&H yesterday that it would have the talked about external USB connector.

If your NAZA-M firmware is already at v1.05 your TX/Controller should already be upgraded (they were released together). So you should be able to upgrade your Vision to v1.08 without worries (there were no further updates to the Controller after v1.05). Can't hurt to check, but if you're itchin' to fly, I think you're good to go... Get a few flights in, then take the time to check your Controller firmware for peace of mind & upgrade if necessary.

iDrone

I just received mine a few days ago. Upgraded naza firmware to 1.08. Opened and attached transmitter and the software said that there were no updates. This is in line with what iDrone said.

 

[iDrone]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

I've submitted a request for clarification to DJI on Vision Mode & S1 and added a disclaimer to the Upgrade Instructional under "How to recover from a fly away".

I just received mine a few days ago. Upgraded naza firmware to 1.08. Opened and attached transmitter and the software said that there were no updates. This is in line with what iDrone said.

Awesome... Thank-you iResq. Have fun both of you!

iDrone

 

[iDrone]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Ahhh... I found it. Colin mentions switching S1 in his interview with Mitch when discussing fly-away's:

Take that switch on the top right, and switch it one click down, into the middle, which is attitude.

However, I think it still remains unclear whether this applies to Vision Mode.

iDrone

 

[BigPig]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

I'm posting a couple of screen shots of what I saw when I plugged in my PV to the Phantom 2 Assistant. I'm not sure what all of these values mean (I guess a couple are self-explanatory), but for the most part I'm a little afraid not to make sure everything is the way it should be before my first flight. The last thing I want or need is for my new bird to have one of these random fly-away episodes I've read so much about.




Thanks again for all of the help. And, sorry for the image sizes. Haven't figured out how to link Flickr yet.

 

[iDrone]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

All looks nominal... of course you'll have to move your Controller's sticks from limit to limit and read the numbers yourself as we can't see them from here. Centered & hands-off should be zero (and yours are), now move em left/right/up/down. Ideally the max numbers will be identical, if not calibrate them. Have fun!

iDrone

 

[BenDronePilot]

Re: Upgrade firmware B4 flying your Vision! Update 1/4: FYI

Ahhh... I found it. Colin mentions switching S1 in his interview with Mitch when discussing fly-away's:

Take that switch on the top right, and switch it one click down, into the middle, which is attitude.

However, I think it still remains unclear whether this applies to Vision Mode.

iDrone

I can help give you further explanation to the S1 switch for you. I think I also posted this in another thread but here goes.

If you're in "Vision" mode the Phantom will always be operating in GPS mode regardless of the position of the S1 switch. The reason though that you want the S1 switch always in the uppermost position is that it effects the way Return to Home functions. Also Colon says S1 in middle being "attitude" mode because he was description a Phantom 1 which has that enabled out of the box unlike the vision.

Flying in Vision mode, as long as you have a Home Lock (green tail lights before take off) and you enter Fail Safe RTH (quick yellow flashing tail lights) by either turning off your transmitter or flying out of reception this is how the S1 switch works. The Phantom will rise to an altitude of 66 feet if below that or stay at current altitude if higher then fly in a straight line hovering above the marked Home location for approximately 15 seconds before coming in for a landing. If your transmitter has been on all this time leaving the S1 switch in the upward position will allow the Phantom to descend and land on it's own. If you moved the S1 switch to the center position at any point during RTH the Phantom will return to the home position but it will not descend instead it will just hold position and await input. Keep in mind that you will still be in GPS hold as there is no attitude mode.

Flying in Naza mode, the return to home fail safe works in basically the same way when loosing controller signal or just shutting it off with the exception that if you have the S1 switch in the center you're in attitude mode and the Phantom will fly above your home point but not land and if wind hits the Phantom it will drift because of no GPS position hold with S1 centered while in Naza mode.

If you configure the bottom position for S1 to be "failsafe" putting the S1 switch in the bottom position will engage a full fly to home and landing operation unless interrupted by putting the S1 switch into the middle position to regain control. Leave S1 centered if you want to fly continue flying in Atti or move S1 back to top position to fly in GPS mode.

On a side note, if you took off before you had a home lock if Phantom enters failsafe it will automatically land wherever it is with no attempts to fly back to you. You would have to quickly get your transmitter on and put S1 switch to center to stop this.