3 issues last 2 days

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First off I really enjoy this site, everyone shares things that happen to their Vision+ and others have answers or thoughts on why something happens. I keep flying to for my own enjoyment but also in hopes I can contribute to the knowledge base here someday. That said yesterday was interesting. On my second flight of the day I was about 200 feet up and my TX started blinking red and beeping, I immediately thought the double A's were going dead. Anyway, I think I set a new personal record for fastest landing. Curious if anyone knows how long you have before the controls are unresponsive after the warning starts.

Today I went down to a new area to catch a different perspective of a riverboat leaving town. The spot I found had a cement structure coming about 12 inches out of the ground and I'd say it was 15 to 20 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide. I thought that would make a nifty launch pad. As soon as everything powered up I received a "needs calibration notice". I went through the calibration process and and sat the phantom back down on the cement and soon after I received the same message. I tried the process again and nada.........fast blinking red lights. I was about to throw in the towel and even walked back to my vehicle to put it away and then my phone read "calibration maintenance required". This was a new one. So I decided to power off and back on and set the unit on the ground instead of the cement. I also went though the calibration once more and everything looked normal. 8 sats, slow blinking green lights, so I chanced it and it flew as solid as it always does. I think the issue was the cement thing even though I've launched from a sidewalk or roadway countless times. Otherwise I'm at a loss with that one.

Lastly I was watching back part of my video there was a point where there was a strobe light effect in the playback. To be clear the picture wasn't going black, just dark to light. I would of thought if I had been pointing at the sun that might be the result but I wasn't. Maybe it was light reflecting from the water that caused the issue. Unless there is a neat video editing trick fix I may have to scrap that portion. Think I might of read someplace frame rate could be a factor. Mine was set a 30fps.
 
Rebar in cement causes compass calibration error.
Strobe effect was probably just shadows from your props.
 
The concrete probably had steel reinforcing in it. That's what was screwing with your compass.
The strobe affect was more than likely from the props and sunlight.
 
Of course opinions and experiences vary, but I have only calibrated my compass twice in 6 mos. Once when new and once after replacing the Tx/Rx with Futaba shortly after purchase.

I performed these calibrations at waist level (~3ft) above my steel reinforced 8" thick concrete driveway as well as take-off and land on it.

Never any issues.
 
I would of swore I replied to the first response. Anyway, I will say it again, makes sense. Thanks for your input. I have new batteries in the TX so that one isn't a biggie. I just don't want to get caught to far out some day and not have battery power to get back.
 
I have only received the compass calibration required message on the Vision app once and that was awhile back when I had the Phantom on a brand new section of concrete sidewalk installed by the Lake Michigan shoreline. I have flown off many other concrete sidewalks / driveways before and never received that message again. Guess it all depends on what's in the concrete.
 
I have a metal tool box in my back yard. If I set the quad on it I will get a message about the compass. If I move away from the metal box everything works fine. This is with one Vision plus another does not seem to react that same way. more tests to come

N017RW said:
Of course opinions and experiences vary, but I have only calibrated my compass twice in 6 mos. Once when new and once after replacing the Tx/Rx with Futaba shortly after purchase.

I performed these calibrations at waist level (~3ft) above my steel reinforced 8" thick concrete driveway as well as take-off and land on it.

Never any issues.

Do you know what kind of reinforcement was used with that concrete driveway? Is it like a steel mesh or big pieces of rebar. Not to say that you have not tested this but if there is a manhole cover out in the street you could test to see if you get an error or not. If your bird does not then I am tempted to think that different birds are acting in a different manner.
 
My last time out, my controller batteries finally died for the first time (100+ flights). When the controller began steadily beeping I'll have to admit it startled me, but when I saw the blinking red light I knew what was happening. I completed my flight and brought her home, changing the batteries before the next flight. I never noticed any change in control distance from the first flight until the last. If anything, my range seemed to have been steadily increasing.

I flew once from the old Severn River bridge. They knocked most of the old draw bridge down when they built the new elevated section that doesn't require a draw span, but left one section of the old bridge intact as a fishing pier. I received the compass warning before each of four flights, no doubt because of steel bars in the bridge decking.

I have sometimes noticed that, under certain lighting conditions, the camera's exposure settings become confused and will switch back & forth between different settings. Perhaps this was responsible for your strobe effect?
 
In part I was the cement for causing that cal. Issue but I believe it was the amount of rebar in the cement. That cause you to lose calibration
 

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