Caff's first 48 hour question thread

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So.... I now have my P3A!
Yay!

I'm all geared to bin the roots and calibrate a hundred things... But figure I'll have some questions along the way.

First, before I do anything, I snuck a peek in the box on the train home and the gimble lock plastic was quite definitely not locked in.
I'm sure it's fine and it's certainly not visually broken (although I'm no expert). Is there anything I should check on it before I start pulling things apart and doing all the prep that should be done. I'm guessing the gimble protector is often dislodged though.
 
It falls off easily because of the 2nd white tab that is also on the gimbal to keep it stationary. Without the 2nd holder you'll be able to put the gimbal lock on and it won't budge....again it's just with both items on the gimbal it barley locks.....mine was in place until I started to remove it from the original box and at that point it fell off.
It's probably fine but you will be the final judge of that.
 
Cheers! I'll get her set up and find out.
First flight tomorrow! (too dark tonight).
 
Ok. Checklist:

- Battery charged.
- Firmware upgraded on quad.
- Firmware confirmed as already up to date on controller (must have been 1.1.8 no update in 1.1.9).
- Gimble move sensitivity reduced.
- Phantom chilling ready for IMU and level surface found for gimble calibration.
- Tinkered in the sim. (Meh)
- Checked out the various setting options in app.
- Tested gimble stability and video.
- About to do stick calibration.
- Need to read up on the gain/evals/curves for the controller and tx channels.

Am I missing anything before taking off on my maiden votage in the morning?
 
Ok. Checklist:

- Battery charged.
- Firmware upgraded on quad.
- Firmware confirmed as already up to date on controller (must have been 1.1.8 no update in 1.1.9).
- Gimble move sensitivity reduced.
- Phantom chilling ready for IMU and level surface found for gimble calibration.
- Tinkered in the sim. (Meh)
- Checked out the various setting options in app.
- Tested gimble stability and video.
- About to do stick calibration.
- Need to read up on the gain/evals/curves for the controller and tx channels.

Am I missing anything before taking off on my maiden votage in the morning?
Don't forget your SD card :)
Don't forget to remove the gimbal lock, foam, plastic film on the lense :)
 
Most of all don't forget to look up. I think that is where you will be going (grin). Good luck in you maiden flight.
 
I think I have completed the checklist!

First flight: done.
First crash: done

She's a beautiful machine to fly. Just at the local reserve, got her about 40m up and 220m out at Max. Solid as a rock.

Brought her back down to do some closer to ground stuff then back to me for landing.
Of course I lost GPS and hit Atti mode just as a gust of wind hit as I was moving forward brushing past a small tree.

Not the fault of the loss of GPS or the wind, my fault for treating it like my blade and flying too close to the tree.

Really slow speed and only 1.5 metres off the ground, but it was enough.

Sitting at the park about to walk home and assess. I'm not in panic mode yet as it broke the gimbal off but by snapping the top plastic plate on the two corners with the pins so theoretically simply swap pins to other corners... It also unplugged the ribbon cables at the connector cleanly rather than pulling out.

Apart from that the very back arms have popped open just slightly, both near the motor on the inside. That's probably more alarming and more confusing as I don't know how it would have got damage there.

Won't know until I get home. I'm hopeful for a recovery, otherwise I'll amend the thread title :)
 
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ouch, bad luck. Hopefully it's not too bad.

Not bad luck. Incorrect judgement on my part. Of course I'll be gutted if I can't self repair with no parts around yet, but the drone didn't fail which is good and I ,whilst misjudging a little, wasn't doing anything completely and ridiculously stupid (just a little bit) so otherwise I'd be punishing myself badly
 
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blank stare.png
....Ya kidding right ?
 
Not bad luck. Incorrect judgement on my part. Of course I'll be gutted if I can't self repair with no parts around yet, but the drone didn't fail which is good and I ,whilst misjudging a little, wasn't doing anything completely and ridiculously stupid (just a little bit) so otherwise I'd be punishing myself badly

None-the-less, good luck getting it airborn again. ;)
 
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20150529_110445.jpg 20150529_110457.jpg 20150529_110509.jpg 20150529_110530.jpg

So... After reconnection the gimbal still seems to work but I need to do something about that top plate.

More worried about the last two shots.
 
So has anyone got any advice on what to do with the arms, specifically if anything CAN be done and if anything NEEDS to be done.

The motors fire up no worries,and it's all still solid but I don't know enough about the mechanics to know if the angles would be affected or safe operation of the machine in general.
 
Well while I try and work that out managed to at least get this:
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Nothing exciting there at all just a gentle practice fly around the nearest parkland.
 
Look to buy a new gimbal mounting plate from another crash victim?
Too late to prevent what happened but my most important advice for new pilots is:
The Phantom 3 is much easier to fly than you imagine.
The trick is to not let this fool you into getting too adventurous too early.
Do your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.
Be afraid, very afraid of flying anywhere near trees etc. They will eat your Phantom - really.

Read up on RTH procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can control things.
 
Look to buy a new gimbal mounting plate from another crash victim?
Too late to prevent what happened but my most important advice for new pilots is:
The Phantom 3 is much easier to fly than you imagine.
The trick is to not let this fool you into getting too adventurous too early.
Do your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.
Be afraid, very afraid of flying anywhere near trees etc. They will eat your Phantom - really.

Read up on RTH procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can control things.

Yeah, RTH wouldn't have been the right solution for this one. Basically I just misjudged slightly but allowed myself to be in a position where a slight misjudgement was a risk which was silly.

My takeaways were as follows:

1. Last night I reduced the active braking to get smoother footage. I'm going to put it back to standard for safety.

2. There is no such thing as a small crash with 1.5kg. The blade would have kept flying to be honest in the same situation.

3. The blade is fun for nipping around stuff. Put the phantom up, keep it up and then land it straight down (at least wherever possible)
 
Well some good news.

Couldn't do much today but I did take her up for 5 minutes just to test her out. Quite strong, gusty wind so wasn't going to push it but it held nicely and I've just reviewed the video and rock-solid as ever. Let's hope that was my first and only crash. Really relieved!
 
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