Calibration confusion

[goinup]

In the PV2+ User manual, there are two confusing calibration instructions:

1.2 When to Recalibrate Pg 38 (see 2)

1. When compass data is abnormal,the rear LED flight indicator will blink red and yellow.
2. Flying in different location to last flight.
3. Mechanical structure of the Phantom has changed, i.e. changed mounting position of the compass.
4. Severe drifting occurs in flight, i.e.Phantom does not fly in straight lines.


4.2 Failsafe Procedure

Insert, pg 42
Quickly flipping the S2 switch of the Remote Controller from top to bottom 5 times or more will reset the current aircraft position as a new home point. Rear LED flight indicators will blink green rapidly when successful.

Or am I confusing two procedures?

 

[J Dot]

( S2 ) toggle is on LEFT. ( home point )
( S1) toggle is on RIGHT ( compass )


Jerry D
USA
( J Dot )

 

[yawnalot29]

I am confused by your questions.

If you are asking if "When to calibrate" and "Failsafe procedure" are the same, they are one.

One states the condition in which you should re-caibrate your compass.

One provides instruction on how to reset "Home" location. "Home" location is where the Phantom is instructed to return to in the event of a link failure between remote control and the craft.


To enter calibration mode, you flip the upper right hand corner toggle switch.

To reset Home position, you flip the upper left hand corner toggle switch.

same action, different toggle switch.

 

[goinup]

Jerry - I know that, the confusing part is as shown also in the toggle S2's description:

"S2 is used to record a Home point manually. After a
Home point has been recorded automatically, flipping
S2 from position 1 to position 3 and back 5 times (or
more) rapidly will move the Home point to the
Phantom’s current location."


My question is: Will this procedure take the place of re-calibrating at a new location using S1?

 

[yawnalot29]

Home Position and Compass Calibration are two different thing.

There's a shiny metal thing at the lending gear of the craft. That's a very sensitive compass to point to magnetic north. It does so by detecting the magnetic field of where you are at. The earth's magnetic field changes. And therefore if any of those conditions are met, you should re-calibrate your compass before flying else you risk losing your phantom.

This re-calibration step is merely to let your compass know where the magnetic north is.


Home position is the GPS coordinate where your craft should return to in case of a failure. You can reset that location while mid-flight for whatever reason. Say you flew your craft way too far and you can't see it anymore and you have no idea how to fly it back. You can activate the RTH (Return To Home) fail safe and your craft will automatically return to where you designate as the home position. The initial position where your craft is turned on and acquired 6 satellite lock is your home location.

 

[goinup]

Yawnalot..I've used RTH w/my PV2 successfully before. As I'm awaiting my new PV2+ , I'm trying to familiarize myself w/slighly different procedures (S2 on the PV2 does nothing)
As I normally calibrate from my home position, I was just wondering if I went over a few blocks to a friend's house if I could use that new S2 function there, in the event of a RTH necessity, without recalibrating.
What do you think?

 

[Flighttime]

"home" is where you took off from....i.e. Where you first got all green lights. You dont need to reset it when you take off at another person's house it does that automatically on GPS. You can also choose to calibrate the compass (S1) before take off as part of good practices before a flight.....but this is separate from registering a "home" point.

Now, let's say if you took off from your house and walked a few blocks (while flying the phantom) to your friend's house, you can manually set your friend's house as the new home point while the phantom is still in the air in case RTH is triggered. You can do so by flipping S2.

 

[goinup]

Flighttime, that's how I interpreted it also.
Using your scenario, when I want to change the RTH back to "home", the point of calibration (my place), will I have to re-calibrate?

 

[Flighttime]

Using my scenario, if you want to change "home" back to your house....you can either
1) while flying: hover over your house (yard/open space/ not directly over your roof) and manually register those coordinates as the new home (flipping S2)
2) after landing elsewhere: bring it to your house and register the GPS coordinates by flipping S2 while on the ground
(Note that the GPS unit is in the phantom and not in the Tx, so home is where the phantom is when registering gps lock or manual S2 switching...and not where the Tx is at that time)

Either way, the "home" point will not stick between power cycles. I.e. It will automatically register the initial location where it acquired GPS lock every time it's powered up as the "home" location.

Separately, for compass calibration (S1), you can choose to calibrate your compass before your next take off after you've landed...but my personal opinion is you won't need to recalibrate your compass if you're just flying and landing within a few blocks. Still, its a good practice to do so before taking off at different locations to reduce the chances of a flyaway.

Also, stating the obvious just to cover all bases....compass calibration can only be done on the ground as you'll need to physically hold on to the phantom throughout the calibration dance.

 

[goinup]

Flighttime - very helpful info! Thanks.