Does Phantom know level if it initializes on a slope

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Does Phantom know a correct level if initialized sitting on a slop. I am wanting to video some footage along a river front area but there is no level ground with in 200' of where I want to leave from. This was todays reason for chickening out and not flying over water on the riverfront !! Maybe I will run out of reasons soon and just do it ...
 
Just do it! Level is set during IMU calibration.
 
Just be sure to really gun the throttle at takeoff... or the Phantom could trip over itself.

Or, better yet, hand launch it.
 
Thanks guys, I just wanted to be sure before I launched an un-flyable bird. I have hand launched and retrieved several times so no big deal, Thanks,....
 
ProfessorStein said:
Or, better yet, hand launch it.

I'm giving serious thought to only hand-launching and hand-catching my Vision+ from now on. In fact, I'm getting tired of seeing glimpes of the landing gear in some of my videos so I might chop those suckers down to a short nub soon :lol:
 
MadMitch88 said:
In fact, I'm getting tired of seeing glimpes of the landing gear in some of my videos so I might chop those suckers down to a short nub soon :lol:

I thought about that, too, after seeing a couple of videos of folks who have done so.
But it seems like it'd be really easy to torque the gimbal... since it's really the only thing left to grab onto (well... assuming you have a gimbal).
 
I cut a piece of hardboard just slightly larger than my drone's footprint and added a mount so I can attach it to a tripod, allowing me to always have a level launch pad when on a slope.
 
ProfessorStein said:
MadMitch88 said:
In fact, I'm getting tired of seeing glimpes of the landing gear in some of my videos so I might chop those suckers down to a short nub soon :lol:

I thought about that, too, after seeing a couple of videos of folks who have done so.
But it seems like it'd be really easy to torque the gimbal... since it's really the only thing left to grab onto (well... assuming you have a gimbal).

What about this design? It would have a handle at the rear to make hand-catching still relatively easy without needing to grab the camera/gimbal during landings. I'd probably construct some kind of crude cardboard launch holder that would prop up under the 4 arms to make takeoff hands-free. But this would eliminate the annoying landing gear showing up in the videos! It also has the added benefit of dropping some weight and aerodynamic drag from a Vision+. You could still mount pinwheel antennas to the nubs.

Note: please excuse my limited Photoshopping skills in making this prototype image :mrgreen:


9v2biN.jpg
 
Not only does it know what level is, it also knows if it is upside down!
On the ground station, when I have the bird inverted, so is the level indicator on the panel.
As the man said, just do it.
"There is no can not, only do!".
 
Suwaneeguy said:
"There is no can not, only do!".

LOL! But I believe you're remembering that wrong ;-)

And that design would certainly solve the problem, Mitch! Pretty nice thinking, that. Though... if it ever auto-landed somewhere far away...
 
Well I never said where that line came from now did I?

Are you hinting at that I might have a what do you call that when you can't think of it?
:lol: :lol: :mrgreen: :twisted:
 
ProfessorStein said:
And that design would certainly solve the problem, Mitch! Pretty nice thinking, that. Though... if it ever auto-landed somewhere far away...

That is the one drawback of my design --- no protection for the gimbal if the Phantom auto-lands somewhere besides your hand or a big pile of fresh marshmallows. :p

But then again, the stock landing gear on a Vision+ doesnt guarantee protection against a rogue tree branch or rock from damaging the gimbal during auto-land.
 

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