Motors won't start if on ground (SOLVED)

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Hey guys,

Thought I'd put a record of my experience to help anyone out who has the same issue. On my new P3P, the motors weren't starting unless the phantom was about 1.5m off the ground being held by someone.

Here's the story:
So after unboxing my new phantom 3 professional, updating firmware, calibrating the remote, charging the batteries, and calibrating the compass, I thought I'd start the motor without props on to check its working. However all the CSC combinations wouldn't start the motors.

I didn't want to do an IMU calibration at this point yet as I've seen some people complaining that it flew better out of the box, and drifted after an IMU calibration. The gimbal horizon was straight, and the values coming from the gyro and accelerometer on a level surface appeared good.

So I thought maybe I'd try the auto takeoff feature outside with the props on. Nothing happened. The app said successful takeoff immediately, and yet no motors started to spin.

Being my first DJI product, I thought there might be some in-built precautions or errors that are preventing it starting.

Thought perhaps it was a software error so tried on a few different platforms. Nada.
Then while my friend was holding the phantom at about chest height I thought I'd try a CSC (without props). Voila! The motors started spinning! So turned them off, put it back on the ground, tried CSC and nothing.

Turns out the bird would only start its motors when off the ground. Tried flying it after starting it in the air and putting it down carefully and taking off manually. Flew very well. Very stable, no symptoms of a bad IMU.

Anyways so I thought I'd do an IMU calibration finally, and it solved the whole issue! Done quite a few flights since and am very happy with the bird.
I thought I had a defective bird for awhile, so if anyone else is having trouble with the motors starting do an IMU calibration.
 
Hey guys,

Thought I'd put a record of my experience to help anyone out who has the same issue. On my new P3P, the motors weren't starting unless the phantom was about 1.5m off the ground being held by someone.

Here's the story:
So after unboxing my new phantom 3 professional, updating firmware, calibrating the remote, charging the batteries, and calibrating the compass, I thought I'd start the motor without props on to check its working. However all the CSC combinations wouldn't start the motors.

I didn't want to do an IMU calibration at this point yet as I've seen some people complaining that it flew better out of the box, and drifted after an IMU calibration. The gimbal horizon was straight, and the values coming from the gyro and accelerometer on a level surface appeared good.

So I thought maybe I'd try the auto takeoff feature outside with the props on. Nothing happened. The app said successful takeoff immediately, and yet no motors started to spin.

Being my first DJI product, I thought there might be some in-built precautions or errors that are preventing it starting.

Thought perhaps it was a software error so tried on a few different platforms. Nada.
Then while my friend was holding the phantom at about chest height I thought I'd try a CSC (without props). Voila! The motors started spinning! So turned them off, put it back on the ground, tried CSC and nothing.

Turns out the bird would only start its motors when off the ground. Tried flying it after starting it in the air and putting it down carefully and taking off manually. Flew very well. Very stable, no symptoms of a bad IMU.

Anyways so I thought I'd do an IMU calibration finally, and it solved the whole issue! Done quite a few flights since and am very happy with the bird.
I thought I had a defective bird for awhile, so if anyone else is having trouble with the motors starting do an IMU calibration.

Welcome to the party kyba274,

What else did you do while you were in there doing the IMU calibration?

Many of the folks who get bad results from an IMU calibration have not done it properly.
There are a couple of links in my signature which may make life easier for you.

Enjoy the show
 
Welcome to the party kyba274,

What else did you do while you were in there doing the IMU calibration?

Many of the folks who get bad results from an IMU calibration have not done it properly.
There are a couple of links in my signature which may make life easier for you.

Enjoy the show
Hi IflyinWY thanks for the welcome.
I just did the IMU calibration to fix it. I did all the other stuff earlier. Made sure to follow a good YouTube video that's in one of the threads around here. Put it in the fridge too as its winter over here.

For some reason u don't have a signature, but I'm in the android forum version atm.

Phantom works perfectly right now, using a Samsung Galaxy s6, so I'm pretty happy.
 
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Hi IflyinWY thanks for the welcome.
I just did the IMU calibration to fix it. I did all the other stuff earlier. Made sure to follow a good YouTube video that's in one of the threads around here. Put it in the fridge too as its winter over here.

For some reason u don't have a signature, but I'm in the android forum version atm.

Phantom works perfectly right now, using a Samsung Galaxy s6, so I'm pretty happy.

Good reply, thanks kyba274.

I suspect something else was changed. An IMU "out of" calibration can prevent the motors from starting but for some reason I didn't think that was the case here.

I've added info to the "Personal Details then Location" of my Profile which should give many folks an idea where I am on the Third Rock. Some folks may not get it, so I am in Wyoming, USA. You can do the same if you choose to. I wouldn't suggest you, nor would I give out my street address, but it's nice to know in what part of the world the other person is located. It seems to make it easier.

Here's what my signature includes:
The first line is a really good search link limiting the results to our forum.
Enter your query in the middle of the page, not at the top.
https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=014775389315664725445:ejku2ysgyhi
Proud owner of a P1 & the FC40 with 9450 props, mountain & high altitude flying. I love this show, what a crazy planet we live on
This last line is to my website which has a number of pages where you can find some good info and some other stuff, all rated "G". ;)
http://www.wynotweb.com/Advanced_IMU_Calibration.html
 
Help before I throw this thing in the pond. Here's my problem. Phantom One flies like a dream when it starts. Sometimes I try and start it up and nothing. Can come back 20 minutes later and viola, starts right up and flies great. The motor start up is my problem. Sometimes it's fine and other times..... Have gone through the normal checks and balances of ensuring good batteries, etc. but nothing. I'm assuming it's not a firmware problem since when it does start it's fine. I tried to do a firmware update but can't get the installation to work. Installed new drivers but still nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm a noob to this drone thing. Thanks!
 

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