Phantom 1 drifting (crashing) after everything

capodrone81 · Jan 11, 2015

J.James said:
Colin70 Right away I see some thing thats sticking out at me like a sore thumb that has caused many other people problems on there phantoms when they install extended widened landing skids on a phantom. Which is havering the compass on the leg not mounted so its facing exactly the right way. The front of your compass should be facing towards the inside of the left leg and so tthat its on the inside of the right leg that its on. So you need to turn it about 125 degrees from ware its at now. It also needs to be as straight up and down as you can get it to. Tho hard to tell from that pic if you can get it like that on your legs or not. IF not you will have to make or get some thing that you can mount it to that will allow it to face the right direction. Even if all you can do is use a short pc of dowel rod that hangs straight down from the bottom of the craft that you can put the compass on or use some thing L shaped so it sticks out the side some place and has a post that hangs straight down that you can put the compass on and turn it the right direction.
But you very well might also have some thing going on with the gps not being facing the right way to and when in gps mode the compass and the gps might be trying to fight each other if it thinks its moving one way but the compass is saying. No ******* north is that way to the gps. all the while both of them are not orientated the right way that the naza things they are supposed to be faceing and trying to move the craft.

I just took a peek at my gps unit being I happen to have my shell open right not. On the compass the flat orange and red ribbon cabal is facing exactly forward towards front side of my phantom. BUT as far as I know the compass is even more important that its facing the right way then even the gps being gps is not as good at knowing direction as much as it is at knowing its position on the map. esp if its not moving. But I would think that its still good to have it so its faceing the right way anyway just so you can know its not that causing any issues.

WOW. :shock: :geek: :idea:

Colin70 · Jan 11, 2015

All that is very helpful info thanks! but this problem did seem to start when I had the old body. However you might be on to something with the compass placement. If I remember correctly it did start this stuff when I went to a wide landing gear. I did go back to the old landing gear after it started this wondering effect. But I might not have put it back in the right place possibly. Can you post a pic of the compass placement ? I think u might have made some sense of this wondering flight.

capodrone81 · Jan 11, 2015

buy and replace compass. i think you can get the latest sealed unit for 15.00 from rcdepot

start ruling out electronics imo. least expensive first lol.

Colin70 · Jan 11, 2015

Yes but isn't there a gps set up that would do away with the compass all together. Like this one?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DJI-GPS-Compass ... 1725689252

or something like it?

J.James · Jan 12, 2015

All that is very helpful info thanks! but this problem did seem to start when I had the old body. However you might be on to something with the compass placement. If I remember correctly it did start this stuff when I went to a wide landing gear. I did go back to the old landing gear after it started this wondering effect. But I might not have put it back in the right place possibly. Can you post a pic of the compass placement ? I think u might have made some sense of this wondering flight.

I dont have a pic off hand but in that pic of the black phantom you posted were the compass is on the leg is exactly how its supposed to be on the leg. BUT the legs need to be swapped. So when you are looking at the front of the phantom. The compass should be on the back left instead of the front and to your right like it is in that pic. So it looks like them widened legs its in the right spot as far as were it should be on the leg and but looks like just have the legs on the wrong sides.

and if you are useing the bowed f450 legs that dont have a spot were it can be mounted so thats its perfectly straight up and down and also at a perfect 90 degree right angel to the craft were I was mentioning putting it on a dowol here is a thing some one makes for mounting the compass the right direction meant for when some one used retractable legs which can not have the compass mounted to the legs because it will not side right and will get all screwed up even more when the legs are raised..

But just to show it here it is. http://www.ebay.com/itm/TACO-3DPOWER-CO ... 2a45de66b4

notice that the flat spot on the compass is still faceing directly towards the side of the phantoms belly and in a straight line.

i also have seen others that use the bowed shaped legs also use a busted old regular leg that has the compass on it and they mount it so the compass still hangs down on the part of the leg it normally goes on and it ends up being inside there bowed legs and hanging up off the ground a tiny bit.

When I was looking for a set of good extended legs for my vision a few weeks ago almost every person that reviewed any legs that did not allow the compass to be mounted in the same orientation and direction as the original legs ALL had real bad problems with not being able to fly right. With lots of drifting and crashing. and all sorts of not fun stuff.

Colin70 · Jan 12, 2015

thanks !!! much appreciate your incite!

capodrone81 · Jan 12, 2015

J.James said:
All that is very helpful info thanks! but this problem did seem to start when I had the old body. However you might be on to something with the compass placement. If I remember correctly it did start this stuff when I went to a wide landing gear. I did go back to the old landing gear after it started this wondering effect. But I might not have put it back in the right place possibly. Can you post a pic of the compass placement ? I think u might have made some sense of this wondering flight.

Click to expand...

I dont have a pic off hand but in that pic of the black phantom you posted were the compass is on the leg is exactly how its supposed to be on the leg. BUT the legs need to be swapped. So when you are looking at the front of the phantom. The compass should be on the back left instead of the front and to your right like it is in that pic. So it looks like them widened legs its in the right spot as far as were it should be on the leg and but looks like just have the legs on the wrong sides.

and if you are useing the bowed f450 legs that dont have a spot were it can be mounted so thats its perfectly straight up and down and also at a perfect 90 degree right angel to the craft were I was mentioning putting it on a dowol here is a thing some one makes for mounting the compass the right direction meant for when some one used retractable legs which can not have the compass mounted to the legs because it will not side right and will get all screwed up even more when the legs are raised..

But just to show it here it is. http://www.ebay.com/itm/TACO-3DPOWER-CO ... 2a45de66b4

notice that the flat spot on the compass is still faceing directly towards the side of the phantoms belly and in a straight line.

i also have seen others that use the bowed shaped legs also use a busted old regular leg that has the compass on it and they mount it so the compass still hangs down on the part of the leg it normally goes on and it ends up being inside there bowed legs and hanging up off the ground a tiny bit.

When I was looking for a set of good extended legs for my vision a few weeks ago almost every person that reviewed any legs that did not allow the compass to be mounted in the same orientation and direction as the original legs ALL had real bad problems with not being able to fly right. With lots of drifting and crashing. and all sorts of not fun stuff.

Nice info here! Great work!

J.James · Jan 12, 2015

Thanks Hope it can be of help to any one.. Tho every thing I know about these crazy flying contraptions I picked up from the board and from lots of trial and error while fixing a few of them up after some bang up crashes. So if I can help some one else along the way I try to.

PhantomFanatic · Jan 12, 2015

Juri do you still need help?

Colin70 · Jan 12, 2015

@J.James, I made a quick adjustment and will test tomorrow if the rain permits. Thanks a lot to you all!! If this doesn't fix it I will be putting a naza gps on it and do away with this silly leg compass.

PhantomFanatic · Jan 13, 2015

It is a shame that we didn't stay on Juri's (the OP) problem and resolve it for him. He must have moved on.

J.James · Jan 13, 2015

It is a shame that we didn't stay on Juri's (the OP) problem and resolve it for him. He must have moved on

I was thinking the same thing and wondering if any advise helped him and if he just got it going and is now off flying and forgot to come back and let us know. Or if its still some thing else and he just gave up. Hopefully he makes it back cause what ever it is its solvable. and some of the other stuff that was discussed with others that are havering similar weird things happening is all related to what was going on with his phantom.

J.James · Jan 13, 2015

@J.James, I made a quick adjustment and will test tomorrow if the rain permits. Thanks a lot to you all!! If this doesn't fix it I will be putting a naza gps on it and do away with this silly leg compass.

Colin70 ya thats looks right now. Tho hard to tell from that angle of the picture if its dead on straight or not. But if its a lil bit crooked it might just need to be turned a tiny hair clockwise so its perfectly at 90degrees.

also one other thing is your naza facing the same way that it would be in the original phantom it came out of? and you might want to in to your naza assistant under the basic then mounting tab and see the settings for setting the x y z axis for the gps and the naza if just the compass fix did not get you perfect yet. I just noticed them settings which are not normally used in a phantom being the gps and the naza are were they are already and dont change BUT yours is probably in a different spot and your gps is to. If you are getting any wobbling or drifting still You might need to bust out a ruler and tell the naza where it is on board.

Colin70 · Jan 13, 2015

Good news today to post, wow what a difference it actually holds a hover position now no more drifting! On the down side after flying a few minutes my forward control became non responsive. I could go left right back and up n down but forward it would just sit in place. I compass danced before every test flight. It would be good for a little bit and sometimes forward it would go off to the north east direction instead of straight. Also after one test flight I had a flashing red light. I would reboot it and it would gps lock all green and then not reoccur ? But over all I feel it's almost back on track. Yes J.James the naza flight controller is facing the same direction as factory. So a vast improvement not to the secondary issue thoughts?

J.James · Jan 13, 2015

Sounds like you are getting close tho. Check all your plugs esp the ones to the receiver. and maybe just for the hell of it check that your tx is calibrated and that all stick movement is showing up right in the naza assistant.

Have you tried hovering still and then seeing what happens if you yaw? Some times on my fc40 if my compass is a bit off calibration I can have it still hover and stay pretty still but if i try to yaw and turn it will turn but also try to move as much as about 6 feet away in an arch or freak out for a second. Other times When my compass mod values are dead on perfect it dont do it nearly as much.

Colin70 · Jan 13, 2015

what r the perfect dead on compass settings? I was gonna do the entire calibration of controls in naza but I have heard that there is another calibration u can do but u have to open the tx up and plug it in? but I don't know much about that procedure? I am working on a customers car today so when I take a break I will do all of the calibrations and then do a test flight and try the yaw turning. I have done some stationary hover yaw tests and it rotated as it should but not yet comfortable with fling it a way and doing a banking turn with yaw. Its like a girl friend u caught cheating on u, it takes a while before u can trust her to go far lmao haha

J.James · Jan 13, 2015

Perfect setting on the mod values for me is usually when i have them in about the mid 1500s the low 1600s on the compass mod. values. When I start getting the thing were it wants to flig over about 6 feet when I try to yaw when in a standing still hover is When I usually plug it in and see the mod values down in the 1400's or high in the 1800 ish area. BUT its hard to say whats perfect cause some times I have it flying great and do a compass calibration outside my house and it will start getting a tiny bit squirrely on me again. I also notice when it does it its more pronounced if I'm lower then about 50 feet or so.

one the advanced tx calibration were you need to plug the tx in to the usb You probably only need to do that if you cant get it to calibrate in the naza assistants calibration thingy. I have only had to do the advanced on one time when I accidentally turned on my tx when it was laying down on its face with the sticks pushed when I was doing some stuff to my tx and my green led on it went to a solid yellow. It took me 2 days to figure out that my calibration was so off it was trying to tell me with the green going yellow. and the naza assistant calibration was not fixing it.

Colin70 · Jan 13, 2015

Well went through calibrations and found my gps mount had lost the set screw and thought for sure I had found the problem but no. I did aim the gps the same as it was in the phantom housing. The only thing this did was change to direction of the problem on the controls which does seem me to believe It is some how related to the gps.... grrrr this thing will make u crazy .... So all cables were secure. So now the forward works fine but the rear direction is wacky. Also these control issues are not constant it seem to come and go.If I reboot it seems to reset it. But weird thing is it seems to be less problematic at low heights. If u go about 20 ft up it seems to do this control issue right away. Man J.James how long have u been screwing with these things? All the controls calibrations move perfect on the naza software. Nothing looks off.

J.James · Jan 13, 2015

Well went through calibrations and found my gps mount had lost the set screw and thought for sure I had found the problem but no. I did aim the gps the same as it was in the phantom housing. The only thing this did was change to direction of the problem on the controls which does seem me to believe It is some how related to the gps.... grrrr this thing will make u crazy

If turning it seemed to change the direction of the problem that makes my spock logic also think its got to be some thing with that. Tho I'm wondering if any time you change the gps orientation if you might have to also reset your bmu info and redo an advanced imu calibration to. Tho at this point Im just taking wild guess based on knowing that they also relate to the naza trying to figure out how its orientated in relation to other things on the craft. Because even with out a compass or gps plugged in. If you have the naza plugged in to the assistant turning it and moving it will show changes in the values for the gyro scopes XYZ degrees.

.... So all cables were secure. So now the forward works fine but the rear direction is wacky. Also these control issues are not constant it seem to come and go.If I reboot it seems to reset it. But weird thing is it seems to be less problematic at low heights. If u go about 20 ft up it seems to do this control issue right away. Man J.James how long have u been screwing with these things? All the controls calibrations move perfect on the naza software. Nothing looks off.

intermitant problems makes me think either a lose or bad connection OR some thing heat related. But heat related would seem you would need to shut down and it would not happen again intill it warmed up again.

Ive only been playing around with these things for about a year. But learned a lot right away from trouble shooting and fixing things on mine and then esp learned a lot after getting a junked p2v that had almost every thing wrong with it and fixing that up and then fixing up a few others from spare and used parts. BUT it seems every day there is more stuff to learn about them as I see stuff like what your having. Tho as much as these things also drive me crazy. They sort of push my tinkering fix it guy mature like noting else ever has before.