Phantom2 - would not release from IOC home lock?

[noiseboy72]

Hello chaps.
I fly my Phantom2 quite a lot and have never had an issue with it, even loaded up with all the FPV gear, gimbal etc.

Anyway, I was flying yesterday and engaged IOC home lock to bring the bird back to me while doing a nice flyover. All was good until I tried to switch back to normal operation and it became clear that Home Lock was still active. The lights on the 'copter had gone to flashing yellow, so I could tell it was still in the Home Lock mode, but it would not respond to the command to return to normal mode. All other flight controls remained responsive and I landed safely.

I re-booted the 'copter with the same battery and it worked correctly. Is this a known glitch or something to look out for? All firmware is up to date and nothing changed - other than a 10% reduction in some gain settings to make it a bit softer to fly.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Pull_Up]

Hello chaps.
I fly my Phantom2 quite a lot and have never had an issue with it, even loaded up with all the FPV gear, gimbal etc.

Anyway, I was flying yesterday and engaged IOC home lock to bring the bird back to me while doing a nice flyover. All was good until I tried to switch back to normal operation and it became clear that Home Lock was still active. The lights on the 'copter had gone to flashing yellow, so I could tell it was still in the Home Lock mode, but it would not respond to the command to return to normal mode. All other flight controls remained responsive and I landed safely.

I re-booted the 'copter with the same battery and it worked correctly. Is this a known glitch or something to look out for? All firmware is up to date and nothing changed - other than a 10% reduction in some gain settings to make it a bit softer to fly.

Many thanks in advance!

Not had it happen to me in flight, but I do have one DJI transmitter where the S1 switch needs a good positive throw to get it to register - a gentle click into place just doesn't cut it any more. If you plug into the Assistant and try and move in and out of HL you can see if your switch is going the same way. I just got used to it and give it a good old flick in and out of the lowermost position.

 

[noiseboy72]

Thanks for this. I don't think it was the switch, as it checks out in the assistant and has probably had less than 50 actuations. I am on my 3rd TX, as the 1st 2 turned up faulty. The 1st one had a dodgy on/off switch and the 2nd a dodgy gimbal control. This one seems all good though.

 

[J.James]

If its not the switch then the center wire is off the switch. Tho I would check it in the naza again. cause Ive seen many of them switches go bad way before even 50 actuation's

 

[noiseboy72]

Hmm, looks like it is the TX. Been testing it again tonight, after doing all the upgrades and it only registers Home Lock and Course Lock... Not great!

The gimbal control is also already going faulty, so I am going to strip it down, fit new switches and a new pot.

Talk about being built down to a price...

 

[J.James]

If you take the center wire off the switch and touch it to either of the 2 other posts on the switch you should see it change from off to home lock depending on what one you touch it to. You can also use any thing conductive to run that test with out having to remove the center wire. Chances are its the switch and not any thing else in the tx. You can replace it with any double throw single pole switch that you can make fit in the tx. radio shack sells the same exact ones but they are just as hit and miss as the oem ones as to how long they will last. First my s1 went then a few days latter after fixing that one I had to replace the s2.

I ended up replacing both of mine with in the first few days of getting my first phantom. Tho I ended up using some big huge heavy duty swtichs that happened to be the smallest ones i could find at the local ace hardware store. But they were sort of a pain in the butt to make them physically fit with out having to turn them kind of sideways. and having to ream the holes out a big bigger. But they are never going to were out again. and also they are so stiff its hard to ever accidentally flip one in to the wrong position.

 

[noiseboy72]

Well, it wasn't the switch, but a dry joint on the connector to the main board.

The connectors are in a row, next to the gimbal pot. This flexes the board slightly in use and had caused the joint to the connector to fail.

I re-flowed the solder joint, removed the gimbal pot and replaced it with an off board 5K Linear pot. This makes control much more gradual and should also remove the problem of the gimbal pot causing the board to flex and fail.

I have also fitted a lightweight nylon safety cord between the go-pro and helicopter, so if I crash and the gimbal breaks, it should all stay together...

 

[J.James]

ah ha. gimbal pot causing the board to flex and fail is not some thing I thought of. Tho I did wonder about the possibility that if it wasn't the switch or one of the wires pinched or something like that. That prehapes the plug might of had a dirty contact.

I have been thinking of adding a real potentiometer to mine just for the better gimbal control without having to use the lever thingy on the chincy plastic pot thats not really designed to be constantly turned. But now thats just one more good reason to not want to use the one board one.

and the safety cord between your go-pro and the quad is a good Idea. I did the same thing on my fc40s cameras because there holder is very prone to the door poping open and the camera failing out in flight or in a crash. One of the most glad I did and easy mods. Thats saved me from having the camera lost in the middle of no were on a few flights quite a few times already. I also put a small loop of string threw the shock mounts to keep them from getting lost if they ever pop lose. They are tiny little buggers and hard to find some times if one goes flying in to the grass.