Hi, found this interesting article although I find it highly unlikely to be affecting Phantoms, but you never know...
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/gps ... ng/#!OJPvW
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/gps ... ng/#!OJPvW
Possible reason for fly-aways...
- Thread starter Phantom_Menace66
- Start date
I'm convinced that the real cause of most so called fly ways are the janky low quality POS switchs used in the phantoms controllers for the S1 and S2 switches. Both mine failed with in just a few days of having it and also have seen lots of reports of that being almost as common of a thing as flyaways. and probably even more so. Cause its hard for some one that dont have any test equipment to test there swichs if there phantom flew away never to be found.
I was having all sorts of erratic behavior From the switches failing and intermittently breaking contact on what ever flight mode positions they were in. When my S2 started to fail just the slightest jiggling of the controller would turn it on and off from the course lock or home lock repeatly. and normally toggling the s2 on/off a few times quickly is how you manually record a new home point and course lock position. So if its doing it while in flight and far away and any thing happens to cause it to go in to fail safe or return to home its going to try and go to were ever it was over the last time the wonky switch recorded as the new home point. Which can be any were it was when ever it got manually recorded. happened to me 3 times. Luckily I was eventually able to find my phantom every time. after searching all over for it. But After I replaced my s2 switch with a good higher quality 3 position switch it stopped trying to land any other place other then were it took off from. then a few days later my S1 switch started acting up and it would keep going out of gps mode and in to atti mode all by its self. and if you think its in gps and its really in atti and is some place and you let go of the sticks its not going to stay were its at and will ride the wind as far and as fast as the wind will take it. and other times when you flip the switch to failsafe it would not switch and would still be in atti mode. which if not aware you could be wanting it to come home and waiting forever while its still flying in the wind till it gets out of range and goes in to fail safe on its own or turn off the transmitter. Mean while that whole time its using up battery power and may end up not havering enough to get home and is either going to do a low battery landing some were if low battery alarm is turned on. Or if off and it runs out of battery its going to eventually just fall out of the sky like a rock before making it home.
And after seeing what it was doing to mine and seeing that a very high % of peoples switches fail in a short perioud of time. I'm pretty sure that is the real main culprit to most reported fly a ways.
I was having all sorts of erratic behavior From the switches failing and intermittently breaking contact on what ever flight mode positions they were in. When my S2 started to fail just the slightest jiggling of the controller would turn it on and off from the course lock or home lock repeatly. and normally toggling the s2 on/off a few times quickly is how you manually record a new home point and course lock position. So if its doing it while in flight and far away and any thing happens to cause it to go in to fail safe or return to home its going to try and go to were ever it was over the last time the wonky switch recorded as the new home point. Which can be any were it was when ever it got manually recorded. happened to me 3 times. Luckily I was eventually able to find my phantom every time. after searching all over for it. But After I replaced my s2 switch with a good higher quality 3 position switch it stopped trying to land any other place other then were it took off from. then a few days later my S1 switch started acting up and it would keep going out of gps mode and in to atti mode all by its self. and if you think its in gps and its really in atti and is some place and you let go of the sticks its not going to stay were its at and will ride the wind as far and as fast as the wind will take it. and other times when you flip the switch to failsafe it would not switch and would still be in atti mode. which if not aware you could be wanting it to come home and waiting forever while its still flying in the wind till it gets out of range and goes in to fail safe on its own or turn off the transmitter. Mean while that whole time its using up battery power and may end up not havering enough to get home and is either going to do a low battery landing some were if low battery alarm is turned on. Or if off and it runs out of battery its going to eventually just fall out of the sky like a rock before making it home.
And after seeing what it was doing to mine and seeing that a very high % of peoples switches fail in a short perioud of time. I'm pretty sure that is the real main culprit to most reported fly a ways.
J.James said:
While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, the quoted part above is easy to test without a the bird. You can connect your controller to the RC assistant standalone and test your switches at any time. If they are failing I would expect you could see this in the assistant.
I tested mine with the naza soft ware because I did still have the phantom when I was checking them. and is how I even noticed the first time that my S2 was bad. Then i still checked it with a multi meter set to do a continuity test(in other words has a connection) on the switches contacts. My meter has a buzzer in it. So when its got a straight short between both test probs it buzzes. if no connection it don't buzz.
That totally slipped my mind that you can use the rc assistant to check the switches without the phantom hooked to the naza soft ware. But if you do have the phantom the naza is easier being you don't have to open up the controller to plug it in to the usb. But in either one would show the same if the switch is not working at all or if its just starting to fail and touching it or wiggling it at all in any of the 3 positions on each switch shows it changing in the software. or if not going to what ever mode each position is supped to be. would show its bad. and best to catch that before flying rather then after losing the phantom being finding out after don't help any one other then maybe just give them so closer on the cause of death.
That totally slipped my mind that you can use the rc assistant to check the switches without the phantom hooked to the naza soft ware. But if you do have the phantom the naza is easier being you don't have to open up the controller to plug it in to the usb. But in either one would show the same if the switch is not working at all or if its just starting to fail and touching it or wiggling it at all in any of the 3 positions on each switch shows it changing in the software. or if not going to what ever mode each position is supped to be. would show its bad. and best to catch that before flying rather then after losing the phantom being finding out after don't help any one other then maybe just give them so closer on the cause of death.
J.James said:
Great explanation and good to know! If you have a camera, do you mind making a video showing what you are describing?
I think it would help others TREMENDOUSLY!
Ya thinking I may have some time soon to make a vid on that I have a few requests for it. and I want to show some of the other simple must do mods I have done. That dont seem to already be covered by any one else. I have one that i did for the camera to prevent it from ever getting lost should it come out of the flimsy holder that is insane not to do and is so easy any one that can tie there shoe has more then enough ability to do. Even if they have no DYI skills whats so ever and don't need any tools just a 2-5 cent washer and few inchs of string. Its saved me from losing my camera while in flight at least a dozen times so far. Now its imposable to ever lose it. Even in a crash.
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