Recalibrated compass, Phantom still flys sideways.

[eurostylin]

I'm a novice with the phantom vision plus, but I've had about 15 successful flights since I've had it. I never veer far away from where I'm standing, and I'm just getting the hang of it. I always calibrate the compass and wait forGPS lock ons before I fly.

Yesterday I installed a camera guard and gimbal protector, and I tried to fly today. Same procedure as my last 15 flights, calibrate, wait for GPS, and then fly.

The first time it took off it immediately flew left and then I put it down into a snow bank.

Recalibrated, tried again, same thing. Tried one more time, same thing.

Is there something else I need to do to compensate for the pieces I added? I've triple checked everything is installed properly. Luckily there are no marks on the phantom, and the blades didn't even break due to me dropping it into snow.

The only variables since my 15 flawless flights and my new issue is the installation of the gimbal and camera guard. What is my next step? I'm still getting the hang of this thing, and I'm taking it really slow.

I tried a total of three times after my first crash, and ended up in the same snow bank every time. No wind, no metal near me, and I was only 5-6' off the ground.

 

[flyNfrank]

You have either not calibrated your controller correctly, or you need to calibrate the IMU and then the compass. Try calibrating the controller with the R/C Assistant, and then connect quad to Phantom Assistant and calibrate the controller there as well, reboot quad. Then advance calibrate the IMU, reboot quad. Then do the compass calibration, run a test flight and see if all is ok at this point. Be sure to post back and share the results.

 

[eurostylin]

You have either not calibrated your controller correctly, or you need to calibrate the IMU and then the compass. Try calibrating the controller with the R/C Assistant, and then connect quad to Phantom Assistant and calibrate the controller there as well, reboot quad. Then advance calibrate the IMU, reboot quad. Then do the compass calibration, run a test flight and see if all is ok at this point. Be sure to post back and share the results.

Wonderful! Now I have a starting point. I'll be able to do this later in the day. Do you know what would cause this to happen? How often does calibrating the IMU need to be completed? LIke i said, I had 15 trouble free flights until I made the two add-ons.

 

[flyNfrank]

Calibrate the IMU anytime the quad does not fly stable. Like if it drifts some while hovering. Or pogo-ing up and down near the ground. Or hooks to left or right when the controller is set to fly straight.

Just remember, recalibrating is common.

Edit: Btw, when I launch my quad, I always go up to around 60ft altitude and hover. I watch to see if the quad drifts, or slowly drifts in a square box motion. If it hovers and does neither of the two, means it's good as gold and I'm ready for flight. And this is a practice I do prior to every flight.

 

[DroneTech]

If the Phantom is not balanced any weight added will through off the IMU causing the problems you are having. The advanced solution could be one of two: Find the new balance point and do advanced cal with the Phantom tilted to the 'new' balance point, or you could add weights to 'trick' the IMU.

 

[BlackTracer]

Calibrate the IMU anytime the quad does not fly stable. Like if it drifts some while hovering. Or pogo-ing up and down near the ground. Or hooks to left or right when the controller is set to fly straight.

Just remember, recalibrating is common.

Edit: Btw, when I launch my quad, I always go up to around 60ft altitude and hover. I watch to see if the quad drifts, or slowly drifts in a square box motion. If it hovers and does neither of the two, means it's good as gold and I'm ready for flight. And this is a practice I do prior to every flight.

Some of us go a step further with this check. In naza mode I fly out to 150 feet or so, 30 feet up and switch to HL and test that it comes back to my home point. Then I feel comfortable that it is ready to go on a mission.

 

[eurostylin]

You have either not calibrated your controller correctly, or you need to calibrate the IMU and then the compass. Try calibrating the controller with the R/C Assistant, and then connect quad to Phantom Assistant and calibrate the controller there as well, reboot quad. Then advance calibrate the IMU, reboot quad. Then do the compass calibration, run a test flight and see if all is ok at this point. Be sure to post back and share the results.

Did a basic calibration, did an advanced calibration, ended up with:

Gyro x .2 y .2 z -.3 mod: .4

accel x -.01 y .01 z -1 mod: 1.00

compass x -270 y-381 z323 mod: 1550

No matter what mode I start up in, even with 8 GPS sattelites, it will take off to the left (compared to where the camera is pointing) indefinitely

 

[eurostylin]

After I just tried flying it, I plugged it back into my computer and now I have this message appearing:


COMPASS-ERR
Abnormal compass data. Please restart the Flihgt Controller or reconnect the compass due to the losse connection. if this error continues, please contact your dealer or DJI customer service.


I recalibrated the compass, and now I'm receiving:

Error(27)
GPS not calibrated, or magnetic field interferance. Please calibrate GPS again in good condition.

 

[Woody]

That error pops up when the Phantom is too close to your computer or other interference. Happens to me everytime I connect to laptop. Moving the Phantom further away removes the error. I hope that works for you.

 

[Great Pumpkin]

Is it possible that you are not calibrating the compass correctly? Here is the best video I've seen about how to do it. Sorry about the ad at the beginning, but after that I think you'll agree that it is also a fun video to watch.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNif8F2dmqo[/youtube]

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Recalibrate your sticks first, then do advanced IMU cal, then lastly "compass dance".

 

[eurostylin]

Is it possible that you are not calibrating the compass correctly? Here is the best video I've seen about how to do it. Sorry about the ad at the beginning, but after that I think you'll agree that it is also a fun video to watch.

Thank you very much for the video. As practice, the first 15 times I flew, I calibrated the compass each time so I would embed it into my brain on how to do it. Just for the hell of it, I tried it one more time exactly how the video shows, the only difference is in the video, the girl waited about 10 seconds to set it down after it turned green. I always sat my down as soon as it turned green. Anyway, tried flying it, same thing, shoots directly left and I just have to drop it down into the snow

I figured the gimbal protector had nothing to do with my issue, but I took it off and tried it as well. same result. I'm a bit scared to take off the camera protector because I'm dropping this thing down into snow, and don't want to hurt it. My original issue started when I added in the camera protector and the gimball protector, but I'm thinking that was just odd timing.


Thanks again.

 

[Mako79]

Recalibrate your sticks first, then do advanced IMU cal, then lastly "compass dance".

+1
Start fresh.

If you are replacing your camera then it sounds like you had a "bump landing". If you have, inspect the phantom. Bolt down the landing skids and check the motors and make sure each sound right. Look at the arms and make sure they aren't bent. Open her up and check if the NAZA isn't dislodged or crooked. Inside the NAZA is the Balancing system (IMU - Inertia Measuring Unit). Think of it as the water levels in your ear and the NAZA as your head.

If you have a bump landing, you will need to redo your IMU. Do it immediately when plugged in to avoid the MC Temp Warning.
Recalibrate all the sticks in 2 different softwares. Do the RC12 first. save and close. Then do it the in the phantom assist.

Finally find an open field and do a compass dance.
Get your sats and take off up to 10ft.

 

[eurostylin]

Recalibrate your sticks first, then do advanced IMU cal, then lastly "compass dance".

+1
Start fresh.

If you are replacing your camera then it sounds like you had a "bump landing".

I have never had any issues, I flew 15 times, and every single time I actually did a catch landing so the phantom wouldn't land in the snow. (it's about 40' deep where I'm at). After I added gimball protection and camera guard skid (being pro-active) it continues to fly sideways.

I'll try these steps again, and I appreciate your post. Luckily it's about 20 degrees, so I can just take an air compressor and blow the snow off, it doesn't melt, nothing gets wet, and it's taking very easy crashes into fluffy snow while I work on this issue.

 

[eurostylin]

I thought I would update this for anyone who may experience the same issue. I corrected it.

Yesterday I performed a remote calibration (again) with the assistant, then a remote calibration with phantom, then calibrated the phantom itself.

I replaced all four props with brand new DJI props. I even balanced them.

Put on prop protectors for testing, because I figured I would be crashing again.

I go to fly, compass dance success, 8 satellites, lift off, as usual it starts heading left. It doesn't matter which way I take off, it will always head due left. For some reason I was expecting this to happen. I oversteer back right and catch it in the air.

I remove the gimball protector, and the camera protector. No compass dance. Wow! It's hovering perfect

I land, I put the gimball protector back on. No compass dance, test flight: perfect, it hovers!

I put the camera protector back on, no compass dance, test flight: directly left :x

I remove the camera protector, and have a 10 minute successful flight.

I don't want to post up where I purchased it from, because the product is great, and I don't want to hinder sales (I appear to be the only one with this issue) but the person was very helpful via email, and told me to try flying without the gimball and camera protector. I'm not sure why that would have any relevance to my issue, but it was 100% the problem. Gimball protector does not have any negative consequences, but as soon as I install the camera protector (clear, not CF) it will go directly left. I tried loose zip ties, tight zip ties, nothing will change. If anyone can explain why that would happen, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks again for all of the help, I'm kind of happy I experienced this, I ended up learning a bunch of stuff that will probably help me out down the road!

 

[BlackTracer]

Is it possible that you are not calibrating the compass correctly? Here is the best video I've seen about how to do it. Sorry about the ad at the beginning, but after that I think you'll agree that it is also a fun video to watch.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNif8F2dmqo[/youtube]

Sorry but I got nothing out of that video because all I could see was her. Was she doing something with a phantom? :mrgreen:

 

[gary1968]

Lol, I've watched a few phantom vids with her in them...... Least I think there was a phantom in the vids, lol

 

[Monte55]

I think she was very "up front" in her video