SNOW Issues, Gimbal......

[PeakXV]

Had no idea what I was doing but had watched enough instructional videos and so I thought it was time to get my feet wet.
Not a breath of wind (until just after take off, Murphy's Law) and so up it went and sounding like a giant mosquito on steroids. The controls are fool
proof and work like a charm, little learning curve aside from getting the feel of how stick movement relates to spatial air movement. Anyway, I played
around with all the controls moved it up and down, all around, and in a square .... and then the wind came up. :shock: I can now see that you can get in 'real big trouble' with the wind.
The wind suddenly became gusty out of the east and the phantom started to drift every so slightly westward. It seemed to be fighting the wind but slowly losing ground. I could move west, north, south but it did not seem to be able to advance eastward and even hovering it appeared to loose slight ground over time. I tried to bring it back but it seemed to be controllable in every direction but back towards me which was directly into the wind.

To make matters worse, the phantom was now positioned directly between myself and the sun and I could hardly see it let alone determine what direction it was pointed in. I have a big
back field with about 150yards clearance on all sides but it had (ever so slowly) drifted and was now only about 20ft from a massive black spruce grove at the
edge of the northwest side of the field. So I panicked and flipped the S1 switch and signaled it to return to home. It took a few seconds and then shot
straight up in the air about 30 feet or so before coming directly for me, hovered over me and started to descend slowly, slowly where I took
control(should I have been able to take control or was it suppose to land itself?) and landed it like a feather. I had loaded the DJI Vision App but when I got up to the field it said no WIFI - although it appeared to understand that I had calibrated the compass probably (need some help and feedback on that part).

Anyway, I need some critique on what I shouldn't have done, what I should have done and what If (anything) I did right! I've got thick skin, so let me have it
and hopefully in will shorten my learning curve!

 

[Meta4]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

Lucky first flight.
I've found out that the Phantom can handle quite a lot more wind than I imagined.
The fact that yours came back easily on its own shows that the wind was not a factor.

Not enough information for me to be sure what was going on there but the major factor was probably an inexperienced and disorientated pilot and perhaps a loss of GPS causing the bird to fly in atti mode and drift downwind?
The key to flying the Phantom is to get an understanding of how the Phantom works, what can go wrong and what you need to do to prevent or manage those things.
You need more understanding of how things work with it (like how return to home works) and get your app functioning. The app is your instruments and allows you to monitor battery level, GPS sats and orientation of your bird as well as speed, height and distance away.

 

[RedBaron]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

I believe it is normal for the RTH to rise to about 60 feet if you are less than that when you do the RTH. If you are higher that 60 feet it will stay at that level until it gets to home.

 

[Fplvert]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

Well, you got your feet wet, and still have your phantom. Good job!
Most people in your shoes come on the forum complaining about crashing and how things went horribly wrong and it wasn't their fault. :roll:
I would suggest you spend some time with the manual, and make sure you know how to use the app which will tell you very important things like orientation, number of satellites, battery levels, ect.
Congrats and good luck!

 

[IrishSights]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

As meta4 said the phantom was powerful enough to beat the wind, proved by its sucessful RTH. It does sound like below 6 satellites caused it to go into ATTI mode and it drifted with tbe wind. As you were in Naza mode did you get the 2 sets of rapid green flashing LEDs prior to takeoff? As a word of caution here I have noticed on 2 occasions that the rapid green LED flashing indicating homelock and sufficent satellite for a lock actually merged into one extra long flashing sequence with no 3 sec gap. I confirmed the led indications with readings from the IOSD.

 

[PeakXV]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

Thanks guys, excellent! Irishsights, I made a mental note of watching for the green flashing lights after watching a most excellent video linked from this sight and then totally forgot - so I don't rightly know. To be honest, the motor noise was much louder than I had expected and it threw my concentration a bit .... and then I had dropped my Ipad Mini (how do you attach it to the RC, anyway - with duct tape, I couldn't find a slot to put it in or do you just place it on a table in front of you ?) on the grass and almost crunched it with my work boat in the heat (and lift off) of the moment. I'm thinking now that it wasn't flashing as expected - even with the intense, early autumn sun bearing down on it - I think those lights would have registered on my brain somehow .....

 

[Fantomas]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

I think you might be interested with this.
All the answers in ONE place.

THE Ultimate Guide for all Phantom Vision and Vision+
http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=23597

 

[PeakXV]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

Yes, thanks Fantomas - it's good, it's very, very good! I'm a bit angry to discover that there is not a clamp for the ipad mini included. What to do? I mentioned duct taping it as a bit of a joke above, but that's exactly what I ended up doing. Found an Ipad mini holder at the Dollar Store and mated it's back bracket with the jaws of the provided iPhone clamp and then wrapped Gorilla Tape around it til it was solid as a rock. It's safe secure and angled away from the device in a way that shouldn't hamper communications and so that I can see well enough. My second flight lasted about 10 minutes and was flawless in greater wind than yesterday. I took video and then landed on a dime. Starting to get the hang of it and ready for flight 3 in about an hour. How do I download the video form the micro SD card to my computer? Is it another software download or with the same DJI Vision App? Thanks for all your help guys!!!

 

[flyNfrank]

Re: Second Flight: Was Windy, Up it went anyway, down it cam

1st know as boring as it may sound, but read the manual. You are hurting yourself more then you may realize by not reading it.

As for the wind, you never want to fly in atti mode. When in that mode your quad is like a balloon It wont take much for the quad to drift out of range of the transmitter. Personally if I was just out of range I would take off running in the direction the quad is drifting away. Every so often attempt to reestablish a connection. Also try to keep an eye on the quad in case there is a crash.

Should you have a connection leave it in the gps mode and fight the wind for as long as you have to.

 

[BlackTracer]

Re: First Flight: Up it went, got windy, down it came.

How do I download the video form the micro SD card to my computer? Is it another software download or with the same DJI Vision App? Thanks for all your help guys!!!

It is best to carefully remove the card from the powered off phantom and put it in a card reader (or directly into your computer if you have the slot) and download it that way. Fastest transfer that way. Otherwise you can transfer from within the app. But it is slower. The manual shows you how.

Things I would do with my new bird: Calibrate your TX in the RC assistant. Plug phantom into your PC and run the PC assistant and make sure your firmware is up to date. Do an advanced IMU calibration whether it needs it or not. Cal the TX in the PC assistant. Finally, do a compass cal in the field.

 

[PeakXV]

Re: Seventh Flight: Was Very Windy, Couldn't Land, Red Light

....started to flash. I couldn't land it because I was on the edge of a bog with tall reed grass all around and I had cleared a landing pad out with my hands and knife. The wind picked it up while in flight and the battery power seemed to drop from 50% to 10% in a awfully short period time. Anyway, I took it to the bog because there are often moose wandering around and flocks of Canada Geese, great blue herons etc. ( nada tonight of course other than the leaves have started their descent into awesomeness) and wanted to test my landing skills .... but bit off a little more than I could chew with the weather conditions coupled with the extremely tight landing pad that I created for myself. But, I did manage to land it safely, after all, & without incident. Won't try that stunt again anytime to soon though (sweating bullets .... & propellers). Video highlights of the flight on Vimeo below .... before things got a little windy and nasty ... should be up at around 10:00pm eastern time. The first 24 hours is in the books ...... feel free to give me a progress report - good, bad, average, or butt ugly!!!!!

[vimeo]107209881[/vimeo]

 

[justin00]

Re: Second Flight: Was Windy, Up it went anyway, down it cam

I think you can get an ipad mini clamp if you search on the internet.
Else do you have a phone or android phone that fits in ?

Also go to your flight location in the app when you have internet on your Ipad else when you get there the map will be blank.. Like just before you turn things on you can load up the map (if you have 3g/4g) and download the maps.. else do it at home if you have to use wifi.

 

[PeakXV]

Re: Second Flight: Was Windy, Up it went anyway, down it cam

I think you can get an ipad mini clamp if you search on the internet.
Else do you have a phone or android phone that fits in ?

Also go to your flight location in the app when you have internet on your Ipad else when you get there the map will be blank.. Like just before you turn things on you can load up the map (if you have 3g/4g) and download the maps.. else do it at home if you have to use wifi

Okay, thanks for the recommendations and input, Justin. I don't own a phone, only an Ipad mini. I saw the youtube video on the adapter that uses the square jellyfish mini tablet mount and tried to order it through Amazon .... but they wouldn't ship to Canada and the other piece to the puzzle was coming from China and wouldn't get here til mid October .... too late. The Gorilla Tape worked like a charm today --- the Ipad mini does not move a micron and it good position for viewing. Unfortunately the sun washes out the screen a bit too much for my liking ,,,, so will have to find a hoodie before long. I don't mind getting nickeled and dimed on all this non-included accessories but a bit unexpected, nonetheless.

 

[PeakXV]

Re: Seventh Flight: Was Very Windy, Couldn't Land, Red Light

Okay, update - I've now had 36 flights without any major incident. I did come close to losing it on a couple of occasions though. One, was when I flew towards a covered bridge and suddenly about 100 pigeons that were hiding under the eaves become unglued and flew straight up at it and only through some kind of miracle did not bump it or send it spiraling into the fast moving river below & today and as I was flying it - both toggle switches suddenly became unscrewed together and sank below and into the controller's bowels .... not something you would expect to happen with a $1500 hunk or engineering. But you get what you pay for .... some of the time. :roll: But crap happens and QC is not the same in each and every country of the world. Other than that no complaints ,,,, other than the camera - is it the exact same beast that DJI used in their promos?

 

[PeakXV]

Re: Snow!

I've over 100 flight and not a problem. Not bad for someone who has never operated RCs before. The other day I flew and it landed a bit short of my landing board and got some snow in an around the motor controlling the camera movement. I tried to blow it out and remove it with a camera lens brush ... but some melted in the rather porous holes provided. Today, there is no controlling movement at all. I'm thinking of removing the covers and resting it near a heat source .... before panicking and sending it off for more thorough troubleshooting. Any help, thoughts, similar experiences are welcomed. Hard to believe of all the dangerous places I have now flown it and it took a few snowflakes to finally bring it into the repair hangar.

 

[PeakXV]

Okay, called Phantom Service and they recommended drying it near an indirect heat source for 48hours before taking any further action ... which (apparently - any further action) is limited to replacing the whole gimbal ... on my nickel. :evil:

 

[PeakXV]

Fixed!