Unable to power up motors

Knightime · Aug 23, 2014

Hi guys,

I took delivery of my new Phantom 2 Vision+ yesterday. I had a quick go last night, in terms of powering the unit up, ensuring the blades were turning correctly etc, and everything was fine.

This morning I installed the PC drivers and software for both the Phantom and the RC. I upgraded the Phantom and calibrated the RC.

This afternoon I took the Phantom out to the park to give it a 'proper' test drive. After calibrating the compass and ensuring the Android software connected properly I tried powering the unit up, but nothing happens. When I pull both joysticks to the inside central position the camera moves slightly but the unit doesn't power up.

I'm obviously missing something here, and a search through the forum doesn't bring up anything to do with RC power up issues, but being a complete noob I'm at a loss!

Any advice on how to fix this issue is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to taking part actively in this forum!

Regards from the UK,

Brian

Madwak · Aug 23, 2014

Did you remember to calibrate the RC with the RC assistant and the phantom assistant or did you do it with just one of them?

4wd · Aug 23, 2014

Knightime said:
When I pull both joysticks to the inside central position the camera moves slightly but the unit doesn't power up.

Brian

This does not sound quite right, the usual start method (CSC) is both sticks inwards and down.
There are other options but not inwards and central.

alombard · Aug 25, 2014

Morning - I'm actually seeing the same behaviour. From time to time (twice in the 3 weeks I've had it) my V2+ won't respond to CSC - typically the camera just rotates slightly when I do this.

The last time this occurred I noticed in the RC Assistant that the TX signal was stuck all the way to the left. After trying to calibrate the led on the controller went a yellow / green and stayed that way. All other sticks combinations would register - everything that is except the thrust axis.

I "fixed' this last time by reloading the firmware on the controller, calibrating in the RC assistant as well as the Phantom assistant and that resolved things.

That said it happened again yesterday after a day of flying prior - no warning - except this time reloading the firmware isn't working and I'm getting no motion on the TX (vertical) axis on on the left stick (in Mode 2). Calibration simply doesn't work and I am not getting a signal in either the RC assistant or the Phantom.

I'm highly doubting that the controller is the problem seeing as this has happened before and a hardware issue would generally be consistently "broken". I'm leaning towards a software issue / calibration issue but I do have a few questions.

1.) Has anyone else seen this?
2.) Is there a way to avoid this in future?
3.) Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix as I'm grounded at this point!

One other odd thing I'll throw to the Gurus on Phantompilots that may be related is that I did insert an SD card while the phantom was on (by mistake) the evening prior. I'm not sure if this is related but mention it given that the gimbal / camera are related to the controller and motion - as well as the fact that the camera is the only thing that moves slightly on CSC (as it did the last time I resolved it).
Thanks in advance,

Andrew

HarryT · Aug 27, 2014

Knightime said:
Hi guys,

I took delivery of my new Phantom 2 Vision+ yesterday. I had a quick go last night, in terms of powering the unit up, ensuring the blades were turning correctly etc, and everything was fine.

This morning I installed the PC drivers and software for both the Phantom and the RC. I upgraded the Phantom and calibrated the RC.

This afternoon I took the Phantom out to the park to give it a 'proper' test drive. After calibrating the compass and ensuring the Android software connected properly I tried powering the unit up, but nothing happens. When I pull both joysticks to the inside central position the camera moves slightly but the unit doesn't power up.

I'm obviously missing something here, and a search through the forum doesn't bring up anything to do with RC power up issues, but being a complete noob I'm at a loss!

Any advice on how to fix this issue is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to taking part actively in this forum!

Regards from the UK,

Brian

A common cause of this problem is that you've accidentally switched the transmitter to mode 1 in RC Assistant. Run it again and make sure that you have mode 2 selected.

alombard · Aug 27, 2014

I *think* I resolved this last night (haven't had a chance to test with the Phantom yet) but I now have a "green" led on my controller which was yellow prior. I managed to find the manual for the Phantom 1 and following the instructions on page 7 I manually calibrated the controller.

In case this document disappears or moves here are the steps I followed to resolve the controller issue: (Yellow Led, No throttle, No CSC, no Engine Start (all seem to be similar symptoms for the same issue around the web)).

From the document:

1. Set the switch S2 at the OFF position, and the switch S1 at the GPS position

2. Push the Throttle stick to the top position, and push the Pitch stick to the top position. Keep the Pitch
stick at the top position manually since it can return to the central position when released.

3. Turn on the Power Switch of the transmitter, you should hear the indicator sound of “Di—Di Di” from
the transmitter repeatedly. Toggle the switch S2 to the CL position, you should hear an indicator
sound of “Di” from the transmitter, in this case, the transmitter has entered the calibration mode.
(During this period, the Throttle stick and the Pitch stick must be kept at the top position all the time.)

4. Release the Pitch stick and pull the Throttle stick to the central position. Toggle the switch S1 to the
ATTI position; you should hear an indicator sound of “Di” from the transmitter. Then move all of the
sticks throughout their complete range several times. After this, put the Throttle stick to the bottom
position, and toggle the switch S2 to the HL position, you should hear an indicator sound of “Di” from
the transmitter, in this case, the transmitter has been calibrated successfully.

Hopefully this can help someone!

Andrew

alombard · Sep 24, 2014

Followup on this. My issue returned after this and I returned the remote after discussion with B&H - the new one arrived last week and works just fine!