Hey All, I have in the last 2 weeks updated all the firmware for the P4 including the controller after a few months of not flying due to lack of confidence. What I'm finding now is when I descend the drone is very slow and seems to be at times rather unresponsive. Atm, I am flying back in Beginner mode just to gain some confidence again after having a fly off a few months ago. I have recalibrated the IMU and the compass but still seem to get a slow response when descending, any ideas on how I can get more control of the aircraft when it descends ??? I'm at the point really that if I can't regain my trust in this P4 I may well offload it for something else. Cheers in Advance...

I have recalibrated the IMU and the compass but still seem to get a slow response when descending, any ideas on how I can get more control of the aircraft when it descends ???
Recalibrating the compass and IMU won't have any effect on the descent speed.
So how fast does it descend?
It should manage 3 metres/sec with the left stick hard down.
Do you have anything partially blocking the downward facing sensors?
Do you have the VPS system enabled?
If you disable VPS does that make any difference?
If all else fails, upload some flight data to see if that has any clues.

I am flying back in Beginner mode just to gain some confidence again after having a fly off a few months ago
A fly-off?
Do you know what happened and the cause?
Understanding the cause of an incident helps you to prevent it happening again and builds confidence.
If you want to find out go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

Labroides Posted at 2018-6-19 22:24
I have recalibrated the IMU and the compass but still seem to get a slow response when descending, any ideas on how I can get more control of the aircraft when it descends ???
Recalibrating the compass and IMU won't have any effect on the descent speed.
So how fast does it descend?

Thanks for your quick reply, the decent is very slow with a full stick down and at times it seems there is little or no response at all. No blocking of the sensors at all and also I have checked for any small debris. VPS is enabled but will try and see if there is any difference when it is disabled. In respect to the fly off the aircraft would not respond and it decided to do its own thing and fly off. This happened a few months ago and in saying that I lost a lot of confidence in the capability of the aircraft, they are a rather expensive aircraft to lose but also pointless if it sits on a shelf and never gets used. I am heading off for work for 4 days but will advise if there is any improvement on the next flight. Thanks for your input. Cheers

OZIROGUE Posted at 2018-6-20 00:19
Thanks for your quick reply, the decent is very slow with a full stick down and at times it seems there is little or no response at all. No blocking of the sensors at all and also I have checked for any small debris. VPS is enabled but will try and see if there is any difference when it is disabled. In respect to the fly off the aircraft would not respond and it decided to do its own thing and fly off. This happened a few months ago and in saying that I lost a lot of confidence in the capability of the aircraft, they are a rather expensive aircraft to lose but also pointless if it sits on a shelf and never gets used. I am heading off for work for 4 days but will advise if there is any improvement on the next flight. Thanks for your input. Cheers

the decent is very slow with a full stick down and at times it seems there is little or no response at all.
You need to look at actual data and real numbers rather than say "very slow".
The app shows the vertical speed down at the bottom of the screen so you can see how slow it is or isn't.
If you can post the data from the flight, it will probably go a long way toward solving the mystery.

In respect to the fly off the aircraft would not respond and it decided to do its own thing and fly off. This happened a few months ago.
That sounds like you haven't found out anything about the incident and that contributes to a lack of confidence.
Phantoms don't just "fly off".
They are simple machines and never decide to do their own thing.

There is always a technical explanation and it's often something very simple.
If you want to find out what caused the incident, post the data as I suggested in my first post.
I'll analyse the data and come back with details.

If the aircraft is being flown at 1600ft then it will take several minutes to get back down and even if it is calm on the ground there is a good chance of 50mph winds up there that will blow the aircraft away - seems a good explanation for both the problems reported.

Of course if we could see the flight logs for both flights then we might see that it was only being flown at 16ft in which case that would not be the explanation!

Post the logs if you want advice, otherwise everybody is just guessing and will probably give multiple wrong answers...

Normally the P4 is very controllable.

Nigel_ Posted at 2018-6-20 00:57
If the aircraft is being flown at 1600ft then it will take several minutes to get back down and even if it is calm on the ground there is a good chance of 50mph winds up there that will blow the aircraft away - seems a good explanation for both the problems reported.

Of course if we could see the flight logs for both flights then we might see that it was only being flown at 16ft in which case that would not be the explanation!

You can't fly 1600ft in beginner mode ;-)

OZIROGUE Posted at 2018-6-20 00:19
Thanks for your quick reply, the decent is very slow with a full stick down and at times it seems there is little or no response at all. No blocking of the sensors at all and also I have checked for any small debris. VPS is enabled but will try and see if there is any difference when it is disabled. In respect to the fly off the aircraft would not respond and it decided to do its own thing and fly off. This happened a few months ago and in saying that I lost a lot of confidence in the capability of the aircraft, they are a rather expensive aircraft to lose but also pointless if it sits on a shelf and never gets used. I am heading off for work for 4 days but will advise if there is any improvement on the next flight. Thanks for your input. Cheers

We heard about that issue before and the other guy solved it by calibrating the VPS:

Eric13 Posted at 2018-6-20 02:03
We heard about that issue before and the other guy solved it by calibrating the VPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYSqz7R5zwI

Which is why I asked if turning VPS off makes a difference.

Eric13 Posted at 2018-6-20 02:02
You can't fly 1600ft in beginner mode ;-)

True, but he said "Atm, I am flying back in Beginner mode", as though this solved the problems that happened when not in beginner mode.

All part of the guessing game, you might be correct, but then again, you are guessing...

Calibrating the VPS may help, but sometimes calibrating things that had a good calibration introduces additional problems!

Prob using a gimbal guard..... they look like they dont obstruct the sensors so thats perhaps why he said nothing blocking them? im just guessing, but its sounds lik sommat is in the way of the vps...
ps, been there, done that, book coming later...