Before you start to do anything, read the user manual carefully! I require my team members to read it at least twice.
Installation
Official demo video:
Tips:
When you remove the battery compartment be careful and don't remove the screws on the extension shelf. Remove the screws on the shelf.
If you have a camera, you may connect the gimbal cables to the central board before you reinstall the upper plate. If you follow the user manual, you have to remove the upper plate again. It's painful dealing with 16 screws every time.
Mount the arms first then connect the cables.
When you reinstall the upper plate, the srew holes in the upper plate and central board will be aligned to each other only if the upper plate bears 0 load. Make sure the upper plate is not bent.
I personally suggest that mount the gimbal lock to the gimbal mounting plate (and its cover) first, then mount the whole part to the aircraft. These dampers make the gimbal plate shake around when you tighten the screws.
If you have a guidance system and the front sensor is installed on the upper plate, you need to mount the GPS shelf pointing to the back of the craft so that you can put down the GPS during transportation
Don't mount the props if the drone is about to fly.
When you finish mounting M100, don't try to fly it immediately. There are several things to do...
1. Check the firmware version:
Turn on the controller first and then power on M100. When the controller connet to M100, a status report will show on your screen. Don't try to fly it with any errors or warnings in the report.
Power off M100, connect the drone to your computer via the port on the LED module. Power on the controller and then the aircraft. Open the N1 software, you should see two lights blinking on the bottom left corner.
Click Mounting
You need to measure the location of your GPS and fill in the coordinate here.
Then click Tools
Check the firmware version and upgrade to the latest version. That's all for the drone part, poweroff the drone.
If you see the error as I did, you just need to upgrade the firmware of the drone. There's nothing wrong with the GPS.
3. Upgrading the controller.
There are two ways to upgrade the controller. The first is following the instruction in the document upgrading via DJI pilot (or new DJI Go).
However, I failed to upgrade it using the APP(iOS version). I notice that the controller is the same as Inspire 1's, so I download the Inspire 1 firmware to upgrade.
a. Download the firmware and unzip the donwloaded file. Copy the .bin file to an empty U-disk(FAT32).
b. Make sure the drone is powered OFF! Plug in the U disk to the USB port on the controller.
c. Power on the controller, it will automatically upgrade.
Test Flight
Before you fly the drone, please read through all the safty tips in the user manual. You may also check http://flysafe.dji.com/
Always power on the controller before you power on the drone.
1. IMU calibration (can be done indoors)
IMU only need to calibrate once before the first fight and if the drone has been idle for a long time.
Put the drone on flat ground and calibrate the IMU using the DJI APP in your smart phone. The process takes serval minutes, be patient.
I suggest you to use iOS device to do the calibration. I failed once using an Andriod phone.
2. Compass calibration
You must recalibrate the compass the first time you fly the drone and if the last flight place is far a way from the current place (say another city), and if your last flight is indoor.
Make sure you calibrate the compass in an empty field. There's no electrial facilities near you(at least 500 meters away from you), no buildings, no grove or forest, no metal facilities.
You can check the magnetic field using the compass on your phone. Put your phone on the ground and check the north direction, then moving around your phone, shake it and check again if it's pointing to the same direction. You may repeat the process serval times. If the magnetic field is no stable, don't fly the drone.
Follow the instructions in the APP and calibrate the compass.
3. Take off
After all the steps above are done, it's time to send the big bird in the air.
Note that the drone can fly with or without GPS. For newbies, you must fly the drone with GPS (the app says safe to fly with GPS)!
I don't recommend to use the auto take off function because you'll lose control during that time. I prefer to throttle it up smoothly.
Freeman you have many useful tips for new owners. I prefer to mount the entire sensor array to the top of the craft with the exception of the downward facing sensor. I use the second expansion bay under them to get it out of the way of the gimbal mount. I had too much difficulty mounting it below the battery tray. The rear cable interferes with the insertion and removal of the battery.
Tahoe_Ed Posted at 2015-8-11 03:31
Freeman you have many useful tips for new owners. I prefer to mount the entire sensor array to the ...
You can mount the sensors as the user manual instructed. The only problem is the front sensor that it will interfere the gimbal. My solution is mounting the front sensor on the upper plate expansion bay and connecting the sensor with that long vision cable. Note that you have to move the front sensor up a little bit. And yes, you have to unplug the vision cable of the back sensor to change the battery.
I see how you are getting above the gimbal. You are only using a single screw. That will work. I chose not to do that. I do not know what is the service cycle of the sensor connector is. If you have to remove it everytime you have to insert a battery, at some point it will fail. I have asked DJI to review the manual and make the appropriate changes.
Yeah, that's the problem. Another solution is install the whole guidance system on top of the drone except the downward sensor. I have never tried that though.
That is how I have mine set up. Expansion bay with the sensor array on top of it. The downward facing sensor stuck to the battery tray with double sided tape. I went through three builds before settleing on this configuration.
lvl.1
Second Officer
