Maybe someone can help before I send it off to be repaired!
And lose my chance of filming the arial footage for my projekt.
Hello,
just got my new phantom 2 with gamble and video downlink 3 days ago.
Have had a lot of problems as i am on a sailing boat in Kiritimati a friend ordred it for me from B&G, it was suposed to come fully assembled and flight tested.
Instead it came un assembled and un tested.
I assembled it with my friends help updated the firmware and did the advanced imu calibration, the compass calibration and then when of to do mi first test flight on land(lights flashing slow green) (home screen shows 12 satelites). I have flown phantom 2 from friends quite often and now what it should be like but this was just horrible
the drone would not keep its altitude and not its position ether and if i would try to slowly turn it 360° on the spot it would fly in a big circle of about 5 to 10m and then keep flying in some direction that pleases it.
If i would not have had some reasonable degree of experience i would have probably crashed it.
I will be in Kiritimati one more week and need some arial footage for my project, so i am ready to try what ever it takes.
But i just can't fly over 2000dollar worth of equipment over the water when it acts like that.
Compass mod is 1700.

any help? Please......

B&H:@

guymacdonald@ip Posted at 2014-12-13 19:08
First things first, you should list the various firmware and software versions you are using so some ...

ok thank you

here are all the firmware versions please let me know if you need anything else

Main Controller                 firmware 3.08
GPS                                                       6.0.1.4
Receiver-Phantom2                           1.0.0.0
P330CB                                                1.0.2.10
Battery                                                 2.0.0.0

markus.marionet Posted at 2014-12-13 21:33
ok thank you

here are all the firmware versions please let me know if you need anything else

software version is 3.6

markus.marionet Posted at 2014-12-13 21:50
software version is 3.6

gain 125 125 120 140
         260 260

How far do you need to fly for your project?
If it's not too far and not too windy, and have enough experience, you can try to get your video by flying in ATTI mode...
For standard GPS mode - I suggest all the calibrations in the software (first calibrate the remote and then the drone itself - basic and advanced calibration). Make sure you calibrate it on a flat surface.
Also, make sure you take off from flat ground. I'm not sure how the Phantom will work if you want to takeoff from a moving sailing boat... That could be a problem as long as it may trick its sensors (compass, accelerometer, etc).

I have seen some problems with my Phantom, but they went away after proper calibration...

ciprianboboc@gm Posted at 2014-12-14 13:07
How far do you need to fly for your project?
If it's not too far and not too windy, and have enough  ...

Hello,
Yesterday i was really getting desperate and so i decided to take all the upgrades off and try flying the drone without them (Gimble, transmitter,....).
To my surprise it was flying good.!!!
So after that i put just the gimbal and it was still flying good.
Then i installed re installed the video transmitter and iosd mini trying to put it in the best way possible without changing the center of gravity of the drone to much.
And the drone was finally flying stable.
In all the dokumentation and all the forums on the web i could not find one that talked about the importance of installing things respecting the center of gravity / balance of the drone.
Thats why i did not think that this could be the problem.
well now that is sorted.
Did 6 nice flights so far.
and all was good, until..........

ciprianboboc@gm Posted at 2014-12-14 13:07
How far do you need to fly for your project?
If it's not too far and not too windy, and have enough  ...

Hello,
Yesterday i was really getting desperate and so i decided to take all the upgrades off and try flying the drone without them (Gimble, transmitter,....).
To my surprise it was flying good.!!!
So after that i put just the gimbal and it was still flying good.
Then i installed re installed the video transmitter and iosd mini trying to put it in the best way possible without changing the center of gravity of the drone to much.
And the drone was finally flying stable.
In all the dokumentation and all the forums on the web i could not find one that talked about the importance of installing things respecting the center of gravity / balance of the drone.
Thats why i did not think that this could be the problem.
well now that is sorted.
Did 6 nice flights so far.
and all was good, until..........

markus.marionet Posted at 2014-12-15 03:00
Hello,
Yesterday i was really getting desperate and so i decided to take all the upgrades off and  ...

Now i have one more problem....
The new software has a lot of good safety futures that will automatically land the drone if things go wrong in the slightest way.
As i am flying over water at almost all times those futures will not be any good to me as one landing of this type would mean total loss of equipment in my case.
n my last flight it almost happened twice......
Fortunately i was not to far from the boat and realized what was happening i was at a hight of about 15m and about 20m from the boat when i suddenly lost all control and the drone started landing over the water.
I went full up and it was still going down.....
Then i switched to ATTI and back to GPS and it recovered itself about 2m from the water.
I put it back to a hight of about 10m and started turning it and getting ready to fly back to the boat to land when it happened again.
This time i managed to recover it at about 3cm above the water surface and merely a second before a total loss.....
I managet to land and i am still shaking all over.
I am not going to fly over water again as long as i have not figured out those things 100%.
will try to do some more research on it online....
Maybe someone here can help me and let me no how to deactivate those futures .
I have done about 50 flights in GPS mode mostly with other peoples drones filming them surfing etc...
I think i am ok at flying and handling the drone.
I am new to all the settings and different modes thou.
Any advice?

markus.marionet Posted at 2014-12-15 03:14
Now i have one more problem....
The new software has a lot of good safety futures that will automa ...

I usually don't fly over water.
I've seen on youtube videos of adding floaties to Phantom to be able to land on water. I'm not sure how much weight and if they really help but it's something to look into.
My advice is to learn the ATTI mode well on land; you've already said that it saved you from a dive... I got my Phantom recently. Before that, I used to fly a $50 drone (Syma X5 - camera included ) and that one doesn't have any GPS, compass or other fancy sensors. And so far, I had no crash with it (despite the only flying mode is, of course, manual). But my Phantom scared me when it decide to flyaway because bad GPS reception (or whatever reason).
Especially over water going in ATTI mode and pushing up is a safe bet and can save you many times...

ciprianboboc@gm Posted at 2014-12-15 13:03
I usually don't fly over water.
I've seen on youtube videos of adding floaties to Phantom to be ab ...

Thank you,

that is exactly what i am going to do now,

i am going ashore now to fly on land and get familiar with the ATTI mode.

Thanks and all the best,

Markus