Important information for newbies!

Here is a list of basic things to pay attention to:

A.      Calibrate Compass and IMU

How to calibrate IMU:

1.        Open the DJI GO

2.        Enter camera view

3.        Enter MC Settings

4.        Sensors=>IMU calibration

5.        Keep the aircraft on a flatsurface while calibrating IMU

After long transportation or in a newflight environment, parameters of IMU, including gyroscope, barometer, andaccelerometer can be changed, so in this situation flying without calibrationcan lead to the aircraft’s incorrect behavior.

B.      How to calibrate compass:

1.        Open the DJI GO app

2.        Enter camera view

3.        Enter aircraft state

4.        Compass => Calibrate

5.        Follow the instructions on adisplay.

Tips: Don’t calibrate compass in the zonesof strong electromagnetic interference as: electro stations, near high voltagepower lines, metal constructions, signal generator towers etc.

C.       Set go-home altitude correctly, and keep your eye on a low batteryreturn to home notice.

1.      Open DJI Go> MCSettings>Advanced Settings>Failsafe mode>Return to homealtitude(20-500m)

2.      When DJI Go displays “low batteryreturn to home” notice, pilot has 10 seconds to cancel it manually if needed.If RTH has not been canceled in 10 seconds aircraft will ascend to the RTHaltitude and fly to the home point. If user needs to land aircraft manually,RTH command has to be canceled in application or by pressing home-button on theremote controller. During critical battery warning, pilot cannot cancel RTH,but aircraft is controllable while returning back home.

D.      Don’t turn on the aircraft holding it in your hands.

Power on the aircraft only when it standingon the ground. Powering aircraft on, while holding it in your hands, wobbling orshaking it may cause Z axis bias estimation and yaw drift.

E.       Enable multiple flight mode.

Open DJI GO> MC Settings>AdvancedSettings> Multiple flight mode

When aircraft is getting interference, itwill switch to Atti mode which will stop GPS and compass operation and RTHfeature will not be available. Pilot also can switch aircraft to the atti mode,if there is some incorrect behavior of aircraft discovered.  If multiple flight mode function is notenabled, switching between F/A/P modes will not be available and set to P-GPSby default.

F.       Battery usage:

1.      First charge the battery. Whenall the indicator lights go off, battery is fully charged. Don’t keep the batteriescharged longer than 48 hours. If the time exceed 48 hours, please charge thebattery again to prevent voltage drop during the flight.

2.      Make a cycle of battery fullcharge and discharge every 20 flights.

G.      Observe flight environment before taking off.

Try to choose a wide and opened spot.Flying above the people, in the city above the water and in other complexenvironments fly cautiously and don’t go beyond visual range.

H.      Be soft on RC sticks. Do not push the full stick continuously.

Also, you can adjust aircraft’s sensitivityin DJI Go>MC Settings>Gain & Expo Tuning.

Dear experienced DJI pilots, please feel free to add your valuable suggestions to our newbies!

Very good Tim. Something else that should probably be mentioned that I didn't see in your post:

Rotor start: Both sticks down and toward the center (same time)
Rotor stop: Left stick down continuously. Once it realizes it is not descending it will shut rotors off.

This seems to be confusing as I see a lot of posts of people flipping their Phantom by giving it the start command to stop the rotors.

Thanks Tim. The Post is for all of us, new and old. I am going to print a couple of copies and put one in my manual.

Also, you can adjust aircraft’s sensitivityin DJI Go>MC Settings>Gain & Expo Tuning.
You should probably mention that changing expo while using esc fw 01.11.00.00 will bring odd flight behaviour like reducing max speed to 10 m/s under certain conditions. I am experimenting this settings since 3 weeks now as I am stuck on this fw because DJI advertised rollback does not work like promised. There is no smooth start and stop movement anymore.

Maybe you can tell me which settings to use to get the horrible jello out which I have since oct 4th as I cannot rollback now like advertised? Withour getting a max speed of 10 m/s of course.

Probably a daft idea but I have 4 hours of flight time but only 4 minutes of video. So how about a gentle reminder to TURN ON VIDEO please, even pretty please

Good safety check! Thanks for help and friendly reminders that we can sometimes overlook.!

why shouldn't you keep pressing the sticks all the way continuously?

Michael M Posted at 2015-11-3 02:32
why shouldn't you keep pressing the sticks all the way continuously?

Do you always press the accelerator and brake pedal all the way to the floor when you drive a car? Dane concept.

Same concept I meant

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-11-2 11:45
Do you always press the accelerator and brake pedal all the way to the floor when you drive a car? ...

lets say you want to get from point A to point B. You are not filming so you do not need to worry about smooth footage, just getting to point B. Wouldn't you throttle all the way until you have reached point B? Or would you throttle half way or a quarter of the way and slowly drift towards B?

Does this effect the health of the quad? Or just bad practice

Michael M Posted at 2015-11-3 05:13
lets say you want to get from point A to point B. You are not filming so you do not need to worry  ...

I believe he was referring to changing directions and meant apply changes gradually rather than full power but I could be wrong.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with traveling full speed in a constant direction when going from point a to b.  However the inspire is quite powerful and it could put undue stress on it if you are going full speed and suddenly drop the stick or apply full 90-180 degree commands.  Slowing down and changing direction should be done gradually such as when driving a car. Not saying you have to be super careful and delicate or anything but repeated abuse will eventually cause something to break.

Excellent points - also starting from the roof of a car or near a car can possibly mess up compas. If flying directly over yourself - tilt antennas. And most importantly put your phone or tablet to airplane mode, close all other apps.

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-3 07:43
Excellent points - also starting from the roof of a car or near a car can possibly mess up compas. I ...

Actually airplane mode isn't required and nothing bad will happen if you don't use it.  I use my phone and leave my data connection active so it can access map data.  However using airplane mode isn't a bad thing if you remember to previously cache the map data, if nothing else it will keep calls or texts from interrupting you while flying.

Great suggestions, guys!

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-11-2 20:28
Actually airplane mode isn't required and nothing bad will happen if you don't use it.  I use my p ...

I disagree - interrupting app mid flight can have terrible results, we don't know how its coded by results could be disastrous.

I experience the latest app crushing few times per flight on iPhone6s with no errors displayed even when in airplane mode, requiring me to relaunch it.

Dji - could you please not display new product ads on app launch? I have to tap on Skip before being allowed to regain co trol - major software issue
.

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-3 11:51
I disagree - interrupting app mid flight can have terrible results, we don't know how its coded by ...

This isn't true. The app has nothing to do with controlling flight. You can fly the inspire without even running the app. It's only function is to provide telemetry and live camera video feed.  

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-11-2 23:44
This isn't true. The app has nothing to do with controlling flight. You can fly the inspire withou ...

App can initiate take off, landing, waypoint navigation, RTH etc it has direct control of the aircraft, bug in the app can send I1 in to a wild RTH for example

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-3 15:07
App can initiate take off, landing, waypoint navigation, RTH etc it has direct control of the airc ...

If there is wild rth bug in the newest app this is the first I've heard of it.  True the app can initiate auto flight modes, however manual flight is only affected by the controller and the only thing that will happen if the app crashes is any auto flight sequence that was running will stop and the inspire will hover until other commands are given.  If you were flying manually when the app crashes absolutely nothing will happen.  You can fly the inspire without the app, it is not required for flight. The app was very buggy a few versions back and crashed constantly, many people should be able to tell you this as well, flight is not affected.

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-3 08:07
App can initiate take off, landing, waypoint navigation, RTH etc it has direct control of the airc ...

that is why i like the Litchi app. it loads the complete flight plan into the craft and then after the autonomous flight started you can even switch off the device and the RC and the craft will finish the flight plan and land

Michael M Posted at 2015-11-2 22:13
lets say you want to get from point A to point B. You are not filming so you do not need to worry  ...

I see no problem with flying at full throttle. I made my sticks a bit longer to slow down the effect of going to full throttle. however you will reduce the flying time because power consumption from the batteries will be much higher. much similar to a car you get there faster, but you use more fuel.

Good advice DJI-Tim. My only question is with calibrating the IMU. I do everything else before each flight but not the IMU cali. Is this really necessary before each flight ? If it is done on an uneven surface and the user believes that the surface is level will it not then cause problems ?

HFI Posted at 2015-11-3 18:43
Good advice DJI-Tim. My only question is with calibrating the IMU. I do everything else before each  ...

I've been heavily warned NOT to calibrate the IMU unless absolutely necessary. Some say after firmware updates, but that is all. I can't see how something being calibrated is going to screw anything up, but thought I'd pass along what I've heard.

Barney

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-11-3 03:25
If there is wild rth bug in the newest app this is the first I've heard of it.  True the app can i ...

Can you gurantee 100% that nothing will happen if app crashes?

Theoretically it is possible for the app to send commands to the I1 - so a bug in the app is 100% able to control your drone.

Now this control crashes, can anyone really be sure ? No. So my advise is to be ready on app crash to recover and minimize conditions on the phone for it to crash.

There are reports on this forum of app crashing and I1 going in to full down mode..

draadkar Posted at 2015-11-3 12:51
that is why i like the Litchi app. it loads the complete flight plan into the craft and then after ...

For me dji app seems to be crashing 4 times per flight now on iPhone 6s

HFI Posted at 2015-11-4 08:43
Good advice DJI-Tim. My only question is with calibrating the IMU. I do everything else before each  ...

Do not calibrate imu or compass before every flight, it will only increase your risk of problems and they only need to be done again if you update firmware. Imu calibration must be done on flat level surface and not be moved at all during the process.  

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-4 10:00
Can you gurantee 100% that nothing will happen if app crashes?

Theoretically it is possible for  ...

I guess I can't say 100% for sure with the current app version but I certainly can say 100% certain for older versions which crashed repeatedly with zero effects.

Anyway if the app can send signals to control flight isn't it logical to assume that when the app crashes it is no longer able to send those signals and thusly couldn't possibly affect flight?

I will say that the only way an app crash is likely to affect flight at all is if you are utilizing one of the auto flight modes when the app crashes. I guess I can't accurately say if it will stop and hover or continue on its path like someone said the litchi app does when closed during mission. Ive never used those features and never will.

At any rate barring some sort major bug in the app/firmware it's highly implausible that an app that crashes and is no longer running would be able to send signals to affect flight with any sort of unpredictable behavior.  It will either continue it's previously set auto path like the litchi app or it will stop auto flight and hover.

Avoid rapidly descending STRAIGHT down.  You will be dropping right into turbulent air that your Phantom just created and it can make your Phantom unstable.  When descending rapidly, move side-to-side also so that you are coming down at an angle into stable air.

Be Soft on RC sticks: As I understand, Phantom speed controllers are just P-controllers and not PI-controllers. Based on gain settings, stick movements may lead to motors reaching current limits and thus full torques frequently. This would definitely stress motor holding parts and might stress shells resulting into cracks if not properly designed or if the screws are loose . I m sure beginners will be more careful than the experienced users. Sorry for experienced users, you got to be more careful to avoid she'll cracking

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-2 17:43
Excellent points - also starting from the roof of a car or near a car can possibly mess up compas. I ...

I primarily use my iPad mini with cellular and on occasion use my iPhone and never had any issues in over 80 flights. Cellular is on a total different frequency. I also fly when in range of my wifi router with an established a WiFi connection which is on the same frequency as the RC... I only start getting a weak signal (at a distance of about 3000 ft) when flying over heavily populated neighborhoods most likely because all the congestion of wifi routers on 2.4GHz.

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-3 20:00
Can you gurantee 100% that nothing will happen if app crashes?

Theoretically it is possible for  ...

My DJI GO app use to crash all the time and I was still in control on my phantom using the RC.  I personally can't guarantee anything but I agree with sultangris's comments. The app has nothing to do with control... In a sense that if your app crashed you'd still be in control and in an event of an app crash it's improbable that it will send some weird signal to the bird and tell it to fly away.

Suggestion for DJI .
Once you deselect beginner mode Multiple flight mode should be enabled by default.Of-course a message stating that should come up on the goapp warning pilots that multiple flight mode has been enabled.
It will stop a hell of alot of "My drone went crazy and crashed posts"

Enable multiple flight mode.
Open DJI GO> MC Settings>AdvancedSettings> Multiple flight mode
When aircraft is getting interference, itwill switch to Atti mode which will stop GPS and compass operation and RTHfeature will not be available. Pilot also can switch aircraft to the atti mode,if there is some incorrect behavior of aircraft discovered.  If multiple flight mode function is notenabled, switching between F/A/P modes will not be available and set to P-GPSby default.

Thanks for Info.
However you should clean up your original post, there are a lot of typos, witch renders understanding at time difficult. Furthermore these typos does not look very professional.

I always make sure the camera is not pointing down before landing.  I know it has a UV lens/filter cap protecting the actual lens.  Just my idea :-)

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-11-3 22:36
I guess I can't say 100% for sure with the current app version but I certainly can say 100% certai ...

Actually this is exactly what apps do when crashing - sending random data to random ports, which can send any command even out of normal flight parameters to your drone on app crash.

Abnormal exit is just that - nobody knows what actually executed and what was sent to your drone or what settings were messed up and you don't even know about.

I caution everyone to be very careful with app crashes and recheck all settings asap.

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-5 21:32
Actually this is exactly what apps do when crashing - sending random data to random ports, which c ...

Well based on previous data and experience I'd have to say you are incorrect. Logic suggests you are also wrong but without actual experience with new app version I can't accurately say for certain that you are wrong although every thing I know about it suggests you are.

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-11-6 02:50
Well based on previous data and experience I'd have to say you are incorrect. Logic suggests you a ...

May I suggest talking to a software developer if you don't believe me

Machoman Posted at 2015-11-2 14:43
Also, you can adjust aircraft’s sensitivityin DJI Go>MC Settings>Gain & Expo Tuning.
You should pro ...

I thought this thread was about Flying Safe and a checklist of things to do/check - not a moan about how adjusting gains/expo affects flight dynamics!

Machoman Posted at 2015-11-2 14:43
Also, you can adjust aircraft’s sensitivityin DJI Go>MC Settings>Gain & Expo Tuning.
You should pro ...

I thought this thread was about Flying Safe and a checklist of things to do/check - not a moan about how adjusting gains/expo affects flight dynamics!

Tharg (from the Posted at 2015-11-7 18:50
I thought this thread was about Flying Safe and a checklist of things to do/check - not a moan abo ...

You  didnt realize that the first sentence was a quote from Tims first post?

Capt_M Posted at 2015-11-6 21:58
May I suggest talking to a software developer if you don't believe me

As I've said the app has crashed literally hundreds of times and it's never once sent random control signals to the inspire. It does not and will not affect flight in an erratic or unexpected manner.  

If you crash your inspire because the app crashes it's simply because you lack piloting skills, not because an app that isn't even running is somehow magically sending random control signals to the inspire which are overriding the control signals from the remote control. End of story.