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Epic 2 Mile Fly Away!

Been following this thread and learning tons of stuff as I go. Here is the question I'm curious about. So let's say that the Inspire goes crazy and for what ever compass or GPS or other abnormality happens. If you switch to Atti mode and have full control, does the red triangle still show you the true direction that the Inspire is pointing. Obviously my concern is if GPS control is lost and you are borderline out of visual contact, can you move to ATTI MODE and rely on the direction of the red arrow to fly you back to visual control. And when gaining visual a control fall back onto your manual flying skills to land the Inspire.
Thanks. Dennis

I'd be interested to know what people think about this.
 
Ok - this thread is rapidly exploding out of hand.
Lets slow down and take a breath.......
This is NOT meant to be patronising in any way so please do not construe it as such.

First of all, I have watched your video now three times and I can say that pretty much without doubt that this was compass calibration related. There is classic TBE going on and the compass is fighting the GPS values causing the circular motions always evident in this type of scenario.
Secondly, everybody should take their time to learn their aircraft and practice good airmanship - these things weigh 3kg and can kill somebody.
There seems to be some incessant need to get airborne as quickly as possible (quick release props, landing position cases etc) - Why? Would everyone be happy if when they went on holiday and were sitting in the Airbus the pilot said "Not going to bother with the pre-flight checks... lets get up there as quickly as possible and have some fun?" :eek:
Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY should learn to fly in Atti mode. Systems can fail, GPS can be flakey, compass can have errors so learn to pilot your aircraft in the nearest thing we have to manual on the Inspire which is Atti. Put in stick time where if you have a mishap it doesn't matter (open fields etc) until you are comfortable flying whole packs in Atti. - It would have saved this occurrence from getting as bad as it did.

If ANYTHING doesn't feel right or does not behave they way you expect it to - LAND! Terminate the flight and investigate what is going on.

With regards to IMU and compass calibrations..... I have reiterated many many times on this forum:
YOU DO NOT need to do an IMU calibration every five minutes or days with a 'Y' in them. Do an IMU calibration on a flat, level, vibration free surface (preferably as soon as you fire up the Inspire so the flight controller is still cold). Once calibrated check the values are within spec. THEN LEAVE IT ALONE !!!
I have done 3 IMU calibrations since I got my Inspire, each one has been immediately after updating firmware - that's it.
However, I ALWAYS check my IMU mod values before every single flight. If they are not right I do not take off

Compass calibrations DO NOT need to be done every time you cross the road or change location or sleep overnight in a log cabin or watch the 'X-Factor'
You only need to re-calibrate your compass if:
1. You have traveled a LONG distance (different timezone etc, or thousands of miles) or the app tells you that you have a compass error. (I'll come back to that one)
When you are calibrating your compass you are setting it up for the magnetic declination you are flying in. This does not change dramatically unless you travel a LONG way.
Now, if you drive to a parking lot for example and you decide to fly from there, you have no way of knowing what influences are affecting the compass from buried metal, cars around you, building nearby etc. You may well do a calibration at this spot but the compass is being affected by these unseen influences. Not enough to cause an error, but enough to skew the result away from the true declination value for that location. The compass calibrates and the mod values pull the compass in line with the magic 1400 - 1600 number.
However, when you take off you are then clear of that magnetic influence that caused the skewed value and all that is acting on the compass now is the TRUE magnetic flux for the declination you are located. Only problem is your compass is 'calibrated' from the parking lot where you took off - so it's now wrong!

My advice, for what it's worth:

1. Get to know your Inspire inside out
2. Get very comfortable flying in Atti - Practice regularly.
3. Calibrate your IMU and LEAVE it alone
4. Calibrate your compass well away from ANYTHING that could cause a skewed result. Check your mod values, then move 100ft or so and check them again. If they are the same you probably have a GOOD calibration so LEAVE IT ALONE.
5. ALWAYS check your mod values before every single flight
6. Make yourself a good checklist of items and follow it!
7. If ANYTHING doesn't seem quite right be ready to land immediately/flick to atti.
8. I said I would come back to the 'Compass Error' message. - If you do get this, pick the Inspire up and move it...chances are that error will go away or it is caused by an influence near you.

Sorry for the huge post guys but I hope some of it is helpful.

I will now sit back and wait for the bombs to go off :p
I have waited for the right time to get mine I started with a tiny hubsan with a camera to follow my progress then i went to a glimpse with fpv i have to agree with a lot of great fliers learn small and learn everything now i will move to my next step but not without learning something very valuable today my experience is starting with a mcx with 5 copters in between all the way to a t-rex 450 pro that i could disassemble and rebuild before i put it in the air slow down guys safety was no accident
 
Harry, I'll try one more time........Help me (us) help you.....

1) turn on rc/tx
2) turn on copter (blades off for extra safety)
3) Connect mobile device to rc/tx turn on and run dji pilot app
4) In app goto advanced settings, then sensors

Let us know what the 3 MOD values are (on the right side)

Knowing these values will say a lot.

Gyroscope MOD: 0.01
Acceleration MOD: 0.99
Compass MOD: 1433-1492 (Rapid fluctuate between these values)

Hope this helps :)
 
you must admit ATTI is a big jump for newbies man, i just want your help!
Saying 'Atti is a big jump for newbies' is like saying 'I get the whole driving thing but reverse is kinda tough so I'm going to bail on the whole backing up thing'. When you fly these things you should get practiced with every aspect of it. You bought a powerful machine, take the time to learn how to control it. After a while you will find ATTI mode will give you better, smoother shots as well.
 
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Current MOD values when incident happend

Gyroscope MOD: 0.01
Acceleration MOD: 0.99
Compass MOD: 1433-1492 (Rapid fluctuate between these values)
 
NO! - Read my post!
You can have a skewed compass calibration and the app would report safe to fly because there is no way it can know any different.

I'm sorry but maybe get one of these if you cannot grasp the concept of a bad calibration which cannot be blamed on DJI

http://www.hubsan.com/productinfo_12.html
You have an issue with the Nano Quad? I have mine in purple and it does loops.
 
Sorry, I've just got them now, switched on Inspire and got them from app? This is not correct?

Regards
No - you needed them at the time of take off pre flight of the problem flight in question.

Unfortunately your current mod values are of no use.
 
Yes, but you will not be able to read them.
Only DJI are able to decypher the logs.

OK, I'm sending LOGS to DJI tomorrow.
I will keep everyone posted with there response.
This incident has allowed me to gain a huge amount of knowledge from yourself and others here. I was very fortunate all ended well for me and these MOD values, I will check always pre-flight now.
Thank you for all your guidance, one learns by there mistakes :)
 
OK, I'm sending LOGS to DJI tomorrow.
I will keep everyone posted with there response.
This incident has allowed me to gain a huge amount of knowledge from yourself and others here. I was very fortunate all ended well for me and these MOD values, I will check always pre-flight now.
Thank you for all your guidance, one learns by there mistakes :)
And remember......... get comfortable with Atti......It is always your friend when things go bad :)
 
Flying any machine on GPS you must understand that the GPS system has limitations. If Any GPS error occurs one needs to have some redundancy. In the case of the inspire that would be switching to ATTI mode.
When you receive your Inspire however DJI has this function disabled by default giving the owner the impression one can rely in full on the GPS. One would not even be able to switch to ATTI mode.

I have added an interesting read on GPS and RAIM (Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring)

Here a link to check RAIM near an airport near you: http://augur.ecacnav.com/augur/app/npa

I guess I will update my Pre-Flight checklist to include a RAIM check for the future.
 

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Flying any machine on GPS you must understand that the GPS system has limitations. If Any GPS error occurs one needs to have some redundancy. In the case of the inspire that would be switching to ATTI mode.
When you receive your Inspire however DJI has this function disabled by default giving the owner the impression one can rely in full on the GPS. One would not even be able to switch to ATTI mode.

I have added an interesting read on GPS and RAIM (Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring)

Here a link to check RAIM near an airport near you: http://augur.ecacnav.com/augur/app/npa

I guess I will update my Pre-Flight checklist to include a RAIM check for the future.

Wait, what? You can't switch to ATTI mode out of the box?
 

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