Great at first but now....... creeping issues popping up.

[PureSQNut]

So I have had my Inspire for about 2 weeks and I have to say, its been a blast. Over my Phantom and a few other quads I have its been a total treat to own and I would say that most of my success with it has been to reading all of the tips, tricks, issues and things to look out for on this and other forums.
However over the past few days it has become increasingly buggy.

1) Compass calibration -

At first I religiously (still do) calibrate the compass before every flight. up until a few days ago if did it once that's al it took. Now for the past several days I am having to do it two to three times otherwise when I take off it wants to fly around in a 1 meter diameter style box pattern. A couple of times it was bad enough that I am lucky I was only inches off of the ground otherwise it would of been a mess.

The compass each time always states that it is calibrated, I have full GPS signal where I live and no towers anywhere near here. So for now I guess I am having to do this multiple times to make sure its correct so I don't have any expensive accidents.

2) Video issues (Maybe GUI issues?)

Over the past couple days the video signal to my tablet has spent the majority of the time froze up, black or not streaming, even stranger this happens whether im 2 ft or 2000ft away from the unit. I have full signal on the transmitters and still have control of the camera even though i cant see anything. Currently I am using two nexus II tablets for each controller.

During this time I never loose control of the copter and even weirder although my telemetry is rock solid and seems correct I continue to get weird voice warnings in mid flights like "landing gear raising" and " landing gear lowering" and the one that scare the hell out of me was when I was at my max height about 3500ft away and the display showed "weak transmission > starting motors" however I could clearly tell (although I have no FPV video) by switching over to the google maps display I still had full control of my Inspire and was able to fly it home.

3) Flight path drifting -

I had read that this was updated in the latest batch of firmware updates so I went to do the update but it says I am updated already? If there any place where I can get the exact firmware etc for each part of the system and not just the firmware packed download located on DJI's website?

4) Gimbal in a fixed position-

Today I noticed that intermittently when the video would come in and out (flying within 200ft of my home point) that regardless of which way I was flying (direction, angle, altitude, pitch etc) the camera was auto adjusting itself to the north west. and I had ZERO control of it except for up and down controls. I power cycled the inspire and it solved it but then came back again about 5 minutes later in mid flight.

After all of this started happening I decided to recalibrate my IMU as per some other issues I was reading about online. Upon re-start I went from ZERO video (As described above) fo a very temperamental signal regardless of distance, location or surroundings. I know the camera is working because I can shoot video and take photos and download them (although I can see what im taking a picture of when I take it) to my PC.

Any ideas or help would be great because Im growing tired of sitting on hold trying to get answers out of DJI since they are on holiday and obviously local support is overloaded with the Chinese New Year holiday?


For the record here is my firmware/loader versions

Main Controller - 1.15 / 34.01
Camera - 1.03 / 0.00
Gimbal 1.05 / 1.0
Center Board 2.03 / 3.0
Remote Controller 1.04 / 2 0
Battery 3.0 / 2 06
Air OFDM 1.03 / 3.0
Air Encoder 1.1 / 1.0
Ground Encoder 1.03 / 1.0

I haven't been able to find a confirmed list anywhere on DJI's site except for the 2 16 firmware pack on the download page which has zero correlation to this broken down list.

Thanks in advance for your help and comments.

 

[japaneselonewolf]

Compass calibration - are you wearing metal (watch, keys, cell phone emissions interfering with readings). IMU calibrations, are you doing basic or advanced, and are you doing a full IMU cal after a firmware update?

 

[PureSQNut]

As I am familiar with magnetics and metal issues related to electronics I remove every piece of metal off my body except for metal on my belt and stand when im flying at home at least 15ft from any vehicle. I also have it elevated for calibration purposes.

For the IMU I am doing to advanced calibration. I however have not been able to do any firmware updates as it says I am 100% up to date. A few minutes ago I was able to confirm I am at least up to date to firmware standards as of 01/23/2015..... On a side note I built a flat table that I put outside to do my IMU calibration also to make sure that there is no possibility of rebar in the surface below causing any issues during the IMU update process.

Thanks...

 

[damoncooper]

Box pattern sounds like TBE and magnetic declination adjustment by the FC. If you fly a bit (minute or two - fly around, not hover) it should straighten itself out I believe. Try that and then again do a hover and note whether it is stable or TBE.

Might want to do all this above the vision systems effective range (2m) so you are on GPS only to see whether you are GPS+compass stable. The vision system may hold you steady at low hover/flight but it won't help you at higher altitudes obviously.

 

[PureSQNut]

Ok I will give it a try tonight.

FWIW, I honestly wish that the inspire had and overwrite command available for firmware even if it is the current version. In my industry that is a huge and beneficial tool and does correct loading bugs related to PC's, encryption issues in transposing the info from memory devices, etc. I would feel a lot omre comfortable if we could do that like on the phantom to correct possible related firmware related loading issues. Not saying that is my issue but it would eliminate that as a possibility.

 

[jonnyvermont]

I routinely get the box pattern when I first take off and hover. I find it lasts about a minute. I don't know what causes it, but I have come to expect it.

 

[PureSQNut]

I routinely get the box pattern when I first take off and hover. I find it lasts about a minute. I don't know what causes it, but I have come to expect it.

I was getting used to it as well until it tried going full throttle forward on me twice over the weekend during on of those box patterns. Just concerning.