Phantom 2 - bit of help needed

[m00se]

I know i know, a phantom 2 post,,,,,,,

but , does anyone know how to reduce the braking etc on the phantom 2 that make it soft to fly? im looking to get a little more grunt out of it for fun.

Id like to fly it in GPS to begin with, but GPS at full speed takes absolutely ages to stop..... like ages.

I tried googling, but phantom 3 seems to be hogging the search

 

[Meta4]

does anyone know how to reduce the braking etc on the phantom 2 that make it soft to fly? im looking to get a little more grunt out of it for fun.

Dynamic braking only came in for the Inspire and the Phantom 3.
There's no way to alter braking for the P2 series - because it has none.

 

[m00se]

So why when I let go of the stick, does it take about 20m to come to a stop when in GPS mode?
Even if I give full opposite stick, it is still around 15m

Is there a different name for this behaviour?

 

[x5yo]

I'm an expert with the P2, I can tell you now without a doubt the phantom 2 should stop straight away when in GPS mode. Make sure its in GPS mode, the rear lights should be green, if they are flashing yellow, its in atti mode. The switch might be broken internally.

Make sure the handset is calibrated properly via rc assist
then go into naza and calibrate it there by finding the dead zones and check what you input is showing on screen.
do full calibration of the craft.
do advanced IMU via naza.

Check the GPS/ATTI switches are working in the naza, near the IOC option.

If none of that works it sounds like you might need to replace the GPS module.

 

[m00se]

Hi,
thanks for the quick reply

The switch is 100% working, I can switch between GPS atti and homing with no issues.
The craft can hold position almost perfectly for the whole battery, and homing is within 1-2 of takeoff. So i doubt the GPS module is bad.

The "braking" as I will call it, is always in the direction of travel, never the wind. and increases as speed increases.

the craft is more or less new, i set it up when i got it, havent touched it for ages, but it was always like this.
I think I had it set to NAZA mode not phantom mode, because the homing function was better or something like that.

It has flown very little , the original batteries are still in the handset, (they are lithiums though)

i also get the impression that it tends to drift when performing yaw turns

Everything points towards it not trying to shake off momentum quickly.

The only potential indicator I have seen is that it frequently sets its home point twice in short succession.

 

[Mazz]

Alos have two P2 vision +. As stated before, it stops quite solid. I would check your machine itself before changing settings.

 

[Kilrah]

What firmware? If you've got something old it might not match what people are now used to.

 

[The Editor]

Hi,
thanks for the quick reply

The switch is 100% working, I can switch between GPS atti and homing with no issues.
The craft can hold position almost perfectly for the whole battery, and homing is within 1-2 of takeoff. So i doubt the GPS module is bad.

The "braking" as I will call it, is always in the direction of travel, never the wind. and increases as speed increases.

the craft is more or less new, i set it up when i got it, havent touched it for ages, but it was always like this.
I think I had it set to NAZA mode not phantom mode, because the homing function was better or something like that.

It has flown very little , the original batteries are still in the handset, (they are lithiums though)

i also get the impression that it tends to drift when performing yaw turns

Everything points towards it not trying to shake off momentum quickly.

The only potential indicator I have seen is that it frequently sets its home point twice in short succession.

Read me out all your gain values......Basic and Attitude.

 

[m00se]

Read me out all your gain values......Basic and Attitude.

will do,
just need to install the application for windows, it has been a really long time since I have used it

 

[m00se]

Ok here goes,
Its in Naza-m mode:
Basic P-120 r-120 y-120 A-200
Attitude p-220 r-220

Mod values sat on the desk are:
gyro: 0.2 - 0.6 fluctuating
accel: 1.02 fixed
Compass:1510 - 1525 fluctuating

 

[m00se]

Update on that, the software said the IMU needed to be calibrated, after advanced cal,
the accel and compass mods are the same, but the gyro is at 0.2 and more or less stable.
Hmmmm

 

[The Editor]

Ok here goes,
Its in Naza-m mode:
Basic P-120 r-120 y-120 A-200
Attitude p-220 r-220

Mod values sat on the desk are:
gyro: 0.2 - 0.6 fluctuating
accel: 1.02 fixed
Compass:1510 - 1525 fluctuating

OK, Basic gains are about right, take your Attitude gains up to around 280 and try it (don't be afraid to go higher but after that I would increase in steps of 10).
See if that helps.

 

[m00se]

OK, Basic gains are about right, take your Attitude gains up to around 280 and try it (don't be afraid to go higher but after that I would increase in steps of 10).
See if that helps.

It occurred to me that it might just be a power to weight ratio problem, I mean, obvisouly some time is needed to bring the craft to a stop.
But, in my case it doesnt seem to try and stop, it just kind of drifts along taking its merry time. I nearly hit myself in the face yesterday after having flown the inspire so much recently.

 

[The Editor]

It occurred to me that it might just be a power to weight ratio problem, I mean, obvisouly some time is needed to bring the craft to a stop.
But, in my case it doesnt seem to try and stop, it just kind of drifts along taking its merry time. I nearly hit myself in the face yesterday after having flown the inspire so much recently.

Yup - we've all been spoilt with the handling of the Inspire

The the Attitude gain, it adjusts how quickly the aircraft will react to letting go of the stick input.

 

[m00se]

Yup - we've all been spoilt with the handling of the Inspire

Seriously, I flew my big 6kg cuad copter recently, after flying the inspire, I so nearly stacked it. Its quite an old cuad now and tbf the manufacturer has improved the control in the latest IMU, but I have manually control decent to as to avoid my prop wash etc. 1ms decent is almost impossible to bear once you are used to full stick down not being a problem.

Not to mention you can go from full stick to zero stick on the inspire and not fear. If I did that with the beast then i dread to think what would happen.

I have used all my flight time up for today, and wind is picking up in the afternoon, so tomorrow I will crack the gains up and see if i can reduce the braking distance from the current 20m or so that it takes if you give full stick.

I dont think I can be too successful though, given that at the moment I give full stick, then when ready to change direction I pull back on tilt, apply yaw, then go either right or left on the stick depending on yaw direction, then when 180 yaw is achieved im going full tilt again, and it still takes at least 15m to begin travelling forward.

 

[m00se]

Hmm,
I put them to 280 like you suggested, it does seem to stop a little quicker, Its hard to say though due to wind differences.
I will try again tommrow and see if I can get a run without wind.

 

[The Editor]

Hmm,
I put them to 280 like you suggested, it does seem to stop a little quicker, Its hard to say though due to wind differences.
I will try again tommrow and see if I can get a run without wind.

Don't be afraid to push further (300+)

 

[m00se]

I noticed today, (perhaps more wind,) that when I cranked back on the stick after travelling into the wind, the cuad wanted to flip.......
It didnt, and i guess it would be cool to see if it did. But Im taking that as a sign that its becoming less docile and more fun to fly

 

[m00se]

Well, the inevitable happened. After about 20 mins of fast flight on one battery, then a battery change, around 12 mins into the second battery when banking into a corner the IMU seemingly locked up and the poor little phantom 2 is damaged......

I thought the battery failsafe had kicked in, but remember noticing that I could still control it a little bit...... after some time trying to work out what was going on it seemingly recovered from its mental state (it was always trying to head downwards at 45 degree or so roll........)

I then left it in position hold for a couple of seconds, yawed it and got oreintation tail in for landing, and it went mental again, i think I had reduced altitude because it was about 1m from the ground and there was no saving it the second time, it dived into the ground and flipped,

There is only a small mount of damage,im sure the frame is flyable.... but its full of small pieces of broken white plastic

I will review the video and see if i can work out what happened, but either way, my phantom 2 is now in the category of untrustworthy shite.

 

[m00se]

Here is the video at about 0:30 you can see a potenital tell tale sign of the problem as the cuad wipes out on the turn loosing stability. (that didnt happen before)

at 1:16 the cuad rolls to the left. (I thought this was the low batt failsafe) I let go of the pitch which has been at full stick for a long time. at 1:19 the cuad goes into a pitch backwards without being commanded to. (this would be described as a flyaway by others). At this point im getting up out of my chair and looking at the drone......
at 1:30 its more or less under control.....

I start to bring it back tail in, and at 1:38 its game over
I couldnt control it once the lockup or whatever it was hit for the second time.