3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on January 14, 2013 at 8:12am

Sorry to hear that, Tim. Did you switch into Loiter mode? That does exactly what you're asking for. 

Comment by Richard Boyhan on January 14, 2013 at 8:26am

I always fly all my flight modes in simple mode.  This way I don't have to figure out which way is forward or back.  I pull the stick to me my Hex flies to me and if I push the stick away, it flies away. (Simple)  For all simple modes to work at all, you need GPS lock before you ARM.

Comment by LanMark on January 14, 2013 at 8:44am

After crashing enough times myself I always do the first say 10 flights in wide open areas.. since there are so many factors that could play into the flight.. like bad gains or heck even a incorrectly installed prop or something..  But when I do crash I rush to clean up the parts and retreat.. but  then in doing so I loose a part that fell off like a prop nut or something that I don't necessarily have spares.

I really don't think the 3DR prices on motors and ESCs are out of wack.. seems right on par with what you get and personally as much $ as I have in my quads I really perfer to avoid being cheap and having that be the reason for poor flight or a crash.  As far as the things the keep your craft working well.. the Motors and ESCs is where I would invest.. like making sure your car has a nice engine.

Comment by Tim Green on January 14, 2013 at 8:50am

Oh yeah - I should have been in simple mode, outdoors. 

Note that the Instructions suggest the first step is using up a battery flying in stabilize.  And then trying alt hold and loiter. 

Maybe instead, starting in stabilize mode should be shorter, and confined to making sure copter is responding correctly?  Take it up a couple of feet, check it out, no more then that.  And then if that works, immediately switch from stabilize to loiter? 

And then if loiter works correctly, one could safely return to learning how to fly in stabilize mode - with loiter ready to bail out the new pilot, as needed.

Wide open spaces - amen to that.  My front yard seemed like a lot of space, at least compared to my basement, until I took off.   Then that space quickly got smaller, and smaller, and smaller.

Comment by Crasher on January 14, 2013 at 9:23am

Tim,

With respect, you took your first flight outside, flew to a height/distance that allowed you to lose orientation, in a (I presume, maybe wrongly) residential area, flying new and untested hardware, and the result is you think the advice takes too long to follow?!?

Stop, think, breath. It's easy to look at Youtube videos and think this stuff is trivial, after a couple of hundred flights it pretty much is, but rushing could end up in a crash or worse. Copters fly away, motors fail, things go wrong. Even if you're an RC pro, the transition to multi's can take a while.

Please take this as honest advice, not a flame, insult or other.

Comment by LanMark on January 14, 2013 at 9:33am

I don't know how many flights I have done but I still end up crashing, mostly for stupid reasons.. like a config change or trying FPV, etc..  I agree with @Crasher.. it is easy to want to go big.. I know I did/do sometimes... but that gets costly.   I have found that making a flight plan of sorts in what I want to accomplish and making sure its a incremental step towards my goal better personally.. otherwise I am picking up pieces off the ground and swearing up and down at myself.   

This stuff has gotten a lot easier but in a way that makes it problematic as you think you have control and experience that you need.. just to find yourself climbing up a tree to get the darn thing down. (oh that was me a few weeks ago.. oh after three hours of searching for where it went).

Comment by Simone Chiaretta on January 14, 2013 at 9:59am

Yeah, happened to me too... in stabilize mode drifts to one side when I leave all sticks. It should be fixed with the auto-trim function, but for that to work you should be able to keep it stable manually.

I think find the sweet spot when in stabilize mode is required for all other modes to work fine: the theory says the copter should stay more or less still with no input from the sticks. It's required to fly with no or poor GPS signal.

But I think that when the copter drifts a lot it's not easy for the novice to keep it stable for the auto-trim to work.

Probably some kind of automatic correction of the stabilization should be needed.

Comment by Scott Berfield on January 14, 2013 at 10:01am

Start slow and low. Verify everything works and that your head is properly wrapped around it all. Then gradually add complexity. I am a horrible RC flyer - I am pretty much incapable of reprogramming my brain to do the sorts of perceptual gymnastics required, And so I am careful to keep the quad oriented and in sight and often fly in Simple Mode (though if you get turned around, that can be problematic too - need to try Super Simple). But as careful as I try to be, I still crash. It goes with the territory - see my most recent blog post :(

 

But really, find a big open area and take it slow. Also add more visible orientation markers (I use flourescent orange ping pong balls on the rear of the quad).

Comment by Richard Boyhan on January 14, 2013 at 10:52am

Don't forget wind plays a huge part in flying. Just a little wind is all it takes to push your copter around. I got perfect loiter in dead calm. Add a little wind and its 5m in all direction. I've flow in 15 mph wind in stabilze mode and its work just to keep in 10m area.

Developer Comment by R_Lefebvre on January 14, 2013 at 10:53am

Sorry about your crash.

Unfortunately, I think this will always be a part of learning to fly.  No amount of automation is going to fix this, because the easier it is to fly, the more people will push their limits.  It's just a natural thing.

I would say, that something you can do to help yourself is put some lights on the copter to help with orientation. I use red, green and white lights on mine, almost like in Mark's avatar.  This is the #1 thing I've done to allow me to fly properly.  I'm now flying in all orientation, in pitch dark, at high speeds.  No problem.

But the lights don't just help you at night, they ABSOLUTELY help you during the day too!  The self-adhesive 12V LED strips like you can get at Canada Drones, Hobby King, wherever, they are very bright, daylight visible, and it radically enhances your ability to keep orientation.  

There's some complicated physics and physiology involved, but simply put, it is impossible for you to see colours on your copter, when it's viewed against the bright sky.  There's just not enough surface area on those arms to reflect enough light that your eye can make it out.

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