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My short bitter sweet $200. APM experience,

Posted by S Dalas on March 3, 2013 at 12:06am

Like they said on set and in the Xfiles up here in Vancouver BC when shooting....

"I want to believe!" I bought a new APM 2.5 after watchinginterviewsand stories on the company. I found one local brand new that the owner had decided not to build up with his kit from Canada Drones a 3DR dealer. I took on the chalenge which I thought may involve some code knowledge etc.

The board worked great once I got a case to protect it from 3DR toprotect it and after 4-5 2m hovers in nice weather the sensor data is gone and it will never fly again. I have flown protected boards in snow, rain and extremes in temp and never had a gyro and accel fail after a swap of well balanced battery. The main warning here is that flying over or around people or expensive things you do not want to repair CHECK your sensor output before every flight.

Until I figure out why the sensors failed looks like my APM flight time only adds 30min to the 125+ hours of LOS and FPV multirotor fun.

Steve Dalas Vancouver BC

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Replies

  • Dave C March 3, 2013 at 4:18am

    You really don't have a problem here, this is normal. Try arming the board, it will settle right down.

     

    GPS is not perfect indoors due to multipathing plus there are things in the code (I won't bore you with the detail) that cause this wander indoors, but it is for the benefit of accurate positioning, you can turn it off, but I wouldn't! (i admit its a bit disconcerting for a first timer, but its a neccesary weirdness.

     

    Simply put, cailbrate it anyway, stick it on a quad frame, take it outdoors, take off and be prepared to be amazed :)

     

     

  • Peter Meister March 3, 2013 at 12:21am
    Take the board outdoors, disconnect gps and do the calibration. See if the sensors stay still, also try disconnecting gps and doing the calibration indoors. Multipatning occurs indoors this has an effect on gps, if you are in a high magnetic area I have seen boards act like this. Just some food for thought, I would recommend if the above does not work. Go into cli and erase EEPROM and reload the firmware again. Then see if the sensors are ok.
  • S Dalas March 3, 2013 at 12:12am

    Sorry about spacing in text my shop keyboard is not the best either.

    Quite upset as well after spending hours reading Calibration failed nanananananana! LOL!

    Steve

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