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Quadcopter APM 2.8, flip over when lift off

Posted by Nick Phan on July 3, 2017 at 8:48pm

I'm really mad with my quadcopter, I watched so many youtube instruction to solve my problem but I could not make my quad lift off without flip over.
My quadcopter is X configuration as following:
- Frame F450
- Props 1045
- 4 motors 2212, 1000kv, 13T
- 4 esc 30A
- Battery 3s, 5200mah, 30c
- Transmitter Devo 10, rx 1002
You guys can watch my video to know what exactly my problems are. I really want to surrender at all.
I made adjustment for props direction cw and ccw, motors spin direction and order, calibration for one by one esc, transmitter calibration, props balancing... BUt after all, It still flip over when lift off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG2NtdhugMM

Please help me out of this mess, tks you guys

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Replies

  • George Kelly July 6, 2017 at 3:24pm

    Your video doesn't show a flip-over. (Have you actually taken off, flipped over, and crashed upside down?)

    It just shows a little wobbling as you start to give enough throttle for the quad to move.

    By itself, this doesn't tell us anything, and certainly doesn't mean the drone will actually flip over when you lift into the air.

    Your flight controller could be very slightly off-level, and is trying to level itself, but can't, because it doesn't have any altitude to do so. (your homemade legs and feet don't look highly standardised!)

    When the drone is so close to the ground (like, actually touching the ground), minor wobbles like this are common. Many people here have had them. In fact, the developers warned in the past that you must take off quickly and confidently, until you reach a few metres in altitude, so that the machine can take over and stabilise itself. But if you try to take off very, very, cautiously, and gently, and try to control every little wobble you see, you will flip over and crash.

    If you try to fly a drone of that size in such tight indoor spaces, I'm afraid you probably will crash, even if the drone is perfectly fine. I certainly would. Find a big, safe, outdoor space, and try a full take-off - to 5 metres or so, and see what happens.

    Yes, if you have made real mistakes in assembly, you may crash. Everyone crashes. But if you haven't, you will never find out, testing it like this (in the video). 

    It's scary, yes, but everyone has to get past it.

    Please note - you are responsible for your decisions, and the results.

    (And Loiter mode is a bad idea indoors - it depends on GPS lock, which is very unreliable indoors. And if the drone gets confused, the result might be sudden disaster, and injury).

    Good luck.

    George

    (Oh, also - sometimes Mission Planner spontaneously re-sets the frame configuration from 'x' to '+' without tellling anyone. You have to re-check this from time to time. If it does, you will flip)

  • Nick Phan July 6, 2017 at 1:53am

    Hi iSkyMaster,

    After checking your comment, I've got my answer for your pointing issues. By the way, tks too much for your comments, it was very useful for me.

    1. If the two red arms are the front of the of the quad than your APM is forwarding towards the white arms. Do you see the word "forward" on the APM? that has to face the front of the quadcopter whichever arms you want to be the forward of the quad either red or white.

    -> I' forward two white arms and my APM also forward the same direction to white arms


    2. The GPS forward arrow must face the forward arrow of the APM. It appears it's not. Looks like its pointing sideways. Not sure.

    -> Yes, you are rite. My GPS arrow point to sideways ^^. I've already adjusted the direction of GPS arrow to the same of APM


    3. Make sure you have clockwise and counterclockwise props installed properly. 

    -> Yeah, I made this one correctly

     

    4. Make sure motors are connected to proper ports on the APM.

    -> Yeah, this issue also make correctly. My motors order as following:

         + 1st motor is Front right (spin ccw)

         + 2nd motor is Back left (spin ccw)

         + 3rd motor is Front left (spin cw)

         + 4rd motor is Back right (spin cw)

    I followed this instruction from ardupilot.org, my quad is X configuration. It has a little bit difference with your image that CCW are Motor 1 and 3, CW are Motor 2 and 4. Do they have any affects to the stable fly of quadcopter ? MOTORS_QuadX_QuadPlus.jpg?width=200

    5. Next use mission planner to calibrate all motors simultaneously. http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/esc-calibration.html

    -> Yeah, I've followed the instrction to calibrate all motors as once

    http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/esc-calibration.html

    6. make sure you go through all the caliberation steps in mission planner. Use the wizard.
    -> Yes, I followed the wizard calibration

    7. When doing the first take off, set APM in loiter mode. This will automatically will stop the quad to flip upon take off and will stabilize it.

    -> I tried to use loiter mode, the quad moved to horizontal way instead of vertical one

    8. Set one switch for RTL "or" land as a safety measure.
    -> Yeah, already set it up

    9. Test it outside not inside your house when you have good GPS lock as well.

    -> Yes, tested outsite

    Following your suggestion, I recognized my quad got better stabilize but It moved horizontal way. So how to make it go vertical way when I throttle up??? Pls show me how , tks u guy.

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