Just come back from one week vacation in caribbean where I did bring with me the quadcopter with APM2 to test some flying.
I was trying to fly there, but it was impossible. The quad was working perfect before leaving from Montreal, it was stable, smooth and nice. When I did try there in caribbean, with the same setup PID, the quad was like unresponsive. First thing I did notice was the arducpoter level was not leveling properly.
When I did select to lever the copter in Configuration tab, after saying complete, I did look at the artificial horizon on Flight Data tab and the artificial horizon was not leveled, it was still tilt. I did try many time to re-level, really difficult. Even I did reset the APM2 couple of time and try to relevel. When I did believe I was lucky with level, I did try some basic stabilize flight, really impossible, all the quad was like acting unstable. I did recalibrate the TX and I did recalibrate also the ESC (which was always working perfect before).
So, at the end, after 3-4 days (yes days) trying to recalibrate, it was really impossible to have a stabil hovering flight more the 10 sec, at 1-2 meters from ground. Of course I was not able to test Auto or Loiter, since the Stabilize was not stabilized at all. I did check the motors and props one by one for some vibration maybe cause by transportation, all looked OK.
Now is my question: what would be the cause? Having same quad, and same setup, from -10 degrees Celsius, dry air, stable and perfect flight, it was impossible to fly at +28. humid air.
GPS? I don't believe, since I should fly in stabilize without GPS. Baro? is humidity a real factor and need to setup the Baro PID? But baro should affect the altitude, not the stability.
I did try different batteries, in different time of day, different locations (inside the same resort). Not lucky... Any idea?
Replies
Thanks for all reply.
It was techically confirmed my gyro was faulty. I did change the APM
Maybe I am wrong, but now I believe the mistake for me was not missing the correct declination to enter, but trying to use the latest MP 1.2.30 just before leaving (without a real fly test) which I am not sure it is 100% compatible with my Arducopter 2.8.1.
I remember I did try to calibrate in Caribbean the accelerometers with that version 1.2.30 and this was not working properly. HUD always was tilted. But at that time I was thinking is related to magnetic declination.
Now when back in Montreal, still the accelerometers are not calibrating properly, the HUD remains tilted after calibration, even I re-enter the good declination.
When I goes back to a previous version of MP (even deprecated), the accelerometers are calibrating fine.
At least this is my latest finding.
Can someone confirm if the latest MP 1.2.30 or 1.2.32 are still compatible with Arducopter 2.8.1?
I did put the same question on another thread, but not yet any answer.
The bottom line is therefore to update the magnetic declination with the value of your location of launch.
Did you try recalibrating your ESCs from scratch? Temperature affects the way they behave apparently. The only other thing I can think of is condensation inside the APM. Is it in a case? If so, is that little piece of foam dry?