But I did not actually ground the copper foils and placed the copper foil between two sheets of regular paper and taped the paper via scotch tape in the hull over the uBlox. But important. Therefore a very simple fix. The FrSky antennas are now on the other side of the copper shield. And what a surprise: The GPS sat coverage jumped up from on average 6-8 to 11-13 sat and HDOP went down from close to 2.x on average to 1.x. Huge improvement of sat lock quality. Then I stumbled over a comment from someone that the FrSky module sometimes causes interference on the GPS, especially in a tight model like the 3DR IRIS. It all makes sense now. Let's see how long it will take until we get the next repair kit from 3DR.
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Here is a list that I've put together from other posts or my own experience, there are several others that I have missed.
As far as I know most of these are unresolved. If you find any errors or have anything to add please feel free to let me know and post!
So far here is what I know:
- Power System:
* Some electronic components not fixated with silicone
* XT-60 connector seems to be a cheap Chinese knock off, that might break quickly
* Stock 3DR batteries discharge quickly after 10.5V -> Change Failsafe voltage and action?
* Low quality stock batteries
- Motors:
* Motor-mount screws too short
* The leg set screws interfering with the Motor mounting
* 4 mounting screws vs. 2 mounting screws
- Propeller:
* Propeller mount unreliable? Propeller coming loose too easy and the nuts are hard to tighten enough
- Flight Controller:
* z-Axis vibrations due to (direct/indirect) contact with GPS
- Higher capacity/quality LiPo:
* Provide a higher capacity (5000 mAh?) LiPo that will fit into IRIS and has the correct XT-60 connector.
* Provide higher quality LiPos in general
- RC radio:
* "Ghost" input due to bad pid in controller
* Undocumented default settings for the transmitter
- Choice of radio transmitter:
* The 3DR branded FrSky 9x radio that comes with the IRIS is a decent and cheap radio. But unfortunately it also has some issues with the cheap potentiometers in it. They seem to fail quite quickly.
- Transmitter Fail Safe:
* Not always setup at factory, needs to be checked by new owner
- LiPo for RC transmitter:
* 3DR should sell a LiPo as an add-on for the 3DR branded transmitter. Buying AA batteries for it, is just silly.
- Status LED:
* Don't place the status LED on the battery door, but underneath the failsafe button above he battery door. It's easy to break the wires of that LED when fiddling with battery charge cables.
- Poor GPS performance
* GPS receiver copper shielding
* Low HDOP, Some folks are complaining about poor GPS reception and consistently low HDOP.
* Bad GPS's
- Logging issues
* The logs are often corrupted by pulling them off the IRIS when using Mission Planner
* Having to open the IRIS to get the logs off the SDCard is a pain in the A$$, that's just not right. Needs to be fixed ASAP.
* Spurious maxed out values in the logs, making it difficult to scale logs correctly
- Long legs:
* Break easy on hard landings
- Stock Comprehensive spare parts:
* A lot of people have already crashed IRIS and potentially broken things. Unfortunately the list of spare parts one can order from 3DR for repairs is not very comprehensive.
- Flight time:
* The advertised 15 minutes of flight time does not seem to be achievable stock, this should either be adjusted in marketing or suitable batteries made available.
- Redesign IRIS
* Redesign to allow 11 inch props
* Redesign to allow larger batteries
- Proactive communications with customers
* To date, sporadic if any
- Clearly communicated updated information on new fixes and lessons learned and an updated first flight pre-flight check list
* Undocumented default settings for the transmitter
Any more details on these 2?
FWIW, I just applied the new foam from 3DR this morning. What a PITA that was. Nice kit, instructions, video, but the foam took like 10 minutes to scrape off. Also the alcohol wipe had no alcohol on it anymore (dried up), and so I had to dig out my own. It's impossible to a) cut the cutout perfect and b) align the Pixhawk perfect. Hope it doesn't need to be "perfect". Need to re-calibrate things now according to the instructions. Waiting on copper foil to better isolate the GPS before re-assembly and final calibration.
Antenna might not be fastened correctly/enough. Antenna can drop into the propeller. Propeller will hit antenna and rip the Telemetry Receiver out of the plastic mounts.
Replies
- Clearly communicated updated information on new fixes and lessons learned and an updated first flight pre-flight check list
* In example, things like:
These are two things I need to know how to do. Should I start another topic or can someone enlighten me?
thanks,
Dan
Addition:
- Propeller:
* Propeller mounting threads on the CW motors should be left handed
Here is an update on the GPS issues that is listed above and that various folks have run into:
I performed a change similar to the one described here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=27425378&postcoun.... Used this item: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U0LNNU/
But I did not actually ground the copper foils and placed the copper foil between two sheets of regular paper and taped the paper via scotch tape in the hull over the uBlox. But important. Therefore a very simple fix. The FrSky antennas are now on the other side of the copper shield. And what a surprise: The GPS sat coverage jumped up from on average 6-8 to 11-13 sat and HDOP went down from close to 2.x on average to 1.x. Huge improvement of sat lock quality.
Then I stumbled over a comment from someone that the FrSky module sometimes causes interference on the GPS, especially in a tight model like the 3DR IRIS. It all makes sense now. Let's see how long it will take until we get the next repair kit from 3DR.
Here is a list that I've put together from other posts or my own experience, there are several others that I have missed.
As far as I know most of these are unresolved. If you find any errors or have anything to add please feel free to let me know and post!
So far here is what I know:
- Power System:
* Some electronic components not fixated with silicone
* XT-60 connector seems to be a cheap Chinese knock off, that might break quickly
* Stock 3DR batteries discharge quickly after 10.5V -> Change Failsafe voltage and action?
* Low quality stock batteries
- Motors:
* Motor-mount screws too short
* The leg set screws interfering with the Motor mounting
* 4 mounting screws vs. 2 mounting screws
- Propeller:
* Propeller mount unreliable? Propeller coming loose too easy and the nuts are hard to tighten enough
- Flight Controller:
* z-Axis vibrations due to (direct/indirect) contact with GPS
- Higher capacity/quality LiPo:
* Provide a higher capacity (5000 mAh?) LiPo that will fit into IRIS and has the correct XT-60 connector.
* Provide higher quality LiPos in general
- RC radio:
* "Ghost" input due to bad pid in controller
* Undocumented default settings for the transmitter
- Choice of radio transmitter:
* The 3DR branded FrSky 9x radio that comes with the IRIS is a decent and cheap radio. But unfortunately it also has some issues with the cheap potentiometers in it. They seem to fail quite quickly.
- Transmitter Fail Safe:
* Not always setup at factory, needs to be checked by new owner
- LiPo for RC transmitter:
* 3DR should sell a LiPo as an add-on for the 3DR branded transmitter. Buying AA batteries for it, is just silly.
- Status LED:
* Don't place the status LED on the battery door, but underneath the failsafe button above he battery door. It's easy to break the wires of that LED when fiddling with battery charge cables.
- Poor GPS performance
* GPS receiver copper shielding
* Low HDOP, Some folks are complaining about poor GPS reception and consistently low HDOP.
* Bad GPS's
- Logging issues
* The logs are often corrupted by pulling them off the IRIS when using Mission Planner
* Having to open the IRIS to get the logs off the SDCard is a pain in the A$$, that's just not right. Needs to be fixed ASAP.
* Spurious maxed out values in the logs, making it difficult to scale logs correctly
- Long legs:
* Break easy on hard landings
- Stock Comprehensive spare parts:
* A lot of people have already crashed IRIS and potentially broken things. Unfortunately the list of spare parts one can order from 3DR for repairs is not very comprehensive.
- Flight time:
* The advertised 15 minutes of flight time does not seem to be achievable stock, this should either be adjusted in marketing or suitable batteries made available.
- Redesign IRIS
* Redesign to allow 11 inch props
* Redesign to allow larger batteries
- Proactive communications with customers
* To date, sporadic if any
- Clearly communicated updated information on new fixes and lessons learned and an updated first flight pre-flight check list
* In example, things like:
Any more details on these 2?
FWIW, I just applied the new foam from 3DR this morning. What a PITA that was. Nice kit, instructions, video, but the foam took like 10 minutes to scrape off. Also the alcohol wipe had no alcohol on it anymore (dried up), and so I had to dig out my own. It's impossible to a) cut the cutout perfect and b) align the Pixhawk perfect. Hope it doesn't need to be "perfect". Need to re-calibrate things now according to the instructions. Waiting on copper foil to better isolate the GPS before re-assembly and final calibration.
Excellent post!
I would add:
Telemetry Receiver:
Antenna might not be fastened correctly/enough. Antenna can drop into the propeller. Propeller will hit antenna and rip the Telemetry Receiver out of the plastic mounts.