netsmithuk

Hi there,

I have a Draganfly v ti for 2 years now and its been working fine (although I've only used it about 6 times in that period) but just recently I've had problems.

The motor directly at the back of the draganfly doesn't spin as fast as the others, it spins up at the same rate if i do it gradually, but then at about 20% throttle it actually starts slowing down while the others continue to spin faster, more throttle and it spins faster but not anywhere near the same rate as the others. And again when I throttle down, it stops must quicker than the others, but then starts again when there is hardly any throttle.

I say motor problem, but its not which ever motor i mount in this position behaves the same, and the motor that was there previously works fine in another location.

I'm doing these tests while the dragan fly is perfectly flat, to ensure the TI is not trying to compensate for any uneveness. Even if I do start tilting it in various directions the motor in the rear position still exhibits the same symptoms - ie steady throttle increase makes it speed up, then slow down, then speed up again (but not at the speed of the others)

Please can you advise on what I can check to resolve this. Its frustrating as I was just getting the hang of flying the thing.

Just to complicate things I'm based in the UK.

Hope you can help

Regards

Chris

techrtr

After you arm TI and put the DF down on a flat surface, do you hold your left stick down and to the right for a few seconds to stabilize the gyros? Any sign of the gear on the rear motor mount binding? Are the bearings on the rear gear alright?

netsmithuk

Thnaks for the feedback - I'll try again tomorrow and double check all my findings (As it night here)
unless someone can suggest a way to test it indoors. Must admit I've never held the left stick down and to the right (I must have missed that bit in the instructions?)

As it stands, if I'm outside during the day, the TI is on, its held up and armed and then I simply put it on the ground and increate thrust basically the front goe smuch faster than the rear motor, where as in use before I'd expect them to be the same.
This causes the front to rise quicker than the back and the whole thing is just unflyable. (infact you can't even take off)

Turning off TI does cause the gyros to kick in and resist your movements, when you hold it in your hand, its just which ever motor is in the rear seems to be weaker than the rest?

Can't see or feel signs of binding anywhere.

Hope this helps

regards

Chris

techrtr

Every so often you have to calibrate the gyros by putting the DF down on a level surface and then holding the left stick down and to the right so that the LEDs flash. I do it before every flight with TI. If you don't, you'll often have a situation where some of the motors spin up a lot faster than the others and one side tries to lift off. It's a bit disconcerting if you aren't expecting it. Sometimes, I'll calibrate 2 or 3 times before the motors will spin up evenly.

netsmithuk

Interesting.

Just so I'm clear - what would be your recommended start up procedure, from turning on the transmitter?

1. Transmitter
2. Draganfly on
3. Dragonfly held up and the arming button pressed

4. Dragonfly placed on the ground then throttle down and to the right (for how long?)

When you say you sometimes have to do it several times, which steps do you repeat?

Sorry for all the questions

cheers
chris

Sky High

netsmithuk, which DF do you have? You wrote Vi in your earlier posts. There's no such thing. Do you have a DF V Ti? I always calibrate level before each flight too. Not setting a level with or without Ti enabled will cause it to list to one side when you throttle up.

You only have to hold the left stick down & to the right for 1-2 seconds, long enough to see the LEDs alternately blinking.

netsmithuk

Sorry my mistake. I have a V TI

I'll go away and check the level thing.

thanks
chris

techrtr

Hey netsmith, your start up procedure is fine. If the first attempt at calibrating doesn't work, I'll just turn the DF 180 degrees or put it on a different piece of ground and hold the stick down and to the right again. Throttle up and hopefully the motors spin up reasonably evenly. Like I said, if you aren't expecting it, you might think there's something wrong with your DF when it tries to flip itself over as soon as you give it some throttle.

Sky High

Also remember to calibrate Ti and the level in an open area. It will not perform at it's optimum in a closed area with solid walls or many trees close by, which is why it doesn't work inside. I have had very different results with Ti and level calibration locations only 50 ft apart from each other. All of this is really annoying and is a good reason why Ti needs to be replaced with something that is not temperature dependent. Ti works great when conditions are optimal, but how often is that?

kokomiko

This whole thing is very confusing. After checking all possible information about the arming procedure I came up with a short list from spectrolutions:

TI - ON

Step 1. Calibrate for TI (green LEDs face up - when lit arm)

Step 2. Set the helicopter so it is level, and not too close to any other objects for takeoff.
When the throttle is off and the rudder is moved full right for at least 2 seconds, the helicopter samples the
thermal sensors to calibrate for level. This MUST be done at least once, but will be remembered by the
controller even after the battery is removed. The eyeball LEDs will alternately rapidly blink to indicate
that the helicopter received the command.

Step 3. Stick positions are sampled for the auto land (loss of signal) mode, when you push the arming switch any
time after the initial arm.
The failsafe settings ( other then throttle) must be preprogrammed at least once for the helicopter, after which they are retained within onboard EEPROM ( non volatile) memory.
To set the failsafe settings, the helicopter should be flown for a short period of time, calibrated, and trimmed for level flight. Once this is done, the Flyer should be landed, and the arming button pushed while the throttle is held OFF and all other controls are allowed to be centered. Pushing the arming button at any time after initial arming will save the current stick settings for failsafe.
It may be useful to hold a significant amount of left or right rudder during this calibration phase. This will cause the helicopter to spin during failsafe mode, which is very disorienting, but may have the effect of canceling any trim discrepancies and causing the helicopter to make a more vertical decent, which is optimum under the circumstances.

Step 4. Takeoff, hover the heli and set your trims. Land, let the sticks go to their center positions and press the
arming switch, the helicopter need not be level to memorize trims.
Once programmed, the trims will be remembered, even if you power down, so it need not be done again,
unless the trims change.

So, the questions are:

Does Step 2 and 3 only apply when TI is on?

Step 4: After you set the trims to be remembered by the DF what do you do with the TX?

1. Do you have to set the trims back to zero on the TX for a new flight (because the DF remembers the trim settings) or do you have to leave the settings on the TX as is?

2. If you need to set new trims how can you reset the memorized trims in the eeprom? Do you have to overwrite them - lets say with all trims on the TX set to zero? Or is there a way to reset the eeprom at all?

3. If you don't want fail save to be on, but the trimming remembered, how you can skip the fail save part as it is the second pressing of the arming buttom and the trimming memory the third?


Its a shame that you pay a lot of money for a product and all what you get are foto-copied instructions which don't tell you anything. Even my cheap mobile got better instructions. Oh well.....maybe we should write one for them and publish it here....

laceycopter

Does Step 2 and 3 only apply when TI is on?
Step 2 you should do for flyin with or without TI...The Df needs to know what level is for the gyro's to work properly.
step 3 for seting auto land only works with TI on.

Step 4: After you set the trims to be remembered by the DF what do you do with the TX?
Leave your TX alone...whatever setting you put in you still need on the TX...It only puts those setting in memory for auto land (The loss of TX signal)...so it knows what the TX settings are.

3. If you don't want fail save to be on, but the trimming remembered, how you can skip the fail save part as it is the second pressing of the arming buttom and the trimming memory the third?
It doesn't work like that...it only uses the saved trims..If it doesn't see the TX signal (failsafe)...It doesn't look at the saved trims Unless it doesn't receive a TX signal.
Happy Flyin,
Lacey

kokomiko

Thanks Lacey - now everything is clear and makes sense.

netsmithuk

Thanks for all the feedback - the multiple leveling seems to have done the trick. It still looks odd though at slow speeds, before taking off. It definately spins slower if at all, but I've discovered give it some power quickly and shoot up to about 6-8ft and its levels off and starts to behave as expected.

Must admit the more I play the more I admire the courage of those guys that take them up real high from their back yards or near houses and roads and then bring them back down ok. My bottle goes as soon as the thing starts drifting off straight up.

Chris