First flight after batteries charged, and operation manual read through a few times.
Wind at 7 to 10 mph, constant.
My maiden flights resulted in two crashes, breaking 3 propellers, and two additional (really) bad landings. IRIS did not seem happy to land on the legs, but in the two landings, decided to roll on over on her top.
Even though I had the controller set to Altitude Hold mode, IRIS was moving all over the place. Perhaps this was due to the wind. But, at times, the movement seemed rather excessive. The two crashes resulted in my own overcorrection of the movement. Crash one: Ran into the back of my house, broke two propellers. Crash two: Ran into a cedar tree, broke one propeller. As previously stated, two additional bad landings.
When landing IRIS, my attempts to disarm the motors were not received quickly. Perhaps that is the reason she wanted to turn over on her head.
I did install the longer legs, mostly in preparation to later install the gimbal and a camera. Could that be the issue with the poor landing? A lack of weight balance?
Things learned:
My backyard is not “open space” enough. I need a much larger area without obstacles to practice in.
I need a lot of “stick” time before installing expensive sensors on the unit.
Stock up on propellers (Already ordered).
Continue to read and be patient.
Questions:
Can anyone offer advice about the excessive movement?
I have read others’ comments about getting the “logs” from IRIS from Mission planner? is that valuable here?
I have read others’ comments about NOT trying to trim the controller. I read those comments AFTER I tried to trim the controller. Is there a way to reset to settings placed by the 3drobitcs’ crew?
Does part of the first preflight include a diagnostic check of IRIS in Mission Planner, or an “update of firmware” request from Mission Planner? If so, I did neither before the first flight.
The landings: Are the poor landings caused by the long legs without the gimbal attached (to help balance the weight)?
Summary: This thing is really awesome, just need to work out a few little issues with my inexperience. I look forward to seeing what it can do. Can’t wait to experience some “swarm” action, some “lidar” measurement capabilities, some photo mapping trials, and so much more!!!
I’ll answer some of what you asked from the perspective of someone who has made about every mistake possible and broke lots of $tuff. The breaking stuff does eventually slow down quite a bit, but never seems to go completely away. You didn’t mention if you had any RC experience, so I’ll assume you don’t.
First, for your first flights, any sort of wind really adds to your workload. I’d suggest waiting until calm times. I think 7 to 10 MPH is a bit much if you have no experience.
You also might want to consider taking off and landing in Loiter mode for your first few flights (after waiting until you have a solid GPS lock). In Alt Hold if there’s any wind, or you tend to overcorrect like I do, it’s easy to get horizontal motion (at 7 - 10 MPH the quad will move away from you at the equivalent of a slow run) At best this is hard on your gear when they touch the ground, and at worse you’ll break it or flip. Loiter is really good about holding position. But again, a solid GPS lock is needed, with a clear view of the sky. Avoid being close to buildings or trees that can block the GPS signal. Once you are comfortable with the controls you can move back to Alt Hold or even Stabilize for landings or takeoffs…
If you Google around a bit you can find some good flight simulator software. I can’t tell you which is “best”, but I’d suggest any sim software is better than none at all. It will help getting used to the RC controls.
I doubt there’s anything of value in your logs, from the flights you describe. It’s probably just a lack of “RC legs” on your part that will eventually go away. But you should learn how to download your logs and read them. They can tell you all sorts of valuable data on your flight and sometimes catch developing problems.
And yeah, don’t install anything expensive on your airframe util your breakage rate slows down a bit. Especially gimbals. Those are expensive, fragile things, best not installed until you aren’t crashing every few times.
There’s no need to update the firmware if you are happy with what you have. You should keep abreast of things both here and on DIYDrones so you know what firmware is coming out and what issues it fixes.
Thank you for your reply OtherHand. I will definitely try the loiter mode. In Alt. mode, the quad did exactly as you described, and was difficult (for me) to handle. Your advice has given me the confidence that it is most likely me, not the equipment. I have ordered a few more propellers to add to the collection…
I would not use ANY automated or GPS modes until you have very good control, strong sense of orientation and a thorough understanding of everything involved, doubly so in tight quarters. Learn STAB and ALT_HOLD modes first, you will need them desperately when ( not if ) your copter takes off on it’s own, due to a GPS glitch or something else, and you lose orientation. If you get the orientation confused it is very easy to crash. I have found that GPS Glitches can cause very quick unexpected accelerations and lateral movements, especially in tight quarters. I’ve one such incident ending in a crash, before I could switch to STAB to save it. Loiter, Simple, Super Simple, Auto and others use the GPS for positioning. I see a lot of GPS issues with mine.
Stay more than 3 feet off the ground (to avoid ground effect) and less that 15 (to minimize damage).
Tight quarters increase the opportunity for a GPS glitch.
Learn to fly her without anything else attached and go back to the short legs.
Learn to read the logs.
Find a big area to learn in away from people and buildings and relax and have fun!
Read obsessively about everything on this forum before you do anything new.
Try to get involved and help improve this wonderful gift we’ve been given, thanks to the tremendous efforts of the amazing people who have put this together and given us access to all it.
Pay strong attention to your Batteries and don’t let them discharge too much. Also, don’t fly them to the end or you may not get back to the ground under control.
Thank you OregonH2O. I have been reading as much as possible. There is quite a deep sea of knowledge, rich experiences, and diverse backgrounds that come together as a common thread to assist all to improve in this and the other great technologies that are all around us!! This is an exciting time, and I believe it is just the tip of the iceberg!
I appreciate your advice. I will take off the long legs for a couple of months to have some fun and learn methodically. It is difficult to slow down, but the journey is the experience.
[quote=“VBELL”]Thank you OregonH2O. I have been reading as much as possible. There is quite a deep sea of knowledge, rich experiences, and diverse backgrounds that come together as a common thread to assist all to improve in this and the other great technologies that are all around us!! This is an exciting time, and I believe it is just the tip of the iceberg!
I appreciate your advice. I will take off the long legs for a couple of months to have some fun and learn methodically. It is difficult to slow down, but the journey is the experience.
$50 bucks, and tons of fun, and you can fly it inside. More importantly, it is the perfect thing to use to teach your brain how to deal with the changing orientation. The Iris was my first quad, and honestly as soon as it was pointing any direction other than where I was facing, there was a 50/50 chance of me putting it into the ground if I didn’t switch to loiter. After flying the hubsan around for a couple hours, it started to click.
On the wanting to turn over after landing or after takeoff. I’ve noticed on my iris that you have to wait a few seconds after landing before trying to disarm the motors (down and to the left), otherwise it will try to yaw left and this can be enough to turn it over. Wait a few seconds for it to calm down. You can also force the props to a slower slow spin by going to stabilize mode and making sure the throttle is all the way down. Nowdays when landing from ALT-Hold or Loiter I will always set it to stabilize immediately after landing, so I can quickly prevent any attempt by the Iris to take off again or yaw.
On take off, I’ve also had some issues where it wasn’t balanced and it flipped. Those legs can really dig into the ground so if the controls aren’t trimmed properly it can result in forward or backward movement on takeoff: the legs stick and it will flip if there is anything other than vertical momentum. The instructions should probably include a tutorial on autotrim (keep stick down and to the right for 15 seconds and fly for a minute with no wind, keeping it stable) if you are adding anything to the configuration which affects CG - like a gopro, if you didn’t buy it with one.
What a difference a day makes. I took some advice and set the mode to Loiter, and took the long legs off. Additionally, I placed a flat section of carpet on the ground as my landing pad, and took off. Everything worked perfectly. Return to Launch worked well, I was able to test the controller, I had four perfect landings, and then I tried to do my first Autonomous Mission. That did not happen today, because I did not have the drivers for the 3dr radios. I was not near an internet hotspot, so had to delay the “simple” autonomous mission for another day. With some reading on others’ posts concerning radios, drivers, and software, I was able to find the right driver, and when installed, was able to communicate with IRIS from my computer. What an exciting piece of equipment!! My intention is to spend many hours with IRIS in Altitude Lock mode, to practice like the good advice above. But, I am also learning the software and the system components at the same time. This is some awesome technology. The staff at 3DR has been phenomenal to work with. This is gonna be a lot of fun!!
