Quadcopter first flights, problems/confusion!

Log Analysis -- deprecated Copter Logs -- deprecated
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Sorry for the vague title/subject. I recently finished the construction of my first quadcopter and I want to fly it. I tried flying in stabilize mode, but I’m afraid to bring it more than a few feet in the air because if it gets out of control then it will land in 14 inches of snow, not good for the electronics…

I tried running a mission where it simply flies up 15 feet, hovers for a few seconds, and lands. However, when I tried running the mission, it seemed confused and jumpy. I tried to put it in RTL mode and it fell out of the air. Luckily, I hit the throttle before it smashed into the ground. The impact was hard enough to knock off one of the little rubber feet on my frame, though. Not a big deal, I was able to reattach it.

I am exited to fly it, but I don’t want another incident where it could be damaged.

I heard something about changing PIDs and stuff, but I’m confused.

If you have any tips or ideas, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

PS. I attached my logs for the flights.

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[mf]Copter/General[/mf]

You definitely prefer a crash into snow over a crash on solid ground! Snow means disconnect battery, put controller on the heater for a couple of hours. Solid ground usually means something breaks.

As for the PID tuning, please refer to the manual. There are many good descriptions of PID tuning including DaveC’s legendary guide for newbies.

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Thanks! I’ll look at the guide and I’ll try to not smash my quad to bits :wink: