[PaulO]

Hi all: I'm new to the forum. I purchased a Eachine Falcon 250 with a FlySky i6 last summer and after about 30 hours of flight time put it out of commission for the winter due to a crash. I now have it fixed and am up and running with the latest update of LibrePilot but I'm having the same problem I have always had with it. It will not auto level. I I have tried different flight modes and no luck. I must continuously adjust the throttle to keep it flying or from shooting off into the air. Does anyone know if this drone comes with a auto level option? Am I doing something wrong?

At this point it's just to hard to fly and enjoy. Please help.

Thank you.

[TheOtherCliff]

Excess vibration is usually the cause of "it used to work but now it jumps up when I give it throttle".  Spending a long time resting on a prop can cause the prop to be out of alignment too.

Carefully balance and track your props.

If that doesn't fix it, reduce your PID D terms (r/p/y).

[PaulO]

Thank you for your suggestion but this problem has been going on ever since I took it out of the box. I have tried three different props and I'm at a loss to what else to try. I probably shouldn't have used the term "auto level" What I am trying to say is that it never stabilizes and flies at one height. I have watched a lot of Youtube videos and none of them have a problem with it hovering for a moment before they fly their drone. Mine won't even do that.

[TheOtherCliff]

Forgive me.  I don't know how much you know.

CC3D does not have a baro or GPS and without these, what you are controlling is the raw thrust which translates into vertical acceleration/speed not vertical position.  With very careful watching and adjustment, you can get it to almost stop at some altitude, but you must always adjust the throttle, even when hovering without drifting horizonatlly.  The trick is to get it to stop at the altitude that you want.  Then when you bank it, it needs a different amount of throttle from that.  It takes a GPS and/or baro (or sonar) to hold a particular altitude.  When driving a car and following closely, it takes constant vigilance and adjustment of the accelerator pedal to maintain a fixed distance to the car ahead of you.  That is what you must do with the throttle to maintain a fixed altitude.

I have a ratchet on my throttle and when hovering, I am constantly adjusting one click up (it starts to drift up a little), one click down (it starts to drift down a little) to stay at one altitude.

Some people adjust the throttle curve (Vehicle tab) or in their transmitter to make the center part flatter.  This makes the center less sensitive.  Be careful.  Your quad probably doesn't hover at exactly 50% and the flatish part needs to be centered on a horizontal line corresponding to your hover power.

There is a configuration issue where a powerful quad will climb at say only 15% stick when it should climb only when above say 35% stick.  Is that your problem?  If so, reduce PID D term as I mentioned earlier.

If not, a video with some verbal (English ) explainations of what it is doing, what you are doing to the sticks, and what you expect would help us understand what the problem is.

[PaulO]

Thank you so much that was a awesome replay.

Sorry to say my experience is almost none. I definitely bought the wrong quad for a beginner and I know that. I will take what you said and make some changes based on it and will try and get back to you on the results. The video idea is a great one. Everything you said was helpful.

Very much appreciated.

[PaulO]

I just had a thought. Seeing as I'm having so much trouble but I am a beginner can I replace the CC3D with a computer that does have a baro or gps for not to much money? Also would you mind suggesting a good but cheep say under $100.00 drone that is intermediate level? I've been flying my daughters Syma X5HW which is very easy to fly. I would like something faster but not as fast as a racer. fpv would be nice to have as well but not mandatory.

Thanks again for your help.

Paul

[TheOtherCliff]

You don't have to fly a racer fast unless you want to.  You can tune it down so that it feels the same and even reduce the max throttle (throttle curve) if you really feel it desirable.

You can buy a Revo or Sparky2 for about $40 shipped.  Are you good at soldering or not?  Are you more into mini/micro stuff or full sized / full featured?  You really need to do soldering to build anything from scratch.  This need some soldering, see my comment at the bottom:
http://www.xt-xinte.com/F16821.html

I haven't bought one of these.
http://xt-xinte.com/F16084.html

There are also two mini Revos.  An inexpensive one without telemetry module and a full version with telemetry.

I personally feel it is very good to learn to fly without GPS/mag/baro, but that it is also nice to be able to flip a switch and have it stop where it is and go into a headless mode or RTB, etc.

Be aware that GPS/mag/baro aircraft building itself is significantly more complicated than an aircraft without these components.  Maybe get your next quad planned out and ordered and learn about these advanced topics and be putting it together while you are still hovering, learning, flying what you have.  Learn to ride the bicycle you already have while your motorcycle is on order.

Personally, I buy cheap stuff from eBay, but you won't build a full LP GPS quad for less than $100, even from eBay.  My cheapest is a really nice flying quad but it costs:
$10 for the quad kit
$4x4 for ESCs
$5x4 for motors
$40 for FC
that is about $90 and you haven't even bought a receiver ($10 or more) or battery ($15 or more) or GPS ($20 or more) or GPS mount or props or ...

[PaulO]

I really like the idea that you said about tuning my racer down. Do you know a video that shows the settings or a web sight that has them listed? (I'm assuming you mean tune it down in Libre Pilot)

This is a fun hobby and worth pursuing. My wife is even getting interested.  I'm not great at soldering and think I should take a step down to something a little easier to fly before I look at building myself one. What do you think of the Holy Stone HS170 Mini RC. It's going for $60.00 CAD on Amazon, or would you suggest a better/different one that you have used and like?

You mentioned the Sparky2 and Revo Do they replace the CC3D?  or are they a add on to it? Will they for sure be compatible with my drone?

I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my request for help. Hope you have a good day.

Paul

[TheOtherCliff]

Yes.  Tune it down in LP.

Background:  There are two basic flight modes:
- Attitude - So called because the sticks command an attitude (bank angle) and releasing the stick to center makes the quad level itself out.  Full stick may be 55 degrees bank angle and so half stick would be 27.5 degrees.  Beginners need to use this mode!!!
- Rate - So called because the sticks command a roll rate.  When you release the sticks it stays where it has rolled to.  Full stick may be 220 degrees of bank per second and so half stick would be 110 degrees per second.  This mode does not automatically level when you release sticks.  It "stays where ever you put it".

So to turn it down, you would reduce the max bank angle (Responsiveness - Attitude) or the max roll rate (Responsiveness - Rate).  You do this at the top of the Stabilization page.  Leave the rest of that page alone (except maybe Expo if you want it).  You don't de-tune a sports car suspension, that actually makes it less safe to drive.

Expo(nential) simply means that the center of the sticks are less sensitive and the extremes of the sticks are more sensitive.  That is a good way to tone it down a little.  I personally don't like expo because you can never get your body tuned to use it.  Without expo, moving the stick 5 degrees at center does the same as moving it 5 degrees at close to full stick and your fingers can get trained to that feel.

On the Vehicle page there is a thrust curve that goes from bottom left to top right.  Make it go (straight line) from bottom left to middle right and you will only get half power at full throttle stick.

Sparky2 and Revo are more advanced controllers that replace CC3D.  They can do GPS where CC3D cannot.

GPS is easier to fly but harder to setup than non-GPS.

You can even add GPS Assist to non-GPS modes and when you release the sticks the GPS will do a position hold where ever you are.

[PaulO]

Ok I have changed the thrust settings to start at 0 then 30 (as it takes about that much to get it off the ground) then 40 then 46 then 54. This is with a 1500 mAh battery. I might have to up the values with the 2200 mAh battery as it will increase the weight.

These settings seemed to have helped a noticeable amount. Next thing I might want to try are shorter(smaller) props.

Thanks again your help has made a big difference.

Paul

[PaulO]

As a conclusion to this thread I ended up reducing the throttle settings in Libre Pilot to max at 60% going up each step by 15%. I also flashed my transmitter but I don't believe that made a difference. The real problem is my lack of experience which will be solved by me practicing and the other was the amount of thrust the throttle produces. So with that as I mentioned I fixed by reducing the settings in Libre Pilot to 60%.

Hope this is helpful to others.