Thanks again for the great ideas! Will check out if I have some spacers left and raise the gps/navi. I indeed have an mx-20 so I'll also check my MAG%. Gary: should only raise the gps from the navi board or the whole stack from the boom?
Ok I raised the stack with 3mm bolts, recalibrated the compass on lake ice (no metal pipes or other disturbances), did a test flight and boom! No magnetic error and really solid PH and the yaw drifting was gone. Really happy now! Thanks guys for solving my problems from the misaligned stack to eliminating the yaw drifting.
It also looks like you have custom cables that move the whole assembly at further away from the hub, Lauri? Is that correct, or just an illusion? I'm impressed with the reference to "lake ice." We're "heavily into" Spring here...no ice except up in the Cascade mountain range! Andy.
This looks like the problem im having still. My mag on this screen is reading 100% and im still drifting. to the right on flights when the gps is on. gps off and flight is fine. also the gps makes the heli wobble the moment i turn it off the heli levels out. and i turn the gps back on to hold position.
Are you running the wireless Xbee by chance? I was having interference issues with it. I moved my Xbee as far away from GPS as possible and I only plug it in when I need to check balance or another parameter such as hovergas. Have you also confirmed that your Nav 1 and 2 screen settings are all factory default? Also I have my GPS gain set to 85% and that helped smooth it out a bit too.
Dont know what the xbee is. so im going to say no. im still running a stock kit cs8. ill check the nave screens in a sec.
Jason since this is happening with PH try reducing the GPS gain to 85 on the Navi-Ctrl screen. In PH if the gain is to high the copter will do a maneuver commonly called 'toilet bowling'. The copter starts to wander around in circles of various sizes and sometimes can have pretty violent jerking movements. A good video to see how the GPS gain affects the movement can be seen HERE. Thiago has a full set of videos that are well worth watching. His YouTube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/krausdiver
just took a look its not 'toilet bowling'. the best way i can describe it is its wobbling like a top. ill see if i can get a video of it. as well as the yaw problem.
I would almost expect your GPS D number to be much lower based on what you say its doing. Is this something that just started happening? Was it working well with the existing program? One thing I would recommend doing is to write down all your settings, reinstall the firmware for the FCB and NAV boards, and start with factory PID's and NAV settings and see what happens. Your Gyro D I see is very high. Is there a specific reason why you have it that high? My copter is about 11 pounds 10 ounces and I only need about 13-14 to have it come back to level extremely quickly. Granted your copter is heavier but thats a pretty high number. I assume you are using the QC motors and typical props? I just wonder if that high number has something to do with it because your switching to a very high number off GPS to a realitively common PID in GPS mode. One other note: I watched Thiago's video's interesting and they are informative, however when I tried his settings I found his settings to really cause my copter to behave very weird. Thus I went back to all factory settings and it was like night and day. Every copter is obviously different (weight, motors, props etc) and its good to change one thing at a time and do it in very small steps. I don't know how you arrived at such a high Gyro D but it might be worth putting the PID, and GPS settings all back to factory and just do a small test to see if it improves.
i think its at 30 (its changed soo many times in attempts to solve the problem and in testing) because i want to be able to slow the CS8 in flight i barely touch the stick and it shoots off i was trying to get it so the stick needs a bit more movement before its almost full throttle. and where would i find the information to reflash/program the navi and flight ctrl? because that would be a true back to default.
Andy's video's are great to show you how to reinstall the firmware, you can buy them through Quadrocopter. You can also see information here http://www.mkmanual.com/mikrokopter-tool/firmware-upgrades If you are interested in reducing the sensitivity of the sticks on the radio you need to adjust the exp rate if you are using a Graupner MX20 its on Page 108 to 121 in the manual. Gyro D is the setting of how fast the copter centers itself after stick commands. You can see more about each of the settings here http://www.mkmanual.com/mikrokopter-tool/mk-tools-tabs
Jason I run at 25 Gyro D so 30 isn't that much of change. Each ship is a bit different but I have seen a lot of folks at 25. Look forward to seeing a video.
I've read in quite a few places that the Cinestar’s CF can impede RF. I wonder if that's part of the reason that the copter was designed to run the motor wires through the tubes, and not outside of them. If it impedes “good” RF, it probably impedes ”bad” RF, right? I was going to re-run my motor wires outside the booms to simplify breakdown and setup for traveling, so maybe i should run the motor wires on boom 1 beneath the boom, not on top of it (so as to shield the Navi board a little).