cIIberplace
New Member
Hi,
This is my first post here so I hope it works.
After having trouble with calibration drift on my newly built (shipped from factory late last month) XAircraft X650 and X450 I decided the investigate the problem. In particular the X650 dangerously launching itself and coming down very un-gracefully :black_eyed: in front of a large commercial client I was demonstrating to (only broke a motor mount from about 10m), so I decided to spend the next day finding out what the problem was. For work I do communications installation/technical support for very large international companies so this was like a day in the office for me.
When I did my initial calibrations through the XAircraft Centre software prior to this discovery everything was nice and level and completed on a bench indoors, but when I would fly the aircrafts they would not be stable and the X650 would have half the props revving hard while the others were only idling and then it would rev hard in pulses. The X450 would fly but constantly required the trimming of the controls until I would run out of stick and have to land. I was not able to calibrate or see what was causing the drifting in the field as I didn’t have a laptop on me.
Yesterday I spent about 14hrs on a bench doing many tests and have found that the AHRS-S drifts with slight temperature change. When I would go outside where it was cooler or warmer the temperature change was causing the Pitch and Roll to change along with the AHRS-S would warm up over time as it was operating. I have now proven this on the bench and will edit the marathon video footage showing the drift and some relevant tests and post it as soon as possible.
In summary I could not find the compass or GPS causing problems other than the compass sitting directly on the AHRS-S was changing the temperature only slightly. For the moment until XAircraft rectify the problem I suggest the following when going to fly - Sit your aircraft on the ground (in the sun or shade depending on where you are flying) and let it adjust to the temperature while you monitor Pitch and Roll on the AHRS page of the XAircraft Centre software. While your laptop USB port is connected and communicating it will power the AHRS-S unit and stabilise its temperature. I found running the motors did not warm it up any quicker. Once the Pitch and Roll has stabilised (I found 5-10min) you can do a calibration. If you power down the on-board electronics and allow it to return to ambient temperature you will find your calibration will drift out, but if powered up quickly again (if the ambient temperature has not changed too much……) it should return to near its calibration. While this is not the best outcome as I hate with a passion taking a laptop with me in the outdoors it should work as a temporary solution.
I hope this helps some of you.
Jason
This is my first post here so I hope it works.
After having trouble with calibration drift on my newly built (shipped from factory late last month) XAircraft X650 and X450 I decided the investigate the problem. In particular the X650 dangerously launching itself and coming down very un-gracefully :black_eyed: in front of a large commercial client I was demonstrating to (only broke a motor mount from about 10m), so I decided to spend the next day finding out what the problem was. For work I do communications installation/technical support for very large international companies so this was like a day in the office for me.
When I did my initial calibrations through the XAircraft Centre software prior to this discovery everything was nice and level and completed on a bench indoors, but when I would fly the aircrafts they would not be stable and the X650 would have half the props revving hard while the others were only idling and then it would rev hard in pulses. The X450 would fly but constantly required the trimming of the controls until I would run out of stick and have to land. I was not able to calibrate or see what was causing the drifting in the field as I didn’t have a laptop on me.
Yesterday I spent about 14hrs on a bench doing many tests and have found that the AHRS-S drifts with slight temperature change. When I would go outside where it was cooler or warmer the temperature change was causing the Pitch and Roll to change along with the AHRS-S would warm up over time as it was operating. I have now proven this on the bench and will edit the marathon video footage showing the drift and some relevant tests and post it as soon as possible.
In summary I could not find the compass or GPS causing problems other than the compass sitting directly on the AHRS-S was changing the temperature only slightly. For the moment until XAircraft rectify the problem I suggest the following when going to fly - Sit your aircraft on the ground (in the sun or shade depending on where you are flying) and let it adjust to the temperature while you monitor Pitch and Roll on the AHRS page of the XAircraft Centre software. While your laptop USB port is connected and communicating it will power the AHRS-S unit and stabilise its temperature. I found running the motors did not warm it up any quicker. Once the Pitch and Roll has stabilised (I found 5-10min) you can do a calibration. If you power down the on-board electronics and allow it to return to ambient temperature you will find your calibration will drift out, but if powered up quickly again (if the ambient temperature has not changed too much……) it should return to near its calibration. While this is not the best outcome as I hate with a passion taking a laptop with me in the outdoors it should work as a temporary solution.
I hope this helps some of you.
Jason
. However, there is an ongoing upgrade program for newer FC system with substantial rebate. Here's the 
