NAZA Startup LED Meanings - Explained

bucker

Member
Applies to Naza V2 only, other boards may vary.

A lot of people have been confused by the dozens of LED combinations which appear when you start-up your Naza. Some of these are very vaguely explained in the manual, if at all.
That's why I'm making this thread - to help people understand what they all mean.

First things first, I will refer to the colors as follows: Red = "R", Green = "G", Yellow = "Y".

Right, on connecting power to the quad you should see R G Y R G Y R G Y G G G G. This is the standard pre flight check, basically just checking there aren't any wild values in the IMU, Compass and Power sensors etc.

After this, if all is well and depending on what flight mode you're in, you will continuously get two flashes of the corresponding flight mode followed by the GPS signal status.
Flight Modes:
ATTitude = Y Y
GPS = G G
Manual = No LED Flash, but who uses this mode, right?
GPS signal status:
Bad/No signal = R R R
Medium signal = R R
Good-ish signal = R
Good/excellent signal = No LED Flash

So, for example, if you're like me and leave the Naza in GPS mode 99% of the time then you'll no doubt be used to the G G R R R flash it gives you repeatedly, with the red flashes gradually getting less and less signalling more satellites are being acquired.

Now, this is the part a lot of people ignore or don't even know about, but it's very important and you should always wait for these signals:

Once the Naza has a decent GPS signal (usually after 10-20 seconds) you will see a multiple row of green flashes: G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G. This signals that the Naza has recorded it's "Home Position" (for failsafe and RTH). If you want one word of advise: don't ever fly your quad until you see this long row of green flashes as your failsafe WILL NOT WORK unless it has recorded the home position.

Then, only if you have IOC enabled, then you will get another set of green flashes about 5 seconds after the first set: G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G, this is to tell you the Naza has recorded it's "Forward Position", in other words it's recorded which way it's facing via the compass. The Naza only needs to record this information if you have enabled IOC in the Naza assistant software and use "Home Lock" or "Course Lock" modes. If you do not use or have not enabled IOC via the Naza assistant software then you WILL NOT GET THIS SECOND LOT OF GREEN FLASHES, EVER.

After you've seen either one or two rows of green flashes then you're all set to fly and the LED will revert to displaying Flight mode/GPS signal.
For example my start-up procedure is as follows:
Connect power
R G Y R G Y R G Y G G G G (Self check OK!)
G G R R R (GPS Mode, Bad Signal)
G G R R R (GPS Mode, Bad Signal)
G G R R (GPS Mode, Medium Signal)
G G R (GPS Mode, Good-ish Signal)
G G(GPS Mode, Good Signal)
G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G (Home position recorded for Failsafe)
G G(GPS Mode, Good Signal)
G G(GPS Mode, Good Signal)
G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G (Forward position recorded for IOC)
G G(GPS Mode, Good Signal)
By this point I'm 20 feet in the air.

Hope this helps people.
 
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OneStopRC

Dirty Little Hucker
Yeah really, I did read someone on here say they or a friend gets full lock in 5 seconds! I have never seen one that quick and I certainly would not fly in 5 seconds, maybe 5 seconds after a battery change.
 





remltr

New Member
Thanks for this. There is so little info on the combination of colors anywhere including the Naza manual and this is very helpful.
 


2jet

New Member
This doesn't affect anything, but as trivia I'd like to add that the NAZA will only give one blink (green or yellow) for flight mode position if BOTH of the sticks are in the centered position. For example: if you are in a stable hover in GPS mode, with BOTH sticks centered then the LED will pulse one Green blink, instead of the two Green blinks you usually see.
 

I have 4 Naza V 1's which I have upgraded with the current firmware which I believe is 2.0
The assistant is orange and black, anyway,,,
After installing the most recent firmware I noticed my warm up consist of 4 flashing yellow's YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY.
These flash for as long as the warm up takes. On a fresh start it may take 2 minutes. On a battery change it is usually less.
After that it goes thru the normal array of lights to indicate Home Lock, Satellites acquired and Mode.
It was alarming at first since continual yellow generally means Failsafe or no signal from the Rx.
(There is no indication in the manual) I just waited it out.
 




That is when fail safe has been trigger or you put it into RTH.[/QUOT]

Well that would normally be true but in my case it is just 4 yellow flashes in rapid succession until it is finished with the warm up, or what I suppose is a diagnostic phase.
Like I sad, on a fresh start up it can last as long as 2 min but a second battery can be less then 30 seconds.
They are Naza V-1 flight controller's with the latest firmware, (I believe 2.18) and using the V-2 Naza assistant.
I also stand corrected. I have not upgraded my original Naza as it just flies too good to change a thing. It is still the original firmware and Naza 1.8 Assistant. Only 3 are on the V-2 Assistant but once they warm up they perform great.
 

Gary Seven

Rocketman
Applies to Naza V2 only, other boards may vary.

A lot of people have been confused by the dozens of LED combinations which appear when you start-up your Naza. Some of these are very vaguely explained in the manual, if at all.
That's why I'm making this thread - to help people understand what they all mean.

[snip]

Hope this helps people.

Thanks for this information, [MENTION=13369]bucker[/MENTION]; I just completed my first MR build ever the other day. I built a DJI Flamewheel F450 and am running the Naza M V.2. I've only been in testing for the last couple of days and despite reading the manual a dozen times plus watching various YouTube videos, I'm still somewhat confused with some of the light sequences. Anyway, thanks again!
 

bucker

Member
Hi everyone,
Glad that this thread has helped a few people :nevreness:

I was going to try to make an alteration to my original post regarding the two sets of green flashes you get during startup, which I got the wrong way round. It is as follows:

If (and only if!) you have IOC enabled on your NAZA then the first set of green flashes GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG is "Forward Position" recorded (records which way it's pointing using built-in compass)
The second lot of green flashes is "Home Position" recorded (for failsafe and RTL)

As I mentioned in the original post, if you do not have IOC enabled on your NAZA then you only have to wait for one set of green flashes as the NAZA does not need to record "Forward Position" which is used for IOC.
 

kompuntu

Member
Man, thanks for this thread!
I just finished building my very first multi-rotor: DJI FW550 with the E300 system and the Naza-M V2.
Tonight i tried flying it for the first time and i was really confused with the lights.
I will print this out and carry it with me.
One question: i have set the battery voltage alarms in the Assistant to 10.8 (load and no load). And while my FrSky telemetry was showing like 11.1 (3S, 5000 mAh LiPo pack) - i kept seeing very long successions of Red lights. Intermittently, too. I'm assuming it was the battery alarm, right?
Had a very close call:
GPS mode, hovering was great, decided to let it go a bit in an empty parking lot, IOC was in manual. All of a sudden she started flying this arch, instead of coming back. I decreased throttle to almost nothing and it was still not coming down. Almost crashed it into a lone car. Then she climbed and i switched the RTL, home position luckily must've been recorded and she climbed some more and came back over my head. Phew, that was scary. I need to practice with a flight sim.

Anyway, thanks a bunch!

Slava B.
 

bucker

Member
Man, thanks for this thread!
I just finished building my very first multi-rotor: DJI FW550 with the E300 system and the Naza-M V2.
Tonight i tried flying it for the first time and i was really confused with the lights.
I will print this out and carry it with me.
One question: i have set the battery voltage alarms in the Assistant to 10.8 (load and no load). And while my FrSky telemetry was showing like 11.1 (3S, 5000 mAh LiPo pack) - i kept seeing very long successions of Red lights. Intermittently, too. I'm assuming it was the battery alarm, right?
Had a very close call:
GPS mode, hovering was great, decided to let it go a bit in an empty parking lot, IOC was in manual. All of a sudden she started flying this arch, instead of coming back. I decreased throttle to almost nothing and it was still not coming down. Almost crashed it into a lone car. Then she climbed and i switched the RTL, home position luckily must've been recorded and she climbed some more and came back over my head. Phew, that was scary. I need to practice with a flight sim.

Anyway, thanks a bunch!

Slava B.

Hi there,

10.8 is the norm and sounds about right for "under load", I would have upped the "no load" threshold to around 11.2, but these limits mainly depend on how much time you want to allow yourself to "bring the quad home". If you tend to fly the quad quite far away (1-1.5km) then I would up both those limits by 0.3v, this gives you more time on returning the quad, just in case there's a head wind or something else.

It is completely normal about halfway through flight time to see the red battery warning lights, especially when you give it some welly (strong thrust or pitch changes)
these should generally only last a few seconds, any more than that, then it means it!

Not quite sure what happened to your quad in that parking lot, but I'll tell you that IOC still confuses me and I never use it!
If in doubt, failsafe!
 

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