Mikrokopter Please help with toilet bowling issue

[crcr]

I had been flying my X8 for about a year without any issues,and made no changes, then for some reason it started a toilet bowling circle after about 3min flight and did this for about 5 or 6 flights with only about 1 good flight in between. I checked the gps battery and it at about 2.85v.

A couple of days ago it started doing it pretty much as soon as I put it in PH.
After this I did a compass recalibration and it worked great for about 2 more flights that day and I went out the following day with no issues.

I went out again today and the first 2 waypoint flights were great and very stable, then the next flight was all over the place. I again did a compass recalibration but this time it didn't seem to help.

Has anyone come across this before?

Do you think reinstalling the firmware on the Navi would help?

Something strange I did notice when doing the compass calibration was that after doing the first step (throttle up and left with elevator down) mine started beeping straight away, but previously and also inthe instructions it says that after step 1 you need to pull the elevator stick down again to start the beeping and calibration process.

Maybe something going on with my navi??

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Craig

 

[wildnrg]

I had the same issue on my X8's 2nd flight after a couple of minutes, however, I was in manual mode.

Broke a landing gear on a hard landing.

I had been flying my X8 for about a year without any issues,and made no changes, then for some reason it started a toilet bowling circle after about 3min flight and did this for about 5 or 6 flights with only about 1 good flight in between. I checked the gps battery and it at about 2.85v.

A couple of days ago it started doing it pretty much as soon as I put it in PH.
After this I did a compass recalibration and it worked great for about 2 more flights that day and I went out the following day with no issues.

I went out again today and the first 2 waypoint flights were great and very stable, then the next flight was all over the place. I again did a compass recalibration but this time it didn't seem to help.

Has anyone come across this before?

Do you think reinstalling the firmware on the Navi would help?

Something strange I did notice when doing the compass calibration was that after doing the first step (throttle up and left with elevator down) mine started beeping straight away, but previously and also inthe instructions it says that after step 1 you need to pull the elevator stick down again to start the beeping and calibration process.

Maybe something going on with my navi??

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Craig

 

[crcr]

hmm, that strange. Maybe your's has something to do with the gyros?

Still haven't a clue why mine is doing it.

 

[Bartman]

what are the wind conditions when it's doing the toilet thing?

i've programmed a POTI for the GPS gain and it's vey helpful to be able to tweak the GPS gain for different wind conditions.

 

[matwelli]

Check your magnetometer - that was the issue on my ardupilot, it was out by about 5 deg

 

[crcr]

what are the wind conditions when it's doing the toilet thing?

i've programmed a POTI for the GPS gain and it's vey helpful to be able to tweak the GPS gain for different wind conditions.

Bart, the wind was pretty low but I did try cranking up the GPS gain but it didn't do anything. Its not really that sort of toilet bowling, its a very violent with its always tilting to the inside.

Check your magnetometer - that was the issue on my ardupilot, it was out by about 5 deg

I will check, but the weird thing is that some days I can do a prefect flight and then take it back up in the same spot and its all over the place. I have also had it the other way around where the 1st flight is VERY unstable, then bring it down, change the pack for another flight and its all good.

I did think maybe its something to do with the batteries but I've checked the logs and it doesn't always do it on the same packs, seems to be very random.

Do you think re installing the Navi and maybe compass firmware would do anything?

Thanks guys for your help

Craig

 

[crcr]

I'm still having issues with my kopter doing this toilet bowling. After adjusting the GPS "P" setting it seemed to make a difference for a few flights but then started again.
I thought maybe it was because my kopter is bottom heavy (even though it had been flying for about a year with no issues), I raised the camera try up as high as I could, went for a few flights and was very happy and thought It'd fixed the issue.


Then went out today in a bit of wind and the first flight was all over the place with the toilet bowling. Took the camera off but was still the same.


Did a few manual flights and half way through 1 of the flights I decided to try PH again and it was very solid, even though it was very windy. I turned the kopter 90, then 180 degrees to see what would happen. After yawing it became very unstable and even when I yawed back to the original heading it was still all over the place. (Its sort of like it gets out of balance then can't correct itself). I tried this with and without the camera with the same results.


Changed the packs then back up again (without camera), this time PH was solid from the start and I slowly yawed a full 360 degrees with no problems. I landed and added the camera, again PH was solid in a full 360 degrees.


The next flight was again all over the place with bad toilet bowling. This issue is VERY random and I never know when its going to behave and when its not.


All these flights were done without changing any parameters.


Does anyone have any idea what the issue may be? Could it be the gyros playing up? Although it fly's fine in manual and the toilet bowling is only in PH. Maybe the Navi board have some issue?? compass?


Apart from changing the boards I'm not sure where to go from here.


Any help would be greatly appreciated


Thanks
Craig

 

[RTRyder]

I'm still having issues with my kopter doing this toilet bowling. After adjusting the GPS "P" setting it seemed to make a difference for a few flights but then started again.
I thought maybe it was because my kopter is bottom heavy (even though it had been flying for about a year with no issues), I raised the camera try up as high as I could, went for a few flights and was very happy and thought It'd fixed the issue.


Then went out today in a bit of wind and the first flight was all over the place with the toilet bowling. Took the camera off but was still the same.


Did a few manual flights and half way through 1 of the flights I decided to try PH again and it was very solid, even though it was very windy. I turned the kopter 90, then 180 degrees to see what would happen. After yawing it became very unstable and even when I yawed back to the original heading it was still all over the place. (Its sort of like it gets out of balance then can't correct itself). I tried this with and without the camera with the same results.


Changed the packs then back up again (without camera), this time PH was solid from the start and I slowly yawed a full 360 degrees with no problems. I landed and added the camera, again PH was solid in a full 360 degrees.


The next flight was again all over the place with bad toilet bowling. This issue is VERY random and I never know when its going to behave and when its not.


All these flights were done without changing any parameters.


Does anyone have any idea what the issue may be? Could it be the gyros playing up? Although it fly's fine in manual and the toilet bowling is only in PH. Maybe the Navi board have some issue?? compass?


Apart from changing the boards I'm not sure where to go from here.


Any help would be greatly appreciated


Thanks
Craig

How many different battery packs do you have? Do you notice it happens with a partcular battery(s) or is that something you haven't checked? Its not unknown for some batteries to have magnetic interference that can mess up the compass board. Mark the packs and try a few test fligts without changing anything else but the battery and see what happens, if its more prone to having issue with the same battery then see if its better or more consistant not using that pack(s).

Ken

 

[crcr]

Hi Ken

I have heaps of battery packs and I did think the same thing about the batteries but went through all the packs yesterday. I note all flights and the same packs will behave differently on different flights. Also, I can take off and put into PH and it will swing around, take it off PH and fly manually for a bit then put back into PH and it will be fine.
I have even had it where I just let it do its toilet bolwing for a little bit and it will slowly calm down but this only happens if the toilet bowling is small, if its big then it keeps going, very weird!

I did wonder if it had something to do with the gyro calibration before take off? Can you do the gyro calibration in the wind or does the MK need to be perfectly still?? The MK does fly ok in manual and this issue is only when in PH.

Thanks
Craig

 

[Bartman]

crcr,

Do you fly the heli into PH or just flip the switch and leave it to figure itself out? When I first engage PH I continue to fly the heli and help it to settle into its position.

Bart

 

[crcr]

Hi Bart

Both really, if there is no wind I just flip the switch and let it go but if there is a bit of wind I manually hold the heli in position for a bit.

I did a test the other day to see if this was helping me and found that after putting into PH, if it drifted, then came back into position, it was going to be bad, if it held position as soon as I released the sticks it was good.

Craig

 

[ravenx]

I had a real problem with toilet bowling and flying waypoints. The last flight it went wild halfway around a waypoint flight and shot up 200ft crazy. I had to fly manual to lands.

I seem to have fixed it by stripping down the MK tower and checking all my wiring. I have twisted every pair and made sure they did not cross over any board or cable. For the power cables I stripped the outer wire mesh from some coax cable and used this mesh to encase the power cables. I then covered the cable in heat shrink.

Since then I have had no problems and it is a pleasure to fly. I reckon the magnetometers are sensitive to magnetic fields set up when the hexa is drawing lots of power. The shielding as eliminated this.