Cannot start motors, cannot do compass calibration plus OBS problem.

Wingman · Feb 3, 2021

I have got a new Typhoon H battery today and now I am trying to see what I have gotten myself as a second hand Typhoon H. And so far it seems to be a pickle.
So the first problem I encounter is that I cannot start motors. Pressing on the red button on the ground station makes the drone beep one or two times as well as shows a triangular icon on the map of st16. However the icon flashes and disappears and the motors do not start.
Repeating the same steps on a new model does exactly the same.
In order to eliminate this problem caused by uncalibrated compass I decided to calibrate it. And I cannot. At the beginning it just did nothing when I pressed compass calibration.
Then after restarting the same steps trigger a message "GPS Loss" when calibration is pressed and calibration does not start. It happens all the time now. So it is basically does not let me do it. What may be the problem?

And the last one: When I bind the station to the drone most of the time I got OBS failed message.
That's with the OBS switch on st16 set to off. If I set it to ON manually I get a message "OBS is not available"
I get that it may be a loose OBS sensor wire but the seller did not mention anything about OBS not working.
Anyway OBS problem is my last concern for now. I need to be able to calibrate the compass first, then see if I can arm the drone. Any ideas?

I got it from the guy who leaves about 100km from me, if that matters. I try to do a calibration with at least 10 sats visible.

Thanks in advance for any help/advise.

DoomMeister · Feb 4, 2021

Connect the TH to the GUI to see if all the sensors are in working order.

Wingman · Feb 4, 2021

DoomMeister said:
Connect the TH to the GUI to see if all the sensors are in working order.

Tried it about an hour ago. Everything including sonar shown as working there. I could even do motors test and all were spinning. However all or at least drone firmware and st16 firmware is a bit behind the latest version(3.04 vs 3.01). So far I could not update anything. Gui is timing out on update, wireless update throws network error and for unknown reason a SD card cannot be detected in both camera and st16.

I could only find EU version of firmware. The links to firmware files on UK website leads to nowhere. That may may actually explain network error with updating through network. And I am not sure I can use USA firmware.

I will try updating st16 from a card but I will need to charge it first. I wasted its battery on all attempts.

Feeling a bit weird as it was so easy on my h520 to update everything by running just one app.

BTW, what type of format the SD card should be done to? May be I am using the wrong one and that's why nothing can see it.

Wingman · Feb 4, 2021

I also have done factory reset on ST16. If somebody screwed it up with updates that should at least eliminate any problems on st16 created by it.

DoomMeister · Feb 4, 2021

SD card should be formatted in exFAT or FAT32.

You can find the downloads you need here Typhoon H

ArtCox · Feb 4, 2021

I would suggest checking the Firmware and update to the latest version. Make sure your Battery and ST16 battery are at 100%

Wingman · Feb 4, 2021

I have updated everything using EU update files. I can start motors now if I'm lucky to get location fix. It takes abnormal amount of time though to get a location fix with even more than 10-12 sats visible.

However when I get a fix and select compass calibration I get "GPS Loss" warning and "Ready" status for location switches to "Acquiring" while still see the same amount of satellites. In fact after it I cannot get a fix at all. It stays with Acquiring status for a long time.

Also there is still a problem with obstacle avoidance. It does not throw any warning at a start like it did before updates but if I flip the OBS switch to ON it shows a message that OBS is not available. And no sounds coming from sonars when OBS is on.
In GUI app sonars are shown as fully functional.

So basically the most important things for me to do now is to find why GNSS service working so badly and why it drops the location fix everytime I try to calibrate compass. Any ideas guys?

WTFDproject · Feb 4, 2021

OBS is not available until you are in flight and at some altitude (10 ft?) and landing gear raised. That part sounds normal.

The GPS problem could be location. Are you outside, have a clear view of the sky, and no metal objects around? GPS isn't just satellite count. It can see lots of satellites, but if some are too "fuzzy" (due to reflection or for any other reason), the system counts them present, but does not use them, so you still don't get GPS acquired.
The GPS problem could also be outdated GPS almanac. If the TH was in storage for a long time, that can happen. To fix that, it needs to be left outside and powered on for at about 30 minutes to get the almanac updated. It gets broadcast about every 12 minutes, so it might not take all that long.

If you are in a reasonably good GPS environment, the almanac has had time to update and you still don't get a lock, it is probably going to come down to a bad flight control board.

DoomMeister · Feb 4, 2021

For the GPS it may take having the aircraft powered on for a few hours to get a good enough charge in the GPS battery to hold the almanac information. The charge circuit for the battery has very low current and it takes a long time to build the battery after it depletes. Once you get it working take the aircraft out at least every two weeks and power it up for 15 minutes, preferably out where it can get a good GPS signal. This is a twofold thing as it keeps the GPS battery at a good level and it keeps the almanac updated.

Wingman · Feb 4, 2021

Thanks for the battery info and possible longer times required to update the almanac. I will go to some big open field on this weekend and try it.

DoomMeister · Feb 4, 2021

You can help charge the GPS battery by just having the aircraft turned on, even in the house. The flight battery will last a long time with the drone just powered on. That way when you go to the field you will just need 12 to 15 minutes to update the almanac (we hope).

When you go to the field be sure you have the ST16 on also so its GPS can update also. I believe that GPS is maintained by the controller battery.

WTFDproject · Feb 5, 2021

Wingman said:
However when I get a fix and select compass calibration I get "GPS Loss" warning and "Ready" status for location switches to "Acquiring" while still see the same amount of satellites. In fact after it I cannot get a fix at all. It stays with Acquiring status for a long time.

So basically the most important things for me to do now is to find why GNSS service working so badly and why it drops the location fix everytime I try to calibrate compass. Any ideas guys?

It is normal to get "GPS Loss" when you begin compass calibration. The warning message should clear by itself after a few seconds. I prefer to do compass calibration with the camera off. The calibration may work even if the message stays on-screen, but I can't confirm that. Mine always clears quickly.
If you did not get a good compass calibration, that can also have a negative impact on GPS. It shows up in flight, not sure about acquisition.

Wingman · Feb 5, 2021

I do not think it will let me to do calibration(compass or accelerometer) when there is no fix. When it has a fix and I try to calibrate the fix becomes no fix anymore and nothing related to calibration happens apart from a warning about GPS loss.

However after checking the manual about calibration I do not really see any mention that there is any dialog with instructions should pop up when you click Calibration-> Compass. In fact if there is nothing should be popping up and I am just supposed to rotate a drone to calibrate it may be just my fault for no reading the manual properly and expecting some calibration instructions to be shown while I can just simply go ahead with calibration.

Wingman · Feb 5, 2021

Ok, it seems to be I am kind of stupid for not reading the manual and expecting something from calibration initialization. I can calibrate compass no matter what is a status of GPS. I have done it just to try and it worked.

I will go to big open space tomorrow and re-calibrate compass and accelerometer.

Now I hope it is going to be the last question.. I searched on the forum and googled but I could not find any reference.
h520 flight control app has two modes for a screen.. a feed from a camera in full screen and the map in small window and vice versa. However in TH I can only see a feed from the camera. How do you switch to the map so I can see where the drone is?

I have Google Maps app installed on my st16 and I have added my google account to it but no map shown anywhere in flight control, only the camera feed.

DoomMeister · Feb 5, 2021

That function is not part of the TH flight app. No map during flight, but there is the green arrow. I am attaching the user enhanced manual and another explaining the use of the green arrow.

WTFDproject · Feb 5, 2021

It's good you mentioned that. It may have saved you some grief. You need to get rid of google maps, and any other aftermarket apps. The ST16 may loose connection with the drone during flight if you have any aftermarket app installed other than "UAVtoolbox". It's a long story. I have to leave the house for a couple hours, but you can do a Forum Search to get some information on it.

Wingman · Feb 6, 2021

@WTFDproject Google Maps is part of the St16. I have not installed anything on st16 It does not seem to have any connection with drone control software. If it is not running it should not interfere with anything. I know about UAV toolbox. I believe it has not designed for h520 so I only know its name from H520 forum but have never used it.

@DoomMeister Thanks I would probably figured it out myself because it looks like a directional icon but it is much easier with the manual. A bit weird there are no maps in drone control.

DoomMeister · Feb 6, 2021

The TH, H Plus, and H3 are all prosumer videography drones intended to be flown in VLOS so no need of a map. The H520 was designed to be used as a mapping drone so it therefore has the map as part of the display so the pilot can keep a reference of where the aircraft is during a mission.

Wingman · Feb 6, 2021

I don't really care about mapping, the map can be handy when you lose a drone because you can see on it when it was seen the last. Dealing with logs is ok for an office work but in the field when it is lost time matters.

DoomMeister · Feb 6, 2021

Wingman said:
I don't really care about mapping, the map can be handy when you lose a drone because you can see on it when it was seen the last. Dealing with logs is ok for an office work but in the field when it is lost time matters.

UAV Toolbox is a good alternative for that scenario. Note the last recorded GPS position before exiting FlightMode, then load UAV Toolbox and playback the flight on the map. You can download for free and have a two week evaluation period to see if you find it useful.