More flights, more updates. It seems cause/effect are not always what they seem. Repaired my gimbal issue. Ground test of camera works fine, controls well, broadcasts to the controller. First flight (with camera cover removed) - takeoff (Angle mode), kept it at about six feet, no control but down-ish - got to the ground fairly slowly, before I could kill the motors it tipped over, luckily no damage. Shut down, stubbornly turned it back on - perfect control/flight, all systems go. Freshly charged battery, screen on controller all normal. Today - exactly the same - crazy legs at 6 feet, slowly lowered to the ground, flopped and tipped over, broken prop this time. Same thing, shut down, repowered, perfect fight after that. Next battery (same day/place), fully charged - exactly the same process - crazy time, then perfect flight. First flight I waited 15 minutes after power on, but GPS and sat numbers stayed exactly the same. Once crazy time was over, smart mode worked great, RTH perfect, automatic takeoff in smart mode worked fine, flying the majority of the time in Angle mode and response and picture taking perfect. Anyone have a theory? Prior to takeoff, I did a hardware check, and all of the controls were shown to respond normally. Next session, I'm going to power up, acquire signals, etc., then power down and restart. Don't know if that will work, but seems like a dumb ritual to have to go through for each battery, if that even makes it work normally. Because of this, I don't have much trust yet. I get over about 50', I start to think that if it gets nutty there, I've got some real problems. Used unit, so I don't know the history of the batteries, but they charge normally (Hitec x2 plus charger - I actually get 20+ minutes of flight before the first warning), anyone? Older firmware, considering updating...could that be a possibility? When it does fly, it's awesome. I'd hate to brick it with an update.
All that other stuff with the camera/gimbal was totally coincidental.