The last couple times that I took my Q500 out I noticed that it did a lot of drifting to the right mostly in angle mode. I also noticed that instead of a solid green or purple they were blinking starting from lift off to landing. I had good satellite lock with 17 and 18 satellites which is what I think the blinking lights mean when it lacks enough satellites locked in. Is this an indication that my compass needs recalibration? The telemetry shows that I was locked in for the whole flight and the controller shows I was locked in before flight take off.
Q500 4k drifting
- Thread starter Darrell46
- Start date
As I recall, the blinking status light, green or blue, with a white flash, indicates the GPS is locked. So what you see is normal.
The drifting is likely caused by the right stick. Give the sticks a good "stir" before each flight to help keep them clean. You should also check them in Hardware Monitor to make certain they operate smoothly and return to exactly zero. If the right stick doesn't return to zero, it will cause the drift.
The drifting is likely caused by the right stick. Give the sticks a good "stir" before each flight to help keep them clean. You should also check them in Hardware Monitor to make certain they operate smoothly and return to exactly zero. If the right stick doesn't return to zero, it will cause the drift.
Thanks Steve for your quick response to my question. The only reason I noticed the blinking light was I noticed the drifting the last two times out noticed the blinking lights for the first time. They may have been blinking since I first started flying 2 years ago and just didn't pay attention as it has been flying great with very few problems. There is no drift in smart mode just in angle mode. I checked out the controller lever functions i the hardware monitor and both levers returned to 0 when I released them so that's ok. When I went to the 500GUI program and hooked up my Q500 everything checked off ok except there was a caption on there in red that said I may want to recalibrate my compass again. Not sure if that was because I was hooked up to my computer in the house and not outside. That was one reason why I mentioned the compass recalibration in my opening question.
It certainly won't hurt to cal the compass. The Q500 has never been particularly sensitive to the compass deviation, but if you see the warning then by all means do it and see if it has any affect on the flight behavior.
Sorry I think posted to the wrong sender. I was saying I had the same problem which I fixed by changing the props.
Geoffrey, Thank you for your input. While the props look ok, I did have a mishap about a month ago where I put the drone into the top of a 30' tree in my yard. I wasn't paying attention to what flight mode I was in and it turned out that I was in smart mode and was affected by the smart circle affect. I think I'll change the props with the extra set that came with it. Thanks again as I would have never thought of that.
Thanks for the reply. I'd be interested to know if the prop change did the trick. Rgds, Geoff
Geoffrey, I finally got a chance to change my props and you were right. It took care of the drifting and also took care of the slight jello affect in my last videos. It was never there before the drifting started. The weather here for the last couple weeks was not ideal to fly with rain and wind so I went out this morning before the wind starts. I also ordered a DuBro prop balancer and will check out the props balance before installing them in the future. The mishap of landing in a tree in my yard must have damaged the blades even though they looked ok. Thanks once again, much appreciated. Darrell
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