ST-16 Calibration ( secret menu )

PatR · Jul 5, 2017

5 quick presses usually does it. That's why it's called a secret menu. The secret is in accessing it correctly. There have been many threads about this.

pjf · Jul 26, 2017

Peter Venkman said:
For your information

On the ST-16. When you access the secret menu and do the calibration test for the ST-16. it's important that the TILT and the Turtle / Rabbit sliders are set to the middle. ( not at the top, not at the buttom, but in the middle )

On the flight mode screen

Tap the system settings
Tap the About Controller many times

this will open the secret menu

You will see:

ENTER TEST
HW TEST
WIFI TEST
CALIBRATE TEST
HDMI SETTINGS
FIRMWARE UPGRADE

My Gimbal would not pan well. It would not go to horizon and always stay below the horizon.

I did several Gimball calibrations, i could see the camera going up and doing is thing perfectly fine. But the camera would always point a bit down.

I could see it wasn't a gimbal problem.

( this calibration could be usefull for H that drift and can't keep a perfect hoover )

I tried to calibrate the ST-16 many times, and the pan slider in HARDWARE MONITOR would always behave differently. ( not going completely up on the HARDWARE MONITOR when the slider was physically completely up )

That's when i understood that the pan " slider " probably needed to be in a certain position before doing the calibrations.

I tried it starting in the center position and sure enough, my problem was gone.

The gimbal is now working as it should.

Go in CALIBRATE TEST then, press START ( at the buttom )
Press all the butons they ask you untill they become GREEN.

once all of them are green. Press NEXT ( at the buttom )

Re-do the same thing with all the buttons on the remote. ( ALL OF THEM EVEN CAMERA OR CAMCORDER )

Once you are done, all icons should be green. Press FINISH at the buttom and go back to the FLIGHT MODE SCREEN.

Go to HARDWARE MONITOR and check that the behavior of all your " buttons / sticks / sliders " are behaving normally.

If not, remake the calibration.

When doing the calibration, it's important to push the sticks all the way in all working directions. ( up / down / left / right )

Toggle switches that have 3 positions need to go in all of those 3 positions in order to calibrate.

I wouldn't recommend to go in this setting unless you are deseperate ( like i was ) and have tried everything you think you should have tried.

In my case, i did the GPS calibration, Compass calibration, gimbal calibration / i checked to see if my firmware were up to date. Removed the battery. Made a complete factory reset. Re-Binded both the H and the ST-16. Remade all those calibrations. Made the gimball calibration 4 or 5 times. Then, tried the ST-16 Calibration.

I was desesperate and had nothing to loose !

Be aware this could maybe F*** up you H.

I wanted to share this with you, and this makes me a place to go back to if i ever feel the need to remake a calibration.

I followed the above instruction by continuously tapping the about hardware button, but cannot get into the calibration menu. The button highlights, nothing happens...

pjf · Jul 26, 2017

Peter Venkman said:
For your information

On the ST-16. When you access the secret menu and do the calibration test for the ST-16. it's important that the TILT and the Turtle / Rabbit sliders are set to the middle. ( not at the top, not at the buttom, but in the middle )

On the flight mode screen

Tap the system settings
Tap the About Controller many times

this will open the secret menu

You will see:

ENTER TEST
HW TEST
WIFI TEST
CALIBRATE TEST
HDMI SETTINGS
FIRMWARE UPGRADE

My Gimbal would not pan well. It would not go to horizon and always stay below the horizon.

I did several Gimball calibrations, i could see the camera going up and doing is thing perfectly fine. But the camera would always point a bit down.

I could see it wasn't a gimbal problem.

( this calibration could be usefull for H that drift and can't keep a perfect hoover )

I tried to calibrate the ST-16 many times, and the pan slider in HARDWARE MONITOR would always behave differently. ( not going completely up on the HARDWARE MONITOR when the slider was physically completely up )

That's when i understood that the pan " slider " probably needed to be in a certain position before doing the calibrations.

I tried it starting in the center position and sure enough, my problem was gone.

The gimbal is now working as it should.

Go in CALIBRATE TEST then, press START ( at the buttom )
Press all the butons they ask you untill they become GREEN.

once all of them are green. Press NEXT ( at the buttom )

Re-do the same thing with all the buttons on the remote. ( ALL OF THEM EVEN CAMERA OR CAMCORDER )

Once you are done, all icons should be green. Press FINISH at the buttom and go back to the FLIGHT MODE SCREEN.

Go to HARDWARE MONITOR and check that the behavior of all your " buttons / sticks / sliders " are behaving normally.

If not, remake the calibration.

When doing the calibration, it's important to push the sticks all the way in all working directions. ( up / down / left / right )

Toggle switches that have 3 positions need to go in all of those 3 positions in order to calibrate.

I wouldn't recommend to go in this setting unless you are deseperate ( like i was ) and have tried everything you think you should have tried.

In my case, i did the GPS calibration, Compass calibration, gimbal calibration / i checked to see if my firmware were up to date. Removed the battery. Made a complete factory reset. Re-Binded both the H and the ST-16. Remade all those calibrations. Made the gimball calibration 4 or 5 times. Then, tried the ST-16 Calibration.

I was desesperate and had nothing to loose !

Be aware this could maybe F*** up you H.

I wanted to share this with you, and this makes me a place to go back to if i ever feel the need to remake a calibration.

I followed the suggested instruction by continuously tapping the 'about controller' button, but cannot get into the calibration menu.

The button highlights, nothing happens...

The screen remains in the 'about controller' info screen..

What now??

Mojoe35 · Jul 26, 2017

One more tip for anyone doing the calibrations. Be sure to power down both the H & the ST16 after completing calibrations. Then power back up and all should work fine. My H wanted to go sideways to the left, so I did the accelerator calibration and then powered down and back on and now it hovers unless I tell it otherwise!

pjf · Jul 26, 2017

In the past I always powered everything down after calibrations.

Nothing has changed.

I tried the same w/the ST16 calibration, cannot get to the secret menu...

PatR · Jul 26, 2017

How fast can you tap a key on a laptop? Try doing the same on the About Controller button. Watch the screen for the menu to change. Keep in mind that if the many can manage to access the same something but only a few can't, the problem is prolly not the controller.

pjf · Jul 27, 2017

After doing a complete reset using this video (bad accent, decent visual instructions) and using more force on the button, I was able to get in...

Then I created a new model, binding and after completing all the basic calibrations, tomorrow I will be ready to fly...!!!

Wish me luck.. LOL!

Dano1027 · Oct 16, 2017

Thiis an intresting thread. When calibrating my st16 I can't get the j4 to go green, however the next screen goes all green . when I go into the hardware manager everything looks good and my H flies fine, but now I'm a little concerned after reading one sub unit may be bad. Any comments?

PatR · Oct 16, 2017

Clean the gimbal.

Dano1027 · Oct 16, 2017

PatR said:
Clean the gimbal.

Is there any special way , or just spray electronics cleaner in levers?

PatR · Oct 16, 2017

The easy method is to use plastic safe contact cleaner and apply from the face of the gimbal. Stir the stick while doing it. Doesn't always work, sometimes you have to go inside the 16.

Dano1027 · Oct 16, 2017

PatR said:
The easy method is to use plastic safe contact cleaner and apply from the face of the gimbal. Stir the stick while doing it. Doesn't always work, sometimes you have to go inside the 16.

Got you, thanks

PDX1953 · Nov 23, 2017

pjf said:
After doing a complete reset using this video

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(bad accent, decent visual instructions) and using more force on the button, I was able to get in...
Then I created a new model, binding and after completing all the basic calibrations, tomorrow I will be ready to fly...!!!
Wish me luck.. LOL!

The guy who did the video is Richard Gilmore from Ireland & he probably has more experience than most of us.

Twisterdink · Nov 24, 2017

PDX1953 said:
The guy who did the video is Richard Gilmore from Ireland & he probably has more experience than most of us.

One question: is the information in this thread still valid? I'm asking only because there have been several updates to the ST16 since the thread started 15 months ago, and I wouldn't want to go through this process now if it's outdated or no longer effective.

PDX1953 · Nov 24, 2017

Twisterdink said:
One question: is the information in this thread still valid? I'm asking only because there have been several updates to the ST16 since the thread started 15 months ago, and I wouldn't want to go through this process now if it's outdated or no longer effective.

I recalibrated my controller last night & I have the most recent s/w updates in the controller and drone. Unfortunately the weather is crappy so I can't go flying.

Eagle's Eye Video · Nov 24, 2017

Twisterdink said:
One question: is the information in this thread still valid? I'm asking only because there have been several updates to the ST16 since the thread started 15 months ago, and I wouldn't want to go through this process now if it's outdated or no longer effective.

The procedures and info in this thread are still valid, but the secret menu calibration procedure should be the last step.
The calibration process operates on the assumption that there are no physical causes involved in the stick behavior that is observed in the Hardware Monitor. So after cleaning the sticks as described above (and in other threads), hardware monitor should be rechecked, to verify if the sticks are behaving normally. Only if an issue is still evident, do you move on to the secret menu... just don't tell anyone cause well yanno, it's a secret...

cpayne · Dec 5, 2017

This video was very helpful to me too..as mine would not Yaw..think was due to upgrading firmware..but that is just a guess...

sello · Jan 3, 2018

Peter Venkman said:
For your information

On the ST-16. When you access the secret menu and do the calibration test for the ST-16. it's important that the TILT and the Turtle / Rabbit sliders are set to the middle. ( not at the top, not at the buttom, but in the middle )

On the flight mode screen

Tap the system settings
Tap the About Controller many times

this will open the secret menu

You will see:

ENTER TEST
HW TEST
WIFI TEST
CALIBRATE TEST
HDMI SETTINGS
FIRMWARE UPGRADE

My Gimbal would not pan well. It would not go to horizon and always stay below the horizon.

I did several Gimball calibrations, i could see the camera going up and doing is thing perfectly fine. But the camera would always point a bit down.

I could see it wasn't a gimbal problem.

( this calibration could be usefull for H that drift and can't keep a perfect hoover )

I tried to calibrate the ST-16 many times, and the pan slider in HARDWARE MONITOR would always behave differently. ( not going completely up on the HARDWARE MONITOR when the slider was physically completely up )

That's when i understood that the pan " slider " probably needed to be in a certain position before doing the calibrations.

I tried it starting in the center position and sure enough, my problem was gone.

The gimbal is now working as it should.

Go in CALIBRATE TEST then, press START ( at the buttom )
Press all the butons they ask you untill they become GREEN.

once all of them are green. Press NEXT ( at the buttom )

Re-do the same thing with all the buttons on the remote. ( ALL OF THEM EVEN CAMERA OR CAMCORDER )

Once you are done, all icons should be green. Press FINISH at the buttom and go back to the FLIGHT MODE SCREEN.

Go to HARDWARE MONITOR and check that the behavior of all your " buttons / sticks / sliders " are behaving normally.

If not, remake the calibration.

When doing the calibration, it's important to push the sticks all the way in all working directions. ( up / down / left / right )

Toggle switches that have 3 positions need to go in all of those 3 positions in order to calibrate.

I wouldn't recommend to go in this setting unless you are deseperate ( like i was ) and have tried everything you think you should have tried.

In my case, i did the GPS calibration, Compass calibration, gimbal calibration / i checked to see if my firmware were up to date. Removed the battery. Made a complete factory reset. Re-Binded both the H and the ST-16. Remade all those calibrations. Made the gimball calibration 4 or 5 times. Then, tried the ST-16 Calibration.

I was desesperate and had nothing to loose !

Be aware this could maybe F*** up you H.

I wanted to share this with you, and this makes me a place to go back to if i ever feel the need to remake a calibration.

ANY help on why this won't calibrate