DJI has released the new firmware v3.12 for Naza-M

[focus97]

PeteDee - judging by your signature I'm sure you'll love the gimbal. It's remarkable. (I've only been in the drone/quad/RC-heli game for 3'ish months now, so all this is new to me. But by itself, the gimbal is a terrific piece of electronics magic.)

For gains: I never changed nor set them when I first bought the unit. So, in the Naza software it reads:
Pitch and Roll in both the Basic and Attitude Gains are 135%
Yaw is 120%
Vertical is 130%.

Tonight, I downgraded to the 2.02 firmware to test the flight. In terms of firmware 3.12, I like certain aspects (stable take off, faster GPS location, smoother descents), but I felt like it didn't keep altitude as well when rotating/pitching/banking. I have no idea if the downgrade affected the jitter, though I can report preliminarily that the video is a bit smoother with less jitter. Fast speeds moving in the forward direction to present the jitter, though.

I'm going to try more tests tomorrow morning, and I may upgrade the firmware again to see how that affects things. Perhaps I needed to recalibrate the compass after the firmware upgrade (which I didn't)...? Perhaps I need to adjust the gains? I'm also wondering if the wind is affecting the video instead of it owing to calibration or firmware? If the latter is true, it'll be a disappointment as I wanted to get great video flying around with the gimbal.

Of course, any insight (again, judging by your signature I'm assuming you have much more than I do) would be great.

 

[PeteDee]

I am sure I will just have to complete the rebuild of the 550 hex and get the new landing gear, also in the mail.

I have not had much of a chance to do any tuning, busy getting ready for a big trip/holiday but I have upped the gains a little and had a quick fly in the back yard and everything felt pretty good, I mucked around with the voltage settings to get full flight time and did not have much left for any other testing.

Cheers

Pete

 

[PilotMan]

Im having issues with vibration during high winds and fast forward movement as well. I have found that if you plan your shots to allow the wind to push you, you end up with pretty good video. Right now Im in the process of building a Pop stopper for my hex gimbal. Should take the turbulence out of air hitting the gimbal but not affect weight or too much surface are to the wind. We will see.

PeteDee - judging by your signature I'm sure you'll love the gimbal. It's remarkable. (I've only been in the drone/quad/RC-heli game for 3'ish months now, so all this is new to me. But by itself, the gimbal is a terrific piece of electronics magic.)

For gains: I never changed nor set them when I first bought the unit. So, in the Naza software it reads:
Pitch and Roll in both the Basic and Attitude Gains are 135%
Yaw is 120%
Vertical is 130%.

Tonight, I downgraded to the 2.02 firmware to test the flight. In terms of firmware 3.12, I like certain aspects (stable take off, faster GPS location, smoother descents), but I felt like it didn't keep altitude as well when rotating/pitching/banking. I have no idea if the downgrade affected the jitter, though I can report preliminarily that the video is a bit smoother with less jitter. Fast speeds moving in the forward direction to present the jitter, though.

I'm going to try more tests tomorrow morning, and I may upgrade the firmware again to see how that affects things. Perhaps I needed to recalibrate the compass after the firmware upgrade (which I didn't)...? Perhaps I need to adjust the gains? I'm also wondering if the wind is affecting the video instead of it owing to calibration or firmware? If the latter is true, it'll be a disappointment as I wanted to get great video flying around with the gimbal.

Of course, any insight (again, judging by your signature I'm assuming you have much more than I do) would be great.

 

[CrashMaster]

I finally had some decent weather in the UK today and got my F550 to fly on the new Naza firmware.
All gains run back to 100% then progressed 5% at a time and have it all set to 125, 125, 100,125, 80 80. As this is an AP platform I need it to be smooth so the two bottom are 80 and rudder is 100 this makes movement smoother. The wind was between 6 and 15 mph (quite gusty) so it got tested a little. Running 11.1 3300mah X 2. I also tried 14.8 4250mah and found it much more positive but very jumpy in the wind - not good for AP. The hold on GPS is very good with the machine sometimes wandering 5ft and back again in strong gusts. Height hold I am still working on as it appears to drop by about 10ft once the Lipos get below half power... This never happened with the old firmware. I am also using both DJI 1038 Props and some CF 1038 props. the CF ones were much quieter and in the gusts held better.

 

[iceman17]

CrashMaster I see you have an F550 as well as a Phantom. I also have an F550 running the old firmware and two days ago I purchased a Phantom and have not downloaded the firmware or even hooked it up to the PC yet. My question is will the new 3.12 firmware work for both the F550 and the phantom or do I need to use separate Naza assistants for each unit. Also will I have to enter different number values for my GPS unit with the new firmware, I think I seen a video with the new firmware and all the GPS values were in the negative, I only have 1 value in the negative right now. Sorry for all the questions (last one) I will be receiving an aeroXcraft gopro 2 axis gimbal along with their F550 landing gear in the mail soon, when I install both items along with my gopro hero2 will I have to change the GPS values from the current setting. Im thinking I should install the landing gear, gimbal and camera with the current old firmware and get used to that first before updating to the new firmware. Anyone else with suggestions please feel free to respond. Im a newbie and can use all the help I can get, I've had two fly aways with the 550 due to my fault and after re reading the manual also had 5 successful flights afterwards.

 

[CrashMaster]

I have the GPS mounted in the centre top plate so my COG values are 0, 0 and -12. The -12 is because it sits about 9cm higher than the top plate and the COG is about 3cm below the plate with the landing gear and gimbal fitted.
The new firmware caused all sorts of problems but does appears to work fine now. One thing was that it took for ever for the orange flashing lights to stop and after 15 minutes of sitting on the grass flashing at me I gave up and unplugged thinking there was a problem, I plugged it back into the assistant again and checked everything was working. I re-calibrated the IMUs again and tried again. I set the compass again and unplugged and plugged in again. This time the orange flashing stopped in about 15 seconds and all was well.
As for the phantom I have altered nothing other than re-calibrating IMUs, compass and set up gimbal self levelling x1 & x2. All worked fine with both 3.10 and 3.12.

The most serious problem I also encountered with the F550 was that I have now had two stock DJI motors loose their circlip. Not only is there a circlip but a 1.5mm brass bush. If you replace the circlip without the bush the motor is loose and delivers less power but this is only evident when in flight. Start up and even hover it doesn't show until the affected motor has to deliver more power and on one occasion cost me a set of CF blades. The only way to check is to turn it upside down and check it visibly before and after every flight.

If anyone knows the exact sizes I can order new ones and recover these two motors for future use.

 

[iceman17]

Thank you for the reply CrashMaster, I think I will continue to fly with the older firmware on my F550 and I wont install the landing gear and gimbal until I have more flight time under my belt. It seems to be flying really good for a rookie like me and I don't want to mess it up. You may find this interesting, I had a rather nasty crash on my second flight and the # 5 motor was not working right so I bought two spares and replaced the broken one with one of the new ones. After reading what you had said about the C clips I decided to check mine, they were all still in place however the new # 5 motor I replaced has a different clip on it than that of the others. The (odd) clip is thinner in width but seems to come around the shaft more then it opens up to a semi circle again, I found this kind of strange. I checked the unused spare motor that I bought at the same time and it was like the stock motor clips. It would seem that DJI is using two different styles of clips. I will try to get pictures of both clips but im not sure if I can post them here or not. When I decide to go with the 3.12 firmware can I use it on the F550 and phantom or do I need to use separate Naza assistants.

 

[CrashMaster]

Thank you for the reply CrashMaster, I think I will continue to fly with the older firmware on my F550 and I wont install the landing gear and gimbal until I have more flight time under my belt. It seems to be flying really good for a rookie like me and I don't want to mess it up. You may find this interesting, I had a rather nasty crash on my second flight and the # 5 motor was not working right so I bought two spares and replaced the broken one with one of the new ones. After reading what you had said about the C clips I decided to check mine, they were all still in place however the new # 5 motor I replaced has a different clip on it than that of the others. The (odd) clip is thinner in width but seems to come around the shaft more then it opens up to a semi circle again, I found this kind of strange. I checked the unused spare motor that I bought at the same time and it was like the stock motor clips. It would seem that DJI is using two different styles of clips. I will try to get pictures of both clips but im not sure if I can post them here or not. When I decide to go with the 3.12 firmware can I use it on the F550 and phantom or do I need to use separate Naza assistants.

What you describe about the clips is correct. The two types are probably different manufacturers DJI use. I have 1 motor with thinner clip but you are right it goes further around the shaft and it is worth noting this is not one of the motors to have failed to date.
However, after flying today I am going to go back to the old firmware again. Although flying fine as soon as my lipos get below 50% capacity I need 70% throttle to gain height and had a very hard landing today because there was not enough power to slow a rapid decent enough to hover then land. This has only happened since the new firmware. When I checked the capacity the cells were still at 3.84v 3.83v and 3.84v now that means there was still some 40% capacity. I will revert back and give them a try. I also have serious issues with 14.8v because the machine just can not sit still and bounces. When the machine starts to show signs of stabilising it will start a slow yawing left. No my trims are not out. I am beginning to wish I stuck to helis because it is my skill keeping them airborne and not a computer I have no idea about how or why it is doing something meaning if it goes wrong I know what caused it... normally me.