Return To Home - what am I doing wrong?

[fahrvergnuugen]

So I just built my first quad rotor and took it on it's maiden voyage yesterday. The good news is that it flies! The bad news is that I can't seem to get return to home to work.

Everything else seems to be working the way it's supposed to. In GPS mode it holds position as expected and in atti. mode it drifts. When I flip the switch on my TX to trigger failsafe, the naza immediately lowers the throttle and the quadrotor descends straight down instead of ascending to 20m and then flying home.

The settings in the naza software are set to Go-Home & Landing:
View attachment 11945

I have also verified in the naza software that my 3 position switch is triggering failsafe mode on channel U. When I flip the failsafe switch while flying, the naza stops responding to input from the TX and takes over. If I turn fail safe off, I can regain control.

On startup I let it sit for about 60 seconds until the LED flashes green a bunch of times, so I think it has GPS signal. I also flew it more than 10M away from home position per the instructions before triggering failsafe. I haven't adjusted any gains or anything yet (though I'm not sure that would have any effect on autopilot?)

What could be wrong? Thanks in advance!

 

[glacier51]

>On startup I let it sit for about 60 seconds until the LED flashes green a bunch of times, so I think it has GPS signal.

OK, what version of NAZA are you flying and which firmware version?

I have a NAZA hardware v1(red and white) and have not upgraded the firmware yet, so upon power up, I get green and red LEDs in the VU until I get a solid satellite lock. Then I get a steady slow green LED.

While this is happening, about 30 seconds after you power up, NAZA will record "Home Course". This will be indicated on the VU by a rapid flashing green LED. This is used for Course Lock flight mode.

So, if you're flying non upgraded firmware, what I think is happening is you're not waiting long enough to get a solid GPS position, indicated by a slow flashing green LED.

Ron

 

[Hartz]

The green flashing (upwards of 20 times) on indicates that you have good GPS lock + the home position is set. You can also manually set the home location by switching the IOC switch on/off repeatedly about 10 times - it should flash green repeatedly again to let you know that home has been set.

In the Naza Assistant what do you have in the GPS mounting location? In particular the Z axis, and describe where your GPS antenna is mounted. It might be backwards from what you think it should be - for example, I have my GPS mounted above the Naza, however in the assistant it is shown as -12.

When you test the fail-safe switch in Naza Assistant does the throttle indicator do anything funny?

And how far does the quad fall when you do switch in to fail-safe?

Also just so we know, what gains do you have set for everything?

 

[fahrvergnuugen]

Glacier: Naza is version 1 (red & white) with firmware 2.10 (most current as of this writing). I have not yet tried course lock but I will - it should indicate whether or not "home" was recorded. I thought that the rapid green flashing and then steady green meant it was good to go.


Hartz: Thanks for the tip on the IOC switch, I didn't realize you could manually set home that way. My GPS mounting location is 0,0,0. I left it that way after reading quite a few posts where people indicated that it worked perfectly fine for them that way. I will try adjusting it and see if it makes a difference. When I test fail-safe, the throttle stays put. I have an older 6 channel futaba RX that only supports failsafe signal on one channel and that channel is wired to "U" on the Naza. The quad falls all the way to the ground when I switch to fail safe. It will just sit with the props weedwhacking until I take control again.
And lastly, my gains are default:
View attachment 11967

 

[fahrvergnuugen]

So, if you're flying non upgraded firmware, what I think is happening is you're not waiting long enough to get a solid GPS position, indicated by a slow flashing green LED.

And that's exactly what the problem was. Per the instructions I was taking off on Atti mode, which normally gives a yellow light. I didn't realize that Atti and GPS used different colors on the LED, but now that I know that the LED makes a lot more sense. So I now startup in GPS mode & after a minute or two everything flashed green and then RTH worked perfectly.

Thanks!