New Update Was A Big Mistake

[paularity]

One thing I wanted to add, I filmed 5 flights yesterday and left the beacon on the entire time, when I finished it was 50 percent power, the other thing that I noticed was that I would power off the drone, slap in a new battery, power it back up and the drone would become ready allot sooner then my typical method of shutting everything off and starting over powering everything up. It saved allot of time for me.

This. It's like the robot remembers all the previous GPS info!

 

[Ridefreak]

Did a good bit of flying yesterday and I noticed with this update, visual tracking seems to be the primary method of tracking, it's more reluctant to switch over to GPS tracking. It lost connection to me once because of this when I rode around a big hill. On it's own the drone rose up after a 30 seconds or so delay, required me through GPS and dove in to me resuming it's set position. That was pretty cool, of course I was in a location where none of it's movements were hampered but anything overhead.

 

[Trailryder42]

Did a good bit of flying yesterday and I noticed with this update, visual tracking seems to be the primary method of tracking, it's more reluctant to switch over to GPS tracking. It lost connection to me once because of this when I rode around a big hill. On it's own the drone rose up after a 30 seconds or so delay, required me through GPS and dove in to me resuming it's set position. That was pretty cool, of course I was in a location where none of it's movements were hampered but anything overhead.

Were you using the Beacon only? Or did you also have it tethered to your phones wifi?

 

[VEGASROBBI]

RF Is this the same as the troublesome update or have they made a newer one available to you?

 

[Ridefreak]

I was using the beacon with the phone connected. As for the update

RF Is this the same as the troublesome update or have they made a newer one available to you?

I think the only difference in mine vs yours is the update for the props, apparently they're different enough that they needed to change the software some, I can't see what it is though. I'll be glad to note the version numbers and I'll post them up in a day or so.

The loss of signal behavior is based on the new settings in recent update, that's obvious after seeing how it acted. I liked how that feature works better then it just stopping like it did before. Had I not gone back to find it I'm pretty sure it would have reacquired on it's own based on the way it rose up looking for the beacons signal.

Like I said it seems more heavily biased toward visual tracking which has only caused one disconnect when a hill got in the way otherwise I did well. All day yesterday I had the phone connected to the beacon, that's my normal use and that's only for the location information that I'm hoping the phone stores if it goes down.

We went out today with another rider who has a Skydio (w/ the recent update) and it did fine. I only observed it for one battery but it stayed connected and followed us a good pace.

 

[VEGASROBBI]

I like the idea of more optical tracking.

A few years ago DJI updated the props and motor software on the P4. I don't remember the specifics but they went to a square wave drive vs analog or some such thing. The end result was a more efficient and quieter drone with extended flight time.

I used the P4 props on my P3 to get some of the benefit but without the software update guys reported only a partial gain.

 

[ed.matthews4]

Hearing this makes me think the time saved is due to the beacon not having to re-find the gps location like it always does on initial start up.

 

[RiverEagle]

I think the only difference in mine vs yours is the update for the props, apparently they're different enough that they needed to change the software some, I can't see what it is though. I'll be glad to note the version numbers and I'll post them up in a day or so.

Interesting -- when I got my Skydio in the mail a couple days ago there was a note inside saying to please update the Skydio before using due to the propellers.

Ray

 

[dmac1]

Interesting -- when I got my Skydio in the mail a couple days ago there was a note inside saying to please update the Skydio before using due to the propellers.

Ray

Old post, but time for update.

Yeah, same note in the box with my new props. I examined the old ones vs the new (not the prop pitch aspect) and it seems to me the problem with the old ones was that they were too tight and wouldn't freely move/extend to full reach. It'd been soo long since I got my new props, I'd forgotten if I'd switched em out or not...discovered nope. I flew my drone with the defective ones (too tight, could tell when folding them in) and all went well, but I pitched those props and saved the old ones that were tensioned properly.

Now I have 2 questions:

Has anyone flown their drone with the new props without updating the prop's firmware? I am NOT enthused about updating my drone, but trip tomorrow, so prolly better do it.

I wonder what would happen if a drone were flown with a mixture of props. Kinda rhetorical unless some of you have done it?

 

[dmac1]

I did my usual strap mod to the beacon. This has worked well along with a carabineer for attaching to stuff like a backpack strap or the motorcycle handlebars.

I have similar (an old camera wrist strap) through the little slot, but yours is beefier. Doesn't look like it would fit through the slot.. How is it connected to the beacon?

 

[Ridefreak]

I have similar (an old camera wrist strap) through the little slot, but yours is beefier. Doesn't look like it would fit through the slot.. How is it connected to the beacon?

It's just small enough to fit through with a little effort. I purposely didn't want a thin one although it's probably sufficient. Where I put the beacon it's possible to catch a branch or something so I went heavy duty. (source: Strapworks)

 

[dmac1]

It's just small enough to fit through with a little effort. I purposely didn't want a thin one although it's probably sufficient. Where I put the beacon it's possible to catch a branch or something so I went heavy duty. (source: Strapworks)

Thanks! I looked on amazon quite some time ago but couldn't find anything...and I had that one from an old point and shoot, so thats what I've been using. I like the idea of beefier.

 

[dmac1]

Old post, but time for update.

....

Has anyone flown their drone with the new props without updating the prop's firmware? I am NOT enthused about updating my drone, but trip tomorrow, so prolly better do it.

I wonder what would happen if a drone were flown with a mixture of props. Kinda rhetorical unless some of you have done it?

Different, but related. I updated the app on my phone and thus updated S2 with the new 'prop firmware'. Dunno what all it did, but it wasn't small cuz it took a while.

I have started flying with a different phone and wondered if it would work post-update cuz the update was via my main phone. Quick test in the yard and it seems to fly fine. That was just me piloting via app. Real follow-me tests in a few days.

I dunno if I imagined it or not, but it seemed like S2 turned around and looked at me quicker than it used to. The colors are still oversaturated with HDR off, so the update didn't fix that (no surprise, didn't expect it to).

 

[kgilbertsen]

Different, but related. I updated the app on my phone and thus updated S2 with the new 'prop firmware'. Dunno what all it did, but it wasn't small cuz it took a while.

I have started flying with a different phone and wondered if it would work post-update cuz the update was via my main phone. Quick test in the yard and it seems to fly fine. That was just me piloting via app. Real follow-me tests in a few days.

I dunno if I imagined it or not, but it seemed like S2 turned around and looked at me quicker than it used to. The colors are still oversaturated with HDR off, so the update didn't fix that (no surprise, didn't expect it to).

Prop firmware?? Is this something that is related to the S2, the S2+, or both?
I don't remember seeing it talked about, and am wondering if I should be looking to update something or not.
I've got the original S2 with what I believe is the latest OTA firmware installed. Am I good to go?

 

[dmac1]

Prop firmware?? Is this something that is related to the S2, the S2+, or both?
I don't remember seeing it talked about, and am wondering if I should be looking to update something or not.
I've got the original S2 with what I believe is the latest OTA firmware installed. Am I good to go?

Yeah, a small document in with the replacement props they sent me towards the end of last year said to update prop firmware before flying the drone with them, and you update the firmware via updating the drone....which I didn't want to do.

But I did.

I am guessing the pitch of the props are slightly different and thus the rpms are different vs the OEM props, but again, thats just a guess.

If you are flying with the original props, or props you got that didn't say anything about updating the firmware, you should be good to go.

I dunno what would happen, if anything, if a person mixed old props with new.

And I don't know what props were on my replacement drone when I got it late last year, but I do know that 2 of them were kinda stiff and didn't easily move on their pivot points. Nothing with the replacement drone said anything about needing to update prop firmware, so I assume they'd sent me original style props with the drone, but some were defective, hence why they sent out new ones.

 

[kgilbertsen]

So, did you have a problem with your props at some point that led Skydio to replace them? Or something else? It almost sounds like it affected just you, or maybe a limited number of drones?

 

[RiverEagle]

I think they're new props for the Skydio. When I got my new 2+ there was a note in there to update the firmware before using due to the props. Interesting.

Ray

 

[dmac1]

So, did you have a problem with your props at some point that led Skydio to replace them? Or something else? It almost sounds like it affected just you, or maybe a limited number of drones?

It was anyone who got props from, what I'll call, a bad batch. They sent out an email to those of us affected...said dont fly your drone and they were sending replacement props. They fed ex'd em overnight.

Because I'd mixed my new ones in with old, I emailed them amd they sent me 2 new boxes or props. Those werent overnighted but arrived in just a few days.

Back then, it was cold out and other things were gping on so I just set everything aside until recently.

When I pulled out the drone last week, I couldnt remember if I'd replaced the props on it or not, but I remembered that when I did a few test flights last fall, that a couple of the props folded more stiffly that the originals. It was apparent when putting the drone in its case. I flew it again last week, still with the defective props. Then, a couple days ago, I found the boxes of new props.

Thats when I compared them and could tell that the new ones moved freely like my original ones, and thats when I came up with my theory that the defective ones were too stiff cuz fastened too tightly at the pivot point. I dont have anything from Skydio that says thats what the defect was, but I'm pretty sure thats it.

 

[kgilbertsen]

It was anyone who got props from, what I'll call, a bad batch. They sent out an email to those of us affected...said dont fly your drone and they were sending replacement props. They fed ex'd em overnight.

Because I'd mixed my new ones in with old, I emailed them amd they sent me 2 new boxes or props. Those werent overnighted but arrived in just a few days.

Back then, it was cold out and other things were gping on so I just set everything aside until recently.

When I pulled out the drone last week, I couldnt remember if I'd replaced the props on it or not, but I remembered that when I did a few test flights last fall, that a couple of the props folded more stiffly that the originals. It was apparent when putting the drone in its case. I flew it again last week, still with the defective props. Then, a couple days ago, I found the boxes of new props.

Thats when I compared them and could tell that the new ones moved freely like my original ones, and thats when I came up with my theory that the defective ones were too stiff cuz fastened too tightly at the pivot point. I dont have anything from Skydio that says thats what the defect was, but I'm pretty sure thats it.

OK. That makes sense. Glad you got things running smoothly now .

 

[Ridefreak]

If it was a bad batch of props there wouldn't have been a software change, they would have sent out new props and that would have been it. Something is different enough with these props that the software has to be updated. That sound's like a design change. My old props worked fine.