Issue with New Gremlin

[JordanEvans]

So I have built up my new gremlin and it was flying fine for a couple weeks. Then I crashed really hard strait into a wall. Now the drone starts drifting really badly and I am not sure what to do. I have it soft mounted, tried recalibrating the acc. What else is there to do. It takes off fine, but as soon as you start flying the drift gets REALLY bad. It is like I am do full stick backwards. I have to use 3/4 stick forwards in order to keep it from flying back at me. Please Help. Thank you very much for your time and effort.

 

[PenguinWings]

Good idea to re-calibrate the accelerometer! Does it drift in Acro mode too? If so, then it I don't think it could be the FC.

I'm thinking it might be a motor problem. If it's pulling backwards, maybe something is slowing down the rear motors so they don't give as much thrust. Are any of the rear motors or ESCs warmer than the others after a flight? Do any of the motors bind when you try to turn them by hand?

 

[JordanEvans]

I have tried in acro and it flies at it should. I have also felt the motors and rec and they are not warm. The motors also do not bind when spun by hand. Could the :fc be bad? Just from a few crashes already? Thank you for your time. Much appreciated.

 

[JordanEvans]

It also flies normal for a few seconds and then the drift comes on. If I disarm and rearm the drift goes away for a few seconds again. If I try to fly with it, it gets to thw point where I can't correct for it any more even with full stick.

 

[PenguinWings]

Rats, I thought I found a question I knew the answer to! If you can't tell, I'm still pretty new to all this.

It's got to be either the FC hardware, or a setting that's funky. That's so weird that the problem increases as you fly! You could try re-flashing the board, but there's probably a simpler solution. When it comes to Betaflight, I know next to nothing...

Hopefully somebody with a little more experience will be able to help you out. Now I'm curious to see what the issue is!

 

[PsyBorg]

I would go into your radio and make sure your trims are all neutral in case you bumped them. then go into betaflight and recenter the sticks at 1500. then see what that gets you. If they are at 1500 watch the quad representation and see if it drifts or check the receiver tab and see if your gimbals are worn and the center number is all over the place. Then you can just set a dead band for them to mask that drift if necessary.

 

[ElectriSean]

If it flies fine in acro mode, and you haven't made any changes in Betaflight you can probably rule out any funky settings. Unfortunately the accelerometer was probably damaged in the crash.

 

[JordanEvans]

I found the issue. I reflashed and did everything mentioned above and nothing worked. I then stripped everything down and removed the zip ties. AND IT worked after that. I put everything back on except the zip ties and it flies fine. I tried to put new zip ties back on but the issue came back. I am going to leave those blasted zip ties off I guess. Why would this happen? Vibrations? Let me know thank You for your time and effort.

 

[PsyBorg]

If you had zip tied your FC down that would certainly made it go bonkers and do random things. All I have ever used to hold mine in was two layers of 3m double sided tape. hoilds it secure but allows a little vibration absorption to keep the gyros and accelerometers from getting goofy.

 

[JordanEvans]

I didn't use the zip ties to hold down the flight controller, I used it to hold down the esc,s and when I removed them the drone flew fine. sorry for the confusion.

 

[PsyBorg]

It is very possible then that you may have put a crack in one of the pcb's and broken a trace. When relaxed it makes good enough connection to work but when you tie it back down it opens the break and stops current flow. I would think about replacing that particular esc at this point to be safe.

 

[PenguinWings]

Oh good, it's fixed - wait WHAT!? That's so weird! Good idea, Psyborg. I wonder, since the ESC wires are so short and stiff, if zip-tying the ESCs is enough to transmit the vibrations to the FC. I think I'm going to try some electrical tape on my ESCs (for aesthetic reasons...), so I wonder if it will cause the same issue.

I'm glad you found the problem!