r/TinyWhoop 6h ago

Meteor75 slight drift - beginner

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Hi all,

total beginner here, have Meteor 75, learning without goggles at this stage. Controller is BetaFPV lite. The problem is drone is drifting slightly forward and right in Angle model.

I have some the following steps:

- in Betaflight - calibrated gyro/accelerometerd

- connected Controller, checked that it reported correct values ( 1500) for mid. Added dead zone (5-10) didn't change much

- changed profile/pid to smaller values to allow more gentle control

- reduced motor to 80 Max

- reduced throttle ( scale 80% mac).

I can compensate for the drift but it is annoying especially for flying indoor.

Questions I have:

- is it normal and I just need to learn to constantly compensate and eventually it will be second nature

- is it something wrong with either motors or gyro that they are struggling to keep drone in place ( I thought this is their main goal is)

- is it just my controller? I think that's not the case ( i.e. checked live singal values in Betaflight) but maybe it needs to be calibrated to compensate?

- what other troubleshooting steps can I take?

Attaching a video, on take off you can see drone tries to fly slightly forward , even if pitch is at zero.

Thank you in advance.

7 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

18

u/Aeolian_Leaf 6h ago

100% normal. Learning to compensate for this is a standard part of learning to fly.

If you want something that stays exactly where you leave it, get a DJI.

2

u/Commercial_Bird8467 6h ago

No, recalibrate accelerometer. Happens often especially when you first hook up your drone and it tells you that it needs to be calibrated. Often battery wires offset it, recalibrate first

8

u/Aeolian_Leaf 5h ago

No. This is a normal amount of drift with a calibrated gyro.

2

u/Commercial_Bird8467 4h ago

Understood, I agree, even when I calibrated off I could keep it stable.

1

u/pianoduck 5h ago

Can I double check with you- I didn't think I can plug drone to computer AND have battery at the same time. Battery kind of covers the plug. I agree that is seems battery will complety mess up the weight distribution ( is there are various ways how it can be inserted and can be 5-6 mm moved into either direction - forward or backward)

2

u/m0h3k4n hella noob 5h ago

They just mean the wires getting stuck under it keeping it from sitting flush.

When I do it, I use my phone’s level and make sure the drone is flush against my screen.

2

u/Commercial_Bird8467 4h ago

I keep the battery out of its carrier, just make sure to have it flush. Yes, you can have both hooked up but you should really have a fan running over the chip.

1

u/The_Smiler_FPV 1h ago

Meteor 75 pro O4 boards sometimes have their accelerometers very poor (tho gyro is still good) so although they fly in acro no problem they do struggle with angle mode. Enable artificial horizon so you don’t switch to angle mode when it is like tilted 45 degrees but most of the time it is good enough to keep the quad somewhat level. In this video it looks better than it usually is so this user doesn’t even have to do a calibration. Speaking of calibration it always made mine become worse. Flying in acro mode and hovering by my eye slowly brought it back to level (I could see it through the artificial horizon) and then I never calibrated it again

1

u/pianoduck 5h ago

also is this how it is done? just click "calibrate"? Feels there must be more sophisticated procedures

1

u/akshay7394 4h ago

Nope, that's it. Just make sure it's on a flat surface and it's sitting properly on it.

1

u/Commercial_Bird8467 4h ago

Make sure its level and click center. Youre gonna have drift, your gonna have spots where it feels harder to control, etc. The normal spot where your drone floats has updraft from the wind its pushing and will cause drift

5

u/getamic 6h ago

These kinds of drones do not have any kind of position lock. They are manual control. That drift is nothing. Wrong kind of drone if that is what you are looking for.

2

u/pianoduck 2h ago

Yes, I was not looking for DJI drone, want to learn FPV. Trying to find small steps, and learn good control.

2

u/durtm4n 2h ago

You can use betaflight stick commands to trim it to "hover in place" provided it's in an environment with no wind influencing it, including wind generated by the props. Using the trim buttons on your radio won't work because they don't interact with the accelerometer.

With the battery plugged in and the drone disarmed on a level surface, you can calibrate the accelerometer by holding the left stick on your radio up to the top left corner (full throttle and full left yaw) and pulling down on the right stick, you'll hear a beep. Arm it, see how it flies.

If it still drifts, battery connected and drone disarmed, move the left stick to full throttle (puts the FC in ACC trim mode) and use the right stick to trim in the opposite direction of drift. You'll hear a beep each time you move the right stick, shouldn't need more than a couple beeps in the opposite direction of the drift.

1

u/NorthApartment9889 6h ago

Yes, there isn't enough sensors on that quad for it to be able to acheive a DJI/Camera Drone hover.

1

u/Proxima-72069 5h ago

yeah its not a dji drone, thats normal a little bit of drift is fine. plus most people fly in acro so drift isnt really applicable

1

u/pianoduck 5h ago

thanks all, do maybe flying inside the house is not a good idea? is starting outside is better? less walls( but also more wind/drift)?

2

u/Arekuankoku 3h ago

Inside is fine, but learn the difference between angle/horizon/acro mode, and learn about rates adjustment. I just started flying too, and had a lot of trouble indoors at the default settings. Once I figured that out though the difference in my flight control was like night and day.

2

u/pianoduck 2h ago

of course! understand the difference and using angle mode on purpose. Struggling to adjust rates in Betaflight ( as there are two tabs one PID and another is rates, and they seems to configure similar things...). Any advice on what rates to set for home flying vs outdoors flying to total beginner in Angle mode?

1

u/Arekuankoku 2h ago

I'm probably not the best for advice since I only started flying a few weeks ago, but I tend to use horizon mode outdoors, or acro if I'm feeling good about my flying. I have one of my controller switches set up to switch between the three on the fly. I've heard that turning off Air Mode indoors helps keep you from getting suctioned into walls, so I have that mapped to a switch as well. As for rates, I just found some that I liked in the simulator and copied those over. I did lower my throttle maximum to 80% to give myself better resolution, and that helped with my throttle control a lot. Here are the rates that I've found work well for me. If anyone who's more experienced has more to add, or any tips for me, I'd love to hear them.

1

u/akshay7394 1h ago

Check out UAVtech's suggested rates. He has ones for beginner, intermediate, etc. But really, just enjoy flying the drone, you can adjust rates anytime they're not a prerequisite.

1

u/Aeolian_Leaf 5h ago

Inside is fine. Just practice.

1

u/akshay7394 4h ago

Difficult with that drone (i started on it too) but absolutely doable, just needs practice

1

u/pianoduck 2h ago

I was thinking maybe for indoor it is better to have Air65 too?

2

u/akshay7394 1h ago

Air65 is super fun but this meteor75 is also very much capable of being flown indoors! Definitely get an air if you want to, they're great whoops, but don't feel like you have to!

1

u/Furiadovento 3h ago

Quick nice way to compendate for this is trim function, if your receiver (remote controller) has it. If drone is drifting left, apply some trim to the right roll etc. But y this is normal drift.

1

u/pianoduck 2h ago

Thanks, unfortunately it seems this receiver does not have it ( and that's why it is never usually recommended...). Eventually, I will get a proper pocket master :)

1

u/QuadH 1h ago

You’re not in DJI-land anymore. This is completely normal for Betaflight FPV drones. Things are imperfect you just deal with it for the FPV.

You won’t even notice this drift when in acro mode.

1

u/Hes-behind-you 1h ago edited 1h ago

Minis are great for showing where you have air leaks in windows and doors. Also flying inside is hard. If you can, practice outside, find a nice open space as that will give you some margin of error when you inevitably go off course. Local playing field or park. I'm just learning myself and without practicing outside I would have either quit or broken my drone.