New pilot, trouble launching

[Keener22]

Hello gang, I’m hopeful that you experts can help us out. I’ve watched a dozen videos but can’t find my particular issue. I’ve properly charged our equipment, the controller, the drone and phone all had full charge. I linked to the iPhone and to the sky controller and calibrated the controller and the drone before flight.

I’m zero for two on two tries to get the bebop off the ground. Each time i would push the liftoff button, the power seemingly goes to full speed and the drone tilts forward and digs into the ground. I will add a bit more color in a bit as I’m on the way to a meeting.
thanks for any advice you can lend.

 

[Ali Dunn]

I am no pro at all, but I bought a second hand bebop quite a while and noticed that the previous owner had not deleted his vid's off the bb2 , all of them describe what you are saying, and at that point i noticed the props where in the wrong place as they all have a rightfull place. please check you tube and other places for correct fitment.
As i said I am no pro but that was my experience .

Thanks
Al

 

[Keener22]

I have one prop in the front left that shouldn’t have the hole but I installed the prop with the hole. Could this be the problem?

 

[Ali Dunn]

ah yes there will be the problem then .
get e new set of props not very expensive and pop them on where they should go and you will be up in the air in no time.
From what a gather there is a little metal rod that sticks up on two of the motors so you cant put the non holed one's in the wrong place.
As i look at mine- if it's facing you front left should have the hole in the prop and rear right should have the hole in the prop.

Al

 

[Keener22]

Facing me the front right doesn’t have the post but we have installed the prop with a hole on that one. All the others are correct.

I lost my tool to change the props and Amazon is delivering it tomorrow so I’m hopeful this will get us in the sky immediately!!!

thanks for the help btw...

 

[Keener22]

Btw amazing flight today. Bebop 2 was perfect. Thanks for the help.

just thought I’d drop in a quick review and first impressions as we’ve flown for about 1.5 hours now. First, once we achieved proper liftoff and hover it was an exhilarating moment.

We flew in a very toned down mode first and gradually worked our way to sport. This little bird can move!!!!

i think we reached 300 feet altitude and got a little nervous when it got out of easy sight so the return to home feature was so comforting. Me and my boys have flown a lot of the sportier small drones and have a good sense of our abilities and this thing never tested us in a challenging way. It was totally intuitive and controllable.

we can’t be more thrilled with this purchase.

 

[Ali Dunn]

Really glad to hear that buddy, the bb2 was my first drone that cost more than £100 and it never fails me great little toy.
Would recommend these to any one.
And yes the return to home works every time for me and is a big weight off my mind once i have lost sight of it.

Al

 

[Keener22]

We sent the B2 out with 49% battery and took her out about half a mile and around 400 feet up. I watched the battery closely and hit return at 24% and on the return that battery was ticking down FAST. I disengaged the RTH and flew her as fast as possible to us but the battery continued to drain. She was still at 400 feet and right on our home spot with 9% left and as she descended, the battery didn’t tick down again and landed at 9%. The quick drain gave us a scare but.... lesson learned.

 

[Rocky the FS]

I have read here many instances of the batteries drain rate not being linear below about half charge, resulting in quite a number of crashes, as well as instances of crashes where the battery appeared to be at a safe level....20% one second and dead 5 seconds later. I don't think the battery icon is all that accurate for that reason.

I can understand that different flight environments will result in more or less battery drain performance, but not why a battery would quit at 20%. Actually your scenario sounds rather normal, certainly about the percentage not declining in the descent, as that is when the motors are working at a minimum level, almost idle.

Due to reading so many low battery scenarios here that resulted in damaging crashes, I will never initiate a flight below 99 to 100% battery level unless it is a short flight quite close by, say 100 meters, and then only over benign terrain. If I bring the drone back at say, 50%, I will swap batteries before the next flight. So far, this extremely conservative usage has proved to be 100% reliable over 8 months. I have had to buy three batteries to get 55 minutes of reliable flying time, though.

 

[Keener22]

I have 2 backups now so I'll always stop at 20%.

I had a strange occurrence yesterday as we flew the Bebop 2 and had it returned to me at about 15%. I flew it around the yard until I received the low battery warning at 8%. Fortunately the drone was at about 2 feet alt when we got this indication because it became uncontrollable. Even after getting it on the ground, it wouldn't shut off. Very strange.... Conclusion: have full batteries as much as possible.

 

[Ali Dunn]

Hi Keener
I take it you tried to land manually ie with the joysticks, please note you can not land manually - you need to be pressing the Takeoff/Land button on sky controller or phone.
Oh And I also have the same issue with batteries loosing their last 20% very quickly , its not so bad with brand new one but the percentage goes down quicker after 20%.

Thanks
Al

 

[Keener22]

No, I pressed the land button and it did touchdown but then was unresponsive after that.



One other Q.... when you push home from say 400 feet, is it supposed to stay at 400 and then drop down on it's "home" mark? That's what mine has been doing and I LOVE it.

 

[Ali Dunn]

Yeah depending on what height you are when you press RTH it will go up first before moving back to you , im not sure but I think you can pre set this height withing the setting ,
i'm guessing its another safty feature in case there are trees between you and it when the button is pressed.

 

[Rocky the FS]

If it is like the Anafi, when the RTH altitude that you set is below the actual altitude when RTH is pressed, the drone will stay at the actual altitude until overhead, as you described. If the RTH altitude setting is above the actual altitude, the drone will climb to the RTH altitude before returning.

And yes, this is a very important safety feature and it is extremely important to decide on a RTH altitude that is appropriate for the terrain and obstacles that will be encountered.