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Questions from a Novice

G-BNJO

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Hello, I am a complete drone novice and I have questions and issues relating to my new Parrot Mambo FPV. So far, I have only flown indoors with the easiest settings and in video mode.

1. Tried to update software from 3.0.25 to 3.0.26 via USB connection to my PC but the drone is not recognised as a 'drive' so cannot drag & drop downloaded file. Tried updating through FreeFlight Mini+ app. on my Android smartphone and this went along OK so far before appearing to stall at the 'resetting drone' stage.....taking so long to complete that the battery expired.
2. What is the exact sequence of actions required when preparing to fly........what to turn on at what stage? The effectiveness of connection appears to be inconsistent.......sometimes connection is very quick, sometimes it takes a lot longer with different screens appearing on my phone and sometimes it will not connect at all. So, I try again from the beginning. I have learnt to 'forget' my home wi-fi network and this has given more success but not every time.
3. Sometimes, the drone has excellent hands-off stability but at other times it drifts laterally, even though I have not changed settings or crashed it in between flights.
4. How should I use the Flat Trim function....is it a calibration requirement or a resetting function?

I have looked at numerous tutorial and other videos and also searched the internet for answers but the information seems very disjointed and sometimes contradictory. I guess what I would really like to find is a detailed user manual. Please can anyone point me in the right direction or help with some of my issues above?

Thank you very much for your help.

Regards,

Brian
 
Welcome and happy flying with Mambo!

1. Connected to a Windows PC with USB-A to Micro-USB cable Mambo should be mounted as external drive. You have to be fast with connecting after Power-On of Mambo, because it goes offline after a short period.
The only chance to update from 3.0.25 to 3.0.26 is with the USB method you already tried to use. This update doesn't work over FF Mini.

2. Normally turning on the drone, waiting for both eyes blinking slowly green, then starting FF Mini on your smartphone (WiFi and BT on), waiting until "FLY" becomes possible, then turn on the Flypad and wait for red dot in FF Mini and green power button of Flypad.
If you often loose Wifi connection, you should try:
- choose another Wifi channel than your home Wifi does
- deactivate automatic switching to use other Wifi Sources on your phone

3. Mostly the stability is good, I think. Lateral drift can appear under low light conditions indoors (vertical cam needs some light!) and if something moves under your drone. Example: if your dog is running below the drone while hoovering, Mambo seems to follow your dog a bit. Outdoors the wind makes the drone drift (it has no GPS).

4. Flat trim should be used before each flight. Mambo positioned on a horizontal ground.
 
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Welcome and happy flying with Mambo!

1. Connected to a Windows PC with USB-A to Micro-USB cable Mambo should be mounted as external drive. You have to be fast with connecting after Power-On of Mambo, because it goes offline after a short period.
The only chance to update from 3.0.25 to 3.0.26 is with the USB method you already tried to use. This update doesn't work over FF Mini.

2. Normally turning on the drone, waiting for both eyes blinking slowly green, then starting FF Mini on your smartphone (WiFi and BT on), waiting until "FLY" becomes possible, then turn on the Flypad and wait for red dot in FF Mini and green power button of Flypad.
If you often loose Wifi connection, you should try:
- choose another Wifi channel than your home Wifi does
- deactivate automatic switching to use other Wifi Sources on your phone

3. Mostly the stability is good, I think. Lateral drift can appear under low light conditions indoors (vertical cam needs some light!) and if something moves under your drone. Example: if your dog is running below the drone while hoovering, Mambo seems to follow your dog a bit. Outdoors the wind makes the drone drift (it has no GPS).

4. Flat trim should be used before each flight. Mambo positioned on a horizontal ground.

Thank you Dirk_ANAFI for your quick reply.

I have not been successful in connecting Mambo to my PC using USB cable. I have tried several times using different USB ports but it just will not show up as an additional drive. Do I need to install a driver first? When I Power-On the Mambo do I need to wait for LEDs to stabilise or should I connect immediately afterward switching power on.

Regarding the Flat Trim button, should I press and release or press and hold? One more question, please.......undr Piloting Settings on my smart phone I see Hull and the option to choose Yes or No.When I am connected to the Mambo and choose Yes, the display changes back to No and will not retain my chosen setting. But when I am not connected, I am able to select Yes. Please are you able to advise and what function exactly is the setting providing?

Once I have been able to update and when I better understand the use of Flat Trim, then I will attempt flying again, following your advice in response 2. above.

Thank you, again, for you help which is very much appreciated. I wonder if other users have experienced similar issues?

Best regards,

Brian
 
Hi,
I'm new to drones, had my mambo five about 3 weeks, must admit it was a bit confusing at first, getting my head around flying with Bluetooth or flying with wifi ( Not keen on the subject of IT !)
I don't use my PC with the mambo onlyApple kit.
Mambo switched on, then free flight mini to connect camera then on the app switch to controller and then was switch on the controller till everything is steady green.
I think then I'm using wifi for the camera and Bluetooth to fly!
Am fairly sure this is the way I do things, but apologies if it ain't correct,
* I think Dirks explanation was much better than mine !
 
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Hi,Flat Trim resets sensors and fixes your drift,place mambo on flat leveled surface(floor),hit Flat Trim once or twice,get out of settings and hit Take Off in phone or Flypad and enjoy....fly first without camera and glasses,just to get feel,not having camera attached will let you choose Hull On ,actually i adwice you to fly with hulls only for now.....Mambo is awesome little thing,i got 2,mambo fpv and mambo that came with cannon....I modified/removed cannon and attached 5ghz camera and i fly it almost every weekend ,outside around the house....love it....I prefer to fly my 5ghz camera more than mambo fpv camera ,its lot of fun,just take it easy ?
 

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Hi,
I'm new to drones, had my mambo five about 3 weeks, must admit it was a bit confusing at first, getting my head around flying with Bluetooth or flying with wifi ( Not keen on the subject of IT !)
I don't use my PC with the mambo onlyApple kit.
Mambo switched on, then free flight mini to connect camera then on the app switch to controller and then was switch on the controller till everything is steady green.
I think then I'm using wifi for the camera and Bluetooth to fly!
Am fairly sure this is the way I do things, but apologies if it ain't correct,
* I think Dirks explanation was much better than mine !

Thank you for your reply. The sequence of steps ties in with Dirk's explanation. Yes, I have also been very confused about what BT is looking after and what WiFi is doing. I wonder if anyone can actually confirm what you have deduced? Shame there appears to be no detailed manual available. Looks like there are various nuggets of advice scattered around if we search.

Thanks, again.

Regards,

Brian
 
Hi,Flat Trim resets sensors and fixes your drift,place mambo on flat leveled surface(floor),hit Flat Trim once or twice,get out of settings and hit Take Off in phone or Flypad and enjoy....fly first without camera and glasses,just to get feel,not having camera attached will let you choose Hull On ,actually i adwice you to fly with hulls only for now.....Mambo is awesome little thing,i got 2,mambo fpv and mambo that came with cannon....I modified/removed cannon and attached 5ghz camera and i fly it almost every weekend ,outside around the house....love it....I prefer to fly my 5ghz camera more than mambo fpv camera ,its lot of fun,just take it easy ?
 
Thank you, Skydreamer, for your advice. So, are you saying that the camera being attached is the reason I cannot select Hulls On. What does changing the Hulls setting actually allow or achieve, please?

So, for resetting using the Flat Trim 'button' once or twice, is that tapping, press and release or press and hold, please?

I still cannot connect to my Windows PC to allow flash update via USB. Mambo is just not being recognised. Any thoughts on this one?

And nice photos of your mods.

Thank you.

Regards,

Brian
 
Thank you, Skydreamer, for your advice. So, are you saying that the camera being attached is the reason I cannot select Hulls On. What does changing the Hulls setting actually allow or achieve, please?

So, for resetting using the Flat Trim 'button' once or twice, is that tapping, press and release or press and hold, please?

I still cannot connect to my Windows PC to allow flash update via USB. Mambo is just not being recognised. Any thoughts on this one?

And nice photos of your mods.

Thank you.

Regards,

Brian
You can tap on the Flat Trim button shortly once. The trim lasts only parts of a second.

Connecting to a Windows 10 PC should be possible without any additional driver.
- Perhaps try another Micro-USB to USB-A cable: some of them are only for charging and not for sync.
- Try to connect Mambo to your PC beeing switched off and then press the reset button to switch it on. Wait (Windows Explorer up and running!) until Mambo appears as external drive.
 
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You can tap on the Flat Trim button shortly once. The trim lasts only parts of a second.

Connecting to a Windows 10 PC should be possible without any additional driver.
- Perhaps try another Micro-USB to USB-A cable: some of them are only for charging and not for sync.
- Try to connect Mambo to your PC beeing switched off and then press the reset button to switch it on. Wait (Windows Explorer up and running!) until Mambo appears as external drive.

Thank you, Dirk.

That's now clear about just tapping the Flat Trim 'button'.

I did not understand that USB cables were not universal. I have been using the USB cable supplied with the Mambo, so maybe this is for charging only. I have also tried a second cable (which was supplied with an add-on 3-port charger) which probably has the same charge-only properties. So, I will buy and try a new cable which is OK for data transfer.

I will report back.

Best regards,

Brian
 
The USB cable that came with Mambo worked for me as well.
… just trying to find a solution for your issue …

Hello, Dirk

I have just been able to update by USB using a freshly bought cable which I made sure was OK for data transfer. So that is a success.
I have also carried out a flight with great natural stability now that I understand the need to tap Flat Trim before take off. I also changed the WiFi channel to one not being used by the router in my house or by neighbours. I had no loss of connection. I will have to fly some more to see if this has solved the connection problem consistently.

So, quite some progress. My thanks to you and others for their assistance. No doubt more questions will arise in due course.

Regards,

Brian
 
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Hello, Dirk

I have just been able to update by USB using a freshly bought cable which I made sure was OK for data transfer. So that is a success.
I have also carried out a flight with great natural stability now that I understand the need to tap Flat Trim before take off. I also changed the WiFi channel to one not being used by the router in my house or by neighbours. I had no loss of connection. I will have to fly some more to see if this has solved the connection problem consistently.

So, quite some progress. My thanks to you and others for their assistance. No doubt more questions will arise in due course.

Regards,

Brian

Brian,
Might seem a daft question, but how did you,
“Change the WiFi channel tonone not being used by the router in my house or by neighbours”
Ta
 
Brian,
Might seem a daft question, but how did you,
“Change the WiFi channel tonone not being used by the router in my house or by neighbours”
Ta

Good evening. Don't know you first name. Where are you exactly? I am down in Somerset.

I am on a Windows 10 PC and Googled the question....something like '...how do I find out what channel my home router is using?' I found a number of links to the subject and picked on one that guided me to use command prompt in the search bar to find a list of those signals being registered by my PC's wifi adapter. The list contained 14, yes 14! One of these was my home router. I could see that channels 1 and 11 were very popular. So, within FF Mini settings, while connected to Mambo with camera on board, I selected camera options and changed from default channel 1 to channel 6. The other thing I have learnt to do is 'forget' my home network within my (Android) smartphone settings......I saw this mentioned in a video somewhere and seems to be important when flying indoors. As Dirk suggested, I also have my phone set up not to automatically swith wifi networks as one drops out and another becomes available. All this lot seems to have prevented loss of connection between Mambo and smartphone, albeit for just one session. Time will tell if it works every time.

This is all very well fo flying indoors having checked neighbouring channels in use but what happens when we venture outside, away from home? Maybe some sort of scanner is needed? I wonder what the experts think about this?

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Brian
 
Good evening. Don't know you first name. Where are you exactly? I am down in Somerset.

I am on a Windows 10 PC and Googled the question....something like '...how do I find out what channel my home router is using?' I found a number of links to the subject and picked on one that guided me to use command prompt in the search bar to find a list of those signals being registered by my PC's wifi adapter. The list contained 14, yes 14! One of these was my home router. I could see that channels 1 and 11 were very popular. So, within FF Mini settings, while connected to Mambo with camera on board, I selected camera options and changed from default channel 1 to channel 6. The other thing I have learnt to do is 'forget' my home network within my (Android) smartphone settings......I saw this mentioned in a video somewhere and seems to be important when flying indoors. As Dirk suggested, I also have my phone set up not to automatically swith wifi networks as one drops out and another becomes available. All this lot seems to have prevented loss of connection between Mambo and smartphone, albeit for just one session. Time will tell if it works every time.

This is all very well fo flying indoors having checked neighbouring channels in use but what happens when we venture outside, away from home? Maybe some sort of scanner is needed? I wonder what the experts think about this?

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Brian

Thanks Brian,
I think locking the phone or device is the one I’m going for first....whatever signals are out there, hopefully the phone will ignore....( I think)
I’m up ( as the name suggests) up in North, Northumberland.
Steve
 
Hi,you can download free app called Wifi Analyzer for android,the app will show all channels so you can choose one thats not much in use...same app is also available for download from microsoft store....for ios you can use network analyzer app
 
Hi,you can download free app called Wifi Analyzer for android,the app will show all channels so you can choose one thats not much in use...same app is also available for download from microsoft store....for ios you can use network analyzer app

Thank you, Skydreamer. So would you say this is an essential thing to be doing? Would experienced pilots consider this standard procedure?

Regards,

Brian
 
Well i have it on allof my devices,if you want to have best possible signal/connection and reduce interferance ,best thing is to find and choose channel thats not in use,using wifi analyzer will give you that info instantly,all you have to do is to start app....it looks like this
 

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Well i have it on allof my devices,if you want to have best possible signal/connection and reduce interferance ,best thing is to find and choose channel thats not in use,using wifi analyzer will give you that info instantly,all you have to do is to start app....it looks like this
I also use Wifi Analyzer before flights in a new area: I hate to loose my drones!
 
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