Need help controlling Blade Nano with Devo 10

I am having trouble getting a stable hover from my Blade Nano. It starts to drift in random directions right after it lifts to about a foot off the ground. I am using a Devo 10 with Deviation firmware installed and have tried several different INI files I found on the Deviation site, but it behaves basically the same way with all of them. It does seem to respond to all the trim switches but I do not have time to adjust them before the drift causes it to collide with a wall or other object in my living room. I am performing the Nano gyro calibration per the instructions and also calibrated the Devo 10 sticks so that should not be causing the problem. I am also insuring the quad is not in agility mode by making sure I have a steady blue canopy light before taking off. Was wondering if anyone can suggestion an ini file or TX tweak that might make this model easier to control.

The answer you received on rcgroups.com is working here as well, it's the prop wash, that close to the ground.

Sero wrote: The answer you received on rcgroups.com is working here as well, it's the prop wash, that close to the ground.

I understand the prop wash thing but that does not explain why I can't do the hacky sack toss off the foot into the air and go into an instant hover thing like they do in the Blade/Horizon demo video. When I attempt this it flies off wildly into a random direction. There is no prop wash issue at play when doing this. The only difference is that he is using the TX that comes with the RTF version but I can't see why this should matter since he infers that he is doing this trick by only calibrating the gyro and binding without touching the TX sticks. At this point I am really leaning toward a defective unit and will most likely return it to Amazon for a refund.

The defective unit is a good bet. HH has good support, but they'll be a lot happier if you call them after testing it with a supported Tx. If you bought it at an LHS, take it back there and ask them to check it with a Spektrum Tx (they should have one). Failing that, see if a friend has one you can use - and an LHS where you're a regular customer qualifies as a "friend" for this. As a last resort, you can buy an LP5DSM tx for about $20 on ebay. If you're going to buy more blade or e-flite aircraft, it may be worth having it around just to test them with.

AL55 wrote: I understand the prop wash thing but that does not explain why I can't do the hacky sack toss off the foot into the air and go into an instant hover thing like they do in the Blade/Horizon demo video.

And you really think, that they only had to try once, for that video?

Sero wrote:

AL55 wrote: I understand the prop wash thing but that does not explain why I can't do the hacky sack toss off the foot into the air and go into an instant hover thing like they do in the Blade/Horizon demo video.

And you really think, that they only had to try once, for that video?

Have you actually watched this video? If it does require a lot of practice to accomplish this or any of the other tricks shown they sure don't make that clear. They just keep touting the innovative SAFE technology they have developed and so long as you have it in stability mode even beginners can perform these tricks right out of the box. Maybe it's just assumed, but they don't even mention that some trimming will most likely be required to achieve this kind of stability. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe there is any deliberate deception taking place in the video. If you have a properly functioning Nano and it is is setup properly I believe these tricks are very possible, even for a beginner. This being said Blade should probably take more care in explaining the importance of of calibrating and trimming the unit before attempting the tricks displayed. In my case I don't believe I am doing anything wrong it's just that I got a defective one.

How many RC models do you have, apart from the Nano QX?
Just the U817A?

AL55 wrote: Have you actually watched this video? If it does require a lot of practice to accomplish this or any of the other tricks shown they sure don't make that clear. They just keep touting the innovative SAFE technology they have developed and so long as you have it in stability mode even beginners can perform these tricks right out of the box.

Their goal is to get you to buy the thing. So they're going to try and make it look as easy as possible. They do the same thing with all their SAFE aircraft, except the 350QX (because they're trying to sell easy smooth, stable flight with it). As far as I can tell, no company puts out a video showing how hard their aircraft are to fly, and how often you crash while learning, though they may warn you that they aren't for beginners. Which is why I watch Flyin' Ryan on youtube .

I've done the the "flip it into flight" trick with the Nano QX. It took many tries, and more than one battery - and my first quad was also Blades first quad, the mQX, preordered when they announced it, after a couple of years of flying helis.

That said, my NanoQX is the second most stable aircraft in my fleet, behind only the 350QX which has GPS and altitude sensors to keep it in position. It's been that way on four different Tx's (a DX5e, a Devo 7E, 10 and 6S). If they can't help you get yours to a stable hover - which means using a supported Tx - I'd be surprised if HH doesn't replace it gratis.

In the videos, you can see them doing all sorts of things, like flying planes upside down VERY close to the ground, inverted with helicopters, landing and starting on water, speedy passes again close to the ground. NONE of that is for beginners, and need lots of practice to do so.
Those RC models are NOT toys, as you seems to think, and HH says so clearly in all manuals.

I had a similar encounter a while ago:
I fly a lot in a recreational area in Zürich (Allmend, for locals ), and a guy has seen me flying one of my planes, the E-Flite UMX Habu.
He approached me, said, that he likes the plane, and asked me, where to get it.
I told him where, and even warned him, that it is not a beginners plane.
Two weeks later, he showed up again, giving me a hard time for recommending (???) that plane, because he had turned it into foam confetti on the first flight.
He even claimed, that I made it look too easy, so he thought, that he can handle it easily as well.

So, just because people with better or more honed skills make it look easy, it might not be.

AL55 wrote: I am having trouble getting a stable hover from my Blade Nano. It starts to drift in random directions right after it lifts to about a foot off the ground. I am using a Devo 10 with Deviation firmware installed and have tried several different INI files I found on the Deviation site, but it behaves basically the same way with all of them. It does seem to respond to all the trim switches but I do not have time to adjust them before the drift causes it to collide with a wall or other object in my living room. I am performing the Nano gyro calibration per the instructions and also calibrated the Devo 10 sticks so that should not be causing the problem. I am also insuring the quad is not in agility mode by making sure I have a steady blue canopy light before taking off. Was wondering if anyone can suggestion an ini file or TX tweak that might make this model easier to control.

may i try to help?

you have read all the above
you know don't trust the salesmen

so lets start from there

in adequate space and still air
preferably inside

let it rise to about 5ft
well above prop wash

do you have a stable hover?
with no control input

if yes
practice, practice, practice

if no
is it mechanically intact?

no bad motors, props
bent shafts
etc

check, [careful of fingers]
by holding at each corner
and slowly throttling up to hover speeds

is the pull equal at all four points
or does one motor sag

indicating bad motor
further, it should drift in that direction [bad motor]


if mechanically sound

attempt to trim
for level hover with trim tabs

be aware
if it takes more than three clicks to trim it in any axis
time to recalibrate
or possibly bad fcb

hope that helps
if not
please disregard

First off I really appreciate the comments and advice from all who have replied to my OP. As far as the Blade demo video goes, I fully understand their main goal is to sell their product by making it look easy to fly right out of the box but it seems a wiser approach would be a two part video. The first showing how to setup up the quad including things like how to charge the battery and perform calibration. Then show how to achieve a simple stable hover from a flat surface by using trim adjustments etc. A part 2 video would then get into the trick things that can be done after you mastered the basics. Just my opinion, but the surest way to discourage a person, especially someone new to the hobby, from not purchasing any of your products again is to mislead them about how easy your product is to fly and perform tricks without any experience or practice, which is what I believe the Blade video basically does.

Being a newbie, maybe I just don't get it but if one has a properly functioning unit and the gyro circuitry is calibrated properly shouldn't you be able to achieve a stable hover after a reasonable amount of practice with trimming and throttle control. I consider myself a patient person but after running through 2 sets of TX batteries and countless recharges of the Nano's battery I have come to the conclusion that mine is defective and no amount of practice is going to make it fly properly. I have already returned it, and thanks to Amazon's generous return policy, I didn't even have to pay return shipping charges to get a full refund.

At this point I really need some advice from you seasoned R/C veterans. Should I try another Nano QX or maybe go for something a little larger, since if I understand correctly they tend to more stable and easier to fly. Either way I am giving it one more shot and if I still can't master it I will concede that R/C flying is just not for me and the fault most likely is mine and not the product. BTW if this turns out to be the case, is anyone interested in a slightly used Devo 10.

You want a "howto" video, not a sales video. While HH does do those, and I recall seeing an unboxing/setup video for the Nano QX RTF, there pretty much isn't any. There's no setup on the Nano itself, and the RTF Tx has no settings. You take it out, charge & install the batteries, and fly it.

The only critical issue is that it calibrates things as it powers on and connects, so you need to put it on a level surface after you power it on, and leave it there until everything is connected and working. I had problems with mine drifting backwards until I put a shim under one corner of my desk. If you did that with yours and it didn't go into a reasonably stable hover with your hands not touching the controls and neutral trim, the unit was probably defective. A "stable hover" in this case may mean slow drifting to one side or another if you have AC or it wasn't perfectly level when it inited, but you should have plenty of time to compensate, even in a small room.

For deviation, you also have to calibrate the Tx before using it with anything. If you don't do that, the NanoQX won't go into a stable hover, more advanced quads won't init properly, and you'll continue to have problems with lots of things.

Hmm. A thought occurs to me. The status LED was blue, not red, right? Red mode turns off the auto-leveling and flight limits. This mode lets you do aerobatics, and can be a handful just to hover.

In answer to your question, the Nano QX comes highly recommended as a first time quad. It's missing some features, and is a bit pricey compared to other options, but it is quite simply the best indoor flyer available. The "larger is more stable" is dealing with wind, as the square-cube law plays in your favor. Indoors with nothing but AC or a ceiling fan, anything large enough to be more stable is going to be too large to fly reasonably indoors at low skill levels. Even then, going to a larger unit outdoors won't be more stable than the NanoQX indoors until you get to something with sensors to compensate for wind. That means you're looking at several hundred dollars, a lot more things to run into, and the risk of a flyaway.

i agree with everything said

let me qualify
i have flown a few

if you are having trouble with the blade nano

imo
step down a step

a good coaxial heli [4 channel]
seems a good bit easier to me

and flyable in small spaces

i still have fun with them
and great for getting nose in orientation down

an inexpensive simulator can be a great help too


but in reality this takes great patience
and confidence
in the face of early frustration

and help and support
get an experienced person to trim it for level flight



to expect a newbie to do this
by himself?

lets just say, if it is out of trim,
that would be difficult

get help



this really is not a toy as everybody thinks
but takes some real skill

and please
make sure that blue light is on

if red don't fly
but find out why

When I got my Nano QX I was extremely disappointed with their so-called "SAFE" technology. I expected it to hover hands free on it's own, like magic. But the fact is the Nano QX is horrible at hovering, that's not really what it was built for. It was made to move. It was built to be extremely light so it flies unlike any other micro sized quad. The trade off for that weight and those flight characteristics is that it takes constant work to hold it in a hover, more-so then a Hubsan X4, a Syma X11, or a JJRC-1000 (which I highly recommend you get, it's only $13 BNF and I like it better then my Nano QX). I don't recommend the QX as a first quad.

If you want something that can hover almost hands free then you've gotten the wrong quad. The QX is feisty!

+tryptych, sounds like you are flying it in agility mode. That is indeed a handful. But in stability mode, it's as tame as you could ask for. In my mind, that's what makes it a great beginners quad - it can go from a a near-perfect hover that's great for the first time flyer - much easier to deal with than a v911, for instance - to doing aerobatics at the press of a button.