Drifting in Acro, Leveling mode doesn't level much, HELP

[ucscSeniorDesign]

I've been having some trouble lately trying to get my quad copter to hover in the air, we plan to fly it autonomously so it is important that it can fly up and hover over that same position without the small adjustments you would make by eye if flying manually.
I am using a MultiWii Crius AIO Pro board, on a X525 frame, 1800kv motors, 12A ESCs, 8x4 propellors, and 3000mA 3S battery. Also, Turnigy 9x transmitter. The motors and ESC's came from another kit, the x230 kit off hobbyking, and we are aware that the motors are a bit too fast(1800kv) for these props. Due to deadlines and cost, we really just have to work around that.

I've filmed what our motor outputs and sensor readings look like on the GUI while throttling up - http://youtu.be/fjbCM59Ghp8

Basically, while only in ACRO mode, the quad copter will drift in a direction right away, usually pitching forward. We have tried TX trims(both clicking buttons, and subtrims in TX menu), and that pretty much just changed which way the copter would drift in. It did not solve the issue. If the copter is being flown manually then its very easy to correct by looking at the copter and adjusting controls, but it requires constant correction and such detailed correction would not be possible with our autonomous control. In the video, I am showing this first, and then I disable the graph view of all sensor but gyro and do it again.

In HORIZON mode, the quadcopter drifts again, rather than actually staying level. I show this in the video at 1:02.
It's actually not very apparent in the video, but when flying in HORIZON mode, the copter drifts off and one direction and never corrects (usually rolling right).

In ANGLE mode, the copter shows the same kind of behavior, drifting and not correcting, the drifting direction is a little more random with ANGLE mode. This is shown in the video at 1:34

Also take note of the debug values on the bottom which are equal to the following
debug[0]=axisPID[rcCommand[THROTTLE]];
debug[1]=axisPID[ROLL];
debug[2]=axisPID[PITCH];
debug[3]=axisPID[YAW];

What are we doing wrong? Why don't either of the level modes level anything? We have tried
clearing EEPROM
recalibrating ESCS
switching out pretty much every piece of hardware (motors, ESC's, props, control board)
balancing propellors
balancing motors
TX trims
Accelerometer trims
Re-calibrating accelerometer and gyro with stick commands
Reducing vibrations with double-sided foam tape mounting control board on frame
Re-tightening the frame to make sure nothing is loose.

[Goetz]

you've hat a lot trouble and tried many things wich are more or less important but the main thing is: you have to know what you are doing.
1rst I think you are using MW 2.3 - at least you are using GUI for that version.
What did you activate in the Sketch before uploading? Did you select your Board?

2nd: I'm not shure you understand the way the MW-flightmodes work. Acro doesnt level anything, it just resists against changes of angle - any angle (not only horizontal)!

That is the first Step to test. after that, verifying gyros are working properly and doing the PID-Adjustment of roll, pitch and yaw (still acro = gyro only) you can do the next step an go to the acc-modes.

You have to see that you want to go a very long way to your aim of getting your autonomous Copter and that you will not get there at once.... ...there are many steps in between....

There are two ways to go:
1: sell everything you have emmediately and forget your aim or

2: get involved and infected, learn a lot, get often frustrated but get the satisfaction "You did it - with Multiwii" when you managed one more Step

you really should go small steps.... .....manage to
- clear the Eprom (you already know how to do that, congrats)
- make your modifikations in the sketch
- make the gyros work and learn to do good PID-Tuning with them and learn to fly gyro only......

[waltr]

Yes, you have lots to learn before you attempt autonomous flight.
There could be motor/prop/weight/Battery Voltage combination that is not as easy to get as stable as you need. So after you learn how to trim in ACRO and ANGLE modes and tune the PIDs you will need to experiment with props, etc to find the most stable combination.

As for learning how to setup for MW study this tutorial:
http://witespyquad.gostorego.com/videos.html

[subaru4wd]

Forget about Deadlines.

Forget about Cost.

Forget about MultiWii for full Autonomous flight.

[Andy7]

To throw my hat into the ring, make sure you've carefully and properly calibrated the ESCs.
This will my my mantra for some time as it totally fixed my horrible drift problem.

And to echo everyone else, you need to live and breathe this. It took me 18 months to get my quad right (okay the wife only let me play with it once on a blue moon) but having taken so long to get it right I've learned soooo much more than if I'd taken an RTF off the shelf and flew that.