Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Isaac on July 24, 2012 at 1:41pm

Reason your throttle is not working is because your plane must be moving, throttle will not arm in auto mode when standing still. Hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Adrian Thomas on July 24, 2012 at 2:03pm

You need to go fly mate, the frustration just builds up otherwise, until something flies ok. Having also just gone through gps-lock failures (Xbee too close to the gps, everything too cramped in the easyglider cockpit), I understand how you feel....

Fortunately, this one is easy: its an RTFM problem - as Isaac says the motor only works in manual or stabilise until the plane is in motion. Its in the Wiki. The idea seems to be for safety reasons - so that the motor doesn't fire up if you switch into one of the autopiloted modes while the plane is on the bench.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Mike Black on July 24, 2012 at 2:21pm

HI guys,

Thank you sincerely, i will check this tomorrow.

I have to admit, you have me there, as part of the original AP dev team, i know the operational behaviours biblically of the MK1 AP, and as you say I need to RTFM on this one, more than i clearly have.

now that you mention this, i would swear that, i could get it to power up as per MK1, but...maybe flying the MK1 so much the last few weeks, has clouded my memory.

The safety feature makes perfect sence, and we do fly some BIG UAV's with the MK1 on board to ultra carefull in teh setupstages...

Adrian, you are right, i need to go fly...lol.....as mentioned, spent the last 2 weeks trying to evaluate and test all GPS configs.

I dont know if it helps anyone, but my results are here :-

Ublox -MTK PATCH V Helix

(Page 6 and on for all the results, also suffered the same probs with Xbees, but my solutions are there)

Again, many thanks to both of your, i honestly thought i was losing the plot..(too much testing and not enough flying and AP MK1 is engrained in my skull, still learning the APM2)

Will report back tomorrow with results.

Kind regards,

Mike.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Fletcher on July 24, 2012 at 2:31pm

Dr. Mike,  This is from the Attitude.pde file line 336.

 

// We want to supress the throttle if we think we are on the ground and in an autopilot controlled throttle mode.

/* Disable throttle if following conditions are met:

1 - We are in Circle mode (which we use for short term failsafe), or in FBW-B or higher

AND

2 - Our reported altitude is within 10 meters of the home altitude.

3 - Our reported speed is under 5 meters per second.

4 - We are not performing a takeoff in Auto mode

OR

5 - Home location is not set

*/

if (

(control_mode == CIRCLE || control_mode >= FLY_BY_WIRE_B) &&

(abs(home.alt - current_loc.alt) /span> 1000) &&

((airspeed.use()? airspeed.get_airspeed_cm() : g_gps->ground_speed) /span> 500 ) &&

!(control_mode==AUTO && takeoff_complete == false)

) {

g.channel_throttle.servo_out = 0;

g.channel_throttle.calc_pwm();

}  Take off in manual and go fly!

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Permalink Reply by Dr Mike Black on July 24, 2012 at 2:40pm

HI Greg,

Long time no speak old friend!

Thanks, yup, got it now.....

(i have to admit, i have not gotten down and dirty with the code direclty yet, only playing with the planner, which is a little weird given that we had lots of fun creating code in PDE's on the earlier version)

I will read directly through the code, as i am not familiar yet.

They reckon lazy people create the most work, i hadnt loaded via the IDE, no such thing as a free lunch!..lol

Anyway I will tomorrow go fly, and see if i actually have solved the GPS issues.

Thanks again, was starting to lose the faith!

Kind regards,

Mike.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Mike Black on July 29, 2012 at 12:54am

HI guys,

Ok, my head is hung in shame i am figuratively standing in the corner face to the wall.

I have now RTFM'd and got into the code deeper.....

took the old girl up for a flight as suggested...and as you say, works a treat...

Got some alt control issues in navigation and not entirely sure which way to go with this yet...

But, it flew, it did navigate well, came home and loitered around home for a good 3 mins, whilst playing with settings with no issues..In fact the lioter radius was a nice predictable circle....

So, thank you all again, Faith restored!

Kind regards,

mike.

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