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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on January 20, 2012 at 6:35pm

Grips,

So that means that the APM wasn't able to successfully talk with the compass so the compass isn't working or the wiring/soldering is broken I'm afraid.

Probably best if you're more specific about "raw sensor data spikes"...there's a lot of sensors on the APM.  Logs and/or videos would be best.

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Permalink Reply by Grips on January 20, 2012 at 6:38pm

I'll try and grab a video capture of the raw sensor data output in the morning.  I'm really surprised the copter will not even take off. I'll look at the soldering tomorrow morning and perhaps re-solder it to the main board.

I am really hoping I can remedy the matter without having to purchase a new magnetometer (3wks shipping). Might be better off to upgrade to a new APM 2.0 when they become available next month.

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Permalink Reply by Grips on January 21, 2012 at 7:57pm

It certainly is a magnetometer issue. I could push ever so lightly on the APM and start to get values from the MAG  in the terminal screen. I tried de-soldering everything and then re-soldering it but I have not had any luck thus far. Is it possible that there is a break in the board somewhere, so that when I push (bend) the MAG a little bit, I am completing a broken connection?

I am not sure sure the roll over issue would be result of a mag not being present but I'll see when I get it working again.

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on January 21, 2012 at 8:16pm

@grips, not sure where you're pushing on the APM but because you're not pushing on the mag itself (right?) it's more likely that there's a broken solder joint probably on one of the header pins connecting the APM to the oilpan.  sorry there are a lot of pins...you could focus the check if you found out exactly which pins from APM to the oilpan are responsible for the i2c connection...or you could just check them all.

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Permalink Reply by Grips on January 22, 2012 at 5:59am

Randy: I have tried to re-solder the mag to the board and I am still having the intermittent issue.I am going to try and mount the MAG to the bottom of the shield and connect it via cable. I'll mount it the same way that it is mounted using the pins.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mulder on January 22, 2012 at 1:50pm

Hi Grips,

 

I was getting the exact same error (I think the error check / text was updated in 2.2 and an error was not as obvious before), I had checked the solder joints (twice) and then when I took an illuminated maginifier eyepiece and checked again an lo and behold there was a dry solder joint on the mag (the flux made it appear complete)

 

Also another thing to check is that the mag board is not at all being shorted out on the header pins of the APM, ensure you have a thin bit of insulation between the two... I used a small piece of insulation tape... a short could damage the mag and/or APM

 

It would be interesting to see what your altimeter is doing? - mine was acting up at the same time.... from what I understand, they share the I2C bus...once I resoldered my problems with both dissapeared

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Permalink Reply by Grips on January 22, 2012 at 2:07pm

I'm pretty sure, from unsoldering and soldering the mag multiple times now, I've got the pin holes pretty well ruined from too much heat..  uber miffed to say the least. :thumbsdown:I tried some electrical contact cleaner but it never helped.

I re-soldered it multiple times and I was still getting nowhere..  I was going to swap the pins but that never got me anywhere as I cannot  find the extra straight pins that I had from my last DIYDRONES order.When I tried to go the route of using the Mag via the cable, the solder would not stick to the holes.. argh!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mulder on January 22, 2012 at 2:24pm

Yep I guess resoldering them twice would have sorted any dry joints...

 

Pity, I have hunderds of pins here (London) could have popped some in the post for you :-)

 

What is the altimeter doing at the moment when you are in CLI mode?

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Permalink Reply by Lloyd Breckenridge on January 22, 2012 at 2:47pm

I have just had a very similar problem. When I first mounted the magnometer I forgot to check the 5v jumper. I desoldered it to check the jumper and it was fine of course. Anyways after my first RTL attempt failed miserably I checked everything again and compass was reporting not healthy. So I tried to remount it but one of the pads came away during the desoldering. Magnometer is now useless. Just ordered another one last night but with in excess of 40 dollats to ship to Australia it makes it a very expensive lesson. I really do not like the way it is mounted to the IMU.

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on January 23, 2012 at 5:13am

To reduce the danger you can always connect it via a cable.  That's what I do anyway.

 

I'm pretty sure the APM2 boards have the mag built-in so soldering isn't required.

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on January 23, 2012 at 5:40am

I did the exact same thing.  While trying to remove some wires I had soldered direct to the holes (and torn in a crash), one of the pads came off, rendering it useless. Had to buy another.

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