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DistributorPermalink Reply by Dany Thivierge on March 18, 2012 at 12:43pm

WOW!  

GREAT JOB GUYS! 

 

That is all I can say for now... this version is super stable, no drift, no strange things... (well maybe some... :) ) 

First impression are really great, this thing is rock solid, stable and all.  I did ran out of juice battery so I did not get to enjoy it as much as I would have like. Batteries are charging now and I will be out soon to play more. 

Yes I said play! it's no more difficult, not risky (at least for now, no bugs = good news) 

I really enjoyed it! 

In my small backyard, some side wind, not much, sunny and all! wow! 

Here is the "problem" after some flights the Quad developed the "Yo-Yo" effect... you can see that my throttle was somewhat stable but the Quad was going up and down... 

This is a brand new X1 frame that I've put together for the occasion so yes it was the maiden flight! 

here is my config, 

850Kv jDrones super sexy black motors

10X45 props

20A jDrones ESC

X1 frame (did I say fold able for storage? hehe) 

3300mah Nano-Tech Battery

Weight 1.170 kg 

Only changes to the PID were for the TRIM_THROTTLE to 475 as otherwise the default was making the quad fall down. (guys please make sure to increase this value as your Loiter will bring down the Quad!) 

Turnigy X9  radio (with some mods....) 

- No sonar... nothing else... almost "Straight out of the box" ! 

And this is the video: sorry for the poor quality and zoom... iPhone taped on the patio door! :)

Attache is the complete log of that session... if someone wants to have a look at my YO-YO effect... I did not ruled out yet the low voltage on battery... maybe it was just that... will post back when I fly with fresh batteries (yes more than half one this time!) 

I want to say thanks again to all involved, from devs to testers! This is a great milestone release, let's see where we go from here. 

Dany

www.CanadaDrones.com

Attachments:

• 2012-03-18 02-12 1.log, 211 KB

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Marco Robustini on March 18, 2012 at 12:47pm

Hi Dany! The "yo-yo" effect is not a issue, but a new function with "throttle hold"... now is dynamic!
The value changes automatically during flight, based on detecting errors by the barometer, temperature and altitude variations.
You can write whatever you want as the value, so then if you refresh you'll find it immediately changed... :P
IMPORTANT: the barometer must be completely covered by a small sponge soft enough, especially if your APM is not protected from air currents.

PS: I think I know this quad... :-)

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DistributorPermalink Reply by Dany Thivierge on March 18, 2012 at 1:07pm

Thanks Marco for the clarification... but how do I avoid the yo-yo?  my baro is covered... 

and No this is not the same as your X525... :) it's the X1!  hehe  I like that frame 

And yes the motor mount should be replaced by alu plates... This is just a first flight of a clean and fresh new build just for your 2.5.0 version!

Dany

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Marco Robustini on March 18, 2012 at 1:25pm

Well Dany, dunno why the "yo-yo" effect is very pronounced with your configuration.
This new feature that Jason has implemented should eliminate the wide variations that an incorrect setting of throttle_hold could generate, unfortunately APM1 is obviously much more critical with the poor barometer, this problem is not so tangible APM2 and the new pressure sensor.
The system can be improved by trying to play with this parameters:

THR_ALT_I,0.015
THR_ALT_P,0.2
THR_RATE_D,0.02
THR_RATE_I,0

X1 and X525 are very similar... :-)

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DistributorPermalink Reply by Dany Thivierge on March 18, 2012 at 3:19pm

Ok so this is the second flight, battery full, did not change any tuning from flight number 1.

Yo-Yo or Throttle hold... is there, you can see that I was keeping the Throttle quite stable but the Barometer altitude was moving a lot... I have a foam piece on the Baro and yes it is APM1... 

It is not a big issue, just need to correct (small) the throttle in Stabilize mode. I will install a Sonar and try again later (it rains now!)  :(  

This time I tried the Loiter, at first it stayed quite there, but then I gave it a left/right command to see how it would react and the copter entered in a pendulum effect....  It was getting  bigger and I took back control. 

I still think it`s a solid release and I like it, now I think it`s all about tuning it correctly for my frame. 

Marco, as we have the same frame, could you post your PIDs?

Thanks. 

Log and TLog included if it can help debugging! 

Attachments:

• 2012-03-18 06-02-03.tlog, 21 KB
• 2012-03-18 06-02 3.log, 328 KB

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Permalink Reply by Anis Nielsen on March 18, 2012 at 5:26pm

Rain came just after your tests ?

well rain incoming = athmospheric pressure changing = baro reading well and  transcripting well the progressive  athmosperic incoming changes .. everything is maybe normal?

Around where i live, it happens alltime.. you can feel it in your bones :)

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Permalink Reply by Ondřej Bylok on March 19, 2012 at 1:25am

Hi, I also have APM1.
I had the same problem with the altimeter jumping, but after installing the sonar is on the ground and low to the ground hard as a rock.

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on March 19, 2012 at 8:24am

Dany,

     The baro and sonar should not affect the throttle when you're in stabilize mode.  It's pretty much just straight from your radio to the motors...so I'm at a bit of a loss as to what could cause the bobbing.

     The only bit of code we changed that I can think of is that we removed some motor filtering to slow down the speed up of motors.  If you're familiar with the code you can see the filtering in the 2.4.1 code around line 102 (look for comment "this filter slows the acceleration of motors vs the deceleration ")

   ..while in the 2.5 code where you can see it's missing.  Jason tested and didn't notice any real difference with performance.

     not sure quite what to do with this..so I think i'll just tuck it away as something to investigate at some point.  We probably need some more definitive testing to tell us which way to go and whether that filitering really did anything.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Schermer on March 18, 2012 at 2:13pm

I tried 2.5 today outdoor. Config Hexa X, Turnigy SK3 2826 1120kV motors, 8" props, 1.5kg AUW

(megapirate 2.5r2, flyduino mega, not original APM)

It took a lot of tuning and again different PIDs from 2.4.2 for some reason and I could not achieve "ninja" settings, quite the opposite in fact. I had to tune my Rate P's down to 0.30 or it would wobble (after a while). Rate I has to be zero or it would sometimes go crazy and stop responding (while it fights itself/myself/whatever goes in its head, looks like it's drunk). With Rate D > 0.002 it was twitching, with lower value it was not snapping to place but was very slow to level after a correction...

The strange thing is, it behaved well one moment and went mad when disturbed by wind  (not much!) - at one moment it even tilted itself almost 90 degrees, wobbled (ping pong), then levelled and all was well again. It did this many times, mostly during descent.

Another issue is yaw - yaw left was fine, yaw right was not good at all - I had to tune both Rate Yaw and Stab Yaw way up to achieve a good response to the right - sometimes I had to hold it in there for good 10 seconds before it started rotating. Also when maneuvering (or correcting) it yawed by itself - left.

It is not a hardware problem, but still the same issue that's been present for a while now, and I know I'm not alone - something's not right there for some of us. 

Also tried Loiter for a while - looked good, then flew away fast and couldn't be stopped by stick input - I had to put it back to Stabilise and fly back.

For me, 2.4.2 was way better. YMMV.

Edit: no logs, worthless, I know...

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Permalink Reply by Todd Hill on March 18, 2012 at 6:23pm

Jan,  I'm having the same issues with my Y6 that you are having with your hexa.  I made a short video link earlier in the discussion.  Is yours doing what mine is in the video? 

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Permalink Reply by Jan Schermer on March 18, 2012 at 11:38pm

yes, and it's been doing this since 2.2(?) (I've been doing most flying with 2.0 and that worked well, since then it's been hit&miss). You are one of the people I refer to as having the problem too. I also speculated that quad people may not have the issue and most people here fly quads.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Fernie on March 18, 2012 at 3:04pm

Had six flights with 2.5 from git on a standard 3DR with 850kV motors and APM1. Stabilize mode was fine without any work. Loiter was a bit harder. At the start it would move move in ever larger circles around the initial point, increasing the pitch and roll angles towards the center as the circles got bigger. I then started bringing down the loiter gains and it calmed down - I can`t say it was great, but it did hang around the initial point.  Probably can't do any more until next weekend, and want to read up on the relationship between the basic Loiter gains and the LOITER_LAT/ LOITER_LON gains before any more tuning.

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