DIYDrones Rants and Raves
Ok guys, with all the people waiting on APM2 and all the exciting new alpha and beta releases of APM firmware coming, I think many people are starting to chomp at their bits, a little.
To that end, I've opened up this discussion for all those with complaints. As I've joined the Dev Team, and not at a productive stage yet, I'll monitor this discussion, and relay things to the others on the Dev Team.
These could be both hardware or software, or just general rants and raves!
Hope everyone takes advantage of this! Maybe we'll all learn some things in the process.
Just wanted to add this response from Chris Anderson:
Please just contact sales@3drobotics.com and inquire about the status of your order. They are not necessarily shipped in order. For example, the unsoldered ones are shipped first, because they're faster to put together. Then soldered with GPS, then soldered without GPS (or maybe those two in reverse order, I can't remember). There are approximately 50 going out each day and the team tells me that the backlog should be over by Mon/Tues of next week.
I agree, please use this discussion for Rants and Raves. Order issues should be directed to 3DR directly. I think you will get better response there.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Greg Owen on -
So far, no functional problems found. All I have done though is connect and download firmware. I do believe the board is fully functional. The solder bridge between pins 7 and 8 of the IC marked 306C 0123 202 is the only potential issue that could cause functional problems
-
Permalink Reply by Ramesh Tahlan on -
all the best. but thanks for the input, had never ever thought of checking out an item the way u did.
-
Permalink Reply by Greg Owen on
-
The solder bridge appears to be a non-issue. After removing it, it appears a trace connects the 2 pins. I think all my issues are cleared up. I soldered 2 of the 6 pins holding the shield on, removed the solder balls with tweezers, the cut into the PCB is only cosmetic, and the solder bridge removed (non-issue). I am enjoying learning about this product. Now to determine if it goes in my Bixler or my Mini-Telemaster.
-
Permalink Reply by Greg Owen on
-
To make it clear, after further testing, I can find NO functional problems with my board. It works and I am happy with it. Thanks for a great product that will lead to lots of fun!
Greg
-
ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on -
I have gone back to using my KK board as I had very little success with the APM2.0 and my Tricopter.. I had high hopes but it has crashed once and I have just about saved it from crashing tens of times. Shame
-
Permalink Reply by Rick Stewart on -
I think the main difference between the KK and APM aside from the wealth of features the APM has is its not as plug and play as the KK which can lead to some frustration. What I mean by that is, when I got my KK board, I slapped it into a quad, and started flying. Other then reversing some issues it did what it does easy and right out of the box. The added complexity of the APM requires tuning for each copter you put it in. While this is understood it can lead to frustration. The APM also points out issues that the KK doesn't, i.e, airframe design. With my KK, I have a motor on a bent motor mount, easy fix, just trim it out, and you are flying in 2 seconds. On the APM this is impossible as the copter starts to yaw and do all sorts of funny things. Your copter has to either be very close to perfect (mine isn't) or you can wrestle with tuning the problems out. Truth be told, your airframe should be designed and built properly, with the KK you can get away with it not being so. The thing is if you are considering using an advanced autopilot, you should expect advanced issues. I am not saying the APM is problematic, its just that it requires more thought and patience then a KK. Now I'm sure there are tons of people out there who just threw it into their copter and voila it worked, but I also think there are others who's experiences weren't so simple. I have 2 more APMs to install into other copters so we shall see how that goes. Cheers,
Rick
-
DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on -
Yes, but the basic functionality of APM *should* be as easy as KK. You should be able to plug one in and "just fly" as easily as KK board. It seems that is not the case, and we need to work on that.
Does the KK board self-level, or is it just a bunch of gyros?
-
Permalink Reply by Ellison Chan on -
KK board is just 3-axis gyros, so no levelling.
The difference between the kk and APM is the programming model. The KK code is simple, each loop iterations reads the gyros, and adjusts the motors to offset the gyro rotation. The inputs are interrupt driven, so it's very responsive. If you don't have the skill to control the craft it will crash. It's not an autopilot.
The APM is an autopilot and costs 10 times as much at a KK. The standard of quality expected is different. It requires more tuning, and a carefully built airframe. However, if these two criteria are fulfilled, then the APM controlled craft should literally pilot the craft with little or no user intervention.
-
Permalink Reply by Ellison Chan on
-
Oh, and for those who think that all that's needed is to plug the KK in and fly, you are either very luck or haven't actually flown a KK board yet.
-
Permalink Reply by Rick Stewart on
-
Well I am sorry to inform you but that is the experience I have had. 2 buddies and I embarked on a scratch quad project about 4 months ago. I had been out of RC for about 10 years, and most of my experience was surface. My friends experience was 0. We built 3 quads out of Aluminum, grabbed some hobby king park 480 motors, 30amp ESC's, added some spektrum radios and voila we were flying. Now, don't get flying confused wtih flying well. We still had to learn how to fly these things, that was a process unto its self since the KK board doesn't auto level. Suffice it to say, as of now we are pretty good at ACRO flying. I am not saying we didn't have issues either but figuring out you needed to reverse the channel on your radio was much easier to understand then PID tuning. The simplicity of the board is what made the above scenario possible. Of course with anything technical your mileage may vary.
Rick
-
ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on -
The chances are its my airframe? it is made of pine, grp, and cable-ties but with the KK board I can fly it through an obstacle course at full throttle and in the wind not a problem either, it`s 20mph winds today in London, so I headed out with my tri and the apm2.0 and nearly lost it... Well that was the last time for me so I changed back to KK and can hold it rock steady in the wind, The main issue I had with the apm is it wasn`t very responsive to input and the rtl and loiter mode only worked once out of every ten times, the rest of the time I would flick it on and it would just drift off and climb wherever it decided, even with no wind. And the GPS logs were always 20 or so miles out of position?
-
Permalink Reply by Rick Stewart on
-
I think we went to the same school of design, I am using Velcro ties on mine for the ESC LOL. I too could whip my quad up and down the field at full tilt with no problems on the KK, my suggestion is to try a reset to defaults, instructions are in the CLUI section in the wiki, and set it up again from a clean slate. I solved some issues I was having by doing that. Good luck.
Rick
Social Networking
Top Content
Contests
Season Two of the Trust Time Trial (T3) Contest has now begun. The fourth round is an accuracy round for multicopters, which requires contestants to fly a cube. The deadline is April 14th.A list of all T3 contests is here.
Groups
-
ArduPlane User Group
691 members
-
ArduCopter Italian Group
87 members
-
Documentation Editors
51 members
-
Turkish Ardu Group
7 members
-
Agricultural UAVs
131 members
Advertisement
© 2013 Created by Chris Anderson.
Powered by
