Flying the APM First time with Skywalker
Hi,
At last I managed to go out flying with ArduPilot Mega.
I was setup with:
- Skywalker : http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1223595
- APM +OilPan and no AirSpeed sensor yet
- Ublox GPS
- 3 modes : MANUAL, STABILIZE, RTL
Worringly, with the last svn the red led does not go solid anymore to tell that the GPS is fixed but I decided to go ahead with that.
unfortunately today was more windy than what I thought (it is always like this, isn't ?) but after launch and after taking enough distance from ground ...
I tried STABILIZE and at first I did not feel a big difference piloting it. The plane had safe behaviour even against the wind and I tried to rock it a bit and left it stabilize by itself with success.
When going back to MANUAL mode , then I felt the difference ... I am afraid that I will forget how to pilot if I use this too much 8))..
Then I tried RTL and waited to see what the plane was doing but the wind was not allowing it to make nice turn and keep a clean direction. I am not sure as well what Loiter radius is set by default (30m ?).
The plane is a bit heavy doesn't glide as much as I would like and in RTL, the engine speed did not seems to be enough to fight the head wind and to stay safely afloat. I might need to change the CRUISE speed to make it better.
I need to retry all that with Airspeed sensor and less wind.
Overall it was a resounding success for me and you should be proud how what you do guys !.
PS: Just one detail. For those using svn, it is not easy to keep track of what you changed in headers everytime: eg: lately APM_Config_xplane.h has been the default config file and APM_Config.h was not read anymore ... took me some time to understand .
At last I managed to go out flying with ArduPilot Mega.
I was setup with:
- Skywalker : http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1223595
- APM +OilPan and no AirSpeed sensor yet
- Ublox GPS
- 3 modes : MANUAL, STABILIZE, RTL
Worringly, with the last svn the red led does not go solid anymore to tell that the GPS is fixed but I decided to go ahead with that.
unfortunately today was more windy than what I thought (it is always like this, isn't ?) but after launch and after taking enough distance from ground ...
I tried STABILIZE and at first I did not feel a big difference piloting it. The plane had safe behaviour even against the wind and I tried to rock it a bit and left it stabilize by itself with success.
When going back to MANUAL mode , then I felt the difference ... I am afraid that I will forget how to pilot if I use this too much 8))..
Then I tried RTL and waited to see what the plane was doing but the wind was not allowing it to make nice turn and keep a clean direction. I am not sure as well what Loiter radius is set by default (30m ?).
The plane is a bit heavy doesn't glide as much as I would like and in RTL, the engine speed did not seems to be enough to fight the head wind and to stay safely afloat. I might need to change the CRUISE speed to make it better.
I need to retry all that with Airspeed sensor and less wind.
Overall it was a resounding success for me and you should be proud how what you do guys !.
PS: Just one detail. For those using svn, it is not easy to keep track of what you changed in headers everytime: eg: lately APM_Config_xplane.h has been the default config file and APM_Config.h was not read anymore ... took me some time to understand .
Replies to This Discussion
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DeveloperPermalink Reply by jasonshort on -
Sorry about that! Glad you had some good luck with your flight.
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Permalink Reply by Matthias Badaire on -
No pb , this is just a few lines out of huge pieces of clean and working code (luck was not a parameter .. good coding was ;)).
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Permalink Reply by Matthias Badaire on
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I just realize that I need to run Waypoint_writer_mega once to have RTL to work as those parameters are not set to any value by default. Or did I miss somethiing ?
#define WP_RADIUS 25 // What is the minimum distance to reach a waypoint?
#define LOITER_RADIUS 45 // How close to Loiter?
#define HOLD_CURRENT_ALT 0 // 1 = hold the current altitude,
// 0 = use the defined altitude to for RTL
#define ALT_TO_HOLD 30 // If you entered 0, altitude to hold above home in meters
// If you entered 1, just leave this as the default, 30
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Adam AKAV8R on -
Have you got any build photos of your set-up? I'm getting ready to do the same.
Adam A.
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Permalink Reply by Gerard Toonstra on -
Excellent, sounds like you have most things worked out. Without airspeed sensor and head wind, wouldn't you expect the engine to go to full whack?
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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Doug Weibel on -
If you are flying without the airspeed sensor then the throttle will nominally be at the value specified in the header (THROTTLE_CRUISE) and will be adjusted up or down from there to climb/descend and in response to low ground speed due to a headwind. The adjustment for low ground speed is limited to increasing the throttle by 30%, so unless your cruise throttle value is above 70% a headwind will not max out your throttle.
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Permalink Reply by Ed Stewart on -
[The plane is a bit heavy doesn't glide as much as I would like and in RTL, the engine speed did not seems to be enough to fight the head wind and to stay safely afloat.]
Hey guys, I'm new to the board and am fasinated at all the bright minds involved and can do spirit, keep up the great work.
I've flown RC for a number of years and if I understood the above comment correctly you may be confusing the percieved flying speed of the plane verses the ground speed. The airspeed indicator will show you that your well above the stall speed of the craft. I've actually had fun flying into the wind with some light trainer type craft that appeared to be backing up!
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Permalink Reply by Matthias Badaire on
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Right It was not the correct works. Against the wind it floats nicely indeed but it does not put enough engine power to progress forward. I might have to check my MIX/MAX pulse for the throttle as explained above and chec the cruise throttle as manually I use in general more power than my EZstar.
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Permalink Reply by Matthias Badaire on
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now that I ran Waypoint_writer_mega once ( I have not seen that written anywhere ) now RTL and FWB works beautifully.
I still need to work on the throttle values to have a bit more power but overall it works great !
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Permalink Reply by Matthias Badaire on
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I'd like to convert my GPS loggued data to KML, is there something to do that already ? I searched and could not find anything yet.
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