Replies to This Discussion

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 29, 2011 at 9:40pm

The Troubleshooting Guide is here:

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_Troubleshooting

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Permalink Reply by Doug Lacher on June 29, 2011 at 10:51pm

Thanks Chris.

For arming the ESCs:
* I re-checked the arming guide, and I think I'm doing everything right. The only discrepancy I noticed was that my green and red LEDs never light up, even several minutes after powering the APM.
* Radio calibration looks fine. All values appear in their expected ranges, and I can monitor them over the terminal in test > radio mode. I've tried re-calibrating several times (also tried re-installing and re-doing the setup instructions several times).
* I tried both stabilize and simple modes. No changes. I have not attempted other modes, though.
* RC throttle is not reversed. Its range is on the positive side of the number line. =)
* I've tried re-calibrating the ESCs a few times.

For MAVlink:
* I tried each item from the troubleshooting list. No luck so far. Again, CLI mode works fine. It's just flight mode and all tabs except firmware and terminal that give me connection problems. If it helps, I'm selecting ArduCopter2, COM4 (RST is enabled), 115200 baud for a wired USB connection. I also have a DIY Drones telemetry kit, but it hasn't been able to connect either (COM3, 57600 baud).

I'm going to check my soldering connections tomorrow to make sure I didn't miss something. Thanks again for looking at this.

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 29, 2011 at 11:07pm

If your green and red LEDs never light up, that means that you're not getting past the initialization stage of the boot up. How do your sensors look in the Mission Planner? Does everything check out?

 

If you can't connect via MAVlink you've got other issues that we need to sort out first. The ESCs will come later.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Lacher on June 30, 2011 at 10:06pm

Using the terminal in test mode, I can get some sensor output from the IMU.  The "altitude", "imu", and "compass" test commands report reasonable looking data.  I don't have sonar attached yet (that's in the mail right now).  GPS is hard to get a lock in my apartment, but it'll eventually lock if I put the quadrocopter in a window for a few minutes.  I can't read anything from the Mission Planner (aside from terminal mode) since MAVlink complains.

 

Here's what happens when I cold-boot the quadrocopter (flight mode):

There's a melodic tone from the ESCs (dee-dee-dee det det det).  

The various LEDs then light up:

  * GPS blue LED is slow blinking (~1Hz?), but will eventually go solid if I move to a window.

  * Telemetry blue "on" LED is solid.

  * RC receiver LEDs light up (blinking if the transmitter is off, solid if the transmitter is on).

  * The blue "on" LED next to the CLI mode switch on the IMU is solid.

  * The blue "ppm" LED on the APM under the USB header blinks rapidly (3 Hz?).

  * The red "pwr" LED on the APM is solid.

  * The amber "mux" LED on the APM is solid.

  * No other LEDs light up (I'm looking at you, A-B-C LEDs on the IMU!).

 

Any ideas what I should look for?  I just checked my solder connections, and they all appear fine.  I looked for physical damage to the APM and IMU, but haven't found any yet.  Both appear to be in good shape.

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 30, 2011 at 10:25pm

You are unplugging the four-wire connector to the ESCs like the manual says everywhere, right?

 

Go to the Help tab of the Mission Planner and check the little box for the Console Window, then shut the program and restart it. That will open another window that will show you what's going on.

 

If you can't connect via MAVlink, then that's what we need to focus on. Everything else is secondary. That console window should show a lot of CRC errors while APM is booting up, then it should start to get informative.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Lacher on June 30, 2011 at 11:03pm

 

Yes, the four-wire cable to the ESCs is disconnected.

 

Here's the console log from attempting to connect with MAVlink up until the 30 second timeout.

 

Init ACM
RAM: 1666

FW Version 102----------------------------------------

MAVLink readpacket read error: The operation has timed out.

bps 0 loss 0 left 0

Mavlink Bad Packet (crc fail) len 0 crc 65535 pkno 0

MAVLink readpacket read error: The operation has timed out.

bps 0 loss 0 left 0

Mavlink Bad Packet (crc fail) len 0 crc 65535 pkno 0

MAVLink readpacket read error: The operation has timed out.

bps 0 loss 0 left 0

 

etc...

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 30, 2011 at 11:15pm

Yeah, your board isn't getting through its startup.

Assuming you've got it setup right (Lipo plugged in to power the Rx, nothing silly like the GPS plugged into the I2C port), you've got a hardware problem. You can do more CLI tests to narrow it down, but I'm surprised the IMU test is passing. Something's stopping your board from booting up.

Maybe check the "adc" test and see if something looks funky.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Lacher on July 1, 2011 at 7:38am

Bugger. =/

The LiPo is powering the receiver.  GPS is plugged into the GPS connector on the APM.  Here's the output of test > adc.  I'm not exactly sure what to look for here.  Thanks again for helping out with this.

 

ADC

1689,1796,1694,1494,2030,2019,2487,2912,4865,

1688,1795,1694,1494,2031,2018,2486,2916,4864,

1689,1794,1694,1493,2030,2017,2487,2909,4865,

1689,1796,1694,1494,2031,2019,2487,2930,4864,

1689,1795,1694,1493,2031,2018,2487,2924,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2030,2019,2488,2928,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2031,2018,2489,2932,4864,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2030,2018,2489,2918,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2032,2018,2486,2931,4864,

1689,1796,1694,1493,2030,2018,2488,2919,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2031,2018,2488,2922,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2031,2019,2487,2913,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2030,2018,2488,2922,4865,

1689,1794,1694,1494,2031,2018,2488,2930,4864,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2031,2018,2488,2920,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2030,2020,2487,2928,4865,

1689,1793,1694,1494,2031,2019,2487,2916,4865,

1689,1794,1694,1494,2030,2018,2488,2932,4865,

1689,1794,1694,1494,2031,2018,2488,2911,4864,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2031,2017,2487,2928,4865,

1689,1794,1694,1494,2031,2018,2488,2916,4864,

1689,1795,1694,1493,2032,2019,2489,2924,4865,

1689,1794,1694,1494,2030,2018,2488,2914,4865,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2031,2018,2488,2922,4864,

1689,1795,1694,1494,2030,2018,2487,2930,4865,

(and so on)

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Permalink Reply by T Shaw on July 2, 2011 at 7:09am

Doug,

 

I'm having EXACTLY the same problems.

 

It's been driving me mad for a few weeks now. I've upgraded to the latest software as I though it might be the MAVLink issue, but still the problem persists.

 

I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread and will keep you posted if I get anywhere. I'd be most appreciative if you could do the same.

 

Best Regards,

Tim

Permalink Reply by Doug Lacher on July 2, 2011 at 10:20am

Tim, I'm sorry to hear your'e running into the same problems as me, but at the same time it's slightly comforting to know I'm not the only one struggling with this. =)

 

I'm really psyched about my quadrocopter, so I've been looking closely at this problem.  I'm really hoping it can be resolved without an RMA, but if I have to RMA, I'd rather start the process sooner than later.  I bought my kit from Jdrones, so shipping takes a long time.

 

Chris, did the ADC output provide any insight to what's going on?  I'll be happy to post any other debug output.  Just let me know what you need.  

Permalink Reply by T Shaw on July 4, 2011 at 1:23pm

Doug,

 

Just wondering if you've managed to get anywhere yet?

 

I'm reluctant to get a new Ardupilot & IMU as they cost the equivalent of $375 dollars here in the UK!

 

Best Regards,

Tim

Permalink Reply by paul hubner on July 4, 2011 at 2:20pm

 

Doug (and Tim),

I am also experiencing precisely the same issue, and have tried the same corrective steps with no luck. I have even tried down grading to earlier 2.x firmwares with same results.  I believe I am not booting successfully (no A.B.C. LEDS) , but I don't know where to set any diagnostic flags that would show up on the USB port and indicate where the boot is halting. 

When booting with a Terminal open in "FLY" modeI get ony as far as:

Init ACM

RAM: 1679
FW Version 102
----------------------------------------

(after loading latest 2.0.33 code and APMPlanner just now)

 

LEDs are:

APM PWR Red - ON solid

APM MUX Yellow - ON solid

APM PPM Blue - fast flash when radio is on (ie 'RXing is good')

OIL PWR Blue - ON

OIL A.B.C. - none lit.

Mediatek GPS - solid blue

 

My USB in terminal mode works great. It's MAVlink that gets your timeout error (above).  I've tried many many configs: with and without GPS, manual setup each of my components, inspected the hardware, reseting and erasing, and searching the wiki and web for weeks....

 

And to think I was flying 1.0x a few weeks ago...

 

I'll be glued to this thread!

Paul

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