Developer

Joystick control of ArduPlane not working

Hi Guys,

I was trying to setup a Logitech Attack3 joystick for manual control of my APM running the latest ArduPlane 2.4 firmware.

I'd like to mention that I have NO R/C system connected to the APM (I don't even own one). Perhaps this is the problem. If it is so, I think you guys might be able to provide me with a solution with the below problem.

I opened Mission Planner after attaching the joystick and opened the joystick panel. After setting it up, all the axes worked perfectly. I had previously calibrated the joystick in Windows.

But, when I connect to the APM via through Xbee @ 57600 baud, the joystick control stops working. The values in the panel revert and freeze. No joystick inputs are taken. APM status tab shows all the R/C override channels to be permanently set at 1500 PWM. Tried via USB and same problem.

One important thing here, the buttons keep working even after connecting, probebly because they are not overriding the R/C channels.

I have to close and reopen Mission Planner to get joystick functions back, but only till the APM is not connected.

Please HELP!!

Kabir

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Replies

  • No if you connect to the APM by any way, then go to the Config/Tuning tab the Full Parameter List and scroll down till you find which parameter you want to change. You can also search by a search text box somewhere in the right column. After you change any parameter it will turn green. If you want to save your parameter press write parameters which will save the parameters on your APM

  • How important is commenting out the trim_radio() part of the code? I have over 50 successful flights on both fixed wings and multirotors using joystick control. (no R/C on board at all). I have set the Min, Max and Center to the right numbers, and the center (trim) does not change after reboot. What would make the center (trim) value change during flight anyways?

    • This reply was deleted.
      • I use joystick with success without any code modifications. Just some tuning of the ardupilot parameters

  • This reply was deleted.
    • Hello

      Is there a guide maybe, where a joystick configuration is presented? ( MP setup for no RC use)

      Thanks.

  • Developer

    Just an update for you guys, Joystick control works perfectly with Micheal's mods in the code.

    A problem that I seem to have, even after calibrating the joystick in windows and in MP via Radio Calibration, there seems to some dead zone around the servos. I manually set the dead zone to 1 on all the channels, but if 1 elevon channel gets fixed, the other gets messed up.

    In auto mode, the elevons are in their mean position, but switching to manual (joystick) deflects any one elevon by 8 - 9 degrees.

    Setting all the MAX-MIN value to 2000-1000 and trim to 1500 results in the same problem. This is a recent problem, and had not happened before. 

    Would appreciate any help on this.

  • Monroe,

    Thanks for all the help, I'll buy all the bits this week and report back in a next weekend to see if the setup works :-)

  • Monroe,

    Thanks for the quick reply. I'm getting rid of my rc and I am going to try to get 10km from the 3DR radio's i seen somewhere that they have already got 7.6km+

    If I reduce the telemetry refresh will this slow down the tracking on my Antenna tracker? 

    Thanks for all the help again 

  • Is this the correct way to set up the APM 1 for joystick control only? My RC isn't great anymore and i would like to swap over to just using the joystick but didn't know how to do it.

    Do you just edit the code in the arduino interface?

  • Developer

    to use it without a transmitter you will need to override a few things. mainly the radio trim

     

    in system.pde line 320

    trim_radio(); needs to be removed so the trim center point dont change each reboot.

     

    you will also need to manual put start and end point on all the first 4 radio channels.

    RC1_MIN = 1000

    RC1_MAX = 2000

    RC1_TRIM = 1500

    NOTE you can overdrive servos if your not carefull with these values 

    if you do that for all channels you should be able to control it using the joystick without any rc.

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