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DistributorPermalink Reply by Dany Thivierge on May 29, 2011 at 9:53am

ArduCopter 2 is still in BETA... maybe it's not the right time for you to try it... I suggest reading the Wiki for ALL your questions.

and to answer your FTDI/USB question, forget the FTDI, USB is all you need

 

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Permalink Reply by Antony Papamichail on May 29, 2011 at 2:51pm

thank you for your reply Dany. I'm so new to all this and I just find documentation very complicated.

 

Is it possible that you recommend which software to upload to my Arducopter?

 

Also, my other big problem is how to fly the Copter for the first time. Documentation says only some generic things, possibly for people with past experience with other UAVs. I can't find on the documentation, or on the Forums some specific details or videos on how to simply take off or land the craft.

 

After I arm the motors it's really hard to keep the craft level with the ground and some times the craft rolls over... I have already destroyed one set of blades :)

 

If you can recommend some tutorials for that then please do so. I'm really on a dead end here. I bought the Kit and for the last few weeks I'm only reading the documentation and I was never able to fly the craft... With the new ArduCopter 2 documentation things got a lot more complicated. Now I'm confused if I can use MissionPlanner with my Arducopter 1.1 or I need to stick with CLI and the Configurator.

 

Any help will be much appreciated :)

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian Gralla on May 29, 2011 at 3:48pm

arducopter 1.1 only supports CLI and configurator

Arducopter 2 is simply new software, which is beta for now

 

to your flying questions:

-calibrate your accelerometers and everything else before atempt to fly

-hold it in your hand and see if it responds to movements (it should try to keep leveled)

-try if it responds to your sticks

-place it on the ground where you have enough space for flying (not in your house!)

 

-give it enough throtlle to lift off to, let's say 1m height (you have a lot of turbulences on the ground)

-try to keep it in this position and see how it reacts on your inputs

-landing:

• lower the throttle a little
• don't lower it too much, better descend slow as too fast
• when it touches the ground, remove throttle completely (it may bounces a little)

-take a deep breath

-try this a few times

 

next thing you could do is try flying some patterns (rectangles, circles, etc) but try to keep the nose pointing away from you

 

when you can do all this, try to fly a circle with yawing (remember that it flies the other way round when the nose points at you ;) )

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