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Permalink Reply by Andre S on June 7, 2012 at 7:20am

Do you use the correct channel? IIRC, for a 3-channel plane with only rudder one is supposed to connect the rudder servo to the aileron channel (was it the first output? better check the manual). Have been using a 3-channel EZ myself for a while and had no problems with levelling.

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Permalink Reply by Justin Mayfield on June 7, 2012 at 7:34am

Thank you for the reply. I had not thought of that, but it seems like it could work for us. Will be testing the plane tomorrow with a whole array of possible fixes.

 

Have you ever tried it with the rudder output going to the rudder servo and no aielerons (sp?)?

 

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Permalink Reply by Andre S on June 7, 2012 at 8:14am

No, I haven't tried that. But I believe that earlier versions of ArduPlane didn't even make use of the rudder but I may be mistaken. The last time I was flying the EZ with APM was some time last year. Now actually switched to a Multiplex FunCub which does have ailerons.

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Permalink Reply by Crasher on June 7, 2012 at 8:27am

The APM flies the Easystar just fine without ailerons. More Easystars have flown with APMs installed than probably anything else so you choice of plane is not a problem.

In stabilise mode, holding the plane in your hands with throttle off, do the controls move the correct way if you move the nose down, up and roll left/right?
The elevator should come up on nose down, should go down on nose up, and looking down the plane from the nose, tilting your left (the planes right) should move the rudder to the planes left whixh is your right facing the plane.

If you have the controls reversed (which is not the same as the Transmitters channel reverse) you will enter a death spiral fast as the plane is putting more dive to correct te dive!

I hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Justin Mayfield on June 7, 2012 at 9:57am

On the ground it seems as if the control surfaces are working correctly, however, the rudder hardly moves, although it moves in the right direction.

When I swap the rudder servo to the aileron output, the rudder moves much much more.

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Permalink Reply by Crasher on June 7, 2012 at 10:08am

I really don't think swapping them is a good idea. Just increase your SERVO_ROLL_P gain in planner and you should be fine. I had to do that to, the default gain is tiny.

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Permalink Reply by Crasher on June 7, 2012 at 8:55am

My apologies for the double post. This page of the Wiki shows what APM output is what:

http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/APM2RC

I don't think I deviated from this but my memory is Terrible!

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Permalink Reply by Ted Gavinchuk on June 7, 2012 at 3:15pm

When I was running eagle tree on only 3 channels I would get the death spiral so I did the mod and it helped on the eagle tree, but have only used the APM with ailerons so I can't help there.  Here is a good guide for the easy* ailerons and they are great:).

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=350408&page=14

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