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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on July 15, 2012 at 11:25am

Carl,

    Hey sorry about the wiki being a little out-of-date.  I.e. no instructions for the APM2 etc.  We can sort you out with access to update it if you feel like refreshing it after getting your own set-up working.

    I'm not sure about your transmitter but on my futaba, I have a 3 position switch attached to channel 7.  I connect this to the motor's ESC so when I flight the switch the motor start spinning.  This is quite different than channel 3 which is used for collective pitch (at least on my set-up).

A six position switch on channel 5 sounds great!  I only have a two position switch which leaves me with only two flight modes which is annoying.  I should reverse the 2 and 3 position switches I have although I've gotten use to this set-up so I worry I might do the wrong thing at a critical moment if I change it now.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Carl Campbell on July 15, 2012 at 8:18pm

Randy, Thanks for the reply. I would be more then happy to update the documentation after I work it out for myself. If anything to repay the community that has helped me out so far.  That and I write documentation for my primary employer. 

I have about 4-5 days untill my FBL head from HK  comes in, So Ill get er up sometime next week or so.  

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on July 17, 2012 at 5:33am

Sorry for not posting sooner, I am currently running a TH9X with my APM 2.0 and can tell you what goes where and how I have the settings laid out in the transmitter. It will take me a bit to make sure I'm not getting anything mixed up... I'll try to post it up this evening for you.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Carl Campbell on July 17, 2012 at 8:19am

Thanks Jeff.  I was hoping someone like you would come along.  I would rather start with someones known good setting and tweak from there then going blind.  

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on July 17, 2012 at 5:43pm

Ok, here we go :-)

On the 9X the settings are as follows:

System,

             "type select" = heli, heli-1

             "modulation" = PPM

             "stick" = Mode 2

Settings,

             "reverse" AIL= normal

                          ELE= normal

                          THR= REVERSE

                          RUD= normal

                          GEA= normal

                          PIT= normal

                          AUX= REVERSE

                          AUX= normal

Throttle curve <NOR> 00% for all 5 points

                     <ID1>  26% for all 5 points

                     <ID2>  43% for all 5 points

Pitch curve  <NOR>,<ID1>,<ID2> all set to 00,25,50,75,100%

SubTrim all 000

E.point, all 100%

Throttle hold "INH"

AUX-CH, CH5= GEAR

              CH6= NULL

              CH7= THRO HOLD

              CH8= HOV PIT

              CH9= NULL

I'll leave out SWASHAFR, D/R EXP, TRIM, ect as they are all the defaults...

Next post, wiring

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on July 17, 2012 at 6:30pm

TH9X outputs (top row of pins) go to just the input pins (farthest from the edge of the board)of the APM 2.0, don't plug in power or grounds as this will make a ground loop which is bad. Just use female to female servo cables and plug it in horizontally/ vertically as necessary, you can lift the little tabs on the connectors to slide the terminals out to re-order them... it gets a little confusing as the 8 channel receiver has a stupid divider between the 4th and 5th channels, I have no idea why.

Anyhow it goes:

TH9X-APM, (9X, description/APM description)

1-1 (Aileron, right stick left-right/ roll left-right, APM calls this roll, but to a real heli it's cyclic)

2-2 (Elevator, right stick up/down/ roll forward/back, it's cyclic fore and aft LOL)

3-5 (throttle, we set the throttle curves to flat values so these only change with F.Mode switch position/ APM flight mode control, i.e. Stabilize-Loiter-Pos hold ect)

4-4 (rudder, left stick left-right/ yaw left-right)

5-7 (gear, switch on-off/ channel 7 options in the APM like SET_TRIM)

6-3 (pitch, left stick up-down/ collective up/down -APM calls this "throttle" but it's collective to a real heli and pitch to the TH9X :-)

7-(throttle hold/ straight from your receiver to your ESC, no APM, it does require you to have an ESC with a governor or at least a soft start, if no governor use the EPA to set the throttle % signal with the switch on, if no soft start go buy a Castle Creations "Phoenix ICE2 HV ESC with data logging" you'll love it, just remember to buy the Castle Link USB adapter too even though it comes with a coupon for a free one it's no fun to wait for it)

8-6 (Hover Pitch knob/ channel 6 options in the APM like YAW_RATE_KP that you will use for tuning later)

Confused yet? We still haven't dealt with power or Mission planner setup LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on July 17, 2012 at 6:59pm

Power, an issue unto itself :-/

IF you have an ESC with a built in BEC, it will power the TH9X receiver since it is plugged into channel 7 at the receiver. You would then remove the "signal" wire from a female to female servo cable (likely a yellow or white wire) and plug the connector with only red and black wires into the receivers "BAT" port and to the APM 2.0's output (black wire towards the bottom on the receiver and the outer pins on the APM outputs) channel 8 or other channel you are not using. Be sure in this case that the power jumper on the APM is installed so the APM will power itself from the output side of the board (remember, no powers or grounds hooked to the APM's input pins in THIS configuration). MAKE SURE THE BEC DOES NOT PUT OUT MORE THAN 5.2 VOLTS or the GPS won't work, 6.0 volts and your APM 2.0 is toast!

IF you have an ESC with NO BEC (like a Phoenix ICE HV) and you are using an external BEC you should use a "Y" cable to split the BEC output power and send one end to your "BAT" port on the receiver and one end to the APM's output side in an unused channel (again jumper installed and no powers/grounds on the APM's input pins). 5.2 VOLTS MAX!

IF you have an ESC with a BEC   >AND<  an external BEC, lift the tab on the ESC's servo connector and remove the red wire, fold it back and tape or heat shrink it to keep it isolated. Then pretend it has no BEC and follow the above instructions.

IF you are helplessly INSANE like me and run multiple BEC's separately for the APM and Servo's we can start a whole new thread and poke fun at all the "normal" people :-)

Next servo's, then "Mission Planner" and setup.

Confused yet?

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on July 17, 2012 at 7:04pm

Servo's,

APM output/ servo location (I am assuming a 120' swash plate configuration)

1/ right front swash plate

2/ left front swash plate

3/ center rear swash plate

4/ tail servo

Now that was easy aye?

Gonna take a break, then we can get into the Mission Planner and setup.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Carl Campbell on July 17, 2012 at 7:51pm

Jeff,  you are the man! If we ever meet up I owe you a drink or 5.  

Carl 

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on July 17, 2012 at 8:14pm

Ok, I'm just gonna run through the MP like I usually do and just take notes for you...

First I'm assuming you've downloaded the MP and configured the COM settings.

Fire up MP, let it do it's update (they must upload new software hourly LOL)

Plug in your APM and hit "connect"

Select the "firmware" icon

Select Heli, confirm to load the firmware

Hit "connect" again

Select the "configuration" icon

Turn on your radio and BEC/ESC just make sure the motor is unplugged first

"calibrate" the radio- you should see all the sliders except radio 8 move, the "pitch" will move opposite from what you expect and you need to check its "reverse" box. Note also that radio 5 will only partially move, this is intentional as the PWM signal on this channel is calibrated for modes 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

Next select the "flight modes" tab, set 1 to stabilize, 2 to loiter, and 3 to Pos Hold
 then save
.

Select "hardware options", Enable compass and check the "Auto Dec" box

If you have your APM on attached to the heli you can "live calibration" if you want.

Select "heli setup"

Servo position 1 is 60' (and check the "rev" box)

                     2 is -60'

                     3 is 180

Swash type is CCPM

Put your left stick to center, hit the "manual" button next to swash travel, careful here the up/down you give it will determine the end points of the actual swash travel the heli will see in flight (just like setting end points). With the left stick centered you need to set the trims to have 0' degrees at the rotor blades the whole way around the swash plate (much easier to do with FBL as you just line up one rotor's linkage with the servo linkage on the swash plate then adjust to 0 degrees, rotate to line up with the next link, round and round till they are all 0 degrees. Next SLOWLY lower the stick till you get to 3 degrees negative pitch on the rotor blade, then stick up till you get to 12 degrees positive, then back to center at 0 degrees. Rudder left and right to stay just inside mechanical binding at the tail rotor. Set zero and save it.

P.s. you can set the roll max and pitch max to a less aggressive amount like 2600 (it's degrees of tilt X 100).

Next select "Arducoptor Pid's"

Note: I have only played with "Stabilize" so far and these WILL need tweaking on your particular setup but should be reasonably flyable.

Angular Rate Control P=0.145, I=0, D=0.004 IMAX=5 "dampen" at it's defaults

"Stabilize Control" at defaults

"Yaw Angular Rate Control" P=0.150, I=0, D= 0.004 IMAX=50

"Yaw Stabilize Control" P=3.500, I=0, IMAX=15

Then click save, you'll be changing these later, this is just where I put them to start tuning. You may just want to try the defaults first?

Select "Arducopter Config", the items of note here are the channel 6 and 7 options to select from for tuning. Channel 6 YAW_KP is the "P" value for stabilize, YAW_RATE_KP is the "P" value for the Rate function.

That's really all the farther I've gotten into the settings and parameters... So now you know what I know :-) Just make sure all the control surfaces are acting like you expect them to be. When you left stick up the swash goes up, when you left stick right the tail should want to blow to move the nose of the heli right, when you right stick down the swash tips back, when you right stick right the swash tips right, when you tilt the heli nose down the swash tips back to try to level the heli, ect...

Good luck, I'll check back to see about anything that needs further explanation :-)

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Carl Campbell on August 31, 2012 at 8:58pm

Jeff thanks for your page by page settings.  I appreciate it and I have gotten my helicopter set up and it is looking like ill have it airborne this week.  I am using the throttle pitch curves that I always use but you got me to the point I could deviate from your setup.  

Oh and my switching BEC's will be in.  I depending in all up weight I may just go crazy and use 2 separate BEC's.  But the 5 amp swtiching BEC in the overkill 80 amp ESC I am using is currently powering everything.  

Thanks 

Carl

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smith on September 3, 2012 at 7:10pm

Just be sure you power the APM with 5.0v +/- 0.2v, it's critical.

I have referred back to these post's like three time myself now as I keep poor note LOL, so I'm glad they are here too :-)