Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by roger on April 22, 2011 at 8:20pm

John,

 

Did what you suggested and this time its the left stick that is able to issue signals for the motors to move. Instead of receiver pins 1, 2, 3 and 4 connected to APM 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, I swapped the order into receiver pins 1, 2, 3 and 4 connected to APM 3, 4, 1 and 2 respectively. Moving the right stick understandably did not solicit any motor movement. With the swapping, I solicited the following motor movement as I use the left stick of the transmitter.

 

left stick center - no movement

left stick up - right motor turns

leff stick down - left motor turns

left stick left - front motor turns

left stick right - back motor turns

 

The above result is a confirmation there's no problem with the transmitter receiver but with the APM. Other strange things I noticed with the APM are,:

 

1. Uploading code will result in a sync error. If I press the reset button as soon as the arduino confirm successful compilation result in a 50:50 success in uploading the code while in a non-cli mode. In CLI mode though, I achieve almost a 100% uploading as long as I don't have delay in pressing the reset button!

2. The green led (A) blinks at boot up, turns solid but then once in a while without me doing anything blinks. Based on the wiki, a blinking green after boot up indicates arming of motor ... moving throttle though do not solicit any motor movement!

3. When radio is on the PPM led on the APM does blink confirming radio communication but arming motors is not possible.

 

My conclusion is that the either the APM, the oilpan or BOTH is defective! ANY SUGGESTION ON HOW I CAN HAVE THE BOARD REPLACED!!!

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Permalink Reply by Franck on April 23, 2011 at 12:24am

Hello!

I don't know if it helps but I made an ESC calibration through de CLI with "E" and it worked miraculously. All the 4 motors started and I don't have an Arducopter ESC ...

Touch

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Permalink Reply by roger on April 23, 2011 at 4:27am

Franck,

 

Thanks.

 

I do not have any problem using any of the CLI menu including calibrating the esc. My esc calibrate fine and as a proof following the "e" menu with the "m" (motor tester) result in all motors pulsing at approx 20% when appropriate transmitter stick is moved a certain direction.

 

My problem is when I finished using the CLI, unplugged the usb and boot the arducopter using its lipo battery. The arducopter just sit there no matter how I put the left stick down and to the right!!! Movement ... nada whatsover :( !

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Permalink Reply by John Reynolds on April 24, 2011 at 6:29pm

Roger:

 

Something funky is going on getting the code onto your APM.  You shouldn't have to press the reset button at all.  One of the "bigger brains" out there is going to have to figure that one out for you though, as I can't think of why it would do that.

 

In any event, I am curious - are you able to use the configurator software at all?  The transmitter calibration portion of the configurator is very useful and it is critical that your transmitter is calibrated.

 

When you use the transmitter calibration, it will make sure that the software "sees" the low and high points of your particular transmitter set up.  Without seeing the "low" point properly, the software might never let you arm the motors because the stick must be right and DOWN, and the software never sees it as fully down unless it is calibrated.

 

The transmitter calibration portion of the configurator also lets you see that your sticks are all working, because the sliders will move up and down.  

 

Try the configurator software (not just CLI mode) and let me know what happens.

 

John

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by roger on April 25, 2011 at 2:33am

John,

 

I agree on one of the bigger brains out there need to help me out ... no luck however on that front and I'm excusing that as caused by the easter weekend ... hoping though as soon as this coming week enters that I will have something to resolve my problem as at this point in time I am really incline to conclude its a board problem.

 

On the configurator question ... I did try several times to interface the board with the configurator with no luck whatsoever ... all I have at my disposal absent the configurator is the CLI and if the premise that it also calibrates the board, receiver and tx, the software does see the high and low values of transmitter as esc calibration was successful. Also detected the minimum value of the throttle ...

 

really desperate of a solution :( :( :(

 

Thanks for the troubleshooting advise.

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Permalink Reply by roger on April 25, 2011 at 8:09am

John,

 

Let me modify a bit my prior response. I am able to connect the APM+oilpan with the configurator under winxp. Other than that however, I can't do anything else, So calibrating transmitter ... nope; issuing motor commands ... nope :(

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Permalink Reply by John Reynolds on April 25, 2011 at 1:42pm

Hi Roger:

 

Sorry it's still not working.  Wish I had a quick fix for you.  I remember when I set up my quad for the first time I accidentally skipped the transmitter calilbration mode using the configurator.  This led to a host of problems until I realized how the code worked.  Once I started over, and went through the calibration using the configurator, it worked just fine.  Very frustrating until then though.

 

You mention you can connect to the configurator, but have you used the section of the configurator that deals with the transmitter adjustment? What happens when you try this?  Do the slider's move at all?

 

When you run the configurator, did it initialize the eeprom?  or return an error? 

 

Also, are you running the most recent version of the configurator? 

 

If you can walk me through how far you got using the configurator, it may help.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by roger on April 25, 2011 at 7:06pm

John,

 

Thanks for the patience.

 

"I remember when I set up my quad for the first time I accidentally skipped the transmitter calilbration mode using the configurator ..." 

 - This is my second APM+Oilpan so I know the importance of going through each of configuration setup (including TX). With my first I, give and take a couple of glitches, I was able to configure my ardu (and fly it) without much hassle. Personal preference however, I'd prefer CLI over the configurator. On my current board however, I have no option but to make the configurator work but to my dismay it simply doesn't allow me to move forward even an inch to resolving my non-arming dilemma.

 

"You mention you can connect to the configurator, but have you used the section of the configurator that deals with the transmitter adjustment? What happens when you try this?  Do the slider's move at all?"

- As adviced in the wiki, once connected, do initialize the eeprom which I did. Clicking on the eeprom initialize button did not solicit an error or success message. So continued on with calibrate transmitter, confirm all the notice screen and when its time to try to move the sliders from my TX ... nothing happens!

 

"Also, are you running the most recent version of the configurator?" 

- I am using version 1.22 which I believe is the most recent one. Like I said before, I have used the configurator before and was able to move the sliders. This time around though, no movement.

 

"If you can walk me through how far you got using the configurator, it may help."

-  The only distance I covered with the configurator was connecting the board at the very beginning. All other possible configurator functionality I tried using did not solicit any response either from the output pins of the APM (as evidence by the inability to move motors) or received commands from the transmitter (sliders not moving).

 

:(

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Permalink Reply by John Reynolds on April 26, 2011 at 8:16am

Sounds like you have tried almost everything.  Sorry I couldn't help!!

 

One last thing that might be useful (or might not, since nothing else I suggested helped much!).

 

The serial monitor (in Arduino, or Configurator) can accept some additional commands for debugging purposes.  For instance, you can send it a capital "U" and it will start sending you back the receiver values.  These should change in real time as you move your stick.  If these values are changing, then you can probably rule out a hardware issue. 

 

 All of the various debug serial commands are in the GCS.pde file.  Another useful one to use is the number "2" as this will send you all of the transmitter calibration values.

 

John

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by roger on April 26, 2011 at 5:19pm

John,

 

Definitely not have done that so will give it a go ... :)

 

Thanks.

Permalink Reply by roger on May 6, 2011 at 6:49am

John,

 

Just an update ... I got a confirmation from good authority that its the APM that's defective :(

Permalink Reply by Michael Vowles on May 13, 2011 at 5:47pm

Hi Roger,

I am having the same issue as you and read that you said the board was defective, were you able to get a refund at all?

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