Replies to This Discussion

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on May 17, 2012 at 6:45am

Hi Mick, Welcome to the group..

I am not familiar with Arduplane, what flight modes do you have programmed in to your selection?

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on May 17, 2012 at 6:54am

Are you starting in Manual? this is what you should do to start.

Are the blue red and yellow leds flashing on the board?

Permalink Reply by Mick Cayton on May 17, 2012 at 10:20am

Hi Dean,

Thanks for your reply. I have just turned it on inside (so no sats); the red light goes out but the blue is flashing. I can't remember if that's due to no sats lock. There's another blue light on the GPS module flashing slowly. The yellow led is on but not flashing. there's also a green led next to the two amber flashing leds. I have achieved GPS lock outside when the motor will start in manual.

I have modes:

manual

stabilise

FBW-B (no airspeed yet)

circle

AUTO

RTL

I get no motor response in stabilise or FBW_B

Chers,

Mick.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on May 17, 2012 at 10:34am

The blue leds are the gps, the green and amber ones are just indicating the board has power and is receiving and transmitting data. On Arducopter the red light stays on to indicate that the motors are armed and when the blue light stays on it indicates a gps fix. How this works on Arduplane I am not sure?

I would suggest tethering the plane to something or holding it so that it cant fly off then start in manual mode and add a little throttle, then switch into stabilise  or FBW to see if it works in that order? It may be a safety feature that the firmware has so if you accidently flick a switch it doesn`t fly off on its own?

Permalink Reply by Mick Cayton on May 17, 2012 at 10:44am

That's useful knowing the led response. I have all the kit out of the plane - it's first going into a Mentor to trial before a 20cc petrol powered plane for camera work.

I'll grab a handful of electronics and take it outside to confirm GPS lock and see what happens.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on May 17, 2012 at 10:50am

Have you seen here Mick? http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/StartingArduPilotMega

Also if you are going to use it in a petrol plane it will behave completely different to the Mentor, and depending what sort of camera work you are going to do? and what you intend to use the Ardupilot for? you will have to make some modifications in the petrol plane and change all your settings..

Permalink Reply by Mick Cayton on May 17, 2012 at 10:56am

Right - that's the first time I have seen solid blue leds - I must have been in the satellite shadow of the house or something before. With solid blue I had the motor running in manual ok and stabilise, but nothing else. Do I have to set the throttle in Planner for the other modes? I'm not sure where to set the alt for RTL in Planner.

I did have a bit of hassle setting up the 6 pos switch, but have got the bandwidth figures the same as on another post in this forum so I assume that would work for the modes i have selected...?

Permalink Reply by Mick Cayton on May 17, 2012 at 12:05pm

Jason, Dean,

All the flight modes light up as I flick through them. I have now set a value for ALT_HOLD_RTL, I am going to try it tomorrow as I've had a long day and need a beer now.

I think we are on the right lines with the default alt - I just didn't know where to find it.

Thanks very much for your help and observations guys. I'll let you know how it goes after trying it out tomorrow.

Cheers,

Mick.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on May 17, 2012 at 11:07am

You can check your flight modes in the mission planner under configuration and the flight modes tab with the plane linked to the computer via the usb once you are connected with the transmitter on you should see the flight modes switching on the screen when you move the switch on the tranny.

RTL alt is also under configuration in standard parameters I think?

Dont have the lipo plugged in so your motor is live or you might have an accident...

Permalink Reply by Mick Cayton on May 17, 2012 at 10:40am

Hi Jason,

I haven't got as far as flight plans yet so expecting nothing from AUTO. To be truthful I can't see in planner where to set the home altitude.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on May 19, 2012 at 10:54am

Did you get a chance to test fly today?

Permalink Reply by Mick Cayton on May 31, 2012 at 10:44am

Hello Dean, Jason,

I finally got to fly; stabilisation worked okay and the motor worked on the other modes once the plane was mobile. Just as the manual said...(there must be a lesson somewhere there).

However; return to home, circle and auto were a problem, with the model going anywhere but where I was expecting. I have since upped the parameters a bit and this has given more control surface movement so I will try again this weekend. I have some experience with the FY21AP, so I have an idea what is going on. I think it's just a matter of perseverence getting the parameters right, but i definitely didn't have enough control movement.

The Mentor is not the right model for these experiments because the APM2 board is down in the foam fuselage and has to come out to plug into the pc; it's not really practical to make changes on the field, even with a laptop.

I did wonder if having the board down in the foam affects the GPS reception though. Anybody know if it does?

Cheers,

Mick.

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