I updated a new version which has a fix for Alt hold and some new tuning capabilities.
The older alt hold had a typo that was found by randy that seriously degraded performance (the rate PID loop was skipped entirely). You should see much better results now.
Tunning with a Channel 6 proportional control is now done at runtime and doesn't need to be compiled in. To use, go to the CLI and setup menu. tune # is how you select the tuning option.
tune 0 = no tuning.
tune 1 = STABILIZE_KP
tune 2 = STABILIZE_KI
tune 3 = Yaw_KP
tune 4 = RATE_KP
tune 5 = RATE_KI
tune 6 = YAW_RATE_KP
tune 7 = THROTTLE_KP
tune 8 = TOP_BOTTOM_RATIO (for Y6)
tune 9 = Manual control of the relay
tune 10 = Waypoint traversing speed (0m/s to 10m/s)
So pick your variable from the list and type "tune 4"
Now, go to the CLI test menu and enter "tune". You will see the output value of the tuning function so you can adjust your proportional control and see the changes. I would dial in the best guess before you fly it. Then in flight, adjust it as you like. The return to test::tune to see what value was the best.
Good luck.
Replies
Any Plans to implement Nav_roll and Nav_pitch and other Arduplane parameters in the Tune section? this would greatly help with in-flight tuning
I think that the magetometer (compass) offsets need to be either manualy put in with each update or the self adjusting offsets needs a trigger to re learn. With my build the area to true North is 13 Deg. while pointing toward true North and rolling 45 Deg the compass gives up to a 20 Deg variance after being calibrated. However the pitch does not move the true north.
There is also an issue with the Altitude hold mode being Stable with .42
It acts more like Simple mode.
Finally the weather was good enough to test 2.0.41 on my standard frame.
Tested:
stabilize: Excellent - very smooth, yaw very good
simple mode: No problems, flew well
alt hold (sonar altitude): The best ever - set multiple heights 1.5 feet to 6 feet and hold was smooth, no pulsing - excellent.
alt hold (baro height > 15 feet): Again - best ever - set mutiple heights up to 30 feet and very smooth, motors were working in a fair bit of wind, but the baro was as good as I've ever seen - with just a bit of motor pulsing.
loiter: The best I've seen on my quad, at sonar alt flew for about a minute and held to within 3 meters or so. The wind was blocked by the house and trees, but very nice. Flying the loiter on the right stick was awesome - helped to avoid an ocassional tree limb.
At 25 feet altitude or so, there was a 8 to 10 mph wind and loiter was hard for me to test, but it was drifting a bit, but still seemed pretty good. I need to get into an open field to really test this well - but again best ever on my frame.
Nice job Jason and the team.
loaded v41but to windy at the moment.
What I noticed is that selecting "Tune 9" in CLI doesn't work. I wanted to use the Relay but I can't.
In the Parameter list look for "TUNE"
A zero indicates it's off.
Jason
Ch 8 is tied to the PPM encoder and manual mux. That's a no go for Quads. Triggering the hardware Mux will cause an instant crash. You can always remove the Camera rig's servo lead from the APM while tuning. Otherwise it won't affect the camera at all.
Jason