I have just bought the ArduPilot Mega 2560 Full Kit... plus the Triple Axis Magnetometer HMC5883L. I should have it built over the weekend.. then i'm off to a my mates machine shop, and i'll make the splitter plate for the lower frame onto which i am going to fit the Ardupilot. the magnetometer i'll put on the tail as suggested. I am going to use my X-cell Razor 600E. For those that dont know its around the 50 size nitro heli.
Do i need to buy any other sensors i.e. the Sonar... i can fly a helicopter all day long but this is my first time flying one with stabilisation so any tips would be gratefully appreciated.
If this works well then i am going to try and use it on my x-cell gasser. i can get up to 20 minute flights with this. But i think for the time being a battery 600 is the way to go.
i'll post some pictures when i have it all together.
Replies
Hi guys.
I dropped the new heli.pde on to a freshly downloaded copy of 2.1.8r
Put the libraries in the correct place.
make the frame HELI_FRAME
verify/compile... i then get the following errors, if i dont change the frame type then it compiles correctly.
heli:245: error: 'class APM_RC_APM1' has no member named 'enable_out'
heli:246: error: 'class APM_RC_APM1' has no member named 'enable_out'
heli:247: error: 'class APM_RC_APM1' has no member named 'enable_out'
heli:248: error: 'class APM_RC_APM1' has no member named 'enable_out'
Hey guys, good news. I kinda got us halfway there, but had a couple stupid newbie programmer errors (I overflowed an integer!) and didn't realize that we needed to scale another number. Randy and I had a Skype session, and we fixed it all up. It's about 90% of the way done. I tested it on my heli, and it works, for real, real world.
Randy is going to make another few minor changes, and then will probably be posting it maybe by tomorrow.
So don't worry, we got this swashplate thing nailed.
Randy, we might need to bring those swash_max=1900 and swash_min=1100 and make them visible as parameters in MP, because I can already see that with the fix, I'm pushing some of my servos too hard at the limits. I think it should be easy enough to make them parameters and just list them in the parameters list until Michael could make a fix to the setup page?
Hi everyone - a little advice needed on the Gyro function in the latest code:
Finally got around to flight testing this morning - am running the latest Mission Planner download (.29) and updated to the latest firmware.
On the bench, everything works as expected in terms of collective pitch, cyclic movement and stabilisation. GPS links nicely, magnetometer loaded with correct dec, showing expected heading etc.
I did notice that, with the APM gyro enabled, the movement of the tail servo from the rudder stick input is almost imperceptible - but its in the right direction. I selected the manual throw setting, and got the full range of travel in the correct direction. I then selected Save and the rudder input response reverted to almost imperceptible again.
On picking up the tail and moving it smartly through 90 degrees, which is the way I test my Futaba GY401 setups, the servo responds with the sort of movement range expected, but the direction seems wrong.
I then tried reversing the throw in the setup tab in MP, but all this does is reverse the sense of the stick input. No help there.
So I proceeded somewhat gingerly to the flight test - the heli, a TRex500, is fitted with a huge pair of Morley inflatable floats (which kinda shows my age!), so I figured no harm done if I go careful with the tests.
The heli spooled up nicely, and the control reactions in terms of cyclic were as expected. However, on reaching the head spped where she went light on her floats, it became clear that the inbuilt APM gyro wasn't coping - further gentle exploring indicated that the gyro was trying to respond in the opposite direction and thus exacerbate the torque-spin.
Manual input to counteract the torque was completely ineffective - I think that the output from a manual input was wholly inadequate.
I'm going to set up an external gyro so that I can at least carry on with the flight testing, in terms of stabilise, alt hold and loiter modes. But it seems to me that I can't progress to the Nav modes using WayPoints and RTL unless and until I can get the APM gyro to work
Does anyone have any advice or experience to offer on how I can rectify the problems I'm having with the APM gyro functions. I've checked the forums and my setup thoroughly, and swapped out the servo (a digital HX jobbie) to no effect - I don't suspect the rudder servo being at fault as it works full travel when manually setting the travel in setup
Cheers everyone!
@ Robert... thankyou for working on it. I'm at work at the moment but i'l try it as soon as i get home :)
Ok guys, can you please try and compile and upload this? I've taken a crack at fixing the problem with the swash min and max movements. You will see that *absolute* servo movements are controlled by swash_min and swash_max in heli.pde. Default is 1100 and 1900, but you could change this before compiling.
!!!DO NOT FLY THIS!!!
I want Randy to check it first. I don't even know if it works. I can't test it because my APM is in pieces at the moment. If you try it, please erase/reset the boards and go through setup fresh.
ArduCopter2.1.1r8 - Rob Mod.zip
I have run through the setup again this evening, it all seems to be working now :)
The only thing i can see now is the fact that i have to over run the collective pitch so that when i move the cyclic to its maximum all the servos move correctly. I'll have to be careful not to put a full collective command in because it will most likely stall the blades.
Well here's hoping for a good weekend. Really want to fly it.
I can write a few lines down for the Wiki. Just let me know.
Do you think it will be possible at some stage to get the collective/cyclic serovs moving correctly at maximum movement?
Randy, I read through the wiki. Looks decent, but I might make a few small changes to make it more idiot-proof. I'm a really good idiot tester. ;)
Shouldn't people level their servos between step 3 and 4?
I wonder if in the future it might be possible to make the process automated? Force people to step through the sequence in order.
Roll and Pitch Max, is that the servo's movement? Or is that the maximum aircraft pitch and roll attitude while in Stabilize mode? If that is the latter, then where is it that we can tune in the maximum pitch and roll servo movement? Used to have that function in the CLI.
@ Randy "Isn't it totally reasonable for a servo's whole range to move up or down when you adjust the trim? For example, if servo #1 is 5 points too high at level, wouldn't it also be 5 points too high at the top and bottom?"
I would have thought that the center point would just move up the band rather than the whole band changing. Although saying that, the servos should be mechanicallt trimmed to the best spot so that you dont need much of a trim value.
"What's happening is that after you push the save button, your heli acts as if it's flying and moves the swash around to try and level the heli. I.e. After pushing the save button, if you lean the heli the swash plate moves to counter act that right? So after pushing the save button, if it's changing to a non-level position, it's likely because when it's on your table, it thinks it's not level and so some I term has built up."
It was much more than the i term building up, one of my servos was binding hard against the stop.
I didn't get as much done as I wanted this weekend, but here's what she looks like now:
The platform the batteries are on is hanging from (hopefully) vibration dampers which are attached to the front frame. The camera will be mounted to the same platform. The idea being to increase the mass of the dampened platform as much as possible to absorb the vibes. This is only possible because the camera is so light, otherwise I'd have to put the batteries on the tail. As it is now, I'll have to move the servo to the back of the tail and maybe put the receiver battery at the front end of the tail too. The dampers are a little stiffer than I'd like, we'll have to see how it works out.
Thanks for sorting that out, i had kinda got to that point using a mix of cli and the new setup window.
I went through your wiki and it works out really well, the swash plate still levels off though at max/min collective pitch. But it is flyable. I really like the degree windows for setting up the cyclic. Infact it was pretty easy, i really don't know what happened last night. But as christoph said as soon as you rebooted as if to fly the swash plate was all over the place.
@christoph Follow the wiki, it will work, i am using the one that installs from MP
@ Robert thanks for all your help last night :)
-
10
-
11
-
12
-
13
-
14
of 26 Next