Hello to everyone here. I've been reading the site for some time and finally decided to build my own.
So I've built all my hardware and successfully tested the APM/IMU via the Mission Planner. The sensors worked perfectly.
I've since attached all my RC equipment and that's where the problems have started. For the first attempt I plugged everything in, started up the Mission Planner, Uploaded firmware and tested as mentioned above. Following that, I ran through the setup and all seemed to work fine. I then attempted to calibrate the ESC's. Nothing worked. So after many attempts I decided to start over. I went through downloading the newest firmware(which had changed since the last time). It still connected to the mission planner and seemed ok. HOWEVER, anytime I run the setup, it just hangs up on Radio. Either in CLI or using the GUI, It never gets past the Radio setup.
The Rx & Tx work, however, when plugged into the APM/IMU, nothing seems to work. I've just noticed that the PPM light is not turning on at all.
I am at a loss on what to do. The board still connects to the mission planner and cli. The Power LED on the Oilpan still turns on.It's like the Rx won't talk with the board...
any ideas?
Replies
The final outcome was that Carmen at 3D Robotics is sending me another board(should receive it tomorrow). They have no idea what is wrong with my original board. Nobody can figure it out. It just isn't work...kind of strange. Either way I should be able to take to the skies tomorrow FINALLY
So I talked with Carmen out at 3D Robotics (DIY Drones Store) out in SoCal and she said it was a problem with the 328 chip. It won't program correctly. So they are repairing it and will ship it back when they have finished.
Once I receive it again, I'll give it another shot. Lets hope that was the problem.
So my APM got delivered back to the DIYDrones store in CA yesterday. I'm hoping it's a quick turn around. I'm dying to fly my quad.
I'll post another update once I have things back in my possession and working.
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After reading many posts today, I've come to the conclusion that I have a wiring problem, or I've fried my MUX. If it's the latter, I don't know what to do...
Anyway, I'm going to attach pictures & video to try and help.
As you can see from the first & second picture, the PPM & MUX light are not on. In these pictures, I'm powering the APM solely on usb.
These next three pictures show how I've wired up the board/esc's/rx etc...
All the ESC -> APM are done in the method shown below. Except for ch.1 which uses std. 3 pin plug to power APM.
The video below shows the current problem I'm having...
I am now running AC 2.0.29 Beta. I have confirmed this with the CLI. I am still able to connect to the APM and see the artificial horizon respond to me moving the board.
As Chris suggested in this post, I installed and ran the ArduCopter_Demo program and got these outputs:
Ch0:1500 Ch1:1500 Ch2:1500 Ch3:1500 Ch4:1500 Ch5:1500 Ch6:1500 Ch7:1500
Ch0:1500 Ch1:1500 Ch2:1500 Ch3:1500 Ch4:1500 Ch5:1500 Ch6:1500 Ch7:1500
Ch0:1500 Ch1:1500 Ch2:1500 Ch3:1500 Ch4:1500 Ch5:1500 Ch6:1500 Ch7:1500
Ch0:1500 Ch1:1500 Ch2:1500 Ch3:1500 Ch4:1500 Ch5:1500 Ch6:1500 Ch7:1500
Ch0:1500 Ch1:1500 Ch2:1500 Ch3:1500 Ch4:1500 Ch5:1500 Ch6:1500 Ch7:1500
Ch0:1500 Ch1:1500 Ch2:1500 Ch3:1500 Ch4:1500 Ch5:1500 Ch6:1500 Ch7:1500
I lost him after he said take off the IMU and try the test again...that doesn't seem to make sense, can anyone explain??
That's it for this long winded post, hopefully someone can help. The Mrs. is getting fed up with the incessant beeping and me staying up all hours of the night trying to figure this out...not to mention the very expensive paper weight that it is currently. I'm very afraid that I've ruined my board somehow.
At this point I'm convinced the PPM encoder is not working correctly.
As I said earlier, the right stick on my Tx will occasionally control two of the motors while connected to the APM board. The Blue PPM light is never on. The Tx, Rx and ESC's work perfectly fine when plugged in to Ch.3. It's only when I plug them into the board.
I've checked the soldering and everything is fine there. Everything on the board works EXCEPT for the PPM light...
I may try to reflash the PPM firmware as a last ditch effort. Beyond that I feel I have a very expensive paper weight on my desk.
I just loaded ArduPiratesNG thinking that may work better...All ESC's are calibrated and functioning/driving motors directly via the Rx ch. 3
I can put the APM in fly mode, plug in LiPo and they play their normal 123 tone. Then, motors 1 & 2 beep very quickly while 3 & 4 beep slowly. If I move throttle stick on Tx, nothing happens. If I move the other stick on Tx, the motors seem to arm and throttle up to 50%. Each motor is controlled seperatly(i.e. if i move the stick to top right, both motors go 100%. If i go bottom right, one cuts off and 1 is 100%, and so on).
This is all being controlled while the APM is powered and all connections are via the RC pins on the APM. So there is SOME functioning, however, not at all like I expect.
And I still do not have the blue ppm light lit up on the OilPan.
Your not getting power to the Rx from the APM. The APM is powered from one of the ESC's. Try Calibrating one ESC at a time plugged into the Rx on ch 3. Then try them with the APM & IMU. Check out my fast track blog It might help. Quad Build FastTrack Guide for ArduPiratesNG