This is a discussion re the ArduCopter-3.1 AutoTune feature. A place for people to report successes and failures, ask questions and get answers.
The AutoTune wiki page is here.
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
This reply was deleted.
Replies
Someone asked for extra details on the ATUN and ATDE messages in the dataflash log so I've slightly updated the dataflash wiki page to include the fields and a brief description of what it means.
Hi all and specifically Marco Robustini,
Auto Tune on a HEAVY Hex:
So I am trying to summerize what I need to do to get a good Autotune given that my first one on my newly built Hex Frame did not turn out very well tuned:
Result of the Autotune starting from standard params was that it became very solid but the whole thing vibrates rapidly. It also does not respond to Pitch and Roll well, it does it at a very shallow angle (with sticks at max) and vibrates even more at the same time. The Good news is that it is rock solid in its position while in loiter (but still vibrates).
Configuration:
- APM 2.5, AC3.1 mounted in the center top frame which connects directly to the arms. Mounted on Kyosho Zeal tape.
- Hex Frame F800-EVO (DJI S800 EVO (stiff Arms) Clone) Similar to Marco Robustini's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-igl79Iw_sI But the EVO version with retractable gear.
- Retractable Gear (not retracted while in Autotune)
- Nex5t Camera and gimbal.
- 8000mah 6s.
- Hover at 48% in and out.
- Total Weight: 6.1kg
- Balanced CG.
Wind condition: Moderate to low about 5-7mph.
Possible solutions:
1) There are 6 vibration ( anti-vibration kit by Secraft ) dampers between the landing gear frame and rails (where the battery is attached) part and the body part where the arms are attached (APM mounted on the body part) . Possibly remove them and attach directly to the landing gear and rails part?
2) Gear up or down during Autotune?
3) Remove the gimbal altogether during AT? (Although I had a matching weight replacing the camera attached to it during the AT and I secured the movement of the Gimbal servos (Using Duct tape, but I still had the gimbal dampers unsecured) I could see the gimbal swaying back and forth during the AT.
4) Leave the Gimbal on but secure it so that its dampers and servos are not moving at all. This will maintain the weight distribution of the system during the AT?
5) A combination of any of the above?
What else would you guys suggest?
My results are attached after the Autotune starting from standard.
Thanks guys for all your efforts.
Screen Shot 2013-12-19 at 3.56.41 PM.png
2013-12-19 19-15.log
I finally did an AutoTune last week. It's taken me a while to get the numbers posted but AutoTune did a great job on my quad. I had to lower the Stab P numbers back down some as I like it a bit more tame in stabilize but here are the numbers before and after. The Stab P numbers have been lowered from 11.5 to 6.5 for the time being.
Param Before After
Stab P 4.5 11.5
Rate Roll
P .0850 .0450
I .0850 .0450
D .0025 .0040
Rate Pitch
P .0850 .0400
I .0850 .0400
D .0025 .0040
My throttle mid value is 390. This thing, even being just a quick throw down experiment, flies as good or better than the higher dollar NAZA stuff at my field. It will hold a Loiter rock solid within a foot or two radius on a windy day, hold altitude within a couple of feet in alt hold and auto lands so soft the plank guys would call it a "greaser" landing. None of the NAZA powered ships auto land anywhere near as good as they all tend to bounce a little. Everyone at our field is really impressed with this little experiment.
I have no idea what the motors are other than they are 1000kV, the speed controllers are RCTimer 20A SimonK and the frame is now a Turnigy HAL. The original frame needed better motor mounts and longer landing gear so I just switched everything to the HAL which was cheap courtesy of a friend. The Controller is a APM 2.5 with the external uBlox GPS and Compass combo mounted 14 cm up from the frame centerline. I've never had problems with toilet boiling so I guess I've been lucky and missed out on that excitement.
Thanks to all of the Developers for the hard work that makes my weekends fun.
I see the latest mission planner 1.2.89. the FW is 3.1. is the 3.1 now official? with autotune and no more beta?
I'm managing to complete my autotune successfully (without gimbal, battery mounted centrally), and the copter looks to fly well with the new PIDs however as soon as I bolt the gimbal back on (1kg of gimbal + camera) I get a reasonably violent high frequency oscillation which I can't get rid of until I drop the rate D from 0.015 to around 0.010. Even after that, it looks like the whole copter still isn't flying completely smoothly, as my gimbal is still shaking around a lot on it's dampers, which I think is because the copter is shaking rather than the gimbal PIDs being bad.
I just rebuilt it today to have the battery on top of the centre of the main frame plate, as previously the battery was mounted a reasonable way rear of the CG and I thought this was this cause of my bad performance, but turns out it's not.
It's a UAP2 quad, and I have the motors on the vibration isolation mounts (http://www.shop.aglhobbiesllc.com/Motor-Mounts/Anti-Vibration-Mount...). Not sure if this is the cause. Might have to try swapping the mounts and see if I can get improved performance.
Autotune log is here:
By the way, in case people didn't see it I've added a demo video to the autotune wiki page.
Hello everyone,
I wanted to submit my log after a crash, I have successfully carried out the autotune, then I tried to fly with the new parameters apparently everything is ok, then I tried a quick turn right then left and went into the quad fast swing that does not I was able to check and did a flip, fortunately without damage.
tomorrow I'll try 3.1.RC8.
Crash Check it worked great the engines stopped immediately.
Great job guys, great team.
Greetings to all
2013-12-07 13-02 1.log
finally successful AUTOTUNE for my big Y6
APM 2.0 external GPS with separate antena(u-blox 7N)
433Mhz 3DR radio
motors: Turnigy Multistar 4830 420KV
ESC:Turnigy Plush 40A (no simonK)
batt: Turnigy Nanotech 6S 8000MAh 25-50C 1.1 kg x2= 16 000 MAh
props 14x5 top 15x5.5 bottom(actually is 14x5 on motor 4 and 6,bcs i didnt have anything else,others are broken)
RTF 5kg,70 cm from motor to motor,center of APM is 1cm to front from center of frame
So what changed since my last unsuccesful attempts of autotune...not much EXCEPT
-I DID SWAP MOTOR 4 AND 6 SIGNAL WIRES AND ALSO CHANGE ROTATION of them SO all props on top have a same size and direction(CW)
-ONE OF TwO BATTS(in paralel) I HAD ON FIRST AUTOTUNE TRY IS HAVING A BAD CELL OR TWO(i dunno how,those expensive batts was never under 3.5V per cell and never charged with more than 3A)
-no gimbal,no sonar this time...and my attopilot sensor still have stupid values sometime(90% of time is ok but sometimes is not,ussually if i leave setting to other is ok but mistakes happen when i set to Attopilot 180A..not always..??)
-since i was aware my PIDs are not good i just entered the values someone else in this thread get from autotune of y6(ATTACHMENT)
-now about the PIDS...i must say i was never even close,very big numbers
-my 433 radio stoped working(on my home laptop is perfect 99%,on my field one is not,never above 50%) so i run home with powered y6 to save pids first
- i will try how it flys later today,but from hoovering at home i can tell it is better
-logs...hm i hope i uploaded correct ones....
y6autotunedPIDs.jpg
2013-12-05 15-50 12.log
2013-12-05 15-51 13.log
Another autotune attempt, this time on a hexa Tarot 680. After parking for a while in AltHold the process started. Took around 3 mins then stopped again. Initial PIDs were not optimal so that's why you can see in the log files how hexa ascends up to 100m. However when everything finished (standing still for 20(?) sec) the copter was switched back to Stabilize and eventually landed, motors were disarmed. When connected to MP via USB there were no new PIDs displayed - just the old numbers.
What could have been wrong? Is it possible that the autotuning was in fact still in progress and the pilot interrupted it? Can you extract the final PID values from the log?
2013-12-04 12-43 3.log
Just wanted to add my very good experience with autotune. I had run it for 3-4 times already and the results are very good. Copter is absolutery steady with the recommended PIDs. I will check how it behaves when Stabilize P are a bit lower than final 8.85, that seems (and also feels) a bit too high. But it's good to know where is the limit of the frame.
However may I kindly ask anyone skilled to check my thread on copter ascending rapidly after swift moves in AltHold or Loiter? The thread is here:
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/when-moving-in-althold-or-loiter-...
And it seems that it's not just me with rather not typical TBS Discovery clone seeing this issue. Unfortunately this issue prevents me from using AltHold and Loiter modes, e.g. effectivelly from easy FPV flying.
Thanks in advance for any comments. And thanks once again for all this great work you are doing for the ArduCopter project.
Result of my recent AutoTune w/3.1RC7. Rock solid:
-
35
-
36
-
37
-
38
-
39
of 39 Next