WARNING to TradHeli users:
Do not attempt to fly AC3.3 until you hear otherwise from me. I have not even bench tested it yet, let alone test flown it. There are quite a lot of changes that have gone in that could be crash-o-matic for helicopters.
AC3.3 release for Tradheli is likely to be delayed.
This post will serve as the official release progress thread for TradHeli.
Warning: DO NOT FLY RC6! It has a critical bug that will likely end in a crash.
Warning for RC5:
RATE_YAW_FILT_HZ param will change defaults from 5Hz to 20Hz to be more suitable for helicopters. If you have never changed this parameter from 5 before, then it will automatically update the value to 20 without warning. This much faster filter will probably require reduction in your P and D terms, and the yaw may oscillate badly. Be prepared to retune these. As a safety measure, probably cut them in half for your first take-off.
Warning #2 for RC5:
I accidentally broke the Landing Detector. It will probably never trigger. You should land in Stabilize mode, or be prepared to shut down the motor as soon as it touches the ground in Alt_Hold, Loiter, Auto, etc.
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UAS;
Are referring to the Matbotics sonars? If so, in my opinion its a waste of time. I could never get mine to work as smooth as I would like. To much vibration, air movement or the surface I was flying over was not appropriate for good readings. LIDAR may be a different story.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
David,
I could not agree more!
I have under a 700Heli and a 500Heli each a sonar. Not happy! Works good over concrete.
My new LIDAR is in the mail and will be attached to the 700 Heli immediately. Both fly with Fw 3.3 beta.
Thanks for the feedback. I already have it so i might as well try it. I had great success with it on a multicopter but never tried it on the helicopter.
Hi guys,
I started doing a video showing the setup, which has been slightly painful. I've been trying to use the freeware CamStudio to record my screen to show Mission Planner, but I can't get it to output a file that Adobe Premiere will work with. Anybody have any other suggestions?
I've had to recut the video and add subtitles, should be able to upload it later today.
In the meantime, I've started a document to detail the helicopter changes. This will be a living document, so please read through it, and if you have any questions, ask and I'll answer them. This is a supplement to the general AC3.3 changes documented by Randy in the AC3.3 release thread and wiki.
AC3.3 Heli Changes
The document is now open to anybody for commenting.
I'm sure I can say this for the Traditional Heli. Community, Thanks for the hard work. We truely appreciate your time in making this a better platform.
Rob, have you tried Microsoft's Screen Recorder? Its a free utility that works well for recording desktop sessions for how-to setups and capturing tech support stuff, if I remember correctly there's a variety of output formats.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/d/0/fd05def7-68a1-4f71-854...
Good luck!
Jeff
Thanks, I'll check it out!
Fine with me :)
Ok, here is a Hex file which you can try on the bench for the setup. This can be uploaded using the "Upload Custom Firmware" option in the Firmwares page.
Now, a caution, and this is VERY important. Before updating, you will want to go into the Full Parameters List and save your parameters. Then, after uploading, go back into Full Parameter List, and look at H_PHANG, and please let me know what you get. On one of my helicopters, this went from 0 to 1760 (this would be very bad). I think some of the parameters might have gotten moved around with this update. It's really the H_ parameters that we are concerned with. Please do a Compare Params against your saved param file, and see if any of them have changed. But do not just over-write all your changed params with the old values yet. Let me know what you're finding.
Best thing to do, is use the Reset Params on Full Parameter List, to reset your entire parameter table. Then boot up again, go back into the Param List, and now do a Compare against that saved file. Uncheck the box that selects all the params. Now go through the list, and only select the relevant ones. The ones you primarily want to bring back from the old file are the ATC_, H_, and all your RATE_ params should be carried forward. You will likely find the Rate params will benefit from a retune on 3.3, but you should be able to start from where you left off.
I am working on a video that will show you how to go through the setup. This firmware is flight tested, but please hold off until we're sure the setup is working well, and particularly the parameters. Playing with this firmware will not waste anybody's time, as the official release will be very close to this with only a few minor changes.
AC3.3-Heli Bench Test.px4
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