AC3.3 TradHeli Release Discussion

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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                • Yes, and very determined that this parameter file. I was saved out of the new, and I also viewed many times, did not find out where incorrect.

                  Also, I found the lock tail effect 3.3.3-rc1 inferior AC3.3, there is always a slow swing, Which is usually called "gold fish."try to adjust the PID is invalid. And on AC3.3 FW, the effect can lock tail.

                  Also, the current Yaw Control Heli FW, there is a clear sense of damping, before AC3.3-rc3 this is not the case, before the end of a very tough lock

              • Hi,

                H_COL_MAX,1600
                H_COL_MID,1500
                H_COL_MIN,1450

                looks strange to me. MAX should be higher, MIN should be lower. Please check collective pitch range.

                • Try to modify the parameters, but the problem is not resolved, H_ * All options are viewed, also did not find anything wrong! @Rob_ seems to have to wait up to help solve it!

                • Thanks you veymuch! I seemed to understand, because AC3.3.3-rc1 of Acro and stable mode can be set each pitch curve, so pitch with +/-10° pitch, collective pitch range of about -2° to +8° in Stabilisation mode. I try again,Thk !

  • I'm just finishing up a TRex600 /  PixHawk / DDVP tail for photo/video missions, and expect to start tuning within a few weeks. The machine will use some features of my similarly-configured 500 that seemed worthwhile for such a heli. The 500 used APM, and of course only AC3.1, so I've a few new tricks to learn. On the 600 I've loaded AC3.2 for starters, and will have to read through this thread, thankfully it is not as large as some!

    But, if I may: is AC3.3 trad-heli essentially ready for general use or still a bit touchy as Rob's initial post warned?

    If still just in testing, what time-frame is anticipated for final touches and general release?

    What's the link for the setup video I saw mentioned somewhere but now can't find?

    Thanks, and best witches for the New Year!

    peter

    • Hi Peter, 

      AC3.3 is pretty much ready to go.  I hope to release it stable in a few weeks.  On the current 3.3.1-rc1, there's only a few issues:

      1) if you are in Alt_Hold, Loiter, etc (not Acro and Stab) and you shut off the motor while in the air, the collective goes immediately full-down and will slam it into the ground.  Don't do this. :)  For the stable release coming up (and you should actually see 3.3.3-rc1 very soon) this has been fixed.  If you shut the motor off in the air in Alt Hold or Loiter, it will command a 1 m/s descent rate, which you cannot over-ride. This results in a manageable situation if it was a mistake.  It also can end up landing fairly well if you are close to the ground, but I really don't recommend this.  If you did it at altitude, even at 1 m/s descent, the rotor will eventually lose energy and the heli will crash.  But it should buy you enough time to restart the motor if you want (as opposed to the current situation where it goes full negative).

      2) there are a few minor bug fixes that went out with 3.3.2 for multirotors. You can see these in the release notes.  3.3.3 for Tradheli will get the same fixes.  

      3) Finally, I found a situation where, I would start the rotor, and take off in Stabilize before the Rotor Runup Timer had finished counting up.  I then switched to Loiter a few inches off the ground, at which point it did the 1 m/s force-descend.  Probably was I hadn't realized that the Rotor runup Timer was not finished.  I changed it so that if you try to enter an auto-collective mode, before the Rutor Runup Timer is completed, it simply will reject the mode change request.  You will be left in whatever mode you started in (either Acro or Stabilize is the only way you can get yourself in this situation, the auto-collective modes won't even try to take off before the Runup is complete).  You can try changing modes again after timer has finished.

      Also note, that the Mission Planner beta is almost finished changes for the new setup of helicopter.  It will be great when this is done. Helicopter setup will be even easier, and I'll shoot another video.

      • Hi Rob,

         If you shut the motor off in the air in Alt Hold or Loiter, it will command a 1 m/s descent rate, which you cannot over-ride.

        Can we please have the choice between 1m/s and i.e. 5m/s. The 5m/s would be good for an autorotation or am I missing something ?

        All my other FBL-systems show the following behaviour: as soon as you release the stick, the swash plate deflection is reduced by half every second, in other words after 4 seconds a 100% deflection is reduced to 6.25% = basically it is centered (90° to main shaft). This helps a lot if you are forced to launch in rough terrain. Could you please add this.

      • Howdy Rob,

        That's all good news except for the full negative "landing"! Looks like my timing for finishing the 600 build will neatly coincide with the best AC yet. One important change from the 500 will be: In the mountains here I can easily fly in areas where 2.4G gets shaded and/or weak, so the 600 will have the ULRS 433 MHz Tx/Rx pioneered by flipflap - have you checked out that thread at RCG?

        I assume the SToRM32 direct-to-PixHawk connection has been enabled now, as described at

        http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-storm32-gimbal/

        ?

        • Hi Rob,

          I noticed a strange offset during setting up the collective pitch. Following your new video setup. SV_MAN=2/3/4. and pitch -5/0/+10 all works fine.

          Then with SV_MAN=0 and in Stabilize mode my pitch range is now -6/0/+9

          I'm not sure why the -1 deg offset. Could it be a mixing problem in IM_STAB_COL_1 =0 and IM_STAB_COL_4=100 ?

          • Hi Steve, thanks for the report, I'll look into it.

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