apc220 with mp

Last night I attempted to give my APCs a little more breathing room to increase the reliability of configuration and telemetry actions. I have added a counter to gcs_send_message(MSG_RETRY_DEFERRED); in the main loop and it certainly helps with the consistency that parameters are both pulled and modified. See below for the modification. This is a first attempt at this type of delay mod., as my other attempts have been to simply eliminate some of the Mavlink data being sent. This should keep us fully functional.

In ArduCopter.pde

First, declare a new int. variable up in the declarations section. I chose int DEFERRED_COUNT = 0; .

Then locate gcs_send_message(MSG_RETRY_DEFERRED); and encapsulate it as follows:

// Main loop
static void fast_loop()
{
    // try to send any deferred messages if the serial port now has
    // some space available (every 10 main loop cycles. we will experiment with this value)

   if (DEFERRED_COUNT > 10){
   gcs_send_message(MSG_RETRY_DEFERRED);
   DEFERRED_COUNT = 0;}

// increment the counter
DEFERRED_COUNT = DEFERRED_COUNT + 1;

Now I can use the Connect button every time instead of using Ctrl+T to first initiate the connection. I can also modify parameters without fail. Can you guys see if this improves your situation as well?

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John Church December 21, 2011 at 7:09am

Last night I attempted to give my APCs a little more breathing room to increase the reliability of configuration and telemetry actions. I have added a counter to gcs_send_message(MSG_RETRY_DEFERRED); in the main loop and it certainly helps with the consistency that parameters are both pulled and modified. See below for the modification. This is a first attempt at this type of delay mod., as my other attempts have been to simply eliminate some of the Mavlink data being sent. This should keep us fully functional.

In ArduCopter.pde

First, declare a new int. variable up in the declarations section. I chose   int DEFERRED_COUNT = 0; .

Then locate gcs_send_message(MSG_RETRY_DEFERRED); and encapsulate it as follows:

// Main loop
static void fast_loop()
{
    // try to send any deferred messages if the serial port now has
    // some space available (every 10 main loop cycles. we will experiment with this value)

   if (DEFERRED_COUNT > 10){
   gcs_send_message(MSG_RETRY_DEFERRED);
   DEFERRED_COUNT = 0;}

    // increment the counter
   DEFERRED_COUNT = DEFERRED_COUNT + 1;

Now I can use the Connect button every time instead of using Ctrl+T to first initiate the connection. I can also modify parameters without fail. Can you guys see if this improves your situation as well?
Oliver November 18, 2011 at 11:46am

Same thing over here. I only can send write commands reliable via APC220 if no other data is being transmitted via this channel. It seems to be that 19200 bd is simply not enough for transmitting telemetry data as well as updating the configuration ...
Ravi November 18, 2011 at 5:45am

i have used APC220 with APM2.24. it does writes once in a while and does not most of the times. will find a wayout whay it does so and will put a post.

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apc220 with mp

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