Hi there,
I have a problem with my APM 1.4. I build my copter about 2 years ago and after a little bit of trial'n'error everything just worked fine. Last time I flew with it, was end of last year.
It's an APM 1.4 with IMU Shield and GPS.
Yesterday I changed the allocation of the APM, the powerboard, the lipo and so on just to get it a little more compact because I wanted to mount another landinggear with not that much space.Actually I didn't change any wiring or so. I did disengage some of the cables but in the end put everything back together as it was before.
Everything done I wanted to try if everything works. I put on the lipo, the APM LED's flashed and the motors beeped. I armed the motors (Mode2) by putting the left stick full right (so 0% throttle, full right yaw). 2 motors stopped beeping and when I released the stick carefully one motor spinns up - HUH??? stick back right it stopps, throttle up: another motor spinns up.
Same with the right stick of the remote control. If I put the stick in the right lower corner the other 2 motors stop beeping and start spinning as soon I release the stick from it's corner.
So lipo off, check wiring - nothing wrong!
Then Mission Planner Update and I tried to connect via USB: no MAVlink connection (after timeout). I tried different COM ports, different baud rates, different versions of Mission Planner. I can't load a new APM firmware because of "Failed to upload firmware - check your wiring." Only Power LEDs of APM and IMU shield are on. All others are dead.
I never did much via CLI, but as far as I know the stuff it doesn't work either: switch away from the pins, reset APM, USB connection, open terminal - nothing!!!
I'm not an expert and I was pretty happy that everything worked out great in the beginning but now I don't know anything more to do. Has anyone an idea what to try or is my APM just broken and I have to get a new one?
Thanks so much for some ideas.
Replies
I have the problem too, I'm using the ArduCopter 2.6 lated update. Everything going right till on last Sunday my quad can't take off well like before. Just like unstable when take off an hovering, it's YAWing all the way also the pitch and roll are to aggressive.
I try to upload an different firmware also setup the PID but not working. And if use ArduCopter above 2.6 the radio wouldn't calibrate with the APM. I think there something wrong with the board. Every time I will updated the board I always go to the TERMINAL and "setup - erase - reset than reboot the APM".
Hope someone here could help us with the old school board.
I would say it's kind of fixed. I disembled everything again and checked the function of the componentes just lying arround and magically it worked again. So maybe I overrode two contacts with the small washer I used to srew the boad to the frame.
So I tried another arrangement and did not use any washers on the board and it worked, all motors spin correctly and the USB connection works as it should.
There still seems to be a small issue with the throttle because the lowest stick position almost lets the copter lift off. Would be pretty hard to land again with this settings, but I'll figure it out - hopefully just a software issue.
Thanks