So I set up and programmed my APM and sensors according to the directions. I ran a pre-flight test indoors without props and everything seemed perfect; motors spinning as expected, good GPS lock, sonar working, telemetry working, etc. I take it outside and power up and I can't arm. I was thinking I failed the prearm safety check.
Went back inside. Tried to connect to Mission Planner over USB; connection failed . Tried to connect over telemetry; connected but it took a long time. HUD says no GPS lock. UBlox GPS unit has blinking blue LED and GPS test gives me lat. and long. so it is working fine.
I noticed that the ABC LEDs on the board aren't doing anything. If I hit reset, the blue light blinks a few times and goes out. Red and yellow never light. RX/TX lights constantly flash. Now I can't connect to Mission Planner at all. Not through USB or telemetry.
Checked fuse and it passes a continuity test.
Something is really wrong. Not sure how to diagnose this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Went back inside. Tried to connect to Mission Planner over USB; connection failed . Tried to connect over telemetry; connected but it took a long time. HUD says no GPS lock. UBlox GPS unit has blinking blue LED and GPS test gives me lat. and long. so it is working fine.
I noticed that the ABC LEDs on the board aren't doing anything. If I hit reset, the blue light blinks a few times and goes out. Red and yellow never light. RX/TX lights constantly flash. Now I can't connect to Mission Planner at all. Not through USB or telemetry.
Checked fuse and it passes a continuity test.
Something is really wrong. Not sure how to diagnose this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
It turned out to be the optical sensor. Don't know why but whenever I try to power up the APM with the optical sensor connected, it wipes out the eeprom. I'm just going to remove the optical sensor as the position hold is so good with just the 3DR GPS/compass module.
OK. I've narrowed it down to the telemetry, sonar, optical flow, or attopilot. When I disconnect all of those, I can fly. I'll double check the wiring. If I don't find any problems, I'll start plugging in one sensor at a time until I corrupt the eeprom again.
Hi,
Try to use a terminal emulator program such as HyperTerminal in Windows XP, or TeraTerm for Windows 7/8, or minicom for linux/MacOS, and open the APM USB serial interface at 115200 baud and no flow control. Then press the APM reset button and see if you get some interesting error messages at start?
Regards
Soren