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APM 2.6, Tilt gimbal servo won't work

Posted by Micah Epps on January 23, 2014 at 9:23pm

I have a servo I'd like to use for a DIY camera tilt mechanism.

ArduCopter v2.6 on a 3DR Quad-D

1- 3DR sold me the entire thing and configured it in their shop.  It flies beautifully.  Just FYI for those who may be familiar with any nuances.

2- I'm using the sum PPM mode from my RC receiver- one single data line.

3- APM Mission Planner v2.0.0 verifies that I am getting the tuning knob action on raw channel 6.

4- MP -> Initial Setup -> Optional Setup -> Camera Gimbal -> Tilt

Tilt = RC11

Input Ch=RC6

Limits=Default

5- I've tried a servo on A11, A10, A9, A8, OUT 6 and OUT 5.  I've tried using the A0...A11 pins as servo outs and also tried using "OUTPUTS"'s power and ground in conjunction with the A0...A11 signal lines.  Iterating across A11 to A0 while traversing the transmitter knob.  I've tried with USB power and with mains battery power.

I have redone my Radio Calibration (and now I'm getting a radio calibration error via AndroPilot)

How the heck is this supposed to work?  All I want to do is control a servo with my CH6 knob !!!

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Tags: a11, pwm, output, pitch, servo, tilt
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Replies

  • mP1 March 2, 2014 at 9:10pm

    Some rx like ezuhf allow you to send all your channels on one channel (muxed) and a single channel on another pin.

    What i did was feed my 8 channels from my ezuhf to the apm and my channel 6 straight to the device skipping the apm.

    • Geoff > mP1 March 2, 2014 at 9:33pm

      Ah, well that works, thanks! - I'm using an openLRSng, so channel 6 still works normally with PPM out on ch5.

      Would be nice to be able to configure everything via APM Planner, though... I guess I'll file a bug.

      • mP1 > Geoff March 3, 2014 at 12:09am

        The benefit of doing this is you can send rssi from your rx on channel 6 thru the muxed channel. This means your minimosd can then read channel 6 from the apm which really has your rssi and display that using the latest minimosd-extra. If the gimbal went thru channel 6 to the apm, you wouldnt be able to send the rssi because all 8 channels are now taken with other important stuff.

  • Geoff March 2, 2014 at 8:20pm

    Did you figure this out? I'm also using PPM to connect my RX and can't get the tilt control to work - seems like maybe this only works with direct input from the RX channel 6 to APM channel 6 input. :(

  • Micah Epps January 25, 2014 at 7:50pm

    OK I flashed to ArduPilot v3.0.1 firmware...

    I still can't get a standard servo to respond to Channel 6 on my transmitter.

    Any help???  Certainly someone has done this before!!!

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