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Arcucopter Hex APM problem: SOLVED!

Posted by Mike Klinefelter on August 14, 2013 at 10:17am

This is my first post here and I am new to the Arducopter and APM.  I have not been flying very long, but my experience has been with DJI naza controller and I found that very easy to fly.  I have a DJI F450 quad and a xAircraft (frame) built hex.  

I bought a used arducopter hex and am having problems with getting it running correctly.  After some initial frustration in getting my TX (Spektrum DX8) set up with the APM, I finally reinstalled the firmware and got that taken care of.  It is a factory built hex with 850kv motors, APM 2.5, ublox gps, sonar, telemetry, Spektrum AR8000 RX.  According to the previous owner it flew very well and was used with a Spektrum DX7.  I figured it would be no problem just binding to my DX8 and leaving all the settings in place.  No luck with that.  But could have been my total lack of experience with the arducopter system.  I am using the latest mission planner.  Connection with mission planner is good.  Everything seems to calibrate ok, including esc calibration. 

I created a video of the problem. Here is the link:

If you listen to the video you can hear the throttle problem.  I arm the APM, then give it just enough throttle to spin the motors.  You can hear the "jumps" in the throttle.  I am not touching the throttle on the radio, it just has sudden momentary jumps.  You can also notice a slight increase in throttle at about 23 sec in the video.  At about 30 sec in the video I apply some elevator and aileron just to test that.  There is also an occasion "clicking" noise when the APM is armed, but not sure where it's coming from.  
This same thing was happening during test flights in stabilize mode.  I did not take it out for any further test flights because I am concerned about the problem.  When I was test flying it before, it did the throttle "jumps" while flying and then it would start to lose power and slowly come down, but when I pulled all the back on the throttle, the motors would keep spinning.  It's a bit scary and frustrating and it's driving me .  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PROBLEM SOLVED (I think): I changed the frame rate on my DX8 from 22ms to 11ms and the throttle spikes went away. Hopefully I can now move on with flying!!!

Thanks,
Mike

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Tags: 25, apm, arducopter
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Replies

  • Mike Klinefelter August 15, 2013 at 7:50am

    Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, Mike

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