Hi I just experienced a situation which probably happened to most pilot, I land my copter, someone talk to me and I forgot to unarme the motors.
Then when I went to check the copter I accidently push a little the throttle. Nothing bad happen, but I remember of my previous German X-ufo.
As soon as the motors are armed It would be better to start the motor at lowest speed, without any regulation. The regulation would start only when throttle become more than xx% .
So no more accident of those kind could happen, and no need of LEDs signal to check motor arming.
Maybe the difficult point is to define the lowest speed.
Replies
I don't think messing around with throttle regulation woud be good, it would confuse things. There are already plenty of possibilities to avoid the situation you were in : motorleds, relay operated leds or show leds or let motors spin at minimum when armed. Check config.h for default possibilities.
If you like the motors to spin at minimum throttle when armed, use the following setting in the apm_config.h (overriding the default) :
# define CUT_MOTORS 0 // do we cut the motors with no throttle? 0=no 1=yes default=1
# define MINIMUM_THROTTLE 130 // = 13% you can modify to your wishes
in the case of minimumt throttle 130 the throttle will be constant at 13% when stick is moved from 0-13%. Only above 13% stick the motors will increase RPM
I think you can do this by changing the minimum throttle values in mission planner.
I fly also with MK and Multiwii and I like motors running at idle when I arm them.
My Mikro does the same. It took some getting used to but I like it now. I think you need to make sure that the system can disarm quickly for safety though.
No-one has an opinion about this? Is it that stupid? I thing it would be a nice behaviour improvement.