Im just having the worst of times with this thing lately. I have the Arducopter complete kit with 2.5 and 850kv. I swapped it all over to a F450 frame and have had nothing but issues.
The log attached is what I think is my last flight where I am just flying along and it flipped over. I am trying to use Loiter and the craft is just all over the place and eventually starts the CW rotation. I would change declination but its auto?
When connected to the Mission Planner the craft floats all over the place on the flight data screen. I would say it floats well over a 50-100ft range. From my backyard lake to across the street into their backyard woods and back. It never did that before but I am inside a 2 story house with 5sats, HDOP 2.9 and 3dfix. I assume it would be better outside?
Either way I have been fighting this craft in loiter mode bad. Im starting to slightly get frustrated because I would like to start to enjoy flying it instead of constantly having to research adjust try this change that make this its just really getting old. I have yet to have a good flight with the F450 frame.
The stock arductopter quad frame was nice but I didnt like the aluminum aspect of it so I swapped. However that craft would fly decently in loiter but had a lot of oscillation.
F450 Frame
APM 2.5
Stock ESC's and 850 motors
10x4.5 props
3dr power adapter but not running current
APM is mounted on top plate, PDB is the stock bottom plate of the 450 frame. The GPS is mounted above the APM about 1.5 inches. Ive tried the GPS on the right front arm and the front of the bottom plate.
I have reduced loiter pid to .5 from 1.0 but have tried as low as .3. CompasMot has been performed, throttle based.
The APM is mounted on velcro to give it a little vibration absorption.
I have done several compass calibrations and accel calibrations. I have tried auto trim and most of what I could research.
I attached the latest log, see anything that could help me fix all this and get flying again? I am still researching how to view and understand these logs.
Replies
Firstly - I think you need to do some work on the vibration reduction as they look to be pretty marginal.
Secondly, you seem to be having very poor GPS performance. The HDOP is very high during the periods you're trying to loiter (in that log anyway):
I had similar issues when my GPS was too close to my RX - try experimenting with spacing things out to see if you can improve the GPS lock. You're trying to get HDOP below 2 and relatively stable. Certainly the HDOP won't be helping your loiter, especially combined with the vibration.
Not sure about the flip - it looks to me like there's a lot of oscillation, but I have to dash - may get a chance to look more later...