Cheerson CX 20 / Quanum Nova Tested Firmware

Joining your thread so I can figure this out too. I've spent a week "searching" and there are THOUSANDS of pages - all with conflicting information based on different versions and I can't even tell which version I have and the posts rarely list which version they're talking about unless you follow one conversation back 50-60 posts and get lucky enough to see that the poster actually listed it vs it being inferred by other conversation. These search engines have a long way to go. They're good enough to get me to sites like this but from there, they often fail to bring up the right information - often because I don't know exactly what the engine is looking for and because the engines usually aren't smart enough to realize that CX20, CX-20, CX 20, CX/20 are all the same.

I went ahead and updated because I couldnt get my motors to unlock. Even then, it didn't fix it.I ended up finding a set of factory params uploaded by someone on a random board and uploaded those and now it works. But the thing is still quirky in all of the auto modes. RTL works about 50% of the time. Other times it will just go wherever the hell it wants. Hover will hover for a bit, then start wandering up and down like a sideways pendulum and eventually hit the ground and take off and then hit even harder next time and the rotors never stop unless I return to manual control and kill them. I already smashed and epoxied my landing gear three times!

I suspect it's because I'm just guessing at some of what you're asking about. I hate asking because someone always gets on and says "Use the search function"....as if I haven't tried. I find it much quicker to just figure it all out through trial and error. It will probably cost me a lot in parts in the end, but hey - it's still fun. lol

So I'm not quite sure about all this. So I really hope that if I'm wrong, someone corrects me because it's all guess work. So don't blame me if you make decisions based on this info and it turns out bad. lol

It seems to me that ADM is kind of the same word as "PC" with countless clones out in the world. The CX-20 flight controller is "Auto Pathfinder" which is I believe just another one of those clones. I have no idea how to even tell which APM version it's cloned however.

The difference with all of the versions appears to simply be a matter of the processors, optional pins for additional features, etc. So again, the PC comparison is motherboard/processor combos. Back in the day, you had IBM PCs, and then everything else that wasn't Apple was pretty much a PC clone; You have your Texas Instruments, Atari, Commodore, etc. But none of those would run Windows. Only the PC and the clones would.

Eventually all of them, whether IBM or not, were just referred to as PCs. All would run windows, but some wouldn't use all of the features. Some motherboards had greater capacity for RAM, video cards, more ports for things, etc. Some were of better quality. Some were of dubious quality. As they progressed, new things would come out that older boards wouldn't be able to use. Like my current motherboard and USB 3.0. (Well, I added a PCI card to do it but I'm sure you get the point). And then as things progressed, newer versions of Windows would come out, but they had hardware requirements. So for example, Windows 7 simply won't run on an old 450 Mhz Pentium III Katmai processor.

These flight controllers appear to be the same way. APM appears to be the Pentium III generation of flight controller. Pentium III would run XP just fine and XP is a good OS. On the PCs, you had 250Mhz, 300 Mhz, 350 Mhz and so on. On the APM these specs included the processor, memory, and some of the other things like pinouts. Fortunately the flight controllers seem to be less confusing than PCs. APM only has so many versions. There seems to be a 2.5, 2.5.2 and a 2.6 and probably more both before, after, and in between. The OS for these "machines" is Ardupilot. But of course there are other options just like you can run Linux, Debian, etc on a PC.

PixHawk and PX4 are both more modern versions, much like Having a PC with newer 64bit OS capability and an intel core i3 or core i7. I'm not sure which is better but if I priced them, it would probably be obvious.

From what I can tell, the APM and all of those clones can only run up to the 3.1.2 version of ArduPilot. Of course, I could be wrong on all of this including this point. And just like windows, you can load any version of windows on any PC and if the hardware won't support it, it will likely just not let you do it.

From there, I believe Mission Planner will simply give you options based on what your hardware supports. So like with a PC, if you don't have a USB port, it won't install USB drivers. If you don't have telemetry, it won't prompt you to setup telemetry. But if you had it, you would have access to change it.

So with all that said, I just let it update. Of course any time you put the latest and greatest in, there's likely bugs. So it's possible that some of the problems I'm having would be gone if I rolled back a version or two. But I really haven't figured out yet how to tell exactly which APM version I have and which Ardupilot "OS" I'm running. Or even if my entire theory that I just typed out is even remotely accurate! :-)

So far, in my experiments, I haven't noticed any difference by choosing PX4 or Pixhawk. But that may change. I am kind of annoyed the it seems that often, APM itself isn't an option. It would be very nice if the software stated something like "For APM X.X, choose PX4 in any block that doesn't have APM as an option". But then again, it's possible that this is just a bad idea! lol

But hey. I'm learning. So how about we just take this thread and use it to learn together. Then we can get beat up less for asking noob questions instead of searching for 20 hours for something that turns out to be something we don't even need to be searching for.

And maybe we'll gather up a few more noobs along the way and we can all help each other out as we learn stuff and save ourselves a lot of time. What do you think?

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Kevin Freels September 10, 2015 at 2:13pm

Hey. I just wanted to let you know that I just found this:

http://ardupilot.com/downloads/?did=26

It's the 3.1.6 build. I think I read somewhere that 3.2 had some flaws. On the site, 3.2.1 is listed as the final build for APM 2.X controllers. But this one has "recommended for all 2.X users". written in bright red. So I'm gonna load that one up and see if it fixes some issues I'm having with RTL, hover, alt-hold, etc. I'll let you now how it goes.
Kevin Freels September 10, 2015 at 1:44pm

Joining your thread so I can figure this out too. I've spent a week "searching" and there are THOUSANDS of pages - all with conflicting information based on different versions and I can't even tell which version I have and the posts rarely list which version they're talking about unless you follow one conversation back 50-60 posts and get lucky enough to see that the poster actually listed it vs it being inferred by other conversation. These search engines have a long way to go. They're good enough to get me to sites like this but from there, they often fail to bring up the right information - often because I don't know exactly what the engine is looking for and because the engines usually aren't smart enough to realize that CX20, CX-20, CX 20, CX/20 are all the same.

I went ahead and updated because I couldnt get my motors to unlock. Even then, it didn't fix it.I ended up finding a set of factory params uploaded by someone on a random board and uploaded those and now it works. But the thing is still quirky in all of the auto modes. RTL works about 50% of the time. Other times it will just go wherever the hell it wants. Hover will hover for a bit, then start wandering up and down like a sideways pendulum and eventually hit the ground and take off and then hit even harder next time and the rotors never stop unless I return to manual control and kill them. I already smashed and epoxied my landing gear three times!

I suspect it's because I'm just guessing at some of what you're asking about. I hate asking because someone always gets on and says "Use the search function"....as if I haven't tried. I find it much quicker to just figure it all out through trial and error. It will probably cost me a lot in parts in the end, but hey - it's still fun. lol

So I'm not quite sure about all this. So I really hope that if I'm wrong, someone corrects me because it's all guess work. So don't blame me if you make decisions based on this info and it turns out bad. lol

It seems to me that ADM is kind of the same word as "PC" with countless clones out in the world. The CX-20 flight controller is "Auto Pathfinder" which is I believe just another one of those clones. I have no idea how to even tell which APM version it's cloned however.

The difference with all of the versions appears to simply be a matter of the processors, optional pins for additional features, etc. So again, the PC comparison is motherboard/processor combos. Back in the day, you had IBM PCs, and then everything else that wasn't Apple was pretty much a PC clone; You have your Texas Instruments, Atari, Commodore, etc. But none of those would run Windows. Only the PC and the clones would.

Eventually all of them, whether IBM or not, were just referred to as PCs. All would run windows, but some wouldn't use all of the features. Some motherboards had greater capacity for RAM, video cards, more ports for things, etc. Some were of better quality. Some were of dubious quality. As they progressed, new things would come out that older boards wouldn't be able to use. Like my current motherboard and USB 3.0. (Well, I added a PCI card to do it but I'm sure you get the point). And then as things progressed, newer versions of Windows would come out, but they had hardware requirements. So for example, Windows 7 simply won't run on an old 450 Mhz Pentium III Katmai processor.

These flight controllers appear to be the same way. APM appears to be the Pentium III generation of flight controller. Pentium III would run XP just fine and XP is a good OS. On the PCs, you had 250Mhz, 300 Mhz, 350 Mhz and so on. On the APM these specs included the processor, memory, and some of the other things like pinouts. Fortunately the flight controllers seem to be less confusing than PCs. APM only has so many versions. There seems to be a 2.5, 2.5.2 and a 2.6 and probably more both before, after, and in between. The OS for these "machines" is Ardupilot. But of course there are other options just like you can run Linux, Debian, etc on a PC.

PixHawk and PX4 are both more modern versions, much like Having a PC with newer 64bit OS capability and an intel core i3 or core i7. I'm not sure which is better but if I priced them, it would probably be obvious.

From what I can tell, the APM and all of those clones can only run up to the 3.1.2 version of ArduPilot. Of course, I could be wrong on all of this including this point. And just like windows, you can load any version of windows on any PC and if the hardware won't support it, it will likely just not let you do it.

From there, I believe Mission Planner will simply give you options based on what your hardware supports. So like with a PC, if you don't have a USB port, it won't install USB drivers. If you don't have telemetry, it won't prompt you to setup telemetry. But if you had it, you would have access to change it.

So with all that said, I just let it update. Of course any time you put the latest and greatest in, there's likely bugs. So it's possible that some of the problems I'm having would be gone if I rolled back a version or two. But I really haven't figured out yet how to tell exactly which APM version I have and which Ardupilot "OS" I'm running. Or even if my entire theory that I just typed out is even remotely accurate! :-)

So far, in my experiments, I haven't noticed any difference by choosing PX4 or Pixhawk. But that may change. I am kind of annoyed the it seems that often, APM itself isn't an option. It would be very nice if the software stated something like "For APM X.X, choose PX4 in any block that doesn't have APM as an option". But then again, it's possible that this is just a bad idea! lol

But hey. I'm learning. So how about we just take this thread and use it to learn together. Then we can get beat up less for asking noob questions instead of searching for 20 hours for something that turns out to be something we don't even need to be searching for.

And maybe we'll gather up a few more noobs along the way and we can all help each other out as we learn stuff and save ourselves a lot of time. What do you think?
- Kevin Freels > Kevin Freels September 10, 2015 at 2:03pm
  
  Oh. And yeah. I'm pretty sure that as long as you choose "quad", all will be OK.

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Cheerson CX 20 / Quanum Nova Tested Firmware

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