On my seaplane, not yet flying, I found a dangerous issue!
As the plane has Ailerons but no flaps I have connected the servos on RC5 and RC6 and set them as Flaperon1 and Flaperon2.
On the transmitter I have a 3 position switch for Flaps and output to channel 8. FLAP_IN_CHANNEL is set to 8 so the Flap function works.
Up = No flap
Middle = Minor flap
Down = Full Flap
The aileron is fully working in all these settings BUT:
The Elevator!!!
Up = (No flap) Small Elevator movements when using RC stick. Normal flying
Middle = (Minor flap) No Elevator movements when using RC stick!!!
Down = (Full Flap) Large Elevator movements when using RC stick. Slow flying
So when the FLAP input is at center setting there is absolutely no possibility to control the Elevator from by RC
Thanks
Anders
Replies
That's not all.
If I start Auto and change the Flap switch, the motor STOPS!
The setting on the Throttle stick has no effect and the motor cannot be restarted unless a mode change occurs!
Thanks
Anders
Hi Anders. Are you able to replicate this behaviour and post a link to the corresponding dataflash log (.bin) so we can have a look. I agree with Gary that its sounding like TX mixing but the log should tell us.
Thanks, Grant.
Hi Grant
Have to report it was all my fault!!! The FLTMODE_CH was (also) set to 8.
As I was testing I didn't have the sound on and didn't hear "Mode changed..." wich whould have been pretty obvious.
If I get my new Escs and the weather becomes better I may perform my maiden flight within a week.
Thanks
Anders
That's great news Anders. We really appreciate you posting and clarifying the solution. Some people wouldn't post back how they solved it so again - thanks!
Thanks, Grant.
Are you sure your TX does not have a flap elevator mix added?? That will do all sorts of weird things if you add TX mixes. If its not fly auto is going to do weird things. What does it do in stabilize?? Is this your first autopilot build?
This all sounds like a TX issue to me.
As I write I'm not flying jet. I'm testing indoors.
There is no mixing! I'm sure of this.
My plane is not finished so I'm testing all functions before maiden flight.
I have made some WP in MP and have set the TKOFF_THR_SLOW to 5 to make the throttle ramp up slowly.
I guess the elevator movement is based on some calculations where the flap is an input parameter.
Small movement in normal speed (No flap) seems relevant.
Lager movements in lower speed (Full flap) seems relevant too.
BUT! Flap in center position totally disables the elevator input from the TX!
As I'm still not flying I cannot test Auto flap.
All I have setup is:
FLAP_1_PERCENT 25
FLAP_1_SPEED 10
FLAP_2_PERCENT 50
FLAP_2_SPEED 20
FLAP_IN_CHANNEL 8
FLAP_SLEWRATE 75
FLAPERON_OUTPUT 1
RC_5_FUNCTION 24
RC_6_FUNCTION 25
Anders
When in Stabilize the motor stops when changing the flaps switch.
If the flap switch is at FULL the motor will run. In any other setting, of the flap switch, the motor remains or switches OFF.
@Anders,
I think that you might want to get the plane flying without trying to implement flaps with the ailerons and save that for later.
I have alerted our resident ArduPlane Developer Grant Morphett to your issue.
Regards,
TCIII AVD
Thanks a lot!
I planned to use the ailerons as flaps to be able to reduce the landing speed. As the plane isn't flying yet I can wait for the bug to be fixed.
As the software is at RC state I love to help testing it and report all issues I may find.
The software is a fantastic work so I am convinced it will be fixed until I'm ready to fly.
Thanks
Anders