Hi all,
I'm hoping someone out there can help this pilot get his wings. I just received my new 3DR Quad with APM 2.6 (soo excited!) and using a Turnigy 9x stock radio. I've got the latest version of Mission Planner and have uploaded the quad straight to v3.01.
When taking off, the motors spin up at the same time, when gently applying throttle it weebles and wobbles while still having a leg on the ground. As soon as I apply a bit more throttle, it wants to flip back. I put it in some deeper grass to see the grass blowing... when I push for a left roll, the right two motors apply more thrust and when I want to roll right, the left two motors apply thrust (which makes sense to me). However what's weird (but maybe it's normal?) is when I pitch forward the two diagonal motors apply force (the diagonal motors switch when pitching forward and back).
I've checked the power distribution board and make sure the motors are aligned right (which I had wrong the first time). I've re-calibrated the sensors and radio according to documentation and Youtube videos. I've re-calibrated the ESCs and the motors spin up simultaneously. The radio calibration page in M.P. does show the controls seemingly working ok. I've seached google and the forums and the closest I've come is http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/new-firmware-3-0-1-for-ardu-copter-in-x-config-flips-nose-up-upon. I might try and downgrade the firmware to 2.9 something or other to see what happens thing.
Any and all help would be most welcome! Having a new baby and a new farm only leaves me about 1/2hr daylight to work with haha
Sob story aside... my sincere hats off to all the developers/contributors to the APM/opensource community... simply amazing work!
Cheers!
Replies
Sounds like you might have your yaw and elevator connectors on backwards between your receiver and apm2.5 board. The diagonal motors are controlled by your yaw input and the front and read motors by the elevator control.
Reading through your posts it sounds as though you installed your RC gear.
Flipping is almost always a case of either crossed up RX inputs to the APM, or crossed up ESC selections from the APM, or wrong motor directions, or props on wrong (motor or upside down), or TX switches requiring a reversal, or a combination of any of the previous.
Once you sort this out, you are going to love this thing...and if you fly in Stabilized mode (which I recommend initially) don't worry about PIDs. Make sure you set all your modes positions to Stabilized for about 25 or 30 flights -- get some experience.
You might consider a low cost toy level quad to get stick time and experience and save wear and tear on your big aircraft. The Blade Nano QX is nearly indestructible and can perform substantially as your skill develops.
Hang in there and let us know your progress or questions.
(Congrats on the new child -- you can always hand down the Nano QX to them later)
-=Doug
I did have to reverse two of my sticks in the radio setup.
Also, I had some flipping tendencies that occurred when I selected the wrong firmware to download (4-rotor vs 8 push/pull).
I know you mentioned you check the motors are in the correct order, but I would triple check those, order and rotation. at default PIDs, the motor order was the main reason my quad would flip when I was figuring this out (well still am).
If they are good just back off the rate P rate D and rate I 10% each and try again. I would also bring the stab P down to 3.5 or lower.
Also , don't put off the PID tuning. I put it off for too long but you learn a lot quicker when you adjust the PIDs and see how they affect your quad. You will want to use channel 6 and one of the knobs on your 9x.
You need to look at the PID settings in the software tab. Check the wiki its all on there :)