I've been trying all day to get this working properly with minimal success. I have followed the guide here: http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Xplane.
I'm running 2.5.4 with the hil firmware from mission planner, and I'm using the QRO_X model and params from JLN. I have calibrated my radio, and set my frame orientation to + mode
There is communication between Mission planner and xplane, but I cant get any real sort of control over the quad in the sim. It will oscillate on the yaw axis, and the pitch and rolls will be way too sensitive and just spin it.
Under the simulation tab of mission planner (after arming) I can see my radio inputs making changes to the values under Ardupilot output .Eg Roll and pitch show 0 when neutral and go to -0.145 and 0.145 at either extreme, yaw seems to wander on its own and I can see in the sim that the quad is sort of tumbling around by itself, and throttle is at 0.100 when it is at its minimum and goes to 0.200 at max. As soon as I start the sim, the quad takes off by itself and there's no way to give it 0 throttle, so I think this is a problem.
How do I sort these issues out?
Also I'm having a really hard time trying to figure out which view to use. I want to learn to fly line of sight and get my nose in hovering sorted.
Replies
Oh, also, when you want a break from multicopters, take this plane for a spin:
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/x-plane-arduplane-bixler-easystar...
And for some humor, check out one of my HiL Quad flights - I left for food, and came back to find my quad was competing for an X-Prize :)
http://diydrones.com/photo/accidental-space-flight?context=user
That was flight gear, but I only use X-Plane these days. It's good for a laugh.
There are a lot of tips. Here are a few you will want to explore.
* use X-plane 9 - I have both, and although I like the features in 10, 9 is more stable/reliable for consistent testing
* Change the settings so that you use 3 or more flight models per frame
* for initial work, be sure to completely kill the weather/wind. After you have things sorted, you can turn it back on.
As for the throttle problem, there are many places where you can make changes. It is helpful to catalog these mentally, before you make changes...
You could change your throttle curves in your TX, but I generally don't recommend this as a first step. It sometimes comes in handy for certain combinations of settings, and is even useful to get a more refined/useful throttle control for your actual quad (but it is a somewhat advanced topic for most non-RC regulars so ignore it for now.)
You can change some scaling factors within MP/Simulation.
You can change the X-Plane model's power/engine/motor characteristics. This gets complex, and there are lots of settings, but it is most likely the ideal first place to make changes. Which model are you using? There are some non-intuitive settings, and some settings do not work exactly as you might expect.
Also, revert to whatever settings were recommended for the model, and start over, focusing on getting your throttle working the way you expect it to, at bit better, at least, before messing too much with rate_p. You may have to re-adjust rate_p, however, do so only after you have updated your flight models per frame to 3 or greater.
I feel like I am leaving out an important one, but the point here is not to actually help, yet, but rather to generally outline the places where you will want to look.
The most important thing that I recommend you do first, however, is to go into your data settings in X-Plane, and enable some console/in-sim data. I recommend at least enabling (names from memory) Frame Rate, Prop RPM, Engine HP, Throttle level, Airspeed (its a collection of items, this one, but includes the airspeed) and altitude, and after you've re-enabled wind, atmosphere also.
I've reduced my rate_p to 0.05 and that's helped with slowing down the controls, but the yaw will still oscillate by itself. and I still cant figure out which view to use for a line of sight flight. Selecting 'on runway' is way too far away to get a good view of what is going on, and still can't bring throttle to 0.