Hi all
We recently purchased the ArduCopter kit “3DR ArduCopter Hexa-B Frame + Motors + Full Flight Electronics Kit” and have had some trouble configuring the APM.
We have done the following:
- Built the and soldered all the parts including power board and APM.Connected the APM to the Mission Planner and uploaded Arducopter V2.8.1 Firmware.
- There seems to be no problems with power and have not experienced any “magic smoke” or pops.
- Configured and calibrated the Tx and Rx.
- Calibrated Levels
- Calibrated Speed Control Units
At this point we discovered Hardware-In-Loop and thought we would test our hardware and software configuration, unfortunately we were then unable to connect the APM to the Mission Planner. After leaving it overnight to “cool down” we connected in the morning and everything seemed to work as expected. We uploaded the Arducopter V2.8.1 HIL firmware but then had terrible reliability issues when trying to connect using the usb connection.
It seems very peculiar but if we leave the board for 20mins or so then we can sometimes get a connection, however as soon as we try any calibration the connection is lost and we are unable to connect again.
Through sheer persistence we have tried a number of previous firmware versions, 2.6 offered us some stability for a short time and we were almost able to complete the calibration of the Hexa but we are getting increasingly frustrated and can only imagine that it must be a hardware problem.
If anyone has any ideas of what we are doing wrong I would be most appreciative.
Cheers
Gavin
Replies
Have you tested the APM alone and not connected to anything else?
To determine if the issue is a faulty USB connection it's best eliminate all other potential problems by disconnecting as much as possible and then retesting.
I would also recommend measuring the current being drawn by the board. if you have a high resistance short, you could be drawing an small excess amount of current that is triggering a failsafe in the computer or the APM onboard electronic fuse. You may not have had a pop or obvious smoke, but check if any components are getting warm or hot to touch?
As general recommendation to anybody turning on electronics for the first time, use a power supply that can limit the current supplied (if it can show the current being drawn as well, that's best of all). If there are any issues with shorts, you can see immediately, and wont give it a fatal dose of current.
The APM draws about 300-500mA
[NOTE: you can see the fuse form the USB port here http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/apm2-5-5v-vcc-schematic ]
Try changing to another USB cable.
I know it sounds a bit lame, but I had a similar problem and was starting to think of APM hardware issues.
Had been using the cable I had for a while on other copters without a problem, but on a whim I changed it and all the connection problems went away.
Also make sure there is no stress on the cable and connector in the APM.