Lightware SF10/C and Pixhawk AC 3.3.2 Serial connection

Hello all.

I've connected a Lightware SF10/c to my pixhawk serial 4/5 port as the instructions here show:http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/com...re-sf10-lidar/

My SonarRange is flat on 0. I can see that the unit is powered up because I can see the dot on the floor with a digital camera. I've triple checked continuity of the cable I made and I also (using the cable I made for the Pixhawk) with small jumpers stuck in the little connector, attached it to a USB to Serial adapter and with Putty I can see the distance just fine.

I dropped it down to 9600 baud, still nothing.

I'm new to pixhawk/apm world so I'm not really sure how to troubleshoot. I've double checked the wiring.

I currently am running firmware 3.3.2.

Lastly, this is still not done being built. This is my first experience with a Pixhawk. I'm upgrading from an Eagle Tree Vector. I'm not done rewiring. I am still waiting for a power module because I refuse to use the little 90A one that was supplied by 3DR.

Thank you all.

Note (may be TMI): My parts list is as follows

Tarot FY680 Iron Man
Sigma Summit Motor Mounts (~740mm now)
PixHawk Controller
Mauch 4-14S 200A Power Module (pending delivery)
Quanum MT 3510 630KV
Turnigy K-Force 30A (Opto)
Zippy Flightmax 8Ah 6S 30C or Venom 6s 12Ah 30C
13x5.5 Carbon Props
3DR uBlox GPS/Compass
PX4FLOW Optical Flow Sensor
Lightware SF10-C LIDAR Altimeter 0-100m
Turnigy 9XR Pro
Floureon 915MHz Telemetry
2W 1.3GHz NTSC Video Transmitter
HawkEye DTF-UHF 1w 16ch

We have an SF10/C connected to our pixhawk using serial 4. We tried custom firmware provided by lightware, 3.3.2 and 3.3.3rc2 but all of them result in the quad failing to hold altitude. It drifts down faster and faster, until the throttle is lifted up and after a delay it gains altitude again.

We have a test drone with a lidar-lite on the Iris+ and this works great. The response time from waving your hand under the lidar lite to getting a decreased reading is less than a second. However waving a hand under the Lightware SF10/c takes 2-3 seconds to record the change. Could this lag be the cause of the problem?

Setting serial 4 to Mavlink bypasses the SF10/c and the quad uses the barometric altimeter and holds it height as normal.

Anyone else seen this behaviour before?

Replies

- - - - Robert Gowans > Jeff Seaman March 9, 2016 at 2:18pm
        
        Hi Jeff,
        
        Yes, the 0x55 address would be 85 for the RNGFND_ADDR in Mission Planner.
        
        I've been looking into the issue of connecting LightWare devices with I2C to various versions of ArduCopter, I'll let you know anything I find out.
        
        Jeff Seaman > Robert Gowans March 9, 2016 at 8:14pm
        
        Well it looks like my wires and device are good, at the end of my I2C lead, I'm showing 3.2V on the green and white leads and 5V on the red lead when powered via USB, and it looks like a signal is being produced on the green and white leads.
      - Duffy > LightWare - Laser Developer February 9, 2016 at 2:35pm
        
        All sorted from my side,
        
        Just a question, where is the sonar range saved in the log file. Would like to geo ref images with height above ground in addition to baromatetrix/GPS altitude.
        
        Thanks
        
        Robert Gowans > Duffy February 9, 2016 at 2:50pm
        
        The sonar is in the CTUN (Control Tuning) packet with the SAlt (9th parameter) tag.
- Justin Ward > Duffy February 3, 2016 at 1:13am
  
  Go with I2C if you have spare ports. Supported in 3.3.3rc2 and firmware release will probably be within a few weeks.
Justin Ward January 31, 2016 at 8:43pm

We have an SF10/C connected to our pixhawk using serial 4. We tried custom firmware provided by lightware, 3.3.2 and 3.3.3rc2 but all of them result in the quad failing to hold altitude. It drifts down faster and faster, until the throttle is lifted up and after a delay it gains altitude again.

We have a test drone with a lidar-lite on the Iris+ and this works great. The response time from waving your hand under the lidar lite to getting a decreased reading is less than a second. However waving a hand under the Lightware SF10/c takes 2-3 seconds to record the change. Could this lag be the cause of the problem?

Setting serial 4 to Mavlink bypasses the SF10/c and the quad uses the barometric altimeter and holds it height as normal.

Anyone else seen this behaviour before?
- Duffy > Justin Ward February 14, 2016 at 9:56am
  
  @Justin
  
  Have you done more testing in ALT Hold
  
  Flew today in gusty conditions ( and although the copter is not well tuned yet) it did hold altitude better in STAB mode than in ALT_HOLD
  
  Thanks
- LightWare - Laser Developer > Justin Ward January 31, 2016 at 10:08pm
  
  @Justin - have you checked the settings in the SF10/C itself? It comes with some filtering options and these may be turned on - they can increase the response time. Also, there are some smoothing/response parameters in the setup of the AC software, including things like throttle response rate.
  - Justin Ward > LightWare - Laser Developer February 1, 2016 at 2:57pm
    
    The filter was indeed set to on. We have switched it off. Testing will take a while since our quad crashed for reasons unrelated to the laser alt and will be returned to the manufacturer for testing. Could be 2-3 weeks before we can test the SF10/C on the new quad.
    
    Are any of the "smoothing/response parameters" in the pixhawk firmware related to the SF10/c? As I mentioned, flight performance is normal when the SF10C was disconnected.
    
    The extended kalman filter would do some filtering on the laser altimeter, Do you think there are some arducopter parameters to change/look-at that will affect the responsiveness of the SF10/C?
LightWare - Laser Developer January 18, 2016 at 9:35pm

@Mathew: Please could you try again with the software version attached and see if that solves the problem. I've checked it out with my SF10/C and it works fine.

copter-3.3.2-lightware-v2.px4

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Lightware SF10/C and Pixhawk AC 3.3.2 Serial connection

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