When I have my pixhawk attached to my macbook pro, I can "Connect" in the upper right hand corner of APM Planner. If I then go to Initial Setup, "Mandatory Hardware" is not showing.
I have the 3DR GPS, 3DR radio, Transmitter, power module and ESC connected to the board. I've tried w/ the battery connected and disconnected. The safety switch is blinking red. The pixhawk FMU and PWR are solid green, B/E is orange and ACT is blinking blue. The Transmitter is blinking red (FrSky).
I've attached a screenshot of what I see at Initial Setup.
Any help is much appreciated.
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Hi Guys, having a few newbie issues getting my drone to arm....exactly the same symptoms as Kevin mentions above....
At least now I'm getting a connection and have been able to install firmware however i can not get the mandatory hardware tab up? Im connected via Mavlink.
Is there any distinguishing marks on an original Ardupilot board as opposed to a good clone?
any help greatly appreciated.
The Mandatory Hardware Tab only appears if you are connected to your vehicle via MAVlink.
That screenshot shows that you are not connected but you have selected install Firmware and the com port to install to is displayed.
Switch to the Flight Data tab and you will have an option in the upper right hand corner to connect to the vehicle via MAVlink. Once you are connected you can return to the initial setup tab and you will see mandatory hardware.
Here is a screenshot showing that I am indeed connected via MavLink
This shows bluetooth as the port. I've changed that to usbmodem with no difference in the options. I'm connected via usb.
The heartbeat indicator is not flashing in that screenshot when you are connected to the port. The issue is that you are indeed connected to the port, but no data is being sent. This is almost certainly due to no firmware being on the pixhawk.
I can add a warning dialog that makes the lack of no heartbeat more obvious on first connect.
Hey Bill, thanks so much for jumping in!
The issue seemed to have been that my SD card was not properly loaded into the Pixhawk. I connected the buzzer and heard the no-SD card error, then reseated the card and Mandatory Hardware is now working. The firmware on the Pixhawk was up to date.
That is a bit odd. Are you connected with the USB cable? If so then it has to be USB modem
I'm now getting an SD card error on the buzzer. Rearranging the card to try and fix.
FIXED. And all options are showing under Initial Config now.
Thanks!
Yeah, I am. I've changed it to usbmodem to no avail. Should I have everything connected to the board as it would be for flight? The battery, ESC, etc?
Thanks Craig!
How so?
When I connected, the same options were available under Initial Config. Previously this wasn't the case. I'll try and get a screenshot that shows this state clearly.
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