Hi, just a few simple questions regarding mission planner usage,
First Question
I have loaded Arduplane 2.40 to the APM2 board, and using planner 1.1.93 (Mavlink 1.0). When i connect via USB lead, and then try to manual level the plane (my kitchen table is more level than the field i fly from!), it twitches around for about 20 seconds, then displays the following message.... 'Failed to Level, AP 2.32+ is required.'
I am pretty sure I have 2.40 installed, how can i tell? It does successfully connect using Mavlink 1.0.
Second Question,
regarding battery voltage monitoring.
In my Aircraft, there are 2 batteries, one powering the Futaba rx (1300mah 3s 11.1v lipo via a UBEC), and one powering the motor (5000mah 3s 11.1v lipo) via the speed control. How do i monitor them?
Initially i am concerned with just monitoring the APM input voltage, which is from the Servo output rail.
In the battery monitor Tab on the mission planner, there is 2 select boxes, one for 'monitor', the other for 'sensor'. Is this tab only for if you have a sensor?
At the moment i do not have a sensor to monitor the flight motor battery. But is there a way to monitor the APM input voltage?
On my flight data screen, there is an input voltage of 10.08v - This cant be accurate, as the output v from the UBEC into the APM is 5.1v.
There is a fieldset for calbration in the 'battery monitor' tab. Is this for the APM2 input?
Cheers
Replies
Hello Richard,
Generally it is going to be of more value to monitor your main flight battery, rather than the electronics battery or the APM rail voltage. If you are running a 1300mah 3s 11.1v lipo via a UBEC, then by the time the UBEC output sags you are in trouble.
Regardless, to monitor the voltage of either battery you need to construct or buy a voltage divider, as the input voltage range for the voltage monitoring is 0 to the APM processor voltage (generally 5-). You can find info on how to set up a divider in the wiki. My preference is to monitor both current and voltage of the main flight battery. By tracking the milli-amp hours of current used you are in a much better position to know how much power you have left. If your main flight pack is 5000mah and you have used 4000 and like to only discharge your lipos to 80%, then it is time to land... To monitor current, you need a current sensor. Many of these have a voltage divider built in, so you can hook it up and monitor both current and voltage.
Read the wiki page here - http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Voltage