I am up against troubles with Octa (octo) quad.
Motors 1-8 are triple checked, rotation direction & props according to this:
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2012/01/APM_...
tested & retested my radio - roll, pitch, yaw, throttle all proper directions.
Running APM 2.5 (onboard mag)
V.3.01 Octa Quad
Mission planner 1.2.85
Behavior is very unusual - copter is both over-reacting to minor inputs, and seems to be responding to stick input in cockeyed ways - using mixtures of motors that move it sometimes opposite of what should be happening.
Despite my searches, definitive help eludes me.
This is my first Octa Quad, but have successfully built & flown flat Octa, and quads.
Any help would be marvelous.
~jake
Replies
According to your video, you have a wrong motor spin direction.
I bet you did the same mistake as I did : when looking at the wiki spin motor direction, for the motors that are on the bottom, be careful that if you setup the spin direction for these motors in the upright position, the spin direction will be reversed once you flip the motor to fix them on the bottom of your ring.
Also the propellers must all be installed with the writings on them facing up, even for the bottom ones!
I believe I just found the answer to my own question.
My APM 2.5 shipped early this spring (2013) - and had an outdated ATmega 32U2 PPM encoder.
Found the update instructions here:
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-ppm-encoder-apm2x-atmega32u2/
...and just succeeded the install.
(sidenote: found this little critical bit somewhat buried on this page: http://ardupilot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4351 on "how to upgrade #4")
Now, on to testing!
~jake