Parachute on geofence reach

Well i am building a gas powered plane with apm 2.5 and i have installed a ballistic parachute which is deployed by a servo, but what i need its to get apm deploy the parachute when the plane reach the fence like if the motor stop or elevator servo fail, etc and eg the FENCE_MIN_ALT is reached  automatically deploy the parachute

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  • Hello Joaquin,

    It is long time since your inquiry. I am facing exactly the same problem by using APM 2.6 with my gas powered plane. Is there any chance to initiate parachute deployment on geofence breach or/and when reaching min set altitude using last available plane firmware is 3.4.0 ? If no, can someone help me to find previous firmware, say 2.78b , which  matucha123 has mentioned in his post?

  • Why would you want to the pop chute simply because it descended below a given altitude?  You would never be able to fly at low altitude or even land the aircraft.  Or would it only do this if it is already in some kind of failure mode, such as lost communication, outside fence, etc?

    • You can disbale failsafe with CH11 through GCS. This modification was intented for flying always with GCS. Also plane we are using always lands with parachute
  • Hi,

    this is sources for Arduplane 2.78b with parachute FS. Fail-safe is configured with parameters:

    PARA_CH - channel on which servo is connected (cant be 10 or 11 because they are used in software)

    PARA_FS_HEIGHT - height under which plane will deploy parachute in meters

    PARA_PWM_CLOSE - PWM value of closed servo

    PARA_PWM_OPEN - PWM value of opened servo

    Way in which software works:

    CH10 control emergency like function. When this channel is above 1600 program stops engine, waits 2 seconds and deploys parachute. You can control pwm value in servo menu.

    CH11 control Height FS enable. If channel is above 1600 and if plane descends under set height (PARA_FS_HEIGHT), program kills engine, waits 2 seconds and deploys parachute. (Enable after initial climb above set height). Works in all flight modes

    If both channels are under 1600 program closes servo.

    Known bugs:

    -Sometimes engine (for a fraction of second) starts spinning (makes 1 revolution at most)

    Improvements which has to be made:

    -Configurable delay

    -Make program compile with everything enabled (currently CLI and camera mounts are disabled because program occupied too much program memory)

    -Freeing up CH10 and CH11

    P.S Software after last changes haven't been flown, so install it on your own risk!!

    P.S.S Would love to see pic of plane and pic of parachute system

    Arduplane 2.78b with parachuteFS.zip

    • In what state FS code is, it isn't possible to use it without GCS.

      Yesterday performed flight and it worked like a charm. Next flight will be tomorrow if weather will be fine
    • another question; my apm only has 8ch :/

      • How to Install is on the bottom of this page section "Building using Arduino IDE. If it is APM2.0 and above it will have 11ch. They are located on side strip connectors. You do not need to connect these. They are controlled with telemetry in ground control station.

        This version hasn't been flown and is quite risky. In two weeks I will be probably testing it in flight so I could post results. I have flown (about 10h) With modified arduplane 2.68 and didn't have any problem with parachute failsafe (only bug there plane would start diving toward ground with full throttle, so becouse of that I'm upgrading to 2.78). One qustion: Is parachute is primary landing method or just failsafe? Because for now I haven't implemented RC control for parachute (now just with GCS). And what arduplane version you are using right now?

        • is only failsafe and could i use without GCS? thanks for answering

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