Any clone Pixhawk users out there? Hoping I can get some help with this one. I just purchased myself a “clone” Pixhawk. [Here is a link to the particular one](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pixhawk-PX4-2-4-6-32bit-ARM-Flight-Controller-NEO-6M-GPS-OSD-PPM-Power-Module-US-/251971933893?ssPageName=ADME:X:RRIRTB:US:3160) I am setting this up for a quad frame type (more specifically TBS Discovery).

I installed the latest version of Mission Planner without a hiccup. Drivers installed just fine and plugged in the Pixhawk, which my PC immediately picked up. Buzzer indicated it was connected. Verified the COM port and made sure baud rate was at 115200. Then came the issues.

I went to Initial Setup > Install Firmware >Are you sure you want to load (v3.3.1 quad)>Yes and got the error: “Invalid Cert: You are using unsupported hardware. This board does not contain a valid certificate of authenticity. Please contact your hardware vendor about signing your hardware.”
Could this be because it’s a clone Pixhawk? I tried searching everywhere about this but could not find any information.

I clicked OK anyway and it seemed to load the firmware, so I thought it was fine. The progress bar even showed an upload, got the musical tones and clicked OK upon finish. I then clicked Connect and went to Mandatory Hardware. Accel Calibration successful.

Compass Calibration is where I keep getting all sorts of problems. Compass enable and auto dec declination are both checked by default. I selected Pixhawk/PX4 and confirmed it was later than APM:copter 3.01 or APM:Plane 2.74. Live calibration would complete and offsets I would get are around +10/-400 or more between both compasses (internal & external) which ardupilot says is normal for Pixhawk. (For PX4 and Pixhawk, values may be greater than 150 and less than -150. Press OK.)

When clicking Flight Data to make sure it was working, I’d get the big red Error Compass Variance and a red EKF on the artificial horizon. Pitch/roll/yaw worked fine but the heading was not matching the actual direction the external compass and the Pixhawk were facing at all. I also made absolutely sure that the Pixhawk and external compass were both facing the same direction.

Here is a list of all the troubleshooting I’ve done:
-Disconnect/reconnect Pixhawk
-Closed/reopened MissionPlanner
-Reloaded firmware
-Uninstalled Pixhawk drivers and MissionPlanner and reinstalled
-Ensured external compass was facing the same direction as arrow of the Pixhawk (Just for the hell of it, even tried rotating it 180 while retrying all the configuration just in case it was rotated improperly in the case)
-Formatted SD card in Pixhawk and reinstalled firmware again
-Repeated entire process on a different PC

I’m at a total loss here and not sure what to do. I am really considering returning this to the seller because I’m afraid that it could be bad hardware.

Things that come to mind for me are:
The invalid cert error. I know this is a clone Pixhawk but others seem to have success settings theirs up. Despite the error, MissionPlanner seems to upload firmware anyway.
Bad external compass? From the compass variance error to red EKF to “Bad AHRS” I think it’s safe to assume.

*Note: I don’t have much experience with all of this but I had no trouble setting up APM 2.6 on another quad. I also know that the setup is somewhat similar between APM and Pixhawk.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to be as specific as possible. Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.

[Here’s a little gallery of the errors that are in question](http://imgur.com/a/hU4iZ)

http://imgur.com/a/hU4iZ

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Thanks all for the responses. After so much frustration with getting it to work, I ended up returning the Pixhawk and ended up going with the APM 2.8. So far no issues at all.

    • Why not  if for you being  stuck with the dead end APM3.2 for ever is not an issue "at all" !

      • I am aware of firmware development having stopped after 3.2.1 and I was willing to go with that, since an APM 2.6 with 3.2.1 is working perfectly on another quad I have. Plus, older APM is well matured and tested, for a fraction of the price of a Pixhawk. Eventually I plan on upgrading to an authentic 3DR Pixhawk.

        • Your decision  obviously is based on your assumption that the  Pixmini.being   unreliable/buggy caused the bad AHRS. It's the other way around.. The bad AHRS  is a feature of APM 3.3x which not as reliable yet as 3.2x  is. So actually you needed  only to flash the Pixmini with APM 3.2 to get rid of the bad  AHRS .

          Cheers !

          • Where I can get the latest 3.4 you pointed in previous post?

            I have a Pixhawk from 3dr bought in 2014 and 2 clones from other places, getting same messages on all using 2 different external compass, 3Dr and Ublox M8N.

            Bad AHRS

            Inconsistent compass

            Compass variance

            • I am asking because in the diydrones firmware download page, latest, PX4-quad there are 3 versions, Arducopter-v1.px4, Arducopter-v2.px4 and Arducopter-v4.px4.

              When I click on any of those it just populate my browser with code, I don't see any option to download.

              • Here is the latest APMVERSION: APM:Copter V3.4-dev

                http://firmware.diydrones.com/Copter/2016-03/2016-03-22-07:03/PX4-q...

                Note :  this is the "dev"  branch

                • Ok, I downloaded the 3 versions.

                  Which one to use?

                  How you install manually on Pixhawk?

                  • I will also try to install latest version. I assume that the correct one should be "the latest" V4.
                    To install it in Mission Planner just click on "Load custom firmware" and then you have to do it from your PC (the directory where you downloaded it).

                    Hope this solution works for resolving our EKF "Error: compass variance" problem

                    Regards

                  • We need to settle your special problems by PM

This reply was deleted.

Activity

Neville Rodrigues liked Neville Rodrigues's profile
Jun 30
Santiago Perez liked Santiago Perez's profile
Jun 21
More…