Is it possible to operate an APM copter from a boat?
As far as I understand, the gyros need to be stationary when they initialize?
Is there a way to work around this, so that I can take a copter out to sea on a boat which may be rocking around, power it on and fly and change batteries etc while out there?
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I am also interested in knowing what could be done. I plan to flight from a huge boat, probably stable enough to initialize accelerometers but what about the magnetic compass ?
Hi Glen,
That's a very good question. In plane a parameter was recently added to allow skipping of the gyro cal. At some point the sensor needs a still calibration to get the zero rotation values and these are stored as another param in eeprom. So you need to get a still calibration on land and then change the parameter to skip calibration on the next boot. The important thing to remember is temperature. Don't calibrate in air conditioning and then fly in tropical heat. Calibrate on land in the same conditions as where you intend to fly.
This parameter is only in plane right now, but copter could easily have this option. You should request this on the issues list .
I've just done a short test now by rocking the copter around gently as soon as I plug the battery in, and the lights on the arms don't turn on until I place it down on the ground. I'm guessing when this happens, it means the gyros have initialised?
Can I infer from this that if the lights come on after powering up on the boat, that the gyros have initialised and are good to go?