Discussions

Problem with executing position hold

Posted by Richard Evans on January 22, 2015 at 6:39pm

I cannot get the PIxhawk to execute position hold in 3.2 or in 3.2rc1

I have this same problem on two copters, each using a different radio (TARANIS)

and each has a Pixhawk, one on 3.2 stable version and one on 3.2rc1

they both do the same thing.

I have a good enough GPS connection, in fact loiter works, here are some screen captures:

The image above shows that loiter works,

The image below shows that although Position Hold is selected and the PWM is within the range, current mode has not changed!

what is preventing it?

The image below shows that although indoors the HDOP is below 2,

Looking for ideas, solutions...

I hav attached the flash log from testing on the bench. note that the GPS sig is not real good being indoors, but adequate I think (HDOP below 2)

43.BIN

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Replies

Morteza June 17, 2016 at 2:29pm

Hi,
I have exaclty the same issue for days with my apm 2.6,POSHOLD cant be achieved in AC3.1.5 although HDOP is below 2,and it found 9sattelites!
(plus in log analyzor it reported that there is no sats found!)
I would be so grateful if you or anyone here share the ultimate solution of this thread if it has been solved for them.
Johnex January 31, 2015 at 3:19pm

Well glad i could help you :)

Another thing to remember is: RTL goes up to a specific height you can set in the parameters, and then flies at that height back home, so i recommend you check the height of trees and buildings in your area in case you do a mistake and want to hit that "oh crap" switch and cause the copter to fly into things like lots of DJI Phantom videos online. A tip since you don't fully trust the equipment :)
Johnex January 29, 2015 at 2:20am

Position is not the same as PosHold. For Position hold the dropdown name is PosHold and is only available in the latest Mission Planner. Update to the latest to see it in the dropdown.

Latest Mission Planner is version 1.3.17 build 1.1.5472.17896, you can see it at the top of your window.

Again, "Position" no longer exists and that is why you have flight mode error!
- Richard Evans > Johnex January 29, 2015 at 5:57am
  
  Thanks Johnex
  
  That is great to know, I will install MP 1.3.17 tonight and give it try.
  
  Thanks
  
  Richard
  - Johnex > Richard Evans January 29, 2015 at 7:11am
    
    Also,
    
    Seems like your compass is not fully calibrated properly, or you have the compass either close to ESC's or motors and needs to be put on a stick high away from any interference, from the "moderate change in mag_field". I recommend you also do the compassmot calibration.
    
    I think after doing that you will notice a huge improvement in loiter and other modes that use the compass, it will be like someone superglued your machine to the sky :)
    - Richard Evans > Johnex January 29, 2015 at 6:25pm
      
      I will recalibrate them as well, so far though I updated Mission Planner and skipped 1.3.17 and went to 1.3.19 which is standard issue now. I don't find a PosHold, in the list in the drop down, only Position. Does it need to be selected somewhere else?
      
      It seems to me that early in when I found that I couldn't get Position Hold to work, I was on 1.3.17, and I had a suggesting that 1.3.16 might work. So I rolled back, thats why I went to 1.3.19 hoping it would work there.
      
      I seem to be still stuck trying to get position hold working. with 1.3.16, or 1.3.18 and I think 1.3.17, I don't have poshold on the menu, and cannot get the mode to change, even though I can confirm that the PWM output does go to the correct range.
      
      could it be the compass issue, I wonder it the internal compass and external compass are somehow confusing the AP.
      
      Richard
      
      I have the compass up on a pole, it is mounted in a QAV540 frame, and the ESC's are pretty far away.
      - Johnex > Richard Evans January 30, 2015 at 5:18am
        
        On the latest Mission Planner it also says the APM version you are on in the title of the window. Make sure it says Arducopter 3.2 and you are not on 3.1.5 still.
        
        Richard Evans > Johnex January 30, 2015 at 7:00am
        
        Hi John.. we are getting somewhere thanks to you..
        
        On my MAC running XP in Parallels, It says 1.3.19 build 1.1.5503.19823
        ON my Thinkpad windows 8.1 PC, it says 1.3.18 build 1.1.5508.10848
        
        I did notice something on startup of Mission Planner, I consistently see the following error when starting mission planner: INFO MissionPlanner.Common - getModesList Called System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
        
        I get this even though I have loaded different versions of MP
        
        Richard Evans > Richard Evans January 30, 2015 at 7:54am
        
        Hi John
        
        A more complete view of the error shows a path that is not on my PC, or my MAC.
        
        C:\users\hog\Documents\VisualStudio2010\Projects\ArduPilotMega\Utilities\ParametersMegadataRepository.cs:line 52
        
        That path sounds like it shouldn't be there..
        
        Johnex > Richard Evans January 31, 2015 at 2:33am
        
        That seems to be like the parser for the Parameters that has an error, exactly why you aren't seeing the correct flight mode.
        
        Did you try to delete the entire mission planner folder and installing fresh?