With a new replacement board my impression of the PX4 is much, much better so I am removing the initial post. All works better including a perfect connection to MP every single time via usb and no lipo power. Thank you Craig and the testing shall go on.
BTW the Acro mode with leveling and safety off is stellar and a complete blast to fly!!!
Cheers,
and thanks,
Andy
Replies
Got my new PX4 (thank you Craig!) set up for testing on a wee quad and the first flights are very nice even with uncalibrated ESCs. BTW the props are straight out of the bag APC MR 10x5s.
Craig than you so much!!! I will give this replacement board a proper workout. And thanks to Bill for dropping off the unit. After speaking to Bill and seeing how much work has gone into the development, I am sure the newer firmware will be excellent.
As it turns out DJI is not even close to a professional solution due very poor choices in how they release products that are not ready for market. Some excellent core elements but they are taking the the Apple route and focusing on the easier to sell consumer items such as the Phantom.
Thanks guys, I look forward to getting the beastie into the air!
Cheers,
Andy
In my opinion the PX4 v1 is not for consumers. The complexity is aimed at developers and researchers. Pixhawk will go a long way to making it consumer friendly, but for now the APM 2.6 is still the way to go. It's rock solid and has 10s of thousands of flight hours.
Jason
Both compasses work, they just deliver bad numbers. This is the compass I used:
http://osepp.com/products/sensors-arduino-compatible/osepp-compass-...
Since the numbers were almost identical to the internal compass I think we can assume there is no IC2 problem going on.
Hey send me some cash and it's yours ;-)
Hi Andy,
Who's outboard compass did you use because, as you will notice, the I2C port on the PX4 IO board only supplies 5vdc?
If you try to use a 3DR standalone compass it will work, however even though you have selected the 5vdc jumper to allow compass operation on 5vdc which uses the onboard 3.3vdc regulator to power the compass chip, the level converter output on the compass board will translate the 3.3vdc compass clock and data lines to 5vdc.
The PXX IO board has 3.3vdc pull ups on the I2C clock and data lines so there is an issue with the output of the compass module being 5vdc and the input to the PX4 IO board expecting 3.3vdc signals. Fortunately the processor is 5vdc tolerant, but Craig Elder does not recommend this configuration.
Also, I found that the PX4 FMU/IO module with accompany GPS, outboard compass, and Spektrum PPM satellite receiver is so power hungry that a standard PC USB port will really not power it correctly. I found that the voltage on the GPS module was only 4vdc when using a USB connection. Putting a powered USB hub inline between the PC and the PX4 module cured the low voltage problem. The PX4 IO power converter puts out a solid 5vdc when running the PX4 on a battery. Using the powered hub allowed me to connect to the PX4 FMU/IO every time. Without the hub, I really could not get a reliable MavLink connection through the USB connection.
So far my PX4 FMU/IO has worked just fine with the ArduRover2 firmware.
If you do not want your PX4 FMU/IO module I will be glad to take it off your hands and put it to good use in my rovers.:-)
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer