Hi,
I'm trying to understand the radio channel assignments and what they do (or can do via configuration) in the standard code available, but information a pretty sparse over the two wikis (arducopter and ardupilot), outdated (every version of ArduCopter and ArduPlane adds/remove features) and sometimes even saying opposite things.
I'm referring to APM2 (not the APM1).
I'm adding here what I think I understood it's correct, but please correct. It would be a good idea to write a page in the wiki with an uptodate table of input assignments.
The first 5 channels are stable and well understood but the others are not.
- Channels 1-4: roll/pitch/throttle/yaw
- Ch 5: Flight mode
- Ch 6: Camera Pitch? other implementations?
- Ch 7: WP saving, but configurable (http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_SimpleMode). Can it also do other stuff?
- Ch 8: on APM 1 it was recommended not to use it in copters, but now it looks like it's not (the APM diagram calls it AUX4). But cannot understand if it's used in the code or not.
I remember I read somewhere there was a possibility to tune PID while in flight, and also the possibility to trigger camera shutter, but couldn't find any reference of those.
Is this a complete reference? Is something missing?
Thank you
Simone
Replies
An update on this ...
Was out flying today testing the gimbal a go pro for the first time and didn't notice any problems using channel 8 initially. However I had to reset the APM at on point (as it wasnt accepting the waypoints I was setting) and after the reset I defintely had an issue, in that three of the four motors were spinning faster (a lot faster). Luckily this happend at the point of take off so nothing bad occured and I checked the signal strength going into radio 8 and it was high (around 1800, as I had altered the pot switch on the TX to level out the gimbal), so it might have been this that was causing it rather than anything to do with the reset.
So I disconnected the input from the reciever and after that had no further issues, even managed to get my first bit of aerial surveying done, although it was getting a bit dark (and very, very cold).
So my advice is, don't use Radio 8 for anything, which is a shame as it means I can only manually control either tilt or roll on the gimbal, but not both.
Hmm ... I would like an answer to this as well as I am intending to use it to manualy control roll on my camera gimbal, with pitch controlled by channel 6 (both inputs are pot switches on the TX).
I have configured and calibrated it, and it seems fine (it is controlling the gimbal) but I have so far only played with it whilst power via USB, and I am not certain what it will do with the flight battery connected ...
I will have a go tomorrow morning with no probs attached to see if it does anything crazy, but I am guessing that it is now a spare input that is available for use with APM 2.5 and its just the documentation that needs updating (though if any can give us a hint that would be good).
Thanks in advance.
Simone,
By default, the functions of channels 1-5 are correct. Channel 6 can be used for tuning, 7 can be used for other functions, but you can assign different functions for different channels at your discretion. Mission planner makes it pretty easy to change the basics, e.g. you can turn your camera tilt on channel 6, or pan, etc.
Fire up mission planner and take a look, a lot of the wiki needs to be updated in regards to this.