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Successful maiden flight with APM2.5

Posted by Sveinung Rogstad on October 9, 2013 at 12:20pm

Finally had the Maiden flight today with FPV Raptor 1600mm.. 

APM2,5

Ublox GPS

3DR 433mhz radio

Little windy conditions today but good enough for testing the FPV raptor...

Here we go =)

I had one "issue" before i started,  I had done all the testing I could think of at home, did the same when I came to the airfield today before launching..   What happened was that when I was testing the Fail-safe (turning of my RX) the APM vent into Circle, then RTL as normal. The servos started "glitching" like 2-5 times every minute...

I couldn't figure out why this happened, maybe because RTL was triggered when the plane was still on the ground...

Anyway, I launched the plane in manual mode, and it was flying perfect.  Then back down and activate Stabilization mode, tested this mode two times, one launching in manual and then activating Stabilization  and second time i took off using Stabilization mode..  I'm Going to adjust the gain cause it was a bit too quick to get the plane level if I did a hard turn and released the controls.

Then it was time to test the RTL, and it worked perfect, since I knew this was working I did a fail-safe test turning of the RC controller and hoping the the servos wouldn't start glitching in the air like they did on the ground...   It came back, and started doing beautiful circles around the HOME position3691067999?profile=original

So with the GPS navigation test working good, next step was to set up an Mission, so I started with using 4 way-points and activated Auto after I gained altitude and taking of in Manual mode.  Again it completed the mission very good, but I need to do some fine tuning on the PID to get some better turns around the way-points, but a totally acceptable result for maiden flight.

Last test today was the Auto takeoff, after setting up TKOFF_THR_MINACC to 15m/s and TKOFF_THR_MINSPD to 4m/s. This was recommended values for hand launch and pusher prop airplanes.

I didn't know if this was gonna work since I don't know that much about the APM2.5 so i figured out I wanted to check this function before i launched the plane, so I activated the Auto function and grabbed the plane and moved a couple of meters ahead and pretended that I was trowing the plane, oh yeah, engine stated! Beautiful!!

So I got a friend to Launch the plane so I could be ready to take manual control in case it wouldn't work,  But no need for that, couple of feet after he launched it, the engine kicked in and it completed takeoff sequence and continued with the mission..

Very satisfying feeling to get this to work after all this reading and testing =)

Next step tomorrow is to install the Airspeed sensor and see if i can get the Auto-land function to work..

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Replies

  • sky eye April 8, 2014 at 12:41pm

    @Sveinung Rogstad

    do you mean that with the airspeed sensor activated I shouldn't use take off with the propeller on? 

    Thanks

    • Sveinung Rogstad > sky eye April 11, 2014 at 12:37pm

      U dont need Airspeed for auto takeoff. But I recommend getting airspeed sensor if you wanna go with Auto landing.

      It's only 25$ for the airspeedsensor.

      • sky eye > Sveinung Rogstad April 11, 2014 at 12:41pm

        I just intalled mine on x5 skywalker and will test tomorrow. Hope i don't fill it with sand it's really sandy were i fly.

        Thanks Sveinung Rogstad

  • Paulus Setiawan Darmana April 3, 2014 at 10:55am

    Is auto landing without airspeed sensor possible?

    I'm still waiting for my APM to arrive, but maidened the FPV Raptor last week.

    • Sveinung Rogstad > Paulus Setiawan Darmana April 3, 2014 at 5:08pm

      Hi, yep it's absolutley possible. But you need a bigger area for the plane to approach for landing..

      I highly recomend airspeed sensor for more accruate auto landings..

      If using Auto takeoff remeber to put the takeoff waypoint at a good distance away from where to throw the plane or it will skip the takeoff waypoint. ( not engading motor when you throw it) :)

      I just did a 20km test with mine. consuming 4000 mah

  • Richard Kennedy October 11, 2013 at 4:00pm

    That's great!! I know the feeling. You can only read and test and plan so much. Sooner or later it's go time! I was amazed and thrilled the first time I realized I could let go of the sticks and it was just circling around on it's own.  I'm still tweaking mine. I'm by no means an expert but two things I THINK [ not sure ] will help for smoother turns to waypoints is lower the PID gain like you mentioned and also I think if you raise the size of the waypoint radius it will start to turn before it hits dead center of the way point and do the turn more gradual. I am going to try that myself if I ever actually find time to fly! Good luck! Congrats your plane is still in one piece! ;}

    Rick

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