Hello everyone!
I have been running the copter version 3.1.5 in my quad for quite long time now and been happy with it in all aspects, but recently I felt the need to have a second GPS unit + I would like to play with the optical flow sensor so I decide to upgrade to firmware version 3.2.1.
Everything was going well until I decide to test my radio failsafe.
The way that I have it set is as follow:
I use Taranis Radio + X8R receiver. X8R receiver allows me to set failsafe to a user-determined state on lost signal. So in case that I run out of range or for any reason my radio goes off, the receiver will send a signal to pixhawk to set Yaw / Roll / Pitch to center position and Throttle to 50% and channel 5(flight mode) to RTL position.
Additionally channel 6 in the taranis is where I have pitch control of my camera and it is also set to a determined position so I can have my camera pointed to desire position in case that I lost signal.
Regarding to flight modes, I have one 3-position switch set to Stabilize / Alt Hold / Loiter, and one another switch set to RTL.
Well, everything works fine in version 3.1.5.
In version 3.2.1 it doesn’t work. In the flight logs I can see that the receiver set the channel 5 to a value of 1700(RTL flight mode) and the pixhawk sees that but for some reason it doesn’t trigger RTL.
Also, I use the RC10 to control the pitch servo in my camera gimbal and as I said before it’s also set to a pre-determined position in case of signal lost, and it also doesn’t work with firmware version 3.2.1
Once I downgrade back to 3.1.5 everything is working again.
To make things a bit worst, after that I found out that RTL didn’t work I decided to make a simple test, I was hovering in loiter and I added a small input in the YAW and holding the stick in that position I turned off my radio. Guess what happened? The copter kept spinning until I powered the radio again, so I understand that the pixhawk hold the last signal received. What would happen if I was flying forward and let’s say that I didn’t turned off my radio, let’s say that I’m flying far and for some reason I lost signal? Well, probably the copter would keep flying forward until it crashes in somewhere or something.
My QUAD is very light and small but what about this guy (http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/no-rtl-after-radio-failsafe-log-included) flying a 17Kg X8. I’m not 100% sure what happened in his case but I suspect it could be the problem described here.
I wish we could have the attention of developer to clarify why this changes has been made and how can we get those lost functionalities back in the next release 3.3
Please if you upgraded from 3.1.5 to 3.2.1 and you had a RTL triggered in a similar way that I have, please test it before you have to actually use it. Also if you could post your findings here, it would be awesome.
If I’m not misunderstanding all this situation we have to advise people and also find a solution.
For last but not least, I would like to say that I truly admire this open source project and I would like to say thank you to everyone that contributed, and I’m happy that today I had the opportunity to maybe help by in some way.
Logs attached.
rc3_1_5-RTL radio off.BIN - in this log the RTL worked when I turned off my radio.
rc3_2_1-RTL radio off.BIN - in this log the RTL didn't work when I turned off my radio.
Obs.: This post does not apply to people that have configured failsafe in any different way than the one specified here. I haven’t test the other failsafe setups in 3.2.1 version.
Replies
My understanding is that you would like to trigger RTL when you loose the radio link. Right? If so, you are indeed doing it wrong, this is what the wiki you are yourself referencing to tells you. The working, reliable and documented way is, as wiki states, either to use low throttle on channel 3 (with the FS throttle parameter), either setup no signal on all channels ( also with setup of FS throttle parameter)
You seem to want another way that is against best practice which indeed I do not understand...
Hi Hugues,
Independent of the best way to setup the failsafe, can you see that there is a problem that didn't happen in firmware version 3.1.5?
Hi Hugues,
I just think that if it was working in 3.1.5 and this is an option in the wiki, why it is not working anymore?
And if we get to the conclusion that it is not supported and developers won't fix it, so we have to remove this option from wiki.
I think that I'm not the only one setting up failsafe by this way, and the main thing is get people aware that they could be in trouble if they upgrade to 3.2.1 using this same configuration that was working in 3.1.5
Good day, Hugues. If You replied to RdanielK, then I would like to point out, that he set RX failsafe values to 50% (Roll, Ele, Yaw and Throttle) + CH5 value to RTL. I may be wrong here but You do not have to have Throttle failsafe activated in that situation since the Throttle value is set to 50% in failsafe situation and the copter should change mode to RTL because of the CH5 failsafe set value. Or?
Hi MR,
You are correct, previous when I was flying with 3.1.5 I did set the throttle to 50% just to see if there would be any difference, but there was not and I just left like that...
In 3.1.5 if the FC sees the ch5 at 1700(RTL in my case) it would automatic take control over throttle output, I believe that it would be the same for 3.2.1
Did you go any further in your problem?
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