I have been granted access to update the wiki for Arducopter, and I hope to take this on and really fill out the Wiki so that it truly is an operating manual for the system which beginners can use. My goal is that we never need to see the same questions over and over on the forums, or the dreaded "search noob!" posts. IMO, if people need to ask the same questions over and over, and people are telling them to search because that question has already been answered in the forum, then the whole point of having a Wiki is lost.
Not that I'm an expert on Arducopter. I wanted to get into the programming, but I think it's largely beyond my grasp. So most of my answers come from Randy or the others. But I will take the time to put them in the Wiki so that it takes a load off them answering questions, and also the work of them having to update the Wiki.
So, I've already got lots of ideas in mind, but I want to know if anybody else has something they want to see and I'll try and include it. So for example, I learned the hard way not to mount the Magnetometer with steel screws. Randy gave me the answer to that problem, now I'll update the wiki in the Magnetometer section.
That sort of thing.
What I'd like to see is if you have a question, and get an answer elsewhere but you think it should be in the Wiki, post it here and I'll look into it.
Replies
The Wiki, as it is now, provides a good start. It really falls short in final setup though. I've setup many flybarless systems so I didn't have a problem but I can see that it's not obvious. A guy over at OpenPilot proposed an outline for basic setup on a TH - we are all open here so perhaps you can leverage that.
I also support a section on tuning. Particularly the tail. Most of the tuning for the MR can be gleaned from the multi-rotor stuff but there is absolutely nothing on the tail. And, at the moment, I can't get the tail to work properly and started another thread asking for help there.
Thanks for taking this on!
Ron
high level diagram of the code
I made a bunch of changes this morning to the wiki and got many of my thoughts out of the way and now I'll try to incorporate some of your other ideas.
Any comments on what I wrote, feedback here please.
I think we should put some info up there on tuning. One thing that people need to do is setup the pids for their airframe that might be a little different from the standard. the best way to do this is to use the channel 6 tuning feature. You can update the TUNE value via the APMP's configuration screen. Here are the possible values and some incomplete descriptions.
#define CH6_NONE 0
#define CH6_STABILIZE_KP 1
#define CH6_STABILIZE_KI 2
#define CH6_YAW_KP 3
#define CH6_RATE_KP 4
#define CH6_RATE_KI 5
#define CH6_YAW_RATE_KP 6
#define CH6_THROTTLE_KP 7
#define CH6_TOP_BOTTOM_RATIO 8
#define CH6_RELAY 9
#define CH6_TRAVERSE_SPEED 10 <-- controls max speed to target
#define CH6_NAV_P 11 <--- P value for rate to pitch/roll controller (range:0~19)
#define CH6_LOITER_P 12 <--- position -> rate controller
#define CH6_HELI_EXTERNAL_GYRO 13 // heli external gyro gain
thanks for taking this on!
Robert,
thanks for your efforts.
Spontanously I would think about these issues, which might be of interest for the wiki and for beginners (I did not check if they are already in there):
- orientation of the ACM when attaching it to the heli: stick to the standard, different orientations are possible with following modifications ..., but not recommended
- does the ACM need to be mounted aligned to the heli frame? What happens if it is misaligned by a couple of degrees?
- clear advices regarding the setup of digital and analog servos (not sure if this was taken to the wiki already)
- you mentioned it: the mag installation guide
- the role of the mag in e.g. loiter mode
- more details about the setup with an external gyro. E.g. I failed routing the signal through APM, so I decided to go from RX directly to Gyro. With the advantage that I have direct control over the tail through my external gyro and have at least one complexity less during the first test flights. Downside: I can not "arm the motors" as I have no rudder signal going through APM currently.
God Bless you on your Startup as this task was not possible without His blessing :)
I have a manual for my immediate consultancy which I may require in field. So I want docs to be arranged in two portion
1. Assembly and programming
2. Field requirement.
I can send you my collection which is basically collection based upon wiki from different sites plus few forum answers
Regards