Agressive pitch up when switching from FBWA, Loiter and back. Log attached

Posted by omgsparks on January 20, 2016 at 3:45am

Hello!

I have a flying wing equipped with a APM Mini running ArduPlane 3.4.0. Trimmed and tuned via autotune following the steps in the wiki. Flies very well in Manual and FBWA but I am experiencing a problem that I cannot find the cause for.

Flew a short flight with LOG_BITMASK set to 65535 demonstrating the problem.

When I fly in FBWA and switch to Loiter the plane very aggressively pitches up for a few seconds. This is totally uncommanded by me from the ground. It then levels out and flies as expected. This is also present in RTL.

I have tried retuning and checking over the tune of the TECS system.

I have poked through the logs but have yet to find something to point me in the right direction.

As you can see in the attached screenshot: elevon channels (RCOU.Ch1&2) are deflected full up and pitch sharply turns up (ATT.Pitch). This is uncommanded, (ATT.DesPitch rather tries to compensate and level out). Maybe someone can find more clues from the attached bin log?

Does anybody have any ideas of what could be at play here? Let me know if more info is needed in any way.

2016-01-19 13-52-12.bin

Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 13.29.54.png

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Replies

    • omgsparks > Hein du Plessis January 21, 2016 at 5:34am

      I have now double checked. The artificial horizon stays the same between the modes in level flight. So I do not think this is the problem...

    • 100KM
      Hein du Plessis > omgsparks January 21, 2016 at 5:57am

      I meant to say that your pitch according to your OSD / Telemetry should be 0 degrees while in level flight. Although you say the pitch is aggressive, so I'm assuming you'd notice it. I'll check the log, if no-one else has better advise.

    • omgsparks > Hein du Plessis January 21, 2016 at 6:26am

      If you could have a look I would be eternally thankful! I hope that the log level is sufficient. I chose the pixhawk standard I think. Let me know if I need to change the bitmask for more data and do another flight. 

    • 100KM
      Hein du Plessis > omgsparks January 21, 2016 at 10:21pm

      Sorry tried to post this yesterday but I had connectivity issues!

      After looking at your log, these are NOT the problem:


      It's not your level - the Y Gyro seems level when it's supposed to be.


      I thought it might be your gains that's too high, but it does seem to be under control after the initial pitch.


      It's not your RC trim - elevator seems almost center on trim: PARM, 9591334, RC2_TRIM, 1488


      If I have time later I'll go into more detail.

    • omgsparks > Hein du Plessis January 25, 2016 at 10:33pm

      Here is a video demonstrating the problem. 

      I hope you find the time to look at the log in more detail and this video. Greatly appreciated!

    • 100KM
      Hein du Plessis > omgsparks January 26, 2016 at 8:43am

      Checked the video - so similar to an out of level APM, but I'm sure it's not that. I'll look at it again. Thanks for the video. Anyone else?

    • omgsparks > Hein du Plessis January 21, 2016 at 10:59pm

      Great to confirm these! I have noticed a spike in NTUN.TargBrg around the switch of modes. But I am unsure of what this might mean. I cannot find any documentation regarding what the more obscure data points stand for. If it is a metric reflecting error in navigation is it bound to spike right after engaging loiter, since it has not had the time to correct the heading etc. Do you have any thoughts on this?

      Thank you so much for your time and input!

  • Bruce Baxter January 20, 2016 at 4:00am
    I seem to remember something about the auto tune trim vs the manual trim.

    I don't know the answer, but I would try setting the manual trims to stop the pitch up.
    • omgsparks > Bruce Baxter January 20, 2016 at 4:48am

      Manual trim as in trim clicks on the transmitter? Or are you referring to some specific parameters? Could you clarify? I am not sure that I follow. The problem occurs when switching to from FBWA to Loiter, not sure that manual trim has anything to do with it.

      Very happy for the input!

    • Bruce Baxter > omgsparks January 20, 2016 at 4:58am
      I really haven't been through the process myself, I just remember an email conversation about this exact problem and it has something to do with the auto tune inserting a trim value that is not used n all modes.

      I can't remember for sure if the manual trim had to be inserted in code, or just transmitter clicks, I think it was transmitter clicks
This reply was deleted.