Hello APM Experts!
I've been having great success with my APM (about 20 flights), and recently tried doing an auto land mission, but am suddenly having some trouble with my APM, wonder if any of you have experienced this as well and might have any suggestions on how to repair it.
The APM appears to successfully start up (the LED lights on board and GPS) when I power it up, however, during all flight modes and in flight data in mission planner, the accelerometers don’t seem to be working… let me describe it better:
At the field:
-Set the CLI switch on the APM to flight mode (away from the connectors)
-I set my airplane up (connect wings, servo connectors, etc.)
-I plug in my battery and keep the airplane level and stable to allow accelerometer and gyro’s to calibrate
-Leave it alone and allow it to start up (takes about 30 seconds to 2 minutes)
-All the LED’s (on the GPS and board) stop blinking and turn solid
-Set the flight mode to Stabilization
-PROBLEM: I move the airplane around, but the servos do not move the control surfaces to offset my movements.
At this point, I decide to fly it anyway (dumb) and test the Auto and RTL while in flight. I get some altitude, set it to RTL, and the plane goes full throttle and rolls straight to the ground, I recover it by setting it back to manual and recover normal flight. Land it and take it home to troubleshoot:
At home:
-Power up the APM like before
-Connect it to computer via USB
-Connect via mission planner and MavLink
-Complete all the steps for sensor testing as listed on http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/SensorCheck
-Artificial horizon does not respond to movement (it does show flight mode and GPS does show location)
-Tuning graph does not respond to movement
It didn’t do this until this flight. I didn’t change anything except for the mission. It hasn’t undergone any crashes or other modifications.
I’ve done all the resets I can think of, I’ve updated to the most recent version of Arduplane.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
-Trent
Set Up:
Airplane: Scratch built "Nova" (standard pusher fixed wing airplane)
APM: APM1 (I do not have airspeed or magnetometer)
Waypoints: Simple 4 - 5 waypoints including an autoland
Altitude: 80m
Replies
Okay, quick update on my quest to return my APM to normal after an apparent accelerometer error:
1.) Tried resetting everything (APM reset, went back to original mission when it was working, cleared EEPROM, recalibrating radio, etc.) but to no avail: no stabilization functionality and no active artificial horizon.
2.) Tried to remove the ADC from the board to replace it, but it is just beyond my skill level to do so (I heat up the solder joints and pull as hard as I can with tweezers without breaking something, but the joints just don't let go, and I'm afraid I'll break something else or overheat the board)
3.) Finally discovered CLI mode and the terminal, tried Test ADC and this is what I got: (all 0's)
Thank you all for your patience and support... I'll get there!
hi friend, i had been successfully flying APM 1.4 for a year now. just try to recalibrate your radio in setup mode. this should solve the problem. i understand that in stabilize mode the the controls should deflect on rolling and pitching the aircraft. also chk that the setup switch is in 'fly' postion. thirdly wait for the GPS to lock before the control surfaces start responding in stabilize mode.
Sounds like a solder joint has gone bad on the board, probably on the gyros or accels. Contact customer support and get a RMA.