Mikado Logo 400 flybarless project with ArduCopter and video with OSD

I have been building and flying RC helicopters for about 10 years although you wouldn't think so given the quality of my flying. My building ability however is much better. My fleet at the moment contains Mikado Logo 400 FBL, Logo 500 with flybar and FMA CoPilot II with HardDeck, Hirobo SDX with OS55 nitro, flybar and CoPilot II and an SDX which is flybarless. My latest project is a Srimok 90N flybarless.

I'm a Futaba man so have a 18MZ and typically use all Futaba gear.

So, what's up next? I've been intrigued by FPV for a few months and started investigating it for my helicopters. Everywhere I look I find people saying that you need to be a great helicopter pilot to be successful with FPV on helis. I sure can understand what they are saying. So I had a though, if I can get something to help me control the heli if I get disorientated - ie. let the sticks go and the thing will just sit where I left it - I might be able to get an FPV heli to work for me.

Now I have FMA CoPilot II but it will level the heli but not stop it drifting and as you know if it drifts it can get away from you real quick so I need something that is positionally aware. So I started looking for something that might help maintain position. Now I come to the important bit - I saw a video on YouTube of someone in Canada flying an ArduCopter controlled heli and I'm hooked.

So my Logo 400 has been looking a little lonely of late and I'm keen to first turn it into and ArduCopter controlled machine and then put some FPV gear on it. Nice project?

I know for sure I'm going to need some help and so I joined DIYDrones and started my research in earnest.

What I've bought so far...

APM2.5+ (side entry) with 433MHz telemetry set, uBlox GPS and a Deans power module.

In anticipation I've installed the Mission Planner v1.2.33 onto my Window 7 HP Laptop.

What I intend doing is removing the vBar system off the Logo entirely and using a Futaba R6008HS 8 channel 2.4GHz FASST Rx. I fly the heli on a 5S LiPo and will use this to power both the heli and the APM. Servos on the head are all S9650 and on the tail a S9257.

Now for my big request...what are the traps for "junior" players? What's going to get me first? What's the big issue with this setup? While I've got time and lots of enthusiasm I'd really appreciate your help. I don't want to go it alone only to find that if I'd asked you guys knew what to look out for all along.

Thanks for reading and here's looking forward to a long, fruitful association.

Cheers from Australia

PS.

I'd like you help with OSD and video but later, much later!

Thought I'd share some things with you that I've had to learn the hard way.

Check your wire connections before each flight. Wires coming loose in flight is responsible for all but 2 of my crashes
Make sure you have clean power going to your arduPilot. The new power connector should do this well. You'll definitely want to have a separate BEC to provide power to your servos. The servos can draw extremely high currents, which can cause the voltage to drop, which can (any once did for me) cause the autopilot to reset in flight if they're on the same line. Just keep the autopilot and servos separate and you should be fine.
Keep your blades balanced and tracked well. Excessive vibrations make the autopilot come up with some weird roll and pitch estimates. Mount the autopilot on some nice vibration foam.
Don't ever adjust the trims on your radio. Once you've calibrated your radio through mission planner, make all trim changes by adjusting the linkage rods on your swash plate. The reason for this is kind of straight forward. If you trim the helicopter in acro mode, then switch to stable mode, the autopilot will interpret the radio's signal differently.
Calibrate your PID controllers one at a time, and don't move on to the next one until the current one is working perfectly. If you're going to use the ArduPilot in place of your tail gyro and flybarless controller, don't even think of switching to stabilize mode until acro is tuned well. Likewise, don't go to loiter mode until stabilize works. Etc, etc. Each mode builds on the simpler ones beneath it. For example, the stabilize controller uses the acro controller, and the loiter controller uses stabilize which uses acro. You get the point.

If you run into any problems let me know. I've probably already found a solution to any issues you're going to run into. Good luck and have fun.

Replies

Rob_Lefebvre February 20, 2013 at 4:52pm

Hi Anthony,

First tip, don't post anything here. I didn't even see this thread until today. I wish these forums within groups didn't exist. Please post in the main Forum/TradHeli area.

You do not need to tune Acro before Stabilize. Most people don't even use Stabilize, and in fact, Acro is not a real rate-based control anyway, it's actually just a special branch of Stabilize at this point.

I'm glad you appear to be using an 8ch Rx. You could use a 7ch, but then you would not be able to use the Ch8 motor control feature which you should be using. Everybody should be using it along with a governor equipped ESC. It's the best and simplest setup.

I've never heard of this 8" minimum requirement for sonar bootup. I've never had that much range on any sonar setup I've had. I also don't recommend the EZLO. IMO, it is way too sensitive and just picks up noise. I've had the best luck with the MB1240.

But IMO, the sonar is an unnecessary complication when starting out anyway.
Nate Miller February 15, 2013 at 8:53am
Thought I'd share some things with you that I've had to learn the hard way.
- Check your wire connections before each flight. Wires coming loose in flight is responsible for all but 2 of my crashes
- Make sure you have clean power going to your arduPilot. The new power connector should do this well. You'll definitely want to have a separate BEC to provide power to your servos. The servos can draw extremely high currents, which can cause the voltage to drop, which can (any once did for me) cause the autopilot to reset in flight if they're on the same line. Just keep the autopilot and servos separate and you should be fine.
- Keep your blades balanced and tracked well. Excessive vibrations make the autopilot come up with some weird roll and pitch estimates. Mount the autopilot on some nice vibration foam.
- Don't ever adjust the trims on your radio. Once you've calibrated your radio through mission planner, make all trim changes by adjusting the linkage rods on your swash plate. The reason for this is kind of straight forward. If you trim the helicopter in acro mode, then switch to stable mode, the autopilot will interpret the radio's signal differently.
- Calibrate your PID controllers one at a time, and don't move on to the next one until the current one is working perfectly. If you're going to use the ArduPilot in place of your tail gyro and flybarless controller, don't even think of switching to stabilize mode until acro is tuned well. Likewise, don't go to loiter mode until stabilize works. Etc, etc. Each mode builds on the simpler ones beneath it. For example, the stabilize controller uses the acro controller, and the loiter controller uses stabilize which uses acro. You get the point.
If you run into any problems let me know. I've probably already found a solution to any issues you're going to run into. Good luck and have fun.
Anthony Sive February 14, 2013 at 9:55pm
Ok,my excitement got away with me and I went and ordered some FPV gear...
- Ardupilot Mega MinimOSD Rev 1.1
- 5.8Ghz 500mW Wireless kit
- CMOS Video camera (640x480)
I'm going to leave these alone until I get the APM2.5+ up and running but I just thought I'd share my "rush of blood to the head" with you all.

Sometimes I just can't help myself.
Developer

Randy February 14, 2013 at 8:06pm

It's a bit of a detail but with the 8+ channel futabas you likely need to upgrade the ppm encoder firmware to deal with it's high update rate properly. details are on this wiki page.

This reply was deleted.

ArduCopter (traditional heli) user group

Replies