Pixhawk and an ArduRover... lots of bugs?

Posted by RoboBill on March 2, 2014 at 5:12pm

I've just assembled my rover with the Pixhawk kit which included the GPS and PPM encoder. The GPS is mounted 5+ inches above the top of the rover. Inside the rover is a Dimension Engineering 60 amp motor controller and 2 17AH batteries.

After runnng the Mission Planner Wizard, I am unable to manually steer the rover and the altitude displayed on the HUD is a negative value (-1000 ft.). I'am at ~1000 ft.The GPS test indicates correct readings.

Also from the Flight Data Status box, both channels 3 & 4 input are registering from my Spektrum RC and channel 3 output is also registering... but no channel 4 output... i.e. I can go forward and backwards but no steering.

If I run the Wizard as an Arduplane, the altitude, throttle & steering work fine.  

So I gather the Rover software is buggy.

Am I alone here. 

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  • This reply was deleted.
    • RoboBill March 3, 2014 at 8:35am

      Thanks for your reply.

      I am confused as to why I need 7 channels when 2 are not used. Right now I'm using a 4 channel receiver cuz my 5 channel receiver died. I'm using a DX5E. A new 6 channel receiver will arrive in a few days. 

      So needless to say since I'm a real beginner at this, its going to take me a while to research your methodology. 

    • RoboBill March 3, 2014 at 1:16pm

      Progress!!!   Following your discussion on remapping, I got the rover to drive and steer! Not real sure exactly why it did it, but I'll figure it out eventually. 

      As for the waypoints and modes, All I need is auto/manual, which (plz correct me if I'm wrong) I believe I can use the DX5E channel 5 switch... that is of course once I replace my AR400 with an AR610. I won't really need to learn waypoints remotely. I plan on using real switches on the rover to set waypoints. 

      And yes I have been looking over the docs. Its definitely overwhelming. I confess I'm somewhat disappointed with the mission planner not having context sensitive help/tutorials. And I have yet to find any tutorials on YouTube for setting up Pixhawk/Rover.

      BTW the 3DRobotics people are looking into the altitude problem I mentioned earlier. I know altitude is not an issue with a rover, but its nice to know I'm not submerged. ;-)

      Many Thanks

      Bill

    • RoboBill March 3, 2014 at 7:43pm

      Many thanks for your help. I got my AR610, mapped the channel 5 and trainer switches successfully...flipped it into auto and my rover wants to go go go ... unfortunately (or actually FINALLY) its raining here in the S.F. bay area so I have to wait.

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