Hello all,
Just had a great maiden flight earlier today with my IRIS. I flew one full battery using ALT/HOLD, and then did another flight fully autonomously using DROIDPLANNER. I have a few questions I'd like to ask about using droid planner and flying missions.
Firstly,
Does planning and execution of autonomous flight have to be done with a cellular or internet base connection present. If neither of these connections are needed, what is the proper method to draw accurate waypoints and execute a mission.
I assume I would
1. pick the location I'm going to be flying at using droidplanner at home.
2. Then I draw the waypoints, and send them to APM.
3. Disconnect everything, drive to the location I drew the waypoints at. Start in the general area of waypoint 1, and launch Droidplanner with the antenna connected, and execute autonomous mission.
Is this how it actually works?
secondly,
What is the maximum recommended distance to fly autonomously using the iris. Is there a relatively safe suggested distance when flying non line of sight? Assuming there are no major trees and or buildings in the vicinity to provide sever interference, how far can I really make my waypoints travel safely?
Thanks in advance,
And I look forward to many fun IRIS flights for all of us!
Replies
Researching what happens when the Iris flies out of sight on a mission or loses contact with the transmitter is on my list of things to research too!
Regaining manual control is something important to practice. For me using MP, it's just flipping one switch from auto to STB.
How far you can fly seems to depend on how long the Iris will dwell and rotate around at each waypoint. I haven't figured out how to control that yet.
-Joe
Hi JB3. On mission planner you can individually "click" each way point by tapping it with your finger. When you do so, it allows you to set a "dwell time" so to speak, which will allow you to set how long IRIS stays at each waypoint, and more importantly, what each way point is meant to do. You can specify an action at each way point like take off, land, or loiter etc. Hope this helps, or maybe you meant something else like actually speeding up the turn radius etc, in which case I definitely haven't figured it out yet either.
So far I've done a bit of in field research with the iris. If you're Mid-Air and you blatantly shut the transmitter off completely, it will hover momentarily and then immediately initiate a return to launch/land sequence.
I'll try to record my mission tomorrow and share on line.
I actually haven't been using MissionPlanner but rather DroidPlanner. They both work and are made by the same company, the MP is designed very well for the IRIS. I have a question for you. How do you initiate an autonomous takeoff After activating iris in your MP app? I've had to get creative by flying in standby or alt hold then switching to autonomous to activate the mission after takeoff.
I really need to switch over to mission planner. It's in Beta testing still which scare me slightly. I'm excited to try a longer distanced autonomous flight 2mmrw, so perhaps I'll try doing it with MP instead of DroidPlanner.
Also, just read your thread on mission planner. Is loading the iris param and frame type etc actually necessary? I'm using Droidplanner I was literally able to plug the 915mhz antenna to my samsung galaxy using the connector, draw the waypoints, and go! no setup needed or n e thing?
Thanks!
Sorry, was confusing Mission planner with DroidPlanner 2.0, so please ignore my useless instructions as they are not valid for mission planner. I've been using an older version of DroidPlanner before they made 2.0 specifically for Quads. It seems like mission planner is a bit more in depth/slightly more of a hassle. Having to load parameters and other things scare me a bit, as I already have droid planner working pretty well. Any thoughts? Have you tried out DroidPlanner yet JB3.
Hi Charles, sorry I missed this.
DroidPlanner isn't compatible with any of my tablets, so I probably won't be able to use it for awhile.
As for MissionPlanner, it does have a steep learning curve, but I hope my posts on this site can help new users get running faster.
From what I've seen setting the parameter file specifically for the Iris is required. You shouldn't use the wizard or try the typical X frame configs. It is a bit scary, but I've been able to fix any issues using 3DR support or the forums.
Saving missions is pretty easy in MP. You can either save to disk or write it to the Iris. With MP the entire mission is autonomous. My missions look like this:
Takeoff, Waypoint, Waypoint, Land
All you do is set the transmitter to auto and lift up the throttle to begin. After that the entire mission is completed by the Iris without any interaction from you.
Hope this helps!
Joe
Charles,
The GPS location is provided by Iris not the tablet. That said you would need internet for the maps or I believe there is an option to download sections.
You are much farther along than I !
Lou
I'll have to check out the download maps option, I haven't looked into that yet! Thanks LouB! I imagined there was a way to fly without any cell phone or internet connection on my tablet/phone. I like this idea.
I took two more flights tonight and they went flawlessly. One in ALT hold mode again, and one using the IRIS and my samsung galaxy on droid planner. I really enjoy flying missions autonomously.
Now I need to figure out how to return to the waypoint screen during droid planer in-flight to draw in real time waypoints.
I also have to figure out what switches I need to hit to regain control of the IRIS with the radio overriding droidplanner anytime I please.
Tomorrow I'm going to take a big leap and fly much much further in LOS, perhaps 500 yards or so out and then back in using droidplanner. I'll try to video it and perhaps do some tutorials from a newbs perspective while filming! I have the FPV setup still in the box from 3DRobotics as well. If I can get it working tonight I will try to incorporate it into my plans 2mmrw.