IRIS+ isn't interested in Point of Interest

Posted by PH on November 12, 2014 at 8:13pm

Hello All, 


Complete Newb here trying to come up to speed.  I'm 8 flights in on the IRIS+ and 4 of those flight are with the Tarot Gimble.  I'm thrilled with the results and floored by the code and technology that's come from the open source community. Wow, just wow!

I started using Droidplanner_v2.7.10_RC2 on the first flight using the Gimble which flew as expected with the drone/gimble keeping the GoPro pointed at the POI.  I upgraded to Droidplanner_v2.8.1_RC1 and during the last few flights the drone "wanders" 360 degrees on the yaw axis during an auto mission.  The Gimble seems to be correctly angled to the POI so I'm inclined to think that it's not a Gimble issue.  Again, I'm really new at this, so it's just a guess on my part.

To those more experienced IRIS pilots, would you please recommend settings or parameters to look at ?  I haven't changed anything from default, but if there's a parameter that keeps the IRIS oriented to the POI I'd like to double check that.   Also, could some please confirm that this link shows the valid parameters used by IRIS+?  http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter-parameters/#FENCE__Parameters

Thanks very much!

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Tags: gimble, iris+, poi
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Replies

  • Michael Burmeister November 15, 2014 at 4:11pm

    Sorry to here you have a mac.  You can upload the bin file as mission planner can read and convert them. I have not used apm planner so can't help with that.

    Have flowen a couple of missions with driod planner connected and have had problems. I have found disconnecting driod planner during missions helps.

    Ortherwise avoid using follow me mode.

    • PH > Michael Burmeister November 15, 2014 at 4:49pm

      Sorry to here you have a mac.

      LOL!  In this instance, I am too :)

      Do you know which parameter I'd be looking for to troubleshoot the freespinning yaw?  I'm afraid that after I get the BIN file open it will just create more questions than answers - I don't know what I'm looking for nor do I know how to correct a parameter even if I did see something that wasn't right.

      Anyway to reset the IRIS+ to factory default settings?

  • Michael Burmeister November 13, 2014 at 3:42am

    I believe this is a know issue with Droid Planner at the moment.  After using Follow Me the code does not disable itself and continues to sent Region Of Interest's for Follow Me.  So in Auto Mode your copter will continue to see ROI's and point in that direction.

    If you disconnect Droid Planner and power cycle the copter your auto flight will work just fine.  You need to restart Droid Planner to get it out of Follow Me mode so it won't mess with the copter in other modes.

    An easy way of knowing if the copter is messed up is to turn the nob and see if the gimbal moves.  If it doesn't then you need to power cycle the copter with Droid Planner disconnected.

    As soon as you connect with Droid Planner you will see the gimbal move to ROI position if Droid Planner is stuck in Follow Me mode.

    The new version of the Firmware now persists ROI through way points which was not the behavior in the previous release. This means you have to end each ROI with one that has all the parameters set to Zero.  This tells the copter that ROI is finished.

    Droid Planner also does this with Follow Me but continues to sent other updates too.

    Another way to get the copter out of Follow Me is run an Auto Mission with an ROI set to all Zeros.  As long as Droid Planner is not connected or stuck the copter will be back to normal.

    Also you need a way point after the ROI with all Zeros or it won't see the ROI.

     

    • PH > Michael Burmeister November 13, 2014 at 8:45am

      Thanks for the reply!  I'll try the procedural steps to see if it helps:

      1. Disconnect droid planner
      2. De-power the IRIS+
      3. Close Droidplanner2 on the tablet 
      4. Restart as normal

      I did have control of the gimble tilt during preflight, but still had the wandering in the yaw axis during auto mission flight.  The ground track and altitude for the last few flights were correct, however the IRIS was "free-spinning" around the yaw axis.  It was not looking at the follow me POI.   Strange.

      I also want to make sure I'm constructing the flight plan correctly, can you offer a technique for how to best insert POIs into the flight?  

      In Editor mode:

      1. Add a single POI waypoint
      2. Add a waypoint "with all zeros" (not sure how to do this)
      3. Draw multiple spline waypoints

      I'm assuming the POI must be inserted into the flight plan before flightpath waypoints?

      Thanks again for the help, I've been thrilled with quality of the code, hardware, and community.  For safety's sake, I just want to be sure I know what the quad is going to do when I turn it loose in Auto mode!

    • Michael Burmeister > PH November 13, 2014 at 8:59am

      It sounds like your compass is miss aliened or perhaps upside down.

      Need the Log off the copter to see what's going on here.  The best way is to copy it off the flash card from the copter.

      The copter should point in the direction of the Way Point when it flies and only the ROI command should change that other than there is a parameter that can be set that will leave it in the last known direction throughout the flight.  It should not just start turning during the flight.

      If you could just run a simple flight with the issue and then get the log off the copter and upload it.  It will tells us what it was doing and if there is something set wrong.

       

    • PH > Michael Burmeister November 13, 2014 at 9:26am

      Again, thank you very much for your help!  I'll load the last few flight logs as soon as I'm back to my laptop.  

      I noticed a new menu item in DP2 - Locator, it shows all the flights that I've done with the software, but I can't see way to export.  Do you know if that functionality exists?

      Many thanks!

    • Michael Burmeister > PH November 13, 2014 at 9:35am

      Droid Planner does have logs of the flights but no way to get them off the copter.

      There are two types of logs, TLogs and Logs.  Droid Planner and Mission Planner create TLogs.

      You need Mission Planner if you are going to download the logs or view the logs yourself.

      If you don't have Mission Planner I would get it.  Just don't run the Wizard.

      Otherwise you need to remove three screws for your copter and remove the top cover to get to the flash card that contains a log of all the flights on it.

      There was some issue with downloading the logs through Mission Planner that I don't know have been resolved.  I always just copy them off the copter when I have a chance and save them on my computer.

      The logs also contain the GPS coordinates of your flight as well so we will see where in Alaska you are.

       

    • PH > Michael Burmeister November 15, 2014 at 4:03pm

      Thanks for the help Michael, after a few frustrating days of trying to pull logs off the IRIS, I'm finding that this is NOT a Mac friendly platform :)

      I installed APM2 for Mac and connected the IRIS only to find that I couldn't access the log file through a USB connection.  As per your suggestion, I pulled the cover off of IRIS and loaded the miniSD card to discover that PixHawk writes BIN files and APM has no way of opening a BIN.  All attempts to convert/open BIN to LOG have failed.

      I flew a mission to demonstrate the how IRIS doesn't orient towards POI, but I can find a way to share that info (or look at it myself).  Very frustrating for sure.  Any suggestions?  can you look at a LOG file?

      I also want to add that the last few times I've flown I get the error:

      PreArm check: Compasses Inconsistent 

      Thanks!

      23.BIN

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