Record waypoints from a current flight?

Posted by Greg on December 27, 2015 at 2:43pm

Hi y'all,

Could someone please explain if it's possible to record/save waypoints from a manual flight. I live in a pretty hilly place with lots of trees. Planning a mission using Tower is a joy over open land, but I'm having a hard time planning a mission over rougher terrain. I would like to be able to test fly an area manually, taking in to account the hight of trees, and the hilly terrain. I would like to be able to save a waypoint based on my current position in a manual flight. Is this possible at all? Any suggestions for dealing with terrain changes. I don't want to fly my drone into a hill!

Thanks,

Greg

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Replies

  • Developer
    Bill Bonney December 27, 2015 at 3:28pm

    you can set the channel 7 or 8 option to save a waypoint when you active a switch on the transmitter

    see http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter-parameters/#channel_7_o...

    • DG > Bill Bonney December 27, 2015 at 5:19pm

      Thanks Bill. I never thought to use 'Save WP' for creating a mission, even if just two points.

      Isn't AC 3.4 supposed to support terrain following at some point?

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > DG December 27, 2015 at 5:25pm

      Plane already supports terrain following using SRTM data (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/) Copter 3.4 is targeted to support that as well. You do need a GCS that supports uploading that data for it to work though.

    • Greg > Bill Bonney December 27, 2015 at 5:14pm

      Thank you Bill! OK, once I activate channel 7 (after I change what channel 7 does to Save WP), the waypoint will be saved... somewhere. How would I use that saved waypoint in Tower to create a mission. Can I save more than one waypoint by cycling the channel 7 switch on and off?

      Thanks again!

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > Greg December 27, 2015 at 5:18pm

      Yep, every time you toggle the switch you will save the current location as a WP in the autopilot. You can then download the waypoints to Tower and edit it, save etc... then upload changes as normal.

    • Greg > Bill Bonney December 27, 2015 at 5:33pm

      Thank you Bill. Obviously I can't test this until tomorrow. Just so I'm clear... I change channel 7 parameter from 0 to value 7. I'm flying along in STD, or Loiter mode, then I toggle channel 7. A waypoint is recorded in the autopilot each time I toggle that switch.

      I land and work on building a mission. I connect to Iris+ using Tower. I select Download mission (or waypoints). I can then use those waypoints to build a mission. I then upload the mission to Iris+. Fly the drone, and then switch to Auto. ? Have I got that right? The waypoints that I saved by doing the channel 7 toggles will be the waypoints that get downloaded to Tower?

      Thanks again!

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > Greg December 27, 2015 at 6:04pm

      correct. 

      It might be a good idea to make sure you have no mission items (waypoints) loaded to start with, since I think it appends the WP to any currently loaded mission.

    • Greg > Bill Bonney December 27, 2015 at 6:08pm

      Thank you Bill. I can't wait to try this out. I have a mission in mind for this that would be very hard to plan without flying around manually to get some key waypoints.

    • Greg > Greg December 27, 2015 at 7:57pm

      Just one more question Bill. How do I toggle channel 8 on my 3DR Iris+ radio? Channel 7 has a nice obvious switch. I would like to have the option of channel 7 being "Land", and maybe doing the Save WP with channel 8, but I don't see a channel 8 toggle.

      Thanks for everything!

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > Greg December 27, 2015 at 11:02pm

      if you have the Iris RC sold by 3DR you used to able to do it like this

      http://www.communistech.com/how-to-configure-a-switch-for-ch8-on-th...

      But i don't know what RC Controller you have or software that is installed on it.

      There maybe newer instructions.

      How to Configure a Switch for CH8 on the Iris Quad
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