I'm installing Ardupilot in the 6 foot wingspan electric Telemaster. As this is a significantly different airplane than the Easy Star I want to proceed slowly and carefully. If I can I am going to adjust and confirm PID settings, etc, one function (roll, climb and speed) at a time, starting with roll. I decided I needed to have a good idea how the roll software is implemented in Jordi's and Chris' marvellous software. So I embarked on developing the functional flow diagram shown here. It is based on V2.2.3roll_flow_chart.pdfI'm a noobie at this so I don't claim it is 100% accurate although I think it is close. Doing this has been a good education for me but I wonder if it is useful to others. I would be interested in Ardupilot enthusiasts' comments, including suggestions for corrections and/or improvements.By the way, the term "heading" is used incorrectly in the software. In navigation parlance, heading is the direction of the airplane's fore and aft axis in relation to a fixed reference. The reference could be magnetic north if the airplane has a compass or true north if it has some kind of gyro-based measurement device (AHARS or IMU). Ardupilot as it is presently configured has no heading measurement device so it does not know what it's heading is. Where heading is referred to, it is really course over the ground that is being talked about. No big isssue now, but will become so when Ardupilot adds a heading reference in the future, which I think is inevitable.
Read more…