Hi all,
Just thought I'd post pics of my quad case. It took a while to build but the cost to build it was practically zero. I utilized an old beds plywood and the foam from its mattress.
I have been using it now for about 4 months and I really like it. It's just big enough to securely fit:
Dimensions are in cm: 55 x 55 x 24.5
Check the video first:
So I'm flying up at 120m. What then happens is every RC pilots nightmare! Power cuts off from the APM!
Quad drops to about 90m before it wakes up again, then I take it down crazyfast but controlled to 20m, then at 20m it dies again and drops like a rock... hits pavement...3 broken props, all landing gear, 2 bent arms, cut cables and a broken Hero2.
Why did this happen?
I had new and fancy LED strips connected directly to the LiPo between the LiPo and PDB. The connections were all with Dean connectors which should be ok. Well as this was a new build I had not yet shortened the cables to proper length. They where short enough to not even go near the props but long enough to have "wiggleroom". My theory is that the propwash made the cables wiggle just enough for the Dean connectors to cutoff enough to disturb the APM. This theory is supported with the fact that when I brought the quad down crazyfast and then stopped the decent by giving if full power the propwash must have been quite a lot. And that is exactly when the cutoff occurred the second time. Then on the ground after the crash the battery connection was still ok but when I wiggle the Dean connectors the power cuts off just enough that the APM boots.
Why no footage of the crash?
The camera is a GoPro Hero2 and it took the hit pretty bad. The case was cracked but the main camera was still in one piece. Battery and memory card had popped out. What I did was I started with powering it up to test if its still alive. It showed some weird picture on the LCD of a guy on a bicycle?? I pressed everything. Got it working again. Later I learn that IF the memory card would have been in when it powers up after a crash it should try to write the 5 sec buffer to the card and usually succeed... Dammit!
Craft:
3DR ArduCopter Quad-B
P.S. I know. I'm an idiot for taking my quad up to 120m with new stuff on it.
The solution is a bit of an anti-climax so in short:
I got Loiter to work by re-flashing the firmware.
The longer version:
I built the quad which was a 3DR ArduCopter Quad-B. Everything seemed to work like a charm. It flew like a dream in stabilize and the GPS got a really good signal (over 10 satellites). I had read about how people got at least poor loitering with the B model 3RD quad but every time I turned on any of the auto modes the quad would sit for a while and then shoot of to a random direction. Altitude hold would however work.
I fiddled with the PIDs and examined logs for hours. Thanks you guys here who tried to help me. Nothing worked. Nothing actually made any difference to the auto modes.
After 3 weeks of this I emptied the EEPROM, re installed the firmware, did the config exactly as before and tried it. It loitered, it returned to launch and flew missions straight away! Not very well but at least it tried! :-) And now after some PID tuning it works significantly better... But the lesson being. If you cant fix it, try re installing it... :-)
