About

Gender

Male


Location

Austin, TX


About Me:

Software consultant


Please tell us a bit about your UAV interest

Interested in writing software for UAVs


Hometown:

Austin


Activity Feed

Rob Ratcliff replied to Rob Ratcliff's discussion Experience with Integrating Solo Gimbal on non-Solo platforms?
"Here is where I read about the software interface:
http://dev.3dr.com/hardware-gimbalbay.html#software-interface"
Mar 7, 2016
Rob Ratcliff posted a discussion
The Solo Gimbal looks very good and the price just dropped to $200.  (https://3dr.com/3-axis-gimbal/ )Has anybody had success integrating the Solo Gimbal into their custom Pixhawk controlled multi-rotor platform?I read some place that you had to use…
Feb 29, 2016
Rob Ratcliff posted discussions
Feb 4, 2016
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"Here are logs for 3.2.1 and a 3.3 tests. This particular 3.3 test drifted 5 meters.2015-04-01 15-15-44-fm-3.2.1.log2015-03-31 20-41-22-fw-3.3.log"
Apr 1, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"For 3.3, the initial pre-arm calibration doesn't seem to bring the altitude to 0 and the altitude goes very (10-20m) negative during hover testing. I'll post a log of my test with 3.3."
Apr 1, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"Thanks for the response. I did get it to work. Here are a couple of things that threw me off:

1.) rssi in the rc_channels_raw message had to be divided by 255 and then multiplied by the rssi_range. I was expecting a number between 0 and 100. The…"
Apr 1, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"If I specify that RSSI_PIN=103 and RSSI_RANGE=5 and then connect a 1.5 V battery between the ground pins and the sensor pin on the SB slot of the Pixhawk, shouldn't I see an RSSI of 30 in the RC_CHANNELS_RAW message? Right now, I'm seeing a small…"
Apr 1, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"BTW, during my ground hover testing, I noticed that the altitude is varying by 10-20 meters for the latest 3.3 version. It seems much better in the 3.2.1 release with a variation of about a meter during hover."
Apr 1, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"Andy,
Thanks so much, that was the problem. I've never had to muck with this setting and didn't even know it existed. I guess I need to read the entire Spektrum manual to see what else I'm missing!…"
Mar 27, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"I tried this test out with 3.2.1 on my APM with a Spektrum AR5200 receiver and DX7 Transmitter. It responded correctly by setting rc3 to 900 when the R/C transmitter was turned off.

Has anybody with a Pixhawk seen the behavior described above where…"
Mar 26, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2.1 Beta Testing
"I posted this on the other related thread, but haven't heard back:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A1903...

I've done tests with 3.2.1 and 3.3 and find that the rc channels continue to register values above 1000 when I…"
Mar 26, 2015
Rob Ratcliff commented on Randy's blog post ArduCopter 3.2.1 released
"Here is a scenario with 3.2.1 that can be surprising:

1.) Disable Radio Failsafe (FS_THR_ENABLE=0) so that a ground station can ARM the copter without the radio
1.) Turn on radio and increase throttle to half way with the copter turned on
2.) Turn…"
Mar 24, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to J M's discussion Do I need the PPM encoder to connect the ar8000 to Pixhawk?
"Chad, I am using a Spektrum satellite receiver as well. Did you have to remap the throttle and pitch channels to get things working correctly? I had to use the RCMAP settings to swap pitch and throttle, but given the bugs in the Arducopter firmware…"
Mar 1, 2015
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2 beta testing
"I may have had a race condition that caused the issue.  I tried an experiment where I issued a mission_clear_all and then immediately set the mode to AUTO and got the firmware to go into AUTO. (If I had an empty mission to start with, I could not…"
Dec 14, 2014
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion AC-3.1 autotune support discussion
"With the issues with the barometer and GPS, especially close to the ground, it seems like lidar or radar would be a more reliable solution for altitude measurements. I noticed that 3DR has a lidar coming that looks…"
Dec 13, 2014
Rob Ratcliff replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.2 beta testing
"Thanks for your support Randy, you've been a great help over the years!  Its been great to see the project flourish!

I actually told the copter to LAND myself as well with MAVLINK then the pilot with the R/C switched it to RTL. (Switching to…"
Dec 11, 2014
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