I know, I know... after months of being away, I'm finally getting an airplane back in the air with the APM. It flew great and the APM, as always, was awesome. I'll be using the Raptor for a while and will start doing longer range flights via telemetry. Its also allowing me to complete the Beginner to Expert videos I'm making for the APM.
I'm glad to be back!
-Trent
On this video I demonstrate how to connect your APM to the mission planner so you can test the onboard sensor's functionality.
So far I've gotten positive feedback on these Beginner to Expert videos, so I'll keep churnin' em out in hopes that future DIYD'ers can be helped by them. Check out the dedicated page on MyGeekShow: http://www.mygeekshow.com/beginnertoexpert/topics/AutoPilot.html if you'd like to see them all together nice and organized.
-Trent
Step by step process to load firmware to your APM. Actually not too difficult, finding the COM port is probably the hardest step.
Over the next few weeks/months I'll be doing a large set of videos like this one, see the full complete series here: http://www.mygeekshow.com/beginnertoexpert/topics/AutoPilot.html
A quick overview of the mission planner. When you consider what you're getting for FREE it's pretty impressive. Michael Oborne and team has done very well...
I'll be making a few dozen or so videos like this one to help others get started with DIYD stuff, hopefully someone finds it helpful! Here is a link to the complete video series: http://www.mygeekshow.com/beginnertoexpert/topics/tutorials/Overview_of_the_APM_Mission_Planner.html
The next video for How-To APM that I'll be doing. Of course I'll move on to more advanced features over the next few days & weeks, but this should help someone who is totally new to DIYD get started.
Nothing too complex here, simply how to download and install the mission planner. Hopefully someone down the road who is totally lost will find this video via search and find what they are looking for.
Here is a link to complete series (more added each week!) http://www.mygeekshow.com/beginnertoexpert/topics/AutoPilot.html
It's my turn to give back! As a way of saying thank you to all of you who have helped me along the way, I'm going to focus the next dozen or so Beginner to Expert videos on the APM!
I've been doing free "Beginner to Expert" videos over the last few months where I focus on a single principle and do a tutorial or a how-to that hopefully, will help others along in the hobby. The APM videos are specifically aimed at helping those who are brand new get to where you guys are: experts!
Your feedback would be very helpful as I make the videos.
Thank you again for your help!
Check out the dedicated page: http://www.mygeekshow.com/beginnertoexpert/topics/tutorials/Introduction_to_the_APM_Ardupilot_Mega.html
I just streamed live via YouTube a "T-500 days until the start of the USA trip" update and took questions from those who could join. Thought you might like to see what was discussed.
Just skip the first 4 minutes, its a blank screen as I waited for the event to start.
In other news, the Polaris, my APM focused airplane, will complete it's maiden flight here in a week or so! If it flies well, then I'll be adding the APM!
Thank you for all your support,
-Trent
2013 is going to be an awesome year for the show, and the APM is going to be a critical component to it's success. I'll be building and proving airframes, electronics, avionics, mobile ground stations and processes that will allow me take an airplane further, faster and longer than ever before; across the united States of America.
2013, here we come!
The USA trip is back in focus! (I had taken a few weeks off to do a side project)
I'm also announcing a new airplane, the Polaris; a combination of the Nova and Shrike. It will feature a longer endurance airframe and power supply, and, of course, full automation through APM.
I'll capture the build process while I build the Polaris, and present it as a build log for others to follow along.
More about the USA trip: http://mygeekshow.com/usatrip/
-Trent
This a follow up to the blog post http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/autopilot-mayday
I was able to replace the motor and prop (which were both balanced) and it completely resolved the APM issues I was having before.
Now if I could just find a way to fly better :)
So after a few flights of the APM just acting weird in general (fighting me while on stabilize, random tip stalls/dives, flying inverted randomly, etc) I finally recorded the telemetry screen while it was in flight (I was flying LOS as it was about to crash at any moment) and I noticed that the head's up display is showing a seriously wrong horizon, even the opposite at times.
I have a second APM that I'm going to try in the air while I try to fix this one. Anyone seen this before/have a solution?
See you Saturday,
-Trent
TLOG: (I think this is it, I'm having trouble with my graphing function on the APM, so I couldn't verify)
This week I added a joystick to our groundstation and flew via telemetry. It was pretty intense, and I was surprised how little the delay and control surface sensitivity loss impacted the flight. As is, the set up wouldn't allow you to do and crazy 3D flying, but it operated just fine.
The only questions I'd have is about the delay and seemingly "stuttery" control surfaces. Is this delay normal? Is the control surface skipping effect normal?
Thank you for your support!
On this episode of MyGeekShow we tested a new airspeed sensor we installed on the Shrike. It allowed us to get our first cruise airspeed, max airspeed, and stall speed. Very cool!
See you Saturday!
On this episode of MyGeekShow we mobilized our ground station and took the Shrike for a fly and drive - Trent drove the car while Nick flew the Shrike. It went really well! We've got more improvements before we're ready to try our first flight where we take off and then fly to another location.
See you Wednesday!
See http://www.mygeekshow.com/watchmygeekshow/episodes/Episode_92_Flying_While_Dr... for forum comments and more information!
We started having problems keeping all the wires we were using for our ground station organized and safe, so we designed and built a power management module using car accessory electronics and other home and model parts. It took over three weeks to go through the process, but we're hoping it will reduce the chances of damage and speed up the set up time when we fly each morning.
We finally made it!
We successfully completed our maiden flight with the 3DR 900 Mhz telemetry module on board our Shrike, it was incredible to see it gathering, transmitting, receiving and displaying live information... we can't wait to use it on future flights.
Thank you DIYDrones and community! This is so much fun...
-Trent
We've had dataflash card issues with one of our APM2's since day one, but our second APM2 worked fine until after a few rough landings (no repairs were needed, so they weren't that bad), we can't get the mission planner to identify logs or the APM2 to create them, not sure which.
We tried reformatting the card, removing it and reinstalling it, updating the firmware on the APM2 and the Mission Planner version, etc, but to no avail.
We're moving forward with FPV & Telemetry while we figure it out, but we'd really like to have it working... any suggestions?
Thanks!
We wanted to start narrowing down the reason's for why we keep losing the Shrike! We are starting with understanding which materials placed over the GPS module affect reception. We placed clear plastic, tape, a phone book, dow foam, aluminum foil, static brushless motor, powered and turning brushless motor, powered tx 2.4 GHz, and powered vtx 5.8 GHz directly over the module before booting the APM. We noted how many satellites connected after 2 minutes.
We found that most of the materials had negligible effects on satcount under the Flight Data>Status in the APM planner. Aluminum Foil, the brushless motor, and the 2.4 GHz signal created the largest interference.
Let us know how we could improve this experiment! We are not sure how well satcount correlates to the actual ability to navigate. Once we have telemetry we will be able to explore this further.
See you soon!
Trent & Nick
Autopilot: APM2 from http://www.DIYDrones.com
Produced by Trent & Nick in Arkansas, USA
Main Camera: Panasonic HDC-TM900K
Video Editing: Final Cut Pro
This episode we focused on getting the APM's data logging feature working, as well as integrating the results with Google Earth and the Mission Planner. It works really well! We're looking forward to putting it on the Shrike and start recording our flights.
See you Saturday,
-Trent & Nick
--Raptor--
Tx: Flyer9x with er9x firmware by ParkeFlyer http://parkeflyer.com/
Battery: 20C 2.2Ah Sky http://www.hobbypartz.com/77p-sl2200-3s1p-20c-3333.html
Servos: T-Pro 9G http://www.hobbypartz.com/topromisesg9.html
Motor: Optima 450 2220-1800KV http://www.hobbypartz.com/75m55-optima450-2220-1800kv-2.html
ESC: Exceed RC Proton 30A http://www.hobbypartz.com/07e04-proton-30a.html
Produced by Trent & Nick in Arkansas, USA
Main Camera: Panasonic HDC-TM900K
Video Editing: Final Cut Pro
Okay, okay. I know what you are thinking... Didn't you learn anything from the last episode? We did, but this one totally surprised us. We were just going up for a few minutes to test the new antennas and a new field when we lost the plane.
So, what happened?
Not totally sure why the APM seemed to struggle to find it's way, and we may never know as we still didn't have the DF card working (it's showing an error, and we've tried removing and reinstalling, and updating the firmware, still no luck) and we don't have telemetry yet (it's in the mail!).
One thing is for sure though, the flight battery was not working correctly. One of the cells wasn't holding a charge very well, but it seemed to perform just fine at first. However, when we finally set it to RTL it just couldn't keep altitude, no doubt caused by a weak & dying battery.
We are learning a lot, and are gathering all your suggestions to make a big improvement episode.
This is so much fun!
Thanks!
-Trent & Nick
