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A few tips for the APM Mission Planner

Posted by Chris Lovett on January 21, 2013 at 12:00am

Having learned the hard way on a few things, I thought I'd put together a little video that shows some tips and tricks with the APM mission planner.
The first time I tried mission planning some things were a mystery, like how do you actually get into auto mode to fly a mission? I found something that looked like a way to do it from the APM software flight data tab, but that turned out to be a disaster because there was no way to get it out of auto mode and my quad went crazy and crashed into my house. Second fun one was when the mission started but didn't finish, so I had to trudge across 60 acres of mud to retrieve my quad. Lastly I almost lost my quad on a mission that went awry, for some unknown reason it did 2 way points, then took off in the wrong direction, into the fog.  I tried to take back control, but I couldn't see it in the fog, then soon after I couldn't hear it either.  Then the sinking feeling came over me, $600 down the tubes! But fortunately I remembered to setup a safety switch that would return to home. I flipped  the switch and waited for what seemed like forever, then that wonderful sound of buzzing bees emerged out of the fog and my quad flew itself back home.  Phew!!  Learn these tips and tricks by watching this video, it could save you some money.

Tags: apm, arduino, auto, diy, drones, mission, mode, planner, quadrocopter
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Comments

  • Jim Wittstruck January 25, 2013 at 8:01pm

    Great! Thanks. This makes the "obvious" obvious (it's simpler than it looks from written instructions). One question. Is the altitude and radius value in waypoints always in meters or can it easily be changed to feet?

  • Chris Latham January 23, 2013 at 12:03am

    Great work. Thanks Chris. Any instructional video like this is greatly appreciated. 

  • Chris Lovett January 22, 2013 at 7:48pm

    Vincent, you are right, I updated the video to add a waypoint to take it back home. I also added a bit more to the video to show what GPS and telemetry hardware I'm using and how the telemetry logs can be used after the fact to study your flight data.  Scott, yes I'm in Woodinville too, so I'm sure it looked familiar to you.  That fog is how I almost lost my quad.  Thank heavens for channel 7 RTL !!  We should grab a coffee sometime and compare notes :-)

  • Scott Berfield January 21, 2013 at 4:57pm

    Are you by any chance in the Pacific Northwest? That fog, the house types and the frozen ground sure look familiar! I'm in Woodinville, WA and havn't been able to fly much at all with this fog bank squatting over us.

  • Vincent Mees January 21, 2013 at 12:59pm

    So, if I understand correctly, after the mission is flown, here WP3, the quad returns to home and then lands?

    A couple of months ago if you added the land command it would land at the last WP.

  • james sowell January 21, 2013 at 12:37pm

    + 1

  • T3
    Richard Boyhan January 21, 2013 at 11:35am

    Great post!  Loading and saving a mission was one of the hardest things to figure out when I started playing with missions.  When I started the wiki manual was not up to date.  Again, thanks for sharing.

  • Dean R January 21, 2013 at 10:47am

    Great post Chris, more of this type of help is greatly appreciated.

  • John January 21, 2013 at 9:34am
    I think instructional videos are an excellent idea. It seems like there's a lot of information in a lot of places that isn't updated. I think instructional videos on first time setup, tuning, and mission planner would be extremely helpful. All in a single location so they're easy to find.
  • Stan January 21, 2013 at 9:26am
    Good job, great video!
This reply was deleted.