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.
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
Comments
Jim, if you don't see the vertical speed parameters, you probably need to download new firmware, I have version V2.9 on my quad, I believe these parameters were new with this version of the firmware.
Excellent video. Thanks! And while it certainly would be more work to do, it would be nice to see/read a description in the video, of the initial/starting conditions just prior to taking the actions in the video. Anyway, what you made and offered is greatly appreciated.
Chris,
I am running Mission Planner 1.2.32 and do not find the parameter setting for vertical speed. I am looking under "Standard Parameters" which appears to be the same screen you show. Any ideas?
Very good and super helpful got me back into multi-rotors & APMing -Like your youtube channel
The mission planner has a tab on the left labeled "Planner" on there you can change the default units from meters to feed and the units for speed from meters/second to fps, kph, mph, etc.
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?
Great work. Thanks Chris. Any instructional video like this is greatly appreciated.
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 :-)
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.
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.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next