Blogs

APM as a flight data recorder

Posted by Murray Spoelstra on February 11, 2014 at 12:00am

3689574367?profile=originalWe tried using an APM 2.5 as a flight data recorder in a Cessna 208B. It was built into a 3D printed box with own power supply and recording done on a mobile phone.

There is one problem though: When the aircraft is in a steady bank the APM HUD indicates horizontal attitude as the resultant g-load is downwards relative to the APM. The difference between APM indicated attitude and aircraft artificial horizon is shown below. (Aircraft AH indicates about 30deg LH bank in top right corner)

UPDATE: THE PROBLEM SEEMS TO BE THAT ARDUCOPTER CODE WAS LOADED AND IT WAS FLOWN AS DISARMED, INSTEAD OF USING ARDUPLANE - THANKS DEVELOPERS!

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Comments

  • Kai Gonet February 14, 2014 at 5:02am

    @ AndrewTridgell or other PX4FMU user

    did anyone of you used the Pixhawk as a stand alone datalogger?

    Thanks

  • Stephen Gloor February 12, 2014 at 2:37am

    Pixhawk sounds like the easiest plan.

  • Murray Spoelstra February 12, 2014 at 1:43am

    Another good reason to upgrade to Pixhawk. Thanks.

  • Developer
    Andrew Tridgell February 12, 2014 at 1:34am

    The simplest is to use a PX4 or Pixhawk, which logs to a microSD card. You should have enough space for weeks of logs.

    Cheers, Tridge

  • Murray Spoelstra February 11, 2014 at 10:49pm

    Thanks Stephen, I'll look into that option. Sounds like quite a lot of hardware though that could start interfering with the compass in the box.

    Can't I just write code to redirect the onboard logging to one of the spare serial ports where I connect up a serial data logger and then put a switch in at the telemetry serial port to able/disable telemetry when I want to?

    What I don't like about this is that I don't necessarily want to change the code of each new version of arduplane coming out.

  • Stephen Gloor February 11, 2014 at 8:44pm

    Hi Murray,

    Why not put a BeagleBone Black in the box with the APM and connect it up using the USB cable.  The BBB will power the APM via the USB connection so you would only have to power the BBB.  BBBs are about $50 and work really well.  Then on the BBB run MavProxy and set logging on.

    http://tridge.github.io/MAVProxy/

    If the BBB has a 16GB SDCard or bigger it should be able to record a pretty large amount of data.

    It is pretty easy to setup.  If you connect an ethernet to wireless card into the BBB Rj45 port you should be able to connect your tablet running DroidPlanner and get the HUD etc and make sure it is working.

    The --out option sends the mavlink packets out to a device that is connected.

    I have an working BBB image with MAVProxy working if you would like it.

    MAVProxy
  • Developer
    Arthur Benemann February 11, 2014 at 12:49pm

    Hello Murray,

    You might want to give a test on DroidPlanner as it has a HUD with more information than AndroPilot.

  • Marek February 11, 2014 at 9:59am

    Droneshare - http://www.droneshare.com/view/dr2e3y5

  • Murray Spoelstra February 11, 2014 at 9:42am

    Interesting to see these other applications for the APM. I'll be sure that there is a reliable manual overide before I let the APM control the plane I'm in though!

    We are still working on a good solution to record data of flights longer than 20min without the need for a mobile phone or laptop. The idea is to just use the phone or laptop initially to verify correct setup.

    @Malek, I can't visualise csv or text logs. Did you fly with laptop in aircraft and have a .tlog file to put on droneshare?

  • Marek February 11, 2014 at 9:17am

    PS

    APM was powered on during flight, so "home" is not on the ground.

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