After coming back from my honeymoon I finally found some time to get some real flights. 3 weeks ago I flew my copter for the first time but it was just a few minutes on a very low altitude in front of my block. Today I went to some open space. Unfortunately, the wind was very strong so learning changed into fighting with the wind. Still managed not to crash the copter and even attached GoPro to it :)
Here you have 4 exceprts from those flights.
Comparing http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_ModeSwitch with APM Planner need to ask what is the "Toy" mode not described on wiki?
Also, is it possible to make some sound (by using ESC/motors?) when arming/disarming? My LEDs are hard to see under the shield (anyway, are LEDs shows arming state? on wiki couldn't find that info) so some audio notification would be appreciated. Audio info on GPS fix will also help a lot. I'll check for some hack connecting the buzzer. Still a newbie here :)
Except "stabilize" mode I tried to use "loiter" and "alt hold" but probably due to the strong wind I had problems with having proper control over my copter. RTL was also fast drifting with the wind far over home location so had to switch to stabilize to recover the copter.
On next session I'll try "simple" and "super simple" modes. To bad they can't go paraller to check them without connecting to APM Planner to switch "SUPER_SIMPLE" param.
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Here comes a late reply for others who find this thread.
About the arming notifications I don't know about sound, but found a guyd how to easily add external leds to show the status
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24149173&postcount=398
UTS: that's true, I haven't touched the default PIDs. Today, with no wind, loiter was working quite well. As for the flash sim - I played a bit with this but without perfect balanced frame that sim won't help probably.
I won't flood DIYDrones with my movies so here is one from today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-qw2rsbmtk
Sunset at university camp and small lesson to check everything before the flight. GoPro screw is lost in tall grass.
BTW, any hint on that sound on important events? Tried to look through this site and seems no one did that?
Congratulations on your flight!
As for the drifting in the wind issue is could be because you have not tuned your loiter gains properly, and it can sometimes be quite an art to do so. You should have a look at jason shorts arducopter sim to see how all the parameters interact when you are tuning http://www.jasonshort.com/