Flight Tests With the EG 2.2

I’ve started flight tests with the latest Ardupilot code and hardware and will post my findings in this blog post. Info on my plane and set up can be found HERE. I’ve found the EG 2.2 has similar flight characteristics to the original EasyGlider including the same “reverse roll” and “reverse pitch” settings in the code so these results should help anyone flying the stock glider.A few notes on what I have discovered so far---The throttle immediately kicks in when you switch to WP or RTL mode. There is no “safety” coded into the throttle command such as, no throttle activation below a given altitude or a given speed, so be prepared if you switch from manual mode at the flying field. Also, in the .h file under Throttle gains the throttle_max variable is defined twice. I’m not sure which is used by the code. There are also some corrections to the manual that I posted HERE that may help others in their set ups. Good Luck!

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

  • First flight today with the "official" Ardupilot23 code. This is definitely the best version yet. Now I'm able to fly waypoints or RTL consistently. She still dives at first but this only lasts a few seconds. The diving was worse when I increased the pitch proportional gain. This tells me the issue is with the navigation code and not the IR sensors. It's time to start data logging----

  • Tried the "RC1" code and still having issues with pitch not stabilizing at the 75meter set point. Switching to the official Ardupilot 233 code next---

  • I'm sorry David. I've had a lot of close calls but, so far, have managed to keep my EasyGlider in one piece.
  • @Bryan
    agree, I tried and the throttle control doesn't work well.
    I crashed my plane into a tree 2 days ago. After getting it down, then I have trouble uploading code to the ardupilot board. Then, tried to burn the bootloader with USBtinyISP, failed.
  • >David,
    I bypassed the AP and plugged the ESC directly in the Rx for manual control. It was one less variable to worry about while sorting out the elevator and aileron issues. I had tried flying a few weeks ago with the throttle control in the loop and found out that was also going to take some time to tune. Hope you are still having success with yours.
  • @Bryan
    the throttle control is done by ardupilot or manually?
  • Made some more good progress today and got her flying RTL and WP's (kind of). It was a challenge get the navigation and stabilization control outputs coordinated. Had to go in the code and make a change along with header file changes.

  • By the way, I rechecked my original log from the last flight and "walk_around" was set to 0 not 1 for my walking test (the correct setting) so if I just reverse the roll output from the IR sensors I should be good to go.
  • If we took this stuff too seriously, it wouldn't be fun anymore and it'd be too much like work ;-}.
  • Everybody do know the above was tongue in cheek !!!
This reply was deleted.