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Flying APM2 via Joystick!

Posted by Trent at MyGeekShow on September 1, 2012 at 5:09am

 

This week I added a joystick to our groundstation and flew via telemetry. It was pretty intense, and I was surprised how little the delay and control surface sensitivity loss impacted the flight. As is, the set up wouldn't allow you to do and crazy 3D flying, but it operated just fine.

 

The only questions I'd have is about the delay and seemingly "stuttery" control surfaces. Is this delay normal? Is the control surface skipping effect normal?

Thank you for your support!

Tags: joystick, my geek show, mygeekshow
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Comments

  • LTMNO April 5, 2013 at 12:23pm

    very nice, was exactly what i was thinking of doing... very interested in seeing if you made any improvements based on instructions.

    cheers.

  • Trent at MyGeekShow September 2, 2012 at 1:23pm

    Thank you all for the tips and encouragement! I'm working through all your suggestions...

  • Carl La France September 2, 2012 at 8:19am

    "Interesting creative people pushing the envelope ! I am old and learn something new every time you post!Great Job guys Have a Great Day!

  • Developer
    Andrew Tridgell September 2, 2012 at 12:11am

    Hi Trent,

    You said you were using the default 3DR radio settings. That means air rate 64kbps, ECC on, serial rate 57 kbps.

    I suspect that you would get much better results with a joystick if you disable the ECC. That would double your available bandwidth and lower your latency a bit. The reason that ECC is on by default is that it fixes bit errors at the edge of the radios range. If you post your tlog then we have have a look at the RADIO.fixed field to see how many packets needed ECC correction in this flight. If the number of ECC fixes is low (which I suspect it is) then for joystick flight you'll do better with ECC off.

    As Michael suggested, lowing your telemetry rate will also help, but not by as much as disabling ECC.

    Cheers, Tridge

  • Rui Manuel Cravo Marques September 1, 2012 at 8:31pm

    Hi, sorry for my ignorance, I'm far from beeing an expert, but I can't help asking why not adapting a joystick to the regular TX ? It should have a much faster response and range (unless you use directional antenas with tracker that can go up to some miles).

  • Developer
    Michael Oborne September 1, 2012 at 4:11pm

    Trent, to increase the responce time. change down the mission planner telemetry rates.
    Config > planner > telemetry rates. Changing these down to 1 hz will increase the bandwidth available for the joystick. and should reduce the delay.

  • Trent at MyGeekShow September 1, 2012 at 1:09pm

    Aleksandr: Very cool! Glad to see we're not the only crazy one's :)

  • Aleksandr Akulov September 1, 2012 at 9:52am

    did something similar

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VlYjhyAzz4&list=UUC1zT1UIA0va1E...

  • Trent at MyGeekShow September 1, 2012 at 6:47am

    Monroe: I'm using the 900mhz diyd radios, the rates are at their default, which I believe is an auto adjusted rate. The telemetry antennas are the standard ducky antennas that came with the set, FPV is using a circularlity polarized antenna, and the Tx is the standard 2.4ghz ducky as well.

    Going mobile is coming soon! Just saving up the cash and building up the knowledge and experience right now.

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