During the alpha testing phase with the "APM Copter V3" code i immediately reported to the Dev Team that the Loiter mode was very accurate but is not allowed to fly normally, like with other system as DJI and Mikrokopter, Zero-UAV, etc.
We preferred to make the Loiter mode that would serve to accurately reposition the multirotor, and to help beginners to fly slowly and safely.
An italian friend and developer, Sandro Tognana, collected my challenge and started to develop a flight mode as I wanted, in line with the other famous flight control board.
Another awesome programmer, Julien Dubois, has joined our team and has worked actively to implement the complicated wind compensation.
After several months of development and testing are pleased to present the "Hybrid flight mode", in two words a "flyable Loiter" with wind compensation, the code virtually switches from "Loiter" to "Alt-Hold" and viceversa when you exit and enter a sticks deadband (configurable), considering of course the compensation of the wind, therefore complies with the tuning of your multirotor.
You can configure some parameters but already with the default works perfectly, my video speaks for itself.
This new mode is currently being debugged (in alpha phase), it is therefore not available to the public, of course, will have to go into the hands of APM Copter Dev Team who will decide whether to adopt it in an upcoming release.
The results in my video are great, sorry but the audio is bad because it was very windy today, however, is clearly seen as a "Hybrid" works, is almost perfect.
In the second video by Julien you can see the Hybrid in action vs a "DJI Phantom 2" quad with "Naza 2" inside, imho Hybrid work better than the "GPS Position Hold" of DJI, especially on braking.
The tests were carried out on APM and VR Brain, but of course will work on any board that installs "APM Copter" as PX4 and Pixhawk.
I will keep you updated on the "Hybrid" developments, i'll open a discussion about this with other APM Copter developers to assess any changes in the code.
I want to say thanks to Sandro and Julien for their great work!
Bests, Marco
Comments
Yes Edgar, Hybrid is like "DJI GPS Position Hold", for example you can arm, fly, land and disarm all in Hybrid if you want.
Marco, I sold my NAZA-M (v1) almost 2 years ago and came to APM, to get waypoints and I have not missed anything from the NAZA except the GPS flying mode, I tried to explain to some people 2 years ago what it was and they just said use Loiter, not the same. This looks wonderful and I can't wait to have it added because I really miss it. Once this is added I will feel a lot safer flying full speed FPV again.
I am extremely happy that you comparing it to the NAZA for this flight mode as this is a great flight mode, once I get it ill probably never use anything else :-D
Can it Arm, take off and Land in hybrid mode like the NAZA?
Will it be able to fly forward full speed, then reverse as fast as stabilize without it dropping altitude as well as the NAZA does.
Thanks again, Excited!
Actually, nothing is secret, the idea was to share our work with people interested and if you want to participate testing the code, you're welcome!
But, even if we had good results and safe behaviour, mind that's not the official code and take care testing it.
Here is the topic where all is explained and you have the link to the code repository
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/drones-discuss/CEMcMjAdGI0
So, you will have to compile the code yourself and load it into your APM (I can upload the compiled hex somewhere if needed).
The flight mode for hybrid is N°14 (to configure manually in mission planner / full params list).
Every feedback welcome.
Enjoy ;)
PM Julien for this...
Understood alpha stage, but I volunteer to be an alpha tester if possible of course.
I repeat, is in alpha stage now, when we are sure that there are no problems will release it.
@ Marco Hi, i would like to try this code on my apm2.6 how could I download/compile/install it? also, is there a version for a tricopter? Thank you!
Follow the instructions here for download, compile and upload the GitHub code to your board... but at your risk! ;-)
At the moment the "Hybrid" code is not available for everyone, is in a private branch out the official repository, it's still in alpha stage and the team are testing now on Pixhawk, my practice is to test as much as possible before releasing something new.
I'm new to the community and should be receiving my Pixhawk this week. I have 0 experience with APM, but am excited to get started on a small quad and maybe later on a larger 8x I'm converting/building. This looks like a feature that I'd use for filming.
Marco posted ""Hybrid" now is ready for testing with Pixhawk, aligned with the latest commit (but not in the APM Copter master at the moment)?" Does this mean it's alpha or beta, use at your own risk, or test and give some feedback? Would it be built on the last release of APM 3.1 ? Also, if in the future, I want to use something from the "commit", how do I install it. Sorry for dumb questions, but I've just been reading so far, no actual experience.
Today I did some flights with my Pixhawk and "Hybrid", no problem, everything works as it should.
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