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
Hi Julien,
my mistake.. i connect the external led to a7 port = Arm.
Telemetry is nice to have but my copter is too small for gadgets. Why is it uninteresting to know the sat status during flight?Is it not good to know to have a good signal for rth?
I think/hope it´s not so difficult to implement a satcount with a strobo led. (fet driven or similar)
BR
Frank
Frank,
Imo GPS LED is fixed when GPS_Sat_Count>=6 whatever arm/disarm state the copter is.
Red led blinks when disarmed and is fixed once armed.
Maybe you have to switch them, just compare with board_LEDs which one has the red/blue behaviour.
Pins definitions are in file pins_arduino_mega.h but current default LED_MODE is very good. In flight, you don't have to know how many sats are received, just if they are enough... and for more details, just connects with mission planner via USB or telemetry. If you make FPV, OSD displays Sat_count as well.
Julien
Hi Julien,
thx for agree.. i thought i´m blind ...
I have the GPS led connected to A6 and it´s blinking regardless of sat counts.
At first i´m happy when i have GPS lock led ..
edit:
Got it, have to arm copter and led is still on now ... :-)
Where can i found this pde code in arduino?
Next step wil be divide number of sat counts to it´s blink codes.
for example:
5 = 1x blinking
6 = 2x blinking ...
But at first it makes me safer when i see GPS lock with external led... my copter is to small in a housing to see any internal led´s.
BR
Frank
Franko,
I had the same surprise.. actually there is no more LED_MODE param.
But, even if you cannot choose the LED_MODE you want, feature still exists with most common mode... You have blue (GPS/Pin A6), red (Arming status/Pin A7) and Buzzer (low voltage+Arm/disarm / Pin A5) by default.
Wiring here (forget the LED_MODE param bitmask)
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/adding-external-led-indicators-...
A plug and play 2LEDs + Buzzer, very nice
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/apm-2-x-led-buzzer-modules
BTW, about hybrid and its release on master, we've merged and debugged it into lastest master code so it will probably be available with 3.2 copter firmware :)
Hope this helps
Julien
Yesterday i didn´t find any copter led settings.
I want to enable GPS lock with external led.. is it disabled with 3.1.1 hybrid?
Any ideas to enable external Copter led´s in Mission planner or Arduino sources?
I found nothing absolutlely nothin in Mission Planner ...
Thx
could you pls post a working firmware file for a hexa x? I can't seem to get it compiled the make part doesnt work for me.
If it helps anyone i answered my own question above. I cloned apm_planner and changed src/uas/ArduPilotMegaMAV.h HYBRID_LOITER = 16 to HYBRID_LOITER = 12. Seems to have done the trick and i can now switch to Hybrid. Yet to fly it.
Thanks to Mathew Lloyd i got a 2.3-dev version with the Hybrid merge compiled. Next question is how do you switch to this mode? The APM planner on the Mac has the option but it doesn't seem to engage this mode and the terminal radio set-up section isn't there. Any ideas chaps? Thanks.
any news on when it will be officialy avaliable?
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