The test hop was short due to having spit balled the throttle and pitch curves to come out with a head speed of ~1300rpm and a motor speed of ~1-,500rpm
The vibration dampening seems to be more than adequate for both the redundant system and the arducopter itself, however on setting up for the maiden Arducopter control flight I have found that I could not establish mavlink telemetry due to one XBee mount kicking the bucket, this being a $24 part I will have a replacement ordered tomorrow.
Everything is running smoothly for a gasser, and I expect to be making good progress at long last. I am looking at the 3-Axis camera mount code and will be making up the hardware side over the next couple of days, and it is good to know I have a spare APM one I can use as an inertial measurement and stabilization system for the camera mount - I hope to look at creating its own autonomous control where I can set waypoints in the mission planner which will be read as "ground lock targets" for the camera to stay pointing at, while the UAV flies its mission. Another way to start bringing in Hi Res 3D ground mapping.
Here are some pics of the ship and the hardware mounting.
THe video was flown on the 3X-1000 FBL stab system, which is being used as a redundant backup I can switch to for control while tuning the APM1.
Ben
Comments
Ben, your twin-Tx idea also won't work. If you have stick-centered on the APM, it will try to hold level. However you fly it, it will build up I-term error, and then when you switch over... it probably won't end well.
Unfortunately there is no way to get the redundancy you want. Well... it can work one-way. Maybe. If you start up and fly on APM first, and then bail-out by switching to the FBLC, then maybe that will work? I'm not sure, don't know that much about all the other controllers. But you can't switch from something else to the APM. It won't work.
Now, if you had a flybar, then you will be able to take advantage of the flybar pass-through mode that I am doing. It will simply hand control of the swashplate directly to the sticks, with no stabilization at all.
Ben I checked around they don;t have the old helicopter manuals any more
We have a lot of good people here rightly concerned for my safety due to my irresponsible behaviour in the video, but let me put your minds at rest that I had the throttle servo under full manual control from the rx and the apm wasn't even turned on for the test. I will be very cautious with testing out Auto modes and you will see this in future updates and videos.
I won't be putting my face up to any untethered blades again any time soon, :)
Ben
H300 isn't that the one when you do an auto rotation if you hit to hard it cuts the tail off? Failing a Medical would
suck kind of hard "fugeing" that one . I like the 2 transmitter idea the bands are wide enough apart they should not interfere unless you are using them simultaneously? the 35 mhz should have more range than the 2.4 ghz It seems every one is "AMP" happy I think the air frame should be controllable and fly well before people put "AMP'S in them I have seen many times on maiden flights It wasn't the guy flying the machine it was the "AMP that wasn;t programmed right that caused mishaps,
Thanks Carl, Would be very interesting! I have done 30 hours in a H300 as well as CPL theory but failed the medical.
I have programmed the er9x radio with two transmitters, one 35mhz and the other 2.4ghz and I can switch between the two with one of those trainer switcher things (?). SO I have programmed the mix to be that whichever one you are on (FBL controller or APM) the other gets "stick centred" input, meaning that there should be no error build up in theory! Will check it out with the engine OFF and let you know :)
Ben I was learning to fly real helicopters back in the 1970's My friend and my father in law are helicopter pilots and turbine mechanics I remember seeing a air craft maintenance manual a while back and there were several pages on how to align the blades also a photo of a jig they made to check the blade tip position so they could adjust them
and spin even. I will look it up over the week end and scan and post it for you helicopter guys .After following your dialog with R Lefebvre I can tell you are a good Guy Have agood day!
I see your point, it was reckless to check the tracking the way I did. From now on Ill anchor it to the ground beforehand.
Ben :)
I like your Gasser it looks rugged after watching the Video it really spools up.Keep the video until you are 60 then look at it again maby when you are 60 you will see? (if you don't get a Darwin award before then) I did stuff like that when I was a kid Also There is a bridge 30 feet off the water which is 3 feet deep with 2 inch angle cross bars under it When I was a kid we use to play tag on the cross bars I don't remember any body falling in . today when I go under the bridge and look down I get scared . keep the video until you are 60.Good Luck
That's actually a good point. Yes, if you fly on the BeastX, then switch over mid-air to the APM, I expect bad things will happen. It will have probably built up horrible I-terms which will be in effect when you change over.
Oh, worth mentioning is that I am using the er9X mod for the Turnigy 9X and have it set to PPM16. which means that the first 8 channels are transmitted directly from the JR35mhz module I installed, and the second 8 channels are routed through the trainer port to be transmitted from the original Turnigy RF9X-V2 module which gives me 16 channels to play with! with the XBees(once repaired... sigh..) on 900mhz, and the radio transmitting on 35mhz and 2.4Ghz I can still transmit video on 5.8Ghz and 1.3Ghz.
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