This is my first public video with the new Pixhawk board revision 2.4 and for "par condicio" a new one with VR Brain, both install "APM Copter V3.1" code.
After intensive testing the stability of the system is impressive, with this release the APM Copter Developer Team has achieved equal result, if not superior, to the companies that produce closed systems like DJI.
We have so much still to be improved, a small italian team is studying now a new flight mode called "Hybrid Loiter" that allow you to fly more smoothly as "DJI Position Hold", same feeling of flying with "Alt-Hold" mode, just wish we could have something ready i'll post a video with the final result.
I often read of unwanted crash or fly-away, personally with the V3.x code i've hundreds hours of flight without ever having had a single crash, if the hardware is well-balanced/assembled, and the tuning is done as it should be "APM Copter" provides excellent stability and security.
My special thanks to the whole APM Copter Team for having opened the new year with this milestone release, and to 3DRobotics and Virtual Robotix Italia.
Enjoy your flying and fly safe!
Bests, Marco
Comments
Hi Marco. I saw the video of S1000 autotune in large crosswind. I am very interested in the PID parameters before and after autotune. I can not imagine S1000 flying with default PID parameters as F450 under 20km/h wind! I have the same 8-rotor copter as S1000, could you give me some sugestions about it? Thanks a lot!
thanks julien for your work
@Julien: i'm ready, when you have some of "stable", thanks for your work!
@Luc Maximilien: since i'm the lead tester of both the board, the avertising is normal, is not a battle... ;-)
@Crashpilot1000: the "APM Copter V3.1" porting for VR Brain board is here, 1:1 aligned with the related commit, but with a different progressive number (3.1.13):
http://code.google.com/p/vrbrain/source/list?name=Arducopter_3.1-final
Hi Chris,
As Roberto said, Sandro (Sonico) and I are working on that hybrid mode for about 2-3 months.
The Hybrid behaviour is exactelly the one you've described in your post. The only thing not mentionned is we have implemented a smooth transition and automatic braking between the stick release and the loiter engage + a wind compensation feature.
The main difficulties were in the braking model and to smooth the different transitions (alt_hold => brake and brake=>loiter).
Atm, we have a main code working and are trying different ways to smooth these transitions as much as possible.
Each test/crash is a step forward and our last version should be close the final release. Our tests are mainly during week-ends as we're working that's why the project take so uch time.
Anyways, Sandro and I will keep you aware of these flight mode and we'll probably ask Marco to make some testing (if he wants) before commiting our code to the community.
Julien
Excellent setups, tuning and flying Marco!
@Luc Maximilien I am not sure about pricing but I wouldn't be so convinced of Pixhawk hardware, it may sound pessimistic to you but I wouldn't rule out that VR stuff too soon it may come in handy if price/performance ratio is good and the exact code is available.
BTW: Do you have a link to the exact sourcecode that is running on VR Brain?
That site: http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/vr-brain-v4-0 is not so keen on linking to the source.
SBUS shouldn't be too hard since many projects have that code:
Autoquad: http://code.google.com/p/autoquad/source/browse/trunk/onboard/futaba.c
Aeroquad: https://github.com/AeroQuad/AeroQuad/blob/master/Libraries/AQ_Recei...
Mwii: http://code.google.com/p/multiwii/source/browse/trunk/MultiWii_shar...
Naze32: https://github.com/multiwii/baseflight/blob/master/src/sbus.c
etc.
Hope to be helpful
Cheers
Rob
Since there is now the Pixhawk , I do not really see the interest in another 32 bit board.
Thanks anyway for advertising it.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next