Successful Failsafe and Full Telemetry Control!

After flying 15 missions and traveling over 150km to establish the APM's reliability, I completed this final test of key failsafe and telemetry control functionality.

Specifically, I proved the APM and Raptor's ability to:
1. Conduct an unlimited loiter at the end of a mission
2. Changing altitude, throttle rate and parameters via the mission planner mid flight to adapt to changing environments.
3. Continue on a mission after signal loss (failsafe)

In other words, THE APM IS AWESOME. And with that, I'm ready for my first cross country flight!

A special thank-you to Tridge and you at DIYDrones.com ! I couldn't have made it this far without your support. Thank you!

-Trent

Raptor Details: http://www.mygeekshow.com/theairplanes/Raptor.html
USA Trip Details: http://www.mygeekshow.com/usatrip/

Equipment Used
APM2.5: http://store.3drobotics.com/products/apm-2-5-kit
FPV/Onboard Camera: http://www.foxtechfpv.com/horyzonhd-full-hd-1080p-fpv-camera-v3-p-877.html
ParkeFlyer Turnigy 9x Tx: http://parkeflyer.com/
2.2Ah 30C Sky Lipo: http://www.hobbypartz.com/77p-2200mah-3s1p-111-30c.html

Website: http://www.mygeekshow.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MyGeekShow
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mygeekshow
Google+:http://plus.google.com/116950154481685699344
Skype: MyGeekShow
UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mygeekshow

Filmed, Edited, Produced and Published by Trent in Arkansas, USA

Hi Trent,

I think the big thing that may be missing now for you is terrain following. I have a script that modifies a mission to add terrain following which you may find useful and will work with the current APM code, or you could wait till we add full terrain following support into the PX4 (by storing SRTM terrain data on the microSD card).

btw, when you changed your throttle setting in the video you did a "refresh parameters". You shouldn't have needed to do that, and it's not actually a good idea while the plane is flying, especially if the radio is close to being at maximum range. While doing a full parameter refresh it will use a large part of the radio bandwidth to pull down the parameters, which if the radio is losing packets could take quite a long time. During that time you will get less telemetry data and you won't be able to send commands in case of something going wrong.

It's fine to set a single value while flying, and the APM will refresh just that parameter value automatically, but pulling all the parameters is not a good idea unless you know you have a really good radio link (and it should not be necessary either).

Cheers, Tridge

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Comments

Developer

Arthur Benemann July 21, 2013 at 1:54pm

I'm just waiting for you to do a flight using DroidPlanner.
Crashpilot1000 July 20, 2013 at 9:48am

I am really looking forward to your record book flight!! Maybe your plane will benefit from a little kevlar coating when flying over cowboy land.
Shaw Innes July 19, 2013 at 11:00pm

Excellent video as always. I really think your pragmatic approach to testing everything is so good! Good luck with the cross-country trip :)
Stone1295 July 19, 2013 at 9:02pm

Well done Trent!

I've learned a lot from watching your videos!

Good luck with the cross-country!

-Mike
Michael July 19, 2013 at 8:25pm

Hey Trent,

I've really enjoyed watching your videos. You really deserve a lot of praise for your work. Excellent job. I hope to see many many more in the future.
Developer

Andrew Tridgell July 19, 2013 at 4:32pm

Hi Trent,

I think the big thing that may be missing now for you is terrain following. I have a script that modifies a mission to add terrain following which you may find useful and will work with the current APM code, or you could wait till we add full terrain following support into the PX4 (by storing SRTM terrain data on the microSD card).

btw, when you changed your throttle setting in the video you did a "refresh parameters". You shouldn't have needed to do that, and it's not actually a good idea while the plane is flying, especially if the radio is close to being at maximum range. While doing a full parameter refresh it will use a large part of the radio bandwidth to pull down the parameters, which if the radio is losing packets could take quite a long time. During that time you will get less telemetry data and you won't be able to send commands in case of something going wrong.

It's fine to set a single value while flying, and the APM will refresh just that parameter value automatically, but pulling all the parameters is not a good idea unless you know you have a really good radio link (and it should not be necessary either).

Cheers, Tridge
Eduardo Romero July 19, 2013 at 3:59pm

I like it!

This reply was deleted.