T3 Back to the Future

Remember back, way back in autopilot years probably about 20. The year 2009 and the first round of our gentlemens (ladies are allowed just none have ever entered) competition the T3 challenge.

Back then just flying way points was hard and all this gear was expensive. Ardupilots were made at Sparkfun in batches that ran out quick.

Lets try it again I suspect this time the challenge would really be flying it faster than somebody FPV racing.

Read about the first time here for hints and tips.

As tech has moved on all aircraft types welcome lets make it not above 50m and 5 laps. All of course autonomous. Extra marks if that is from take off to landing.I will count the time from take off to landing so screaming dives to the start will not help. KMLs as evidence please!

UPDATE: Rovers (and boats) are also allowed! There will be a special rover/boat class, and you only have to beat other vehicles in that class. The course for such ground/water vehicles is 100m x 100m.

I will accept FPV times for the sake of science and should they be much much quicker it will give the pure FPV crowd something to brag about.

An Easystar (yes before HK copied it) made one lap in less than a minute in 2009 so 5 in 5 minutes should be more than possible.

As ever the time frame is flexible but why don't we all meet back here on August the 1st and find out who won!

Please add your entries and adventures below. Points are always awarded for silliness, just as long as its safe!

Okay, I went out and gave it another try to see if I could get it any faster. Here's the result.

I knocked 57 seconds off the time for a total of 316 seconds. Not bad and it was running fairly well. Max speed was around 10.5-11 ms^-1 on the straights. I quickly tried putting intermediate waypoints but it only seemed to slow things down so I went back to my 4 waypoint mission to get this done.

Here's the KMZ file.

Faster Submission

I did find again that if you modify either of the NAVL1 parameters within the Tower app, it will crash.

Also, I don't know how you do this but I know in MP, when you make a mission, you can tell it to essentially repeat a mission after drawing the four waypoints. When I downloaded the points from the rover onto my phone, it only grabbed the 4 points. There was no way to repeat. It's probably a limitation within the app but it's something I noticed.

I also found that if I am in the middle of a mission and abort by going to MANUAL, it will stop. When I put it back in AUTO, it will resume the mission. However, if I load a new mission after I go to MANUAL, it seems to want to go to the next waypoint of the original mission before starting the new mission. Am I missing some setting or is there a way to reset it? I have tried pulling the CH7 switch in AUTO to have it RTL and while it comes back, it will then try to continue to the next waypoint before starting a new mission. That was kind of difficult to deal with.

Anyway, there's my new submission.

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

dr0n3droid August 10, 2015 at 3:13pm

Another week? Just when I thought the pain was over.
On Friday I hit a goal post and did more damage. After burning out the esc last week I sloppily put the wires back in with my XT60 under the motor wires rather than on top. The heat from the motor melted the solder in the connection but was contained within the heatshrink, until hitting the pole. Now there's solder everywhere. Steering servo saver post snapped off, and my gps module landed ~10' away. Ouch!
For some reason, the replacement esc is always on when powered, and is overheating on the bench while plugged in but not moving, and one of my 3s lipos now has a bad cell.
APM is showing a yaw drift of about 5°/s with the same gps/mag that I used with pixhawk. I'll try erasing eeprom then reloading firmware.
I was quite upset yesterday about not submitting a decent run, but also satisfied that I did all I could.
Guess I'll start a full teardown/rebuild tonight.
I refuse to quit.
@Gary_ Please no more extensions

Mike
T3

healthyfatboy August 10, 2015 at 2:24pm

Okay, I went out and gave it another try to see if I could get it any faster. Here's the result.

I knocked 57 seconds off the time for a total of 316 seconds. Not bad and it was running fairly well. Max speed was around 10.5-11 ms^-1 on the straights. I quickly tried putting intermediate waypoints but it only seemed to slow things down so I went back to my 4 waypoint mission to get this done.

Here's the KMZ file.

Faster Submission

I did find again that if you modify either of the NAVL1 parameters within the Tower app, it will crash.

Also, I don't know how you do this but I know in MP, when you make a mission, you can tell it to essentially repeat a mission after drawing the four waypoints. When I downloaded the points from the rover onto my phone, it only grabbed the 4 points. There was no way to repeat. It's probably a limitation within the app but it's something I noticed.

I also found that if I am in the middle of a mission and abort by going to MANUAL, it will stop. When I put it back in AUTO, it will resume the mission. However, if I load a new mission after I go to MANUAL, it seems to want to go to the next waypoint of the original mission before starting the new mission. Am I missing some setting or is there a way to reset it? I have tried pulling the CH7 switch in AUTO to have it RTL and while it comes back, it will then try to continue to the next waypoint before starting a new mission. That was kind of difficult to deal with.

Anyway, there's my new submission.

Dropbox - Link not found

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!
Moderator

Gary Mortimer August 9, 2015 at 11:25pm

If there are no objections from our early entries, I might just let this competition roll on until next Monday then absolutely close it. So the hammer really really really will fall on Monday the 17th of August..... That gives everybody one more week to prepare and weekend to try.
T3

healthyfatboy August 9, 2015 at 7:28pm

So the braking parameter doesn't go into effect for those points then? I have my vehicle slow to 35% of cruise throttle at 75% for the turns so I would have thought intuitively that it might slow X meters from each waypoint.
T3

healthyfatboy August 9, 2015 at 5:38pm

Why so many point in your mission? Wouldn't that slow things down?
Cala August 9, 2015 at 1:48pm

Thank's Thomas
Cala August 9, 2015 at 1:34pm

Thank's Thomas; mine are flying things (for the moment); sorry my bad english; I understand that I have to do that Wps as fast as possible and share here the logs and FPV video? that simple?
Cala August 9, 2015 at 1:19pm

Thank's dr, I'n not going to win but only participate for fun if I can prepare something fast in time ;)
dr0n3droid August 9, 2015 at 1:10pm

Ladies have always been welcome. Join in on the fun.
Cala August 9, 2015 at 1:08pm

Ladies are allowed now? :)

of 15

This reply was deleted.