USA Trip - Day 5 - The End - Blogs

Bill Piedra December 11, 2014 at 9:05am

Excellent Job, my congratulations to you. Remember what Edison said when he was inventing the light bulb. He never failed, he just found 9,999 ways that didn't work.

Jake Stew December 8, 2014 at 7:21pm

Thanks for sharing your adventures! However, I'd suggest going on a few road trips and mastering that first before adding in the challenge of drone flight. Your planning and timetables were unrealistic.

Rana December 8, 2014 at 3:25pm

Soren, I am aware of the altitude deduction maintained in MP.

I have test flew Arduplane 3.1.1 on Skywalker several time and set altitude relative, Also did fly to here several several times but not observed and issue. Following are the flight videos, 1st one is of 16km mission and 2nd one with auto and go to here done without any issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlw77X8UUuM#t=80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCv6Xd1vnOg#t=66

Could you explain more in your case as to how could it prevent crash by setting the altitude to absolute in mission planner.

John Githens December 8, 2014 at 6:03am

@Søren Kuula, Rana, Here.is a related DIYD discussion about "____ Altitude" and Mission Planner settings.

Søren Kuula December 8, 2014 at 2:44am

Rana, have you seen the implementation of how the automatic altitude deduction is made?

It is (in my opinion and experience anyway) too complicated, too error prone and too confusing. Among other things, APM keeps a variable of the home altitude, MP does the same - and they are not necessarily the same number.

And Trent seems to have found an outright bug in "fly to here".

I had CFITs several times too because of either errors in the relative altitude implementation or my inability to use it :) but since I switched to just using absolute, no more problems here.

Regards, Soren

Gary McCray December 6, 2014 at 7:05pm

Each time a bit further, eventually you'll make it.

Seems like the first time while they were trying to do this in manned airplanes.

They had a lot of problems too.

Of course they didn't have the FAA hounding them at every turn yet.

Hang in there Trent I look forward to your next attempt.

Best,

Gary

Cala December 6, 2014 at 6:45pm

Thank's Trent to share your adventure; crashes, we know, are part of this wonderfull hobby, one day you are worry but the second day you are trying again, it's like a bad habit; i'm shure, in a few years I meet you flying here ;) ; remember, the first authograph is for me.

Rana December 6, 2014 at 6:34pm

Hi Soren Kuula, when you select relative altitude then mission planner automatically takes care by deducting the absolute altitude value from the home altitude. So it hardly matters whether you set altitude relative or absolute.

Suppose if you are flying in hilly area then while you are gliding down then mission planner will show the reading in

-ve value as you go below the home altitude. I mean it''s all mission planner feature and nothing to do with autopilot functionality.

Arduplane has a feature of "Following the terrain" if it is enabled the target altitude will automatically be adjusted.

Hope you would agree but if not then than what makes you believe that ?

Rana December 6, 2014 at 6:19pm

Hi Trent !, all such things keep on happening in hobby, just gear up with refined planning like having atleast two frame and well tested released version of the firmware for the Arduplane.

On seeing some of the takeoff's I guess you are taking off in manual mode however it should be in stabilized or FBWA mode.

I am flying with Hobby King's Skyfun (Similar to Funjet), Arduplane 3.1.1, APM2.6, compass disabled. I am always taking off in autopilot's assisted mode only and had crashes most of the time when done manual takeoff.

John Githens December 6, 2014 at 5:46pm

Trent, links to your recent blog posts are collected together on DroneSpeak's 'Maker stories, reports, logs' page, under the 'Other' category. This page has been recently organized for improved searching by category.

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