@InitialFPV wrote:

I’ve been struggling with this for 5 days now. Basically, no matter what GPS I use, I can never get a good enough fix to use any kind of auto mode. Sometimes I can never get a fix, sometimes When I plug in, It’s perfect and then one minute later its a mile off and eventually just loses all sats. Sometimes it seems to be better the higher I go and sometimes that does nothing.

That was the summary, here comes the whole thing…

The gps I’m using is a bn-880. Found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078Y6323W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I’ve used this for a project in the past with great results. I have it on a mast, although it helped nothing. As for picking up any satellites, it seems to be pretty random. Maybe altitude helps? But when it get s a fix it goes all over the place, like hundreds of feet. Always moving. Then eventually it will lose the fix and it won’t come back. I’ve tried using tinfoil to increase the size of the ground plane, it seemed to get a fix faster but it didn’t do anything for the accuracy. I have plugged in my other bn-880 that I know works and had the same issues.

Recently I hooked up a micro m8n GPS. Found here: https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/gps-units-modules/products/micro-ublox-m8n-gps-glonass
It worked fine on the same drone when it was running inav. Lo and behold it jumped all over the place. But it always has a fix so I just disabled the bn-880 and am now using just the compass.

I’ve tried allot more but most of it seems to be irrelevant. I can’t really explain, but I have a hunch it’s ardupilot related, not interference or anything like that. But I could be wrong.

Just to get it out of the way, yes, I am using the right voltage and have tx/rx the right way.

Thanks in advance for any hints!

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@skybound wrote:

tldr: the title. How does it calculate the optimal turn?

Hey all,
When ArduPilot calculates a destination for an avoidance maneuver, how does it decide the best way to turn to actually get there, whether that be to double back and cross over it’s track, or to turn the other way. Basically, how does it decide which side, left or right to start the turn? I’d expect it would be some kind of series of conditional statements that would take into account the position of the closest approach of the obstacle, the absolute distance it would take for the vehicle to reach the destination depending on if it turned left or right, and the physical limits of the vehicle turn radius. But I can’t find where in the code this is actually decided. My hunch is it would be near where plane.guided_WP_loc.offset is called, because that tells ArduPilot the destination. Any and all help is deeply appreciated!
Thanks!

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@XinChengGe wrote:

Hi guys!
Recently, The new adis16470 has been integrated into the Ardupilot, It’s a great news to have this high performance IMU into the Autopilot. But Is It possible to develop a new external IMU with the UAVCAN bus, So that we can use adis16470 on every autopilot?

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@Sandwich422 wrote:

Hi, I’m currently trying to build a custom tail-sitter VTOL with retractable wings. The VTOL has 2 coaxial motors mounted in a duct for thrust.
I’m using the PixHawk 4 mini FC. I want to know how to alter what the servo outputs can do? I’m using mission planner, and I see that there are outputs for Ailerons, Rudders, etc. but I would like to get a servo to control the extending and retracting of the wings.
I would also like the “roll” of the vehicle to be controlled by the motor speeds (similar to a conventional quad-copter) while the aircraft is vertical, but in fixed wing mode I am planning on controlling it with a small weight controlled by a servo which will change the aircraft’s center of gravity. Is there a way to see how the aircraft is controlled, i.e. what components get powered fer certain inputs?

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@JuliaSteiwer wrote:

UPDATE: It worked. After almost two hours of various attempts at reducing interference and turning the vehicle around its axes until my neck was stiff, the compass is finally calibrated.

Hello, I am using a TT-02 Chassis by Tamiya with a Pixhawk 4. I have installed the latest ArduRover firmware, and I’m using QGroundControl as a ground control station.

When trying to calibrate the compass, I constantly receive a Mag(0) bad orientation error, causing the calibration to fail.

I have already removed any electronics that could cause interference to the compass, and I am not using the internal compass.

Does anyone have an idea of what is causing the problem?

Thank you already in advance for your help!
Greetings,
Julia

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@belotti wrote:

Is there a way to force Auto mode, even if the usual requirements (e.g. GPS lock) are not satisfied? I think it could be useful to run tests and debug code indoor.

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@Tony_Johnson wrote:

Hi, I am using a apm 2.8 mega which does limit me to an earlier version of rover. the problem was I had a pixhawk and it was very flaky so I switched backwards to gain reliability. So looking at the docs I cannot use servo_function 73,74 for skid steering as they don’t exist in the APM version. I have managed to get the motors turning from the Radio controller but I am not clear on how to configure properly. So right now I can set it up so both motors go forward and backward from one control but of course how do you steer? When i try to set one motor on one control and the other on another it doesn’t work. Any help appreciated

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@jasonbeach wrote:

I recently assembled an octocopter with a Cube Black autopilot loaded with Copter 4.0.3 and a here2 GPS. When powering it on, I’m seeing a LED sequence I’ve never seen before–basically the two LEDs “breath” blue back and forth:

I don’t see them described here:
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-leds-pixhawk.html

The closest I see is the flashing blue lights but I’ve seen that and this is different. I put an older here+ gps we have for comparison and get the sequence I’m used to:

What does this new sequence mean?

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@jasonbeach wrote:

I’ve been using the SITL for Copter 3.5.2 for some time now and am testing the latest version, 4.0.3. I have a custom c++ interface that I use to connect to the SITL which has worked well with both versions of the SITL, however when I connect Mission Planner to the 4.0.3 version of the SITL, the SITL crashes. When I have my software connected to port 5760, it crashes as soon as I connect mission planner to 5763. It also without my software connected / running when Mission Planner connects to port 5760.

The SITL does not crash when I only connect my interface to it. In the 3.5.2 version of SITL I can connect both my interface and mission planner without issue.

This is the error that is printed when it crashes:

stack overflow in thread FTP

Running sh dumpstack 8528 >segv_arducopter.8528.out 2>&1

Failed

The segv_arducopter.8528.out file then just contains:

sh: 0: Can’t open dumpstack

I hope and assume this is unique to the SITL build–I assume that if a bug this serious had occurred in hardware it would’ve been found very early on in beta testing. The binary for the SITL I was running was obtained from: https://firmware.ardupilot.org/Copter/stable/SITL_x86_64_linux_gnu

Also, when fetching that, I noticed that there was also a SITL_arm_linux_gnueabihf version which I think is awesome since as far as I knew the SITL wasn’t supported on ARM. What would it take to port it to 64 bit arm (aarch64)?

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@dorovl wrote:

Hi Bill,

I would greatly appreciate it if you would read through my post in more detail and indicate-me some issues you suspect with my set up of collective and throttle channels.

The helicopter is a nitro engine vintage helicopter (Raptor 30 v1).
At the moment, the flight mode is fixed on “Stabilize”. In the current setup the flight mode can be only be changed from the GCS (ground control station). I think this is not a problem for the time being, as I’m still in tuning phase. Once the tuning in “Stabilize” mode would be achieved, the tuning knob would be reassigned to flight mode.

This is how my RC Radio is setup:

• RC Channel 1 - aileron (roll control)
• RC Channel 2 - elevator (pitch control)
• RC Channel 3 - throttle (linear curve between stick and throttle); there is a “throttle hold” switch on the radio preventing the throttle to rise accidentally
• RC Channel 4 - rudder (tail rotor)
• RC Channel 5 - in flight tuning (tuning knob)
• RC Channel 6 - collective pitch (linear curve between stick and collective pitch)

It’s more or less based on the recommendations from Chris Olson’s ArduPilot TradHeli Setup, Video 4.

This is how the flight controller is set up:

On the receiver PWM output, is a PWM → SBUS converter. Some PPM wires are swapped (remapped) like this:

• RC Channel 3 → RC Channel 8
• RC Channel 6 → RC Channel 3

The Rotor’s Speed Control mode is: “Throttle Curve”
The Throttle Curve is: 25, 50, 60, 70, 100.
The Stabilize Collective Curve is: 0, 52, 62, 100.

And for the servos functions:

• Servo 1 - Motor1 - aileron (roll control)
• Servo 2 - Motor2 - elevator (pitch control)
• Servo 3 - Motor3 - collective pitch
• Servo 4 - Motor4 - rudder (tail rotor)
• Servo 5 - Trim value - governor setpoint (constant function, NEW)
• Servo 6 - RCIN5
• Servo 7 - not used
• Servo 8 - HeliRSC

Remark: Instead of setting Servo 6 to RCIN5, it might also be wire-swapped.

The GCS communicates with the flight controller with a RFD 868x Long Range Telemetry Modem (I use WiFi as backup link). If I really need a supplementary channel, it might be possible to use the RFD 868x PPM Passthrough (making a PWM to PPM converter with some Arduinos Nano).

I already flown the helicopter in a similar setup (excepting that RC Channel 5 was the governor setpoint in RCPassThru mode).

Unfortunately, by trying to find the optimal tuning, I had a small crash. After analysis I found:

• Excessive vibrations
• Bad dynamic response of analog servos at RC_SPEED 125 Hz (only the rudder servo is digital)
• The necessity of a button to tune from the radio: in case of a dangerous tuning range, the pilot can immediately turn the knob back and land the helicopter safely.

Therefore, for the next flight the following steps are planned:

• Set the RC_SPEED 50 Hz for all servos (done)
• Increase the flight controller suspension damping: make the shock mounts softer (done)
• Make tuning from the radio (done in my own version)
• Analysis of the Shock Response Spectrum (SRS) - we suspect that the box of the flight controller might induce some resonance frequencies
• The helicopter will be first flown in manual mode (RCPassThru on channel 1, 2, 3 and 6 + radio throttle curve set to : 29, 45, 60, 72, 100). In this phase, the vibrations levels will be registered and analyzed
• If vibrations levels are acceptable, then the manual mode will be disabled (cancel RCPassThru) and in-flight tuning of PIDs would be done from the RC button (tuning knob)
• Once the tuning achieved in “Stabilize” mode, the tuning knob channel would be reassigned to flight mode

Thank you
Vlad

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@iter wrote:

I understand that Rover has out-of-the-box support for NMEA 0183 wind sensors. I’m curious about people’s experiences with actual units. I’m working with a 4-foot, ~25 lb displacement hull, so I can afford a little mass on top of the mast, but I would still prefer to use a smaller unit.

Ari.

20170613_110416sm800×1422 316 KB

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@Daveemtb wrote:

I’m trying to configure an x8 multicopter that uses 30" props on a Hobbywing ESC/motor combo that uses FOC (field oriented control). Details here: https://www.foxtechfpv.com/foxtech-8120-100kv-foc-esc-hv-combo-2.html and https://www.hobbywing.com/article.php?id=205 (I note the latter states “have smoother throttle linearity”.)

The page at https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/tuning-process-instructions.html suggests that for 30" props, a value of around 0.85 is a good value. However, I am concerned that the FOC ESCs might have totally different linear/exponential relationship between PWM and thrust, as they have a totally differnt method of controlling the motor.

Does anyone have any expierence of this with FOC ESCs?

Also, what will happen if I set the MOT_THST_EXPO to 0.85 and it proves too high? What about if I set it too low? Which runs the risk of uncontrollable climbing on first take off?

I am looking at using a thrust stand but for something so big this will cost more than the multicopter!

Many thanks,

David Ebling

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@hybrid-guy wrote:

I am wanting to build a coaxial helicopter that is just like the Sprite vehicle!

Inflight-1-696x326696×326 134 KB

I saw that the PX4 code base supports this vehicle type… Does ardupilot support this? If so, can someone help me get this working? I would really appreciate any help. Thanks!!

Ryan

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@hendrasaputramsc wrote:

i get the warning when i want to do geotaging photo in mission planner. the warning is "Using AMSL Altitude True
Reading log for GPS Messages in order to get AMSL Altitude
Log Read for GPS Messages
Log locations : 19351
Reading log for CAM Messages
Log Read with - 438 - CAM Messages found
Read images
Images read : 1006
CAM Msgs and Files discrepancy. Check it! files: 1006 vs CAM msg: 438. can anyone give suggestion?

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@Dustin_Mccreery wrote:

Seems craft and theory has ether gone out of business or Covid is keeping them closed im in need of new inverter solution for pixhawk 2.1. I use them in mass quantity sometimes up to 75+ at a time. have no problem soldering something up my self but not sure what to to get or how to wire it up any help, or another on the market that i can buy?

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@mlebret wrote:

Hello,

I open this blog item to share experience about CUAV Core X7. If relevant information come in the arducopter forum, I will add them to the blog.

I have a CUAV V5+ unit.

CUAV-V51280×847 305 KB

V5+ is dShot capable but with limitations. X7 can address and control 12 dShot esc as the NORA using the same processor.

• List item

I ordered only the Core X7 to swap the Core V5+ on the carrier board.

CUAV-X71280×1466 726 KB

And the X7 on the carrier board

CUAV-X7_V5 Swap1280×812 332 KB

I have an Y6 test bed. I will use all accessories from the V5+ and Benewake TFmini Plus as front proximity sensor and TF02-Pro as Altitude sensor.

From factory, X7 come with Quad Arducopter 4.0.4dev configuration. There is a test log saved on the memory card.

I stay with the factory firmware and I redo the settings for my Y6 multicopter

Y6-TestBed1600×1426 264 KB

First flight was fine after checking Y6 motor configuration. Selecting Y6 and X configuration from mission planner tool gave me an Y6A (my motors were set for Y6B). Change was made before takeoff.

Voltage and current information was missing from the log. Looking at factory log, I discovered new settings.

Battery volt and current pins are 16 and 17 (0 and 1 on V5+)

To be continued…

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@ramilmsh wrote:

I am pretty new to multicopter design, and I am trying to choose the sensor stack. I have a pixhawk with ardupilot and m8n GPS module. However, I want to use Visual Odometry as well. I have found the vision position estimate message, which I can use to feed VO data back to ardupilot, but, all the implementations I found use it as a substitute for GPS data.

I am wondering if it is standard/possible for EKF2 to fuse VO and GPS data?

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@gnitzan wrote:

Hello all,
As usual, I need your help.

I have replaced all 8 motors on my X8 with the T-Motor Antigravity 4006 KV380.
I haven’t done CompassMot as of yet so FC params contains the old CompassMot calibration (not sure it relates to current problem).
I have ran Autotune twice all ended with success (almost, high pids cause strong vibrations at takeoff).

However, on test flight when I pushed the throttle all the way (and though the graph shows clipping starts at speed 11.5ms), I heard the motors sound like power up and down…

Reviewing the log file shows clipping on all axis and the RCOut on the motors is going up and down

x8-clipping-12276×660 247 KB

I also enabled batch logging because maybe the frequencies changed from previous setting

x8-clipping-1-fft1250×478 98.6 KB

Also, RCOut looks a little suspicious, maybe motors are not leveled or CG is not exact?

Any insights, help would be highly appreciated.
Gal

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@miw01 wrote:

I used the Delay command,
It doesn’t work well.
I changed the direction with condition_yaw and waited for 3 seconds with delay as follwoing.

34 WAYPOINT 2 ********
35 CONDITION_YAW 222 ********
36 DELAY 3 *******
37 CONDITION_YAW 222 *******
38 WAYPOINT 2 *******

But copter changed its direction then went to waypoint 38 without delay action.
Did I write it wrong?

And, I made a mistake in delay command as to wait for 0 seconds as followings,

40 WAYPOINT 2 ********
41 CONDITION_YAW 342 ********
42 DELAY 0 ********
43 CONDITION_YAW 342 ********
44 WAYPOINT 2 ********

Copter stayed at waypoint 40,
and it never moved until I chane mode to Pos_hold.
DELAY 0 means dead-lock?

How can I use Delay?

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@jasonhill wrote:

I am building a rover that uses the hydrostatic transmissions out of a zero turn mower. I have a pixhawk flashed with rover but not sire how to hook the pixhawk to use only the right stick on my transmitter. I have a spektrum dx8 set to use the right stick with elevon. That’s where I get confused with making the pixhawk output match.

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