Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Williams on March 3, 2010 at 6:44pm

Permissions don't permit access to throttle test ans mode switch test. Others ok

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on March 3, 2010 at 3:59pm

With the version 2.5, I am wondering how we "tell" Ardupilot where to go and the plane will steer itself towards the destination as if it were flying via Autopilot.

Can anyone elaborate on what fly-by-wire mode does?

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 3, 2010 at 4:51pm

In fly by wire in 2.5 you just fly via RC, but the plane translates that into computer-controlled paths. Just like fly-by-wire in a real plane. It goes where you point it, but much more smoothly than if you were flying totally manually.

Stabalization mode, on the other hand, just tries to keep the plane level. Awesome for landing!

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on March 3, 2010 at 8:07pm

Thanks for the explanation Chris,

That makes sense, however right now I have no control over rudder or elevator when in fly-by-wire. I disconnect the GPS, power on the board, and switch to Autopilot1 or Autopilot2, but have no control with the transmitter over any control surface unless I am in manual mode. Is there an adjustment in the h file (gain?) that I may need to consider?

Would you recommend using 2.5 regardless of if I want fly-by-wire mode? I am only interested in it as a first step in testing... full waypoint autopilot is the goal! Are there any drawbacks of using 2.5?

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Permalink Reply by Tim McMahan on March 3, 2010 at 5:19pm

Ok, how much Ardupilot is necessary for fly-by-wire mode? Can that can be done with JUST the ArduPilot and one IR sensor? If its just stabilization enhanced flight, that would be great for my speed addicted buddies that fly over 100mph as well.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 3, 2010 at 6:35pm

If all you want is stabilization, I'd recommend an FMA Co-pilot (original, not the overbuilt II)

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Permalink Reply by Tim McMahan on March 4, 2010 at 6:54am

Well, the way I'm understanding it, the FMA just levels out the plane when you let off the sticks and the ArduPilot does the same thing in stabilizatione mode. Now the fly-by-wire is a whole different animal, correct? This is computer assisted control that removes all the human twitchiness. I haven't fully wrapped my brain around it, but it sounds like the fly by wire mode would be fantastic for low pass speed runs. you have tio get really low to do a radar clock or doppler recording, and at 120mph, I don't like holding the radr gun when the plane seems barely under control and flying right toward me.
Seems like it could potentially be a whole new niche for the ArduPilot.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 4, 2010 at 8:39am

That's correct.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on March 4, 2010 at 12:20pm

Well we decided to give the plane a try.. we took it out and unfortunately had some trouble with our transmitter. The antenna had come apart from the board inside the transmitter and thus we had no range, so the the plane went up and then came down after about 5 seconds once range was lost.

We fixed the transmitter, but the bigger problem is that the ardupilot board seems to be damaged. Only the red power LED lights come on no matter what we do (bind plug in, out, gps in, out... the plane did go down into some snow (we are in canada) and after inspection, I noticed some strange corrosion on the sheild board solders.

Could we have fried the board? Is there a way to reset everything?

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on March 4, 2010 at 12:48pm

I have no communication with Ground Station or with Config Tool, which worked 100% before. I also now get an error message when trying to re-load the easy_star_24 code from arduino.

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on March 4, 2010 at 1:00pm

That does indeed sound fried. Maybe snow caused a short? That's why we make the boards so cheap--it's easy to get another one and the expensive stuff (GPS, thermopiles) are pretty tough.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on March 4, 2010 at 1:47pm

To our relief everything started to work again! I cleaned the corrosion off the sheild solders and let everything just sit for a while. One thing that has been frustrating throughout this build is the lack of consistency, but nonetheless I am glad things seem to be working.

Time to head out for another test flight, this time with a transmitter that works.

Another question: In the Config tool where you set altitude, what exactly does Alt (to hold) indicate? With over terrain checked, the altitudes show up as negative which is def not correct, perhaps the data website does not include info on Canadian territory? We have "set manually checked", so do those altitudes tell it to stay that distance above the home alt hold? And what does Alt (ref) refer to?.. I am unable to edit it.

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