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04-06-2012, 12:44 PM | #1 (permalink) |
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ArduPilot Mega 2 (APM 2) on 450
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Align 450, Align 700e, SK 720 GPS, DX8, T14SG |
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04-06-2012, 03:12 PM | #2 (permalink) |
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Great please keep us updated. But imho if you intend useing it on a heli I think the version with external GPS would have been better.
Still waiting for it to arrive in the UK but I notice the preorder price keeps increasing. |
04-06-2012, 09:11 PM | #3 (permalink) |
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Good call. I complete forgot about that. I just checked, I would need to pay another $38 to get an external GPS, if I need it.
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04-07-2012, 02:22 PM | #4 (permalink) |
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Read up on the mag as well. I think with V1 they fit both mag and gps antenna far out on the tail because they dont work well under the main blades. Dont know if this would be necassay with the V2 version though. Looking forward to your progress.
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04-13-2012, 03:22 AM | #5 (permalink) |
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I had everything connected on the table and it seemed to work well. Even got a GPS lock inside my house. On the other hand, the manual/wiki on the ArduPilot for heli is almost non-existence. Almost everything written up are for planes and multicopters. Even when there are related info, it doesn't go into detail. For other things, I just want to look up what certain jumpers or connectors are for, there are just no info any where. Quiet frustrating searching for forum and websites and can find very little info.
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04-15-2012, 11:14 PM | #6 (permalink) |
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Wow! What a project so far. The documentation is scarce at best. AuduPilot for traditional helicopter is like a step child. You are really lucky to get any specific info that is for heli. The wiring was the most confusing part. The UI is buggy. The AuduPilot board itself doesn't work as expected neither.
After a lot of trail and error, finally got it hooked up, the servo trims done, set up the travel limit, and with the auto-swash-plate-balance to the correct directions. Tomorrow is going to have the maiden flight. Finger crossed.
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Align 450, Align 700e, SK 720 GPS, DX8, T14SG |
04-18-2012, 04:40 PM | #7 (permalink) |
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Maiden didn't go well at all. Apparently the default PID numbers are way off. I couldn't even control the rudder. Talked to a couple of developers in their forum and I'm going through the PID tuning process now. It's a pain sticking process...
Adjusting the tail first. Flying chair anyone?
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Align 450, Align 700e, SK 720 GPS, DX8, T14SG |
04-18-2012, 04:59 PM | #8 (permalink) |
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What's the board on the side ?. Have you protected the baro somehow from the down draft ?. Keep it comming good luck.
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04-18-2012, 05:02 PM | #9 (permalink) |
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That's an OSD. http://store.diydrones.com/Ardupilot...-apmminosd.htm
The baro will probably my super very last concern. Will get there eventually, hopefully...
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Align 450, Align 700e, SK 720 GPS, DX8, T14SG |
04-18-2012, 08:37 PM | #10 (permalink) |
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Houston, we have lift off!
I thought the tail was tuned very well while it sat on the chair. When I had it sit freely on the ground, at about 30-40% throttle, the tail shaked violently. But I was determined to lift off and see how well the default PID work, so I continue to spool it up slowly and controlling all the pitch and roll carefully before it left the ground. (Don't worry. I'm very good at flying un-tune and demage heli. ) After it's off the ground, the tail still continue to shake, but other than that, it seems to hold very well. So I hover it around and shake the tail a little more using the rudder control. After I do that, the tail calmed down. The entire heli flew very smoothly. It feels like running SK720 with 70% self leveling with 120 deg/s control rate. I'm very impressed! I finished up the pack of battery and it's already dark out and it's dinner time. Will re-tune the tail and fly again tomorrow.
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Align 450, Align 700e, SK 720 GPS, DX8, T14SG |
04-23-2012, 02:11 PM | #11 (permalink) |
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Hi Wesley, I didn't know you were posting here too. (for anybody else following along, I'm one of the devs).
I've got an HK450GT FBL on the way, I'm going to set it up very similar to how you have done. As for the position of the mag and GPS, we don't know for sure if they will or will not work located where you have them. The recommendation to put them on the tail is more of a "best guess" at this point. I really want them to work as you have set it up, since it's such a clean install. And I believe it will. One of the key things is to eliminate magnetic interference. This requires all the DC power cabling to be as short as possible, and twisted. Try to never have the positive and negative wires separated by any distance. IMO, if the APM2 board can work on a quad, it has to work on a heli, as the wiring on the quads are WAY more complicated than a heli. As for the GPS, the fear was that being under the carbon fiber blades would be a problem, but I think this has been proven to not be a concern. In regards to the wiki, yes, I admit it's not done well. Part of the problem is that we are so busy with the code, sometimes documentation is skipped. But also, it can be hard for somebody who wrote the code, and is immersed in it, to figure out what needs explanation and how best to do it. I know how it works, so it's hard to figure out what's not explained well enough. I'd love it if people posted "I've read the wiki, and I think it's weak on this subject:" But one key point to keep in mind is that it's pretty much mandatory to read the Multi-copter wiki, as it is very true that we are a stepchild of the multi-copter program. |
04-23-2012, 02:31 PM | #12 (permalink) |
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Ah, I see. That make sense. It's great to have developers participating in the forums thou. It would help us tremendously.
It's good to know that the DC power cabling need to be twisted and never have the positive and negative wires separated by any distance. I was JUST rewiring my connects from the receiver to the APM with only the control wires to minimize the number of cable. I guess I'll have to rewire again to put the negative wires back in...
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04-23-2012, 03:29 PM | #13 (permalink) |
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For the servo wires, it doesn't matter. I only meant for power wires. The most important is the battery to ESC wires, and possibly whatever wires you use to supply servo power to the APM2 servo rail. Just using a standard 24ga 3-wire servo cable here is perfectly fine. Just don't do anything silly like split your positive and negative servo wires and wrap them around the mag or something silly like that.
The ESC to motor wires are less critical since they oscillate at high frequency. If you can bunch them together, that's fine, but don't kill yourself trying to twist them. |
04-23-2012, 03:39 PM | #14 (permalink) |
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I see. Battery to ESC is isolated in the front of the heli. I'll double check the rest later.
My 3DR telemetry kit just arrived. Since I already have the miniOSD, I'll have to find a spot to mount it and rewire something. Just went thru the wiki, looks like the miniOSD has to share the same pins with the 3DR on UART0/2 I looked at the the printing on the APM circuit board. Looks like there are 3 more sets of similar pin out. One on the opposit side of the board called UART1. And two more on the side (with single rail) call UART0 and UART2. Can I use any of those instead? I also see there are some other printing called MUX UART0/2. I suppose I would have to solder them together to enable some of those other connections? See, this is the part that I would really like to find out what those are for from the wiki, but I can't find anywhere that has that kind of info.
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Align 450, Align 700e, SK 720 GPS, DX8, T14SG |
04-23-2012, 03:56 PM | #15 (permalink) |
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Ah, sorry, I can't answer those questions. That definitely needs to be cleared up. It's possible that you can't run the OSD and Telemetry at the same time.
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04-25-2012, 12:12 PM | #16 (permalink) |
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Thanks for posting this. Please keep posting, I have a Bergen gasser that begs to have an APM 2 on board for FPV and possible autonomous flight. I also plan to run the OSD, 3DR telem, and every other sensor I can jam into the bird.
Subscribed Dennis |
04-25-2012, 12:26 PM | #17 (permalink) |
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I have OSD, 3DR telem, and sonar installed. The optical sensor for APM1 does not suppose to work with APM2, but someone just wrote a wiki on how to connect it to APM2 and may work. So I ordered one to try as well.
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04-25-2012, 02:07 PM | #18 (permalink) |
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Hey Wesley888, did you get your answer to the Uart0-1-2 ... connection answered? Can you in fact run more than one Uart device at once? I was under the impression that you had 4 shots at getting the data in-out without going I2c
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04-25-2012, 02:26 PM | #19 (permalink) |
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Nobody seems to know the answer, but I found a wiki page saying that you can only have one device transmitting and you can have many receiving devices. I have my 3DR telem connected both TX and RX and have OSD connecting to just the receiving one. That seems to work well.
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04-28-2012, 08:25 PM | #20 (permalink) |
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I have a new APM2 and properly mounting and protection are one of my first hurdles to overcome. I want to put mine on a Trex 500 for starters.
Can you explain your rational behind the breadboard sandwich mounting system you have there? My experience with 3G, beastx, helicmd has been to use stiff 3m tape. Your mount looks rather flexible. What is the material in between? thxs |
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