Pitt, we would definitely need your help for tandem heli’s. The tuning method PR’d was extensively tested on several helicopters. But we don’t have a tandem to test it on.
Hi Pitt,
Are you aware of any ready made kit ( preferably not a very expensive one) with two rotors which we can use to fly the dual heli. I have seen your posts regarding the dual heli but unfortunately most of us do not have the skill/time to build their own frame. A ready made frame makes things a lot easier.
FWIW, I have recently used the mission planner heli-stup and extended tuning pages and has not seen it change values in the full parameter list that it shouldn’t do.
Jakob, excellent! Does MP allow you to make settings for helicopters that it thinks is out of range in those pages?
None that I know is currently available.
There was one made by Hirobo I think but that’s very long ago.
The other I have seen are 2 trad-helis sticking together which requires good amount of work unfortunately.
Chris, Unfortunately, no. If the parameter is already below a ‘legal’ value, it’ll keep the current value, so it wont ‘break’ anything. If you are trying to set a legal value to an illegal value, it’ll set it to the lowest allowed.
Winter is here soon, so maybe it’s time to get my coding hat on.
What about the heli setup page? It’s been so long since I looked at MP that I don’t remember. I have it running on one of my Linux laptops but I never use it and always go to APM Planner2.
APM Planner2 does not have a heli setup page.
I would like to mention that Tower on Android with a tablet with a 11-12" screen and a full-size USB port also works quite nicely for setting up a helicopter (and flight planning and for the ground station). Tower only has a Full Parameter List for making settings, and if you click on one it pops up the recommended range and setting increments, but allows setting outside the recommended range if you want. Tower can also do the accel and compass cal. I think the only think it can’t do is radio cal and loading firmware for a full setup from scratch. But I really like Tower for everything else.
I would like to second Chris’ comment. Please read this through and let us know where it needs improvement. We are talking about complicated subjects with the attempt to put them into terms most users can understand. I think this should be understandable by a person that is familiar with RC helicopters (novice level) (i.e. has set up an RC helicopter and has some flight experience). It was difficult to strike a balance for depth and understanding for most users. Also read through the steps and make sure there is enough detail. I know I’m opening a can of worms but we don’t want to be doing this again in six months. If you don’t want to post on this discussion, you can always PM Chris and me. Thanks in advance!
Bill
Thank you so much for doing this! The default values and PID tuning directions are exactly what I need to set up my first heli.
I am getting ready to set up my heli using a Pixracer instead of an APM or Pixhawk. I would be glad to take pics along the way and blog the build if it could be used to improve the wiki.
Dave
I thought a Pixracer only has six RC inputs? I guess with 3.5 you can map the throttle channel to 6 but I have no experience with that.
By all means if you want to do a video or picture blog of tuning, post the link. If our PR gets approved I see no reason why it couldn’t be added to the tuning wiki.
I could be (am probably?) incorrect, but I think that it has six servo outputs, which is enough for what I’m doing. I think you can get 16 input channels from FrSky via SBUS, or 8 from PPM. If not, I’m going to have a really trick autopilot for my Nano Skyhunter!
Sorry, yes. That’s what I meant. The throttle can be mapped in 3.5. So it should work to map Heli RSC to SERVO 5 or 6. SERVO 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively to motors 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively (using the naming convention now used in 3.5).
Hey Chris,
I am punching these settings in for a first-time set up, and I am getting a warning that some of the 0 entries are outside of the acceptable range in Mission Planner. Should I just use the minimum setting in MP, or enter 0 anyway?
Thanks!
Follow the wiki settings. We have tested the initial settings and found them to provide a good flying helicopter to start the tuning process.
I set up my heli using your settings and it is quite flyable. You guys are amazing!
I accidentally posted a PM message to this thread that had the same topic line, so removed it. Bill is right - it’s best to start with the recommended settings. But Mission Planner will try to be “helpful” and prevent you from making the settings. That’s because it’s designed more for multi’s than heli’s, and multi’s don’t have VFF settings and depend totally on the rate PID loop. So a multi would be totally uncontrollable with starting helicopter settings. Mission Planner, being more multi-centric, tries to prevent people from doing that.
But it still should let a person make the settings from the full parameter list or tree for a helicopter.
1 Like
Well, I have hit a wall. I just need some clarification on the last steps.
Adjusting I-gains For High-Speed Autonomous Flight
Prepare a mission with your ground station software that will fly the helicopter, preferably in a figure-8 pattern to make both right and left turns, at a speed of 6 m/s. Fly the helicopter on this mission, pull the logs from the microSD card and look at the AHRS desired (Is this AHR2 Pitch?) vs actual pitch (Is this ATT Pitch, desPitch, or Rate, or something else?) roll and yaw attitudes in dynamic flight. They should track within 1-2 degrees. If they do not, increase the ATC_RAT_xxx_I value for that axis until they do.
___T_hanks,
Dave
Dave,
You are comparing ATT.DesPitch (desired/commanded Pitch) to ATT.Pitch (actual aircraft pitch attitude).
Compare the same parameters for the roll and yaw axis. Does that make sense. You are just verifying the controller has sufficient control authority to keep the actual aircraft attitude tracking to the desired/commanded attitude.
Bill
Yes, the AHRS (Altitude Heading Reference System) actual attitude information is found in ATT Pitch, desPitch, etc…
I see Bill already answered this…
Thanks. I have to start the process over. Somehow my actual vs desired graphs are way off. I need to pull the logs each time I make a change to see if I have unintended consequences.