Not sure I understand you @oldgazer1. Why does the fact that Pixhawk is controlling the gear make this a good idea? I understand that I can control the gear directly from the Rx (how I used to do it many moons ago), but now we have control via AP which deploys the gear on RTL/Land etc, which is much better. My copter gets stored with the gear down, so on powering it I simply want to be able to flick a switch to raise it (rather than do this 3 times to make it raise). Looking forward to giving 3.5.2-rc1 a try. Thanks to Randy and the other devs for listening. This community is awesome!
Thanks Randy(@rmackay9), The new landing gear feature works a treat. I have it set to deployed at power-up and works perfectly for my needs. Cheers, Paul
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Paul,
Great! thanks for testing! If all goes well Copter-3.5.2 will become the official version in about a week.
Just finished testing the latest beta 3.5.2 for landing gear behavior. Just wanted to let you know it worked perfect for me. I set initial to deploy and now it only takes one flip of the switch to retract. I forgot to try a RTL to ensure they deploy automatically, but will try to get to it later today if possible. I am sure it will be fine. Nice work and thanks!
Ryan
Tested RTL this afternoon and it deployed the landing gear as expected. Everything seemed to work fine for me. Thanks again.
Ryan
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Ryan,
Great, thanks very much for testing! I suspect Copter-3.5.2 will become the official version in a few more days (assuming nothing turns up).
Hi everyone it seems that i am a little late to the thread however i want to share here a couple of thoughts regarding the landing gear operation.
Lately i am setting up a skywalker uav with a pixhawk autopilot for surveying missions mostly, i put on a camera protector that is moved with a servo so the motion can be seem as one landing gear: when the aircraft is in take off and landing the protection of the camera is deployed and when performing the mission is retracted. However since its hard to see this motion of the camera protector i thought if there is a way that, somehow, the mission planner can visualy or by sound confirmed that the needed action took place.
I can explain myself more easily by reminding you about the alnding gear switch on manned aircraft. There is a lever that when you pull it a led confirm that the gear perform the commanded action.
so can this be done?
The easiest way would be to use a simple microswitch that is engaged when your door opens/closes, using the Button feature (https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/blob/master/libraries/AP_Button/AP_Button.cpp)
Excuse me Mr but can you teach me how to do it?
Or share with me some tutorialā¦ Thank you very much in advanced
You need to enable it from the full parameter list, then the extra parameters will appear so you can set it up. A simple switch like a microswitch or reed switch will work fine.
Is there some way to do so only on software.
Somehow with a script that based on the servo output status prints a messageā¦
Like āif rc_9> 1400 pwm sent message : landing gear downā¦ā