Since I am new working with Arducopter or even drones in general, I would really appreciate someones feedback/recommendation and answering on couple of questions that I got from anyone who can support or guide me.
In this post, i will list hardware type that is being used and firmware. Also, I will briefly explain what I did to achieve the current drone flight state that you will see in the logs.
Hardware:
Hexacopter X-Frame
T-Motor 1300KV
ESC T-Motor 40A UBEC
Pixhawk 6X
props: 7x5.5
Battery: 4S 5-Amps
Software:
ArduCopter V4.5.1 (71a2f169)
ChibiOS: 6a85082c (im not sure what this is or if its beneficial to know)
RC Protocol: PPM
I have followed the documentation for initial tuning, then i did AutoTuning for pitch, and then i simply coppied the values from pitch to roll. Then i started to fly and reduce the PID’s by 50% until i noticed that I could not have a smoother response more than what i reached.
My questions and seeking for recommandations:
When i fly with stabilize, and input roll or pitch, the response is still fast and I am aiming for a smoother response (meaning, when i input roll/pitch i would like the drone to stabilize itself in a smoother way not jerky way). Any recommendations how could I achieve that?
I am facing an issue with Yaw maneuver. The yaw is not nice to use at all, specially during stabilize mode. Lets say i want to turn from 12 to 3 o’clock, when i apply the yaw input the drone achieves 3 o’clock then after 1 second the drone yaw back (towards 12 o’clock)10 degrees. Note that time and amount of degrees can be observed in the logs. How can I get rid of this phenomenon? Also, any recommendations about the PID values for yaw? I have already tried to do autotuning but have never achieved a completion.
With the ESC and battery that I am using, can I use a larger propeller size?
The next step for me is I would like to add around 1 Kg of payload. Will the drone still be flyable with the current parameter configuration? If not, should I repeat the whole steps that I did from the beginning?
In Loiter I could sometime observe a weird phenomenon. The drone starts to move slowly in a circular path and then the speed of the circular motion starts to slightly increase. Note that I could not replicate the behaviour everytime i switch to Loiter. Any ideas?
“In Loiter I could sometime observe a weird phenomenon. The drone starts to move slowly in a circular path and then the speed of the circular motion starts to slightly increase”
This is usually caused by a bad compass calibration, called the “toilet bowl effect”.
Mag 1 possible incorrect orientation: 0:None
Should be: 6:Yaw270 ?
Cost ratio: 2.47
Other than that I couldnt get a better calibration out of Magfit since you dont seem to have a working voltage or current sensor. That will help enormously and the voltage sensor is ESSENTIAL for safety.
I will apply the changes you suggested and test it again when the weather allows for a flight test.
“Other than that I couldnt get a better calibration out of Magfit since you dont seem to have a working voltage or current sensor. That will help enormously and the voltage sensor is ESSENTIAL for safety.”
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Reply: I might have missed that in the documentation so how can I have the sensor activated to monitor the voltage or current? or more accuratly how should I get them logged?
I think Pixhawk 6X already contain such sensor… please correct me if I’m wrong.
The only hardware that is not listed compared to my original post is this:
It wont be the ESCs that hold you back, I suspect those motors will struggle with more than 7inch props.
You’ll need to go to lower KV, around 1000, but you could try going to 8 inch props and see what happens before you change out anything else.
If you were going to change motors also go for a new ESC too - search on getfpv.com, there’s a 6in1 ESC but it is only BLHELI_S unfortunately (why do they do that??) and there is an 8in1 that’s BLHELI_32.
When you are looking for more upgrades, change out the steam-powered PPM receiver (and maybe transmitter too) for something modern with one of the new serial protocols.
The only reason that I want to have bigger prop size is because I am adding a payload.
Currently the drone flies normally with a total weight 2 Kg. Do you think with the current hardware configuration I might have problems flying with an extra 1 Kg of payload?