Chris,
Sorry it was a misplaced joy. Indeed, I powered the servs’ rail with a specific supply. Unfortunely, no reaction from the servos.
This APM device, named DROPIX is provided by a French company that products this version of PIxhawk under licence. I mounted it on a quadrirotors with full satisfaction…
As a last resort, I will, as proposed by Jakob, connect the servos on the motors’ rail
Keep you informed.
Guy.
Jakob’s proposal is not a proposal. It’s absolute. The servos have to be hooked to the motor outputs. The company that made it, unless they hacked the firmware to be different, just didn’t label it right. So with the naming convention they used, the servos have to be hooked to Motors 1 - 4. What they call “Servo output” are really the Aux pins.
OK Chris, I will do that connections and will report to you ASAP.
Hi Jakob, Chris and Bill,
That works!
I plugged the servos to the motors’ rail. The servos move responding to the Tx sticks but in wrong direction. For instance, the swash plate goes down while the throttle stick is pushing up… So, I will continue in setting and will report again.
Lot of thanks again for your prompt, steady and precious help.
Gratefully,
Guy
Hi Jakob, Chris and Bill,
I am still on the step of setting the servos of the swash plate.
I am facing this difficulty: When I try to reverse one servo, on Arducopter, wherever on “servo setting” or on “full parameters” Tab, the reverse function does not work. What should I do to recover the reverse capability?
Thanks,
Guy
What value are you using in the full parameter list to reverse the servo? In the current code 0 is for normal and 1 is for reverse.
I actually just use the heli-setup tab. Whatever issues it had in the past seems to be gone now.
Hi Bill,
In the full parameters tab I type 1 for the value of HSX_reversed followed by “writte” to reverse the related X servo. Without result.
I do add that I don’t use the USB to link the heli to the computer, I use the radio transmission for that link. Do you think that is the reason?
Thanks
Hi Jakob,
I replied to Bill I don’t have result by using the parameter SEVOX_REVERSED.
Same disapointment when I intervene in “servo setting” tab.
May be the issue is due to the radio link instead of the USB link. I will try the USB.
Thanks
In the version of the firmware you are using the servo direction should be reversed with the SERVOx_REVERSED parameter and it is set to 0 for normal, 1 for reversed. There should not be H_SVx_REV params in the full parameter list. The H_SVx_REV parameters have not been used since AC3.4.x
This is why I suggested resetting to defaults earlier, and starting over with the setup. Old unused parameters are stored in the Pixhawk’s flash. So if the controller had AC3.4 in it at one time it will keep the old parameters unless you either reset to defaults, or load Plane in it and then reload Copter. So the old params show up in the ground station, and trying to change does nothing. If you are going from newer to older firmware the recommended procedure is to load Plane, then reload the older firmware. If you go from older to newer firmware, it is recommended to save your params, load the new firmware, simply using the reset to defaults should work to get rid of the old params out of flash, then reload your params that apply to the newer firmware.
I have seen Pixhawks come with various versions of the firmware pre-installed. I got one recently that had Copter 3.4.5 installed in it “out of the box”. And I got another one from the same outfit that had Copter 3.5 RC1 installed in it “out of the box”.
It doesn’t make any difference if you use the MavLink or USB to change them.
OK Chris,
I will apply your instruction and come back to you
Thaks
Guy, let me know how that goes. You are using 3.5 firmware. So the ground station should NOT be offering parameters that do not apply to the version of firmware being set up. If it is, it means they are coming from the Pixhawk’s flash memory. If after resetting to defaults and starting over, those old H_SVx params are still appearing in the Full Parameter List, we have a problem with the ground station software putting there, and need to get that resolved. You cannot be setting up with ground station that is incompatible with the firmware. I did not see those old params in your param file, so they should NOT be appearing in the ground station, or offering an option to set them, because they are not going to work in 3.5.
Hi Chris,
In fact after reseting the heli firmware according to your method (downloading quadri and coming back to heli) the parameter “HSVx” does not exist anymore. Otherwise, we have “SERVO0x_reversed” So, that seems to be no more software conflict you mentioned.
Right now I still have the impossibility to reverse the servo whatever I use the way for:
Besides, I define as servo 1 that one which is at front left, and servo 2 which is at front right. Which one is used for Pitch function?
Thanks
Excellent. So it did have old params stored in it. And that’s basically the only way to get rid of them.
Yep, 1 is LF, 2 is RF, SERVO3 is the rear (elevator) servo, 4 is rudder, 8 is throttle (called HeliRSC).
I assume you have done the radio calibration and have all eight channels properly calibrated to their full range for the RCIN. You don’t reverse servos with the RCx params. They are only reversed with the SERVOx params. So there is a function for each SERVO called SERVOx_FUNCTION. Make sure SERVO’s 1-4 correspond to Motor’s 1-4. This is very confusing, as the code is calling the servos “Motors”.
SERVO1_FUNCTION should be 33
SERVO2_FUNCTION 34
SERVO3_FUNCTION 35
SERVO4_FUNCTION 36
SERVO8_FUNCTION 31
Make sure you are in Stabilize flight mode. The servos should all move. Setting the SERVOx_REVERSED from 0 to 1 should cause them to change direction of travel.
Chris,
First of all I have to reset in my mind !!!
I am going to redifine the servos by SERVOx_FUNCTION, check the servos’ postion on their plug in Pixhawk and redoing the radio set-up, the servvo’s and swash plate leveling…and coming back to you.
Thanks
Chris,
When I define SERVO8_FUNCTION as 31, the related green bar in the servos setting tab does not move.Same result if I define it as Throttle. This green bar moves if I define the servo 8 as RCIN8. SERVO 1 on the heli moves in the right direction, servo 2 and 3 and swash plate move on the opposite direction. The reverse functon operated in the parameters tab does not work. Do you think that has any relation with H_RSC_MODE which value is currently 1?
Thanks
The problem here is not really a problem. The throttle output is not active unless the flight controller is armed. It must be set to SERVO8_FUNCTION 31. None of the other functions will work for heli throttle.
No, it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the throttle to the engine being disabled until the flight controller is armed.
The reason the servos won’t reverse, I’m convinced now, is a problem with your ground station, or you’re not actually writing the parameter to the flight controller after you change it. I do not use Mission Planner myself, but maybe somebody else can comment on how you actually do the writing of the parameter to the flight controller after you change it in the Full Parameter List.
Chris,
Good news!
I rebooted the Mission Planner firmware and …the servo reverse is working! I don’t understand what has happened but that works.
I am going ahead in this Mission Planner trap that gives headache!
Thanks
Sounds really good, Guy. It must’ve been something “hung” in your ground station that was refusing to write the change to the flight controller? At any rate it works now. Hope to see this one flying soon!
Chris,
If I consider every challengess I had to take up until now thanks to you, I believe there is still a long way to run before launching the heli in the air. I will keep you innformed about that event. Warm thanks to you.
Guy