Compass learning

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

Hi Bill and Chris,
have you ever looked at this?
10 days ago Tridge asked for testers. What do you think of trying that out with a Heli?

Testers needed for in-flight compass learning

[image] I would like some testers for a new ArduPilot feature - in-flight compass learning. This is a feature that was originally developed for the SkyViper quadcopter, but can work with a wide range of vehicles (planes, copters, helicopters, rovers, boats etc). It avoids the need to do a compass calibration dance, which is particularly useful for large vehicles. The pull request is here: I am also happy to provide pre-built binaries if you let me know in the comments below what flight c…

[LuisVale (Luís Vale Gonçalves)]

Well, It is already on master, although I didn’t check if it is enabled for TradHeli. It works reasonably well on copters, so I don’t see why wouldn’t work on Helis

[tridge]

It is available for all vehicle types, including helis.
Yes, it should work well for helis, and will be useful for large helis I think

[ChrisOlson]

@tridge

It is available for all vehicle types, including helis.
Yes, it should work well for helis, and will be useful for large helis I think

I agree. I plan to try this out. If you’ve ever tried to calibrate the compass on a 35-40 lb helicopter with a 6-8ft main rotor, it’s not fun even with the blades off.

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

Chris,
thanks for looking in to this!

[Implicit (Jakob Schmidt)]

It’s bad enough on my 600! (~13lbs AUW)

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

Chris, could you find a few minutes to check the FW with auto compass calib. in it, so I know it is safe to use in a Heli? I have never used any special Test FW before other than those from your own link. Thanks.

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

Luis,
have you flown Arducopter -dev versions?
I have just loaded ArduCopter V3.7.0-dev quad into my drone. I want to try the in-flight compass learning with my drone first before I take the risk with my Helis.
To use -dev FW is a first for me and I hope this will go well.

[LuisVale (Luís Vale Gonçalves)]

Hi
I have been flying copters with master, but everything that concerns Helis I always play “chicken” and use only tested / master versions

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

That is why I asked Chris to try it first. He got better nerves than myself, I am sure.

[LuisVale (Luís Vale Gonçalves)]

Last time I tested some weird parameters on a Heli with 3.6RC I forgot to be at 10 mistakes above the ground and managed to completely destroy a very nice 700…

[ChrisOlson]

@FRED_GOEDDERT sorry, I have had a very busy week with stuff, and just have not had a chance to get to testing the compass learning yet.

Master is in a state of flux right now with new things going in all the time. That’s why, with Heli, I prefer to develop on current stable for testing, then port it to master later. I’ve been working on an internal governor for ArduPilot (along with a couple other new things) and haven’t even had time this week to work on that much.

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

No problem Chris, I will try the drone to see how it works even the drone has already a good compass calib. The weather here is not suitable at the moment.
I will not do the Helis before I see your experience with the in-flight compass calib. Take your time don’t worry about me.

[FRED_GOEDDERT]

Just tried the quad (Pixracer) with Master. It did not work. Went during arming straight into FailSave mode.
3 times I tried always got FailSave. So immediately I loaded back 3.6.2-rc3 chibios and the drone hovered in AltHold and Loiter beautifully to drain the battery for me. I cannot fly around in my small backyard.

• In-flight compass calib for me, not yet. Is not important for me with the Quad.
  But I want that for my Helis definitely.