Hi, I’m a newbie in Ardupilot and planes. I’ve started to build my first plane Heewing T1 Ranger VTOL PNP with HEEWING F405 FC and for now, I have 2 main issues probably related each other.
The first one - I don’t see a compass in Ardupilot.
The second one - When I’m arming in QLOITER mode the motors don’t tilt up. But I assume the reason could be that the compass is not working.
When I powered up the FC first I could see the compass in the compass section of Ardupilot, but I skipped it setup and proceeded with the firmware update, servos, parameters config, etc.
When I got back to the compass section it was empty.
The wiring seems okay, it was done by the vendor and I didn’t touch it.
The firmware on the board right now is 4.5.4
From the vendor site GPS+Compass model should be BN-250Q
I watch tons of videos and read manuals but can’t figure out how to solve this.
Considering it’s a QMC5883L, I would just get a better compass, LIS3MDL for example. I wouldn’t be surprised if it just died, they’re cheap Honeywell clones of inconsistent quality and I’ve had the same thing happen to me. Keep the GPS if it works, but disconnect the compass line.
Will it work if I leave this GPS connected? Or do I need to replace the GPS too? Or maybe just buy a better GPS+compass?
BTW, I’m not sure if this is important but in the HW id section, on the I2C it shows a barometer.
Am I right that the problem with tilting is caused by not working compass? Or this is not related?
Should work. If the GPS is working now then there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work with another compass. GPS and compass aren’t interconnected, they’re two separate modules with separate connectors in one package.
Depends on what you need. Your current GPS is low-end, but should be okay for anything that doesn’t require precise location tracking. If you do need precise location tracking you’ll want RTK anyways, and that’s another can of worms.
That’s okay. I2C can handle more than one sensor. You can post a flight log if you want (set LOG_DISARMED,1, power it on, wait a minute, and collect the logfile).
Can’t say to be honest. Get your compass working / another one first before trying to fly.
No, you’ll need an SD card for flight logs. You can record telemetry logs via connected GCS, but they lack potentially important data when it comes to tuning & troubleshooting.
The compass is working right now and calibrated.
But still have problems with vertical take off.
When I’m arming in QLOITER flight mode front motors are tilt horizontally and all three motors spin.
When I switch to QSTABILIZE mode front motors tilt up and spin but the third motor does not spin
Will be hard to troubleshoot without a log. Do you have the FC with SD card slot (V2) or the one without? If you connect it to your GCS (via SiK Radio, WiFi, Bluetooth…), you can record a telemetry log, which isn’t exactly optimal but better than no log at all.
The motors need to be perfectly equal when in the Q stabilized position. It takes a while to get it right. I just did a Ranger on the weekend and I spent a while getting the motors equal. But it takes off and stays straight.
Also double check that the two front motors are spinning opposite directions.