In a nutshell we need the ability to select what modes are allowed to be armed.
For example currently RTL is not armable but I also want stabilize to not be armable as well. See below for reasons…
We are preparing here links to be sold with our drones. However the here link states that you can not assign a channel to mode selection.
It states you must use mavlink to assign the flight mode.
So with mode channel set to “0” the pixhawk boots into stabilize mode which is uber dangerous for clients and never used by then anyway.
We either need the ability to assign what modes pix boots up to… or even better assign what modes are “armable” so that the client can’t arm in a mode they are not familiar with accidentally.
Thoughts? And who can this be brought to the attention of as I feel it is a very important feature request as it has to do with safety. We can’t ship any here link drones to clients until this is resolved.
Otherwise, you got two option : modify the firmware to forbid arming in some mode, modify the gcs you use on the herelink (QGC ?) to forbid arming in some mode.
If someone arms a drone in stabilize with the throttle spring set to centre it will take off like a rocket. That’s just unsafe.
We are taking about people who are not flying for fun or interest sake. It has to be fool proof when they are in high stress environments with heavy machinery and distractions, to assume they will change the mode every time they fly would be a bad assumption.
I already use mission planner to setup the drone and it is written in here link documentation NOT to use any flight modes set in mission planner.
I thought it would be a good idea to set all modes to pos hold in MP and assign the mode to a channel not touched by here link buttons but that goes against the strong recommendation to set flight mode channel to zero
Arduplane already has the feature apparently that it boots to a defined mode so we need that in copter.
I prefer to be able to set what modes are armable, that just seems like a good idea regardless of use case.
I think a bit-mask param for armable, or even modes that your allowed at all, makes sense, we could also add the initial mode param to copter.
However all copter pilots should be familiar with stabilize. If you get a GPS glitch or EKF error copter might put you in stabilize mode.
You certainly shouldn’t be flying commercially if your not capable of landing the vehicle safely in stabilize mode, let allone if your ‘uber dangerous’.
So yes we could add the params, but it should not make any difference to the required competency level of your pilots.
I disagree, stabilize mode is dangerous because of the spring loaded throttle no matter who is flying.
Alt hold mode is how all our pilots are trained and they all fly very well in alt hold mode, we train them how to do backward figure 8’s and bring the drone home in alt hold from 1000m away. But not in stab mode
Very few drones hover at mid throttle and switching between stab and alt hold is dodgy at the best of times.
If someone arms a drone in stabilize with the throttle spring set to centre it will take off like a rocket. That’s just unsafe.
This isn’t possible unless you modify the prearm check as you cannot arm with throttle pushed on STABILIZE. Moreover , if you arm in STABILIZE you got what you ask for … review you takeoff check list … checking the mode should be the on the list. …
@iampete we could add the initial mode, I think we already have PR implementing this. The only issue there is that FLTMODE_CH 0 doesn’t allow to set a mode on start on copter. having the initial mode would also allow to build firmware without STABILIZE mode
if you got an altitude sensors failure (it append frequently) and you don’t know how to use STABILIZE, you could say goodbye to your drone. STABILIZE, even if it need some training, is the only mode that don’t rely on EKF for everything so it is the safest
Yes, as you arm the drone and release the stick it goes to mid throttle and will take off.
Flying a drone in stab mode without alt hold is a royal pain. These drones are not for people to fly for fun or prove they can do it.
Sure you can adjust the mid point but that is not the point here. It’s still a pain to fly constantly adjusting throttle to maintain altitude. You should try flying a drone back in stab mode only from 1000m and see how fun it is. You will be all over the map in altitude height.
The point is that we need to be able to set armable modes or have pix boot up in a selected mode to work safely with herelink.
