sure…I’ll try to word it such that it can get approved:wink:
@hwurzburg I thought the back-flip it does when switching from QSTABILIZE to ACRO was just for fun 
I suppose I should have mentioned that above… but it should be less exciting transitioning between FBWA and ACRO.
yeah, you would have to have a good deal of forward velocity and altitude, center the sticks, and switch to ACRO to have a hope of success, same with STABILIZE…
Need to fully explain the consequences…that’s a great example…dont think there is much problem transitioning out of those modes to a Qplane mode though…
Does anyone know what the 3 LEDs on the F405 mean when running ArduPlane?
I can’t figure out which source code is relevant, and there seems to be nothing specific in the wiki.
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Only probably what you have read already Mark.
Led 1 and 2 FC status indicators
Led 3 indicates 3.3V supply
From Matek portfolio
Myself I note
Usually they go from blinking to a solid colour when in DFU and mine blink when in communication with laptop
Thanks @davidabevan, I can’t see those LEDs with the hatch cover on anyway
I just re-maidened my Convergence after swapping the Pixracer for an F405-Wing.
QSTABILIZE, QHOVER and QLOITER looked OK. (this is with the pr-man-fwd-thr binary I posted on Gdrive)
I had a lot of difficulty in getting the parameter values straightened out… After finally getting the compass working and the servos trimmed, I found on the first hover that I had the yaw oscillation noted by @hwurzburg. Turns out that Q_A_RAT_YAW_FILT was 2.5 instead of 15, even after multiple param file loads. That’s not in the quadplane defaults_table, so I don’t know why it was wrong. It was also the only Q_A_RAT parameter which was incorrect.
I set up FrSky passthrough telemetry using the smartport inverter cable design here:
I like the simplicity of this solution.
Next step is moving the FPV camera and VTX from an old QAV250 to the Convergence.
Does it matter how close together the ESP8266 and VTX antennas are? It seems like both transmitters will need to share the VTX bay in the Convergence, unless I hang one on the outside somewhere.
Recall that I also had some odd parameter loss when changing builds. I haven’t put an FPV camera/transmitter in my Convergence yet. It’s probably going to be a winter project for me…too many planes.
Mark, I have not tried the ESP8266 and a VTX close together, but I have tried about every other combination of 1.2G/5.8G/433MHz/2.4GHz video and RC…
any receiving system (in this case the WIFI unit) can be impacted by a transmitter (in this case the VTX…I assume its 5.8Ghz) depending on proximity and power…like someone shouting next to your ear, even when you have earmuffs on, will overpower you trying to listen to someone else across the room…
and since the VTX is only an octave above the WIFI (2.4Ghz vs 5.8Ghz) and much higher power…a short distance from the VTX to the ESP8266 will probably be required…maybe 5-7 inches…you should be able to remote the VTX antenna away from the body with a shorty SMA cable… or just move the ESP8266 up front of the battery on a short 4 lead cable…or both
on my Convergence, even though I use 915Mhz telemetry, I remoted the antenna (a homemade dipole) on the back fin…the VTX and the Telem radio were in the bay…
@GregCovey There must be a better way to copy and validate parameter settings; I’ll ping some of the other developers for advice.
@hwurzburg Thanks, I was wondering whether 6" would be enough separation for the 5.8GHz and 2.4GHz antennas. That should be easy to achieve on the Convergence.
Another question specific to the F405-Wing: mine hangs when powered only via USB unless I disconnect the I2C cable. I think this is because there’s no 5V power to the compass in this state. What is the best way to download logs?
I’ve been pulling the flash card.
Looks like that’s the only alternative to connecting both a battery and USB, but it involves removing the hatch cover, and that’s soon going to have an FPV camera wired into it.
I can download fine with compass attached and no LIPO…I expect it depends on the compass loading of the I2C bus…I cant easily extract the SD card…I have a hole in the side to attach USB to the MatekF405Wing, so I never have to mess with the belly cover…
what happens to me is that the compass locks up if I apply USB and then LIPO…the I2C bus pushes current into the unpowered compass and causes it to “latch-up”…I have to apply LIPO first if I want the compass to work AND have USB connected…no problem with the GPS however…
at may be that your compass REALLY latches up and crushes the internal chip 3.3V supply…
Mark I power my GPS and compass with the 3.3v supply it is active on USB and overcomes this
Thanks, all. I installed a USB extension and powered my RX and GPS/compass/airspeed sensors from the 4.5V supply. Now I can download logs on USB power.
@GregCovey No problems so far with motors stopping when flying my PR branch ArduPlane V3.10.0-dev (a141bf4f)
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Too windy today for test flights, but I did try a QHOVER T&L in 20mph wind. Manual “forward throttle” worked well to compensate the wind, but gusts and turbulence made things interesting.
Graph and log here: https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/11763#issuecomment-533679998
@GregCovey @hwurzburg I flew my Convergence with the F405-Wing 3 times today (with 6 transitions to/from FBWA) on a new branch which includes a bugfix to let you run your servos above 50Hz (the stock controller uses 70Hz). Parameter SERVO_RATE=70 changes the default servo PWM frequency to 70Hz.
The new branch: cvgtest has also been rebased on latest master to get the I2C hang bugfix that went in recently, plus it has my manual forward throttle feature also.
I demonstrated yesterday that the hang I observed with the GPS/compass/airspeed sensor unpowered was in fact due to the “interrupt storm” which the I2C bugfix addressed.
The F405-Wing is performing great, I also had the FPV working today, but couldn’t get my DVR to work, so no video to post.
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Mark,
Thanks for the update! I haven’t focused on my Convergence in a while as other VTOLs currently have my attention. I hope to catch up soon…
Cheers!
I’m trying to add an F405 Wing to my convergence. I loaded gregs Convergence4normal.params file, but in QSTABLIZE the ailerons work, but elevator input moves the control surfaces not the tilts, and yaw seems to do nothing. I have checked the servo settings many times, the tilt_type and mask are set for vectoredyaw and 3. What am I missing?
Hi David,
This is correct. It is the Flight Mode that determines if the tilt rotors are up or forward.
Cheers!
in qhover shouldn’t the elevator tilt the motors forward and back, and yaw tilt them in opposite directions? FWBA does tilt them forward, but elevons are useless in MR mode. I’m using version 4.10 dev . In MR mode does Arduplane treat the plane like a normal tri-rotor or quad, using only motor speeds for control? That is not the same as the e-filte controller at all. And it contradicts using vectored thrust for yaw in MR mode.