Hi @Jed_Freeman , @makeflyeasy
Can you share PID setting (or parameter file) based on the latest Arduplane FW (4.1.7)? I am worried that the old default PID (as shared by @GregCovey and MFE) needs to be changed (or modified or recalculated) if we use 4.1.7 FW…
@GregCovey , did you change PID setting when you updated to the latest 4 1.7 FW ?
Thank you…
Hello,
You can refer to the official 4.0X to 4.1X parameter conversion software
https://uav.tridgell.net/convert_pid.html
Hi, I have to buy this kit (Pixsurvey Cube V3 Aerial Survey Autopilot Kit VTOL Autopilot Kit|Toy Sports| - AliExpress) but I don’t find anything on web without Ali express that ship from China, anyone know if there is some shop in Europe for this things? Thanks to everyone
@makeflyeasy , Chang,
Thank very much… Based on your Default parameter for Vtol Fighter, I have recalculated using @tridge calculator or conversion… After that I did Autotune for Plane , and finally I got very good tuning result… I use 6S configuration and your Fighter performs excellent and efficient…
The MFE team released a FMU v3 flight controller, you can learn more through the link below.
https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/a-pixsurvey-v3-flight-controller-is-recommended-developed-based-on-fmu-v3-which-is-more-suitable-for-vtol-aerial-survey/83700
Hi Tim,
Did you ever find out / measure any glide ratio info?
I’m just completing a safety case in the UK and would like to include some glide performance information for the Fighter VTOL. I’m not going to be able to experiment with ours for weeks, which I ultimately will do.
Thanks,
Alex.
After a delay of nine months I could finally start building the MFE Fighter. For more than half a year I had no real workshop, because my basement was flooded last year by the flood in Central Europe. I was lucky that it only hit the basement. At the turn of the year the basement was renovated and in February I could start to rebuild the small workshop with a bigger and better workbench from scratch.
A few days ago I finally started to build the MFE Fighter: When unpacking (shipping by Banggood last year within Europe) unfortunately again (as I often had to experience with Banggood) damage appeared. Two broken rudders are excusable, but dog-ears at the vortex inducing wing tips are an absolute nuisance, because they can hardly be bent back to the way they were, even under hot water. Of course, MFE can’t do anything about that. In any case, I will no longer buy higher-quality aircraft from Banggood.
MFE itself has packaged the fighter very well. After unpacking it took a while to get an overview of the many smaller EPO parts , well labeled baggies,
Rolf
In the meantime, the fuselage , wings and electrical wiring are completed and the motors and ESCs are installed.
I got around the problem of the hard to separate SUB-D connectors at the tail by only screwing one side of the SUB-D connectors. When removing the tail, the connector with the cable is therefore pulled out of the fuselage a few centimeters so that you can easily separate the connector by hand.
As flight controller I have planned a Matek H743-Wing(V1), which will be installed together with the BECs and the emergency battery on the “deck” for the flight controller. The disadvantage of the H743 is that it has only one CAN bus.
To avoid ground loops, a thick GND cable is routed in the fuselage (10 AWS). The connections of the cables to the wings and the front motor with the main battery via the Mauch sensor I have placed in the front transverse bay with screw connections.
Rolf
Hey, I’m back!
Family health is somewhat back in good order after a challenging year and I’ve been looking forward to becoming active in the Ardupilot community once again.
As of right now, I am on Arduplane 4.2 utilizing the original MFE tune parameters converted to firmware 4.2 using Tridge’s PID calculator. First manual VTOL flight tests in QSTABILIZE went very well aside from the initial nerves (to be expected). The VTOL was not jerky at all as far as I could tell from visual observations. I did, however need to give a little input on the sticks for pitch and roll as the VTOL was drifting a slightly to what seemed to be a consistent direction. I believe the constant drift could be mechanical though I was flying in a tight space.
With an MTOW of 10.27 kg, the hover was around 25 Amps at 15’ AGL in QHOVER mode (data at end of log shown below).
The first few launches were a bit “bouncy” until I learned the responsiveness/sensitivity of the thrust input. In that process, I believe that the FF ESC mounting pieces took up a protest. The FF ESC was a bit loose when I swapped flight batteries so I gave it a small tug and it peeled off. I figure the heavy T-Motor ESC was too much for the little bit of hobby glue holding the MFE stock pieces. Checking other components inside the fuselage all else seemed firm in place with exception of one edge of the stock MFE battery tray.
I decided to design a new mounting plate for the FF ESC since I’ve been doing more and more 3D printing during my time away. The new mounts wrap a corner into the nose cone which reinforces the face piece and allows for more spots to apply glue.
The nose cone is already pretty rigid so I am not too worried about the new mounts adding stiffness to an area that might undergo temporary deformation (flexing) in flight.
Next up: open area hovering for vibration checks (possible notch filtering), yaw control checks, and manual tune tweaks if needed then onto QAUTOTUNE, transitions, and plane AUTOTUNE.
Happy to receive advice others may have as I progress through my steps.
Cheers,
Christian
Hi Tony,
I used the lens cover of the Micasense Altum as a rough template, traced it to thin cardboard, and used a box cutter/utility blade to cut the opening. I then sloped the underside of the opening outward since some of the camera lenses were capturing the airframe on the edge of their images. I made an acrylic cargo bay tray (see my photos above) to help support the weight of the sensor and VTOL batteries. The camera covers the whole completely so I’m not worried about differential pressure issues with the flight controller barometer.
Due to the Non-Uniform Calibration (NUC) required by the sensor I will be doing manual NUC triggered by MavLink messages. This way I can control when they happen (in a turn, loiter waypoint, etc.) so that the camera is available when it should be capturing images. I will use the autopilot to send auto-capture commands in mission.
We fly with a single camera (Micasense) because the multispectral data is the primary goal and the RBG resolution is good enough.
Cheers,
Christian
Hi Christian,
welcome back and glad to hear that you have faced the health challenges.
Congratulations on your first hover flights. In Qstabilize and Qhover the airplane does not hold the position, if some crosswind or turbulences disturb. Also to vibrations one can certainly say more, if you would post a logfile.
Good luck further. I still have a lot of soldering to do before the first hover.
Rolf
Well, I now know where the phantom “wobble” on takeoff attempts was coming from. The hinge on the CF tubes on my left wing was not secured. In fact, the rivets that fasten the hinge to the square tube are missing. Looking back at older build photos they were never installed by MFE to begin with.
I’m fortunate that the incident took place on the ground and not in the air. I’ll share photos in a separate post. The carnage was not as bad as it could have been. Yikes!
I thought that soldering was gratifying after carefully laying out all the wire routes and intersections. I might have some soldering in the near future as well.
-Christian
So the excitement was short-lived. Firstly, I will say that it was very fortunate that the incident happened while on the ground and not in flight. No human was harmed and the MFE Fighter didn’t end up in a dozen pieces (it’s still one piece, albeit slightly disfigured/mangled).
I went back through my photos (see below) of the build and at the initial unboxing of the air frame the rivets were missing from the factory. It appears that @makeflyeasy quality control missed this, unfortunately. I assumed that these part were complete and the right wing was complete so it went under my radar, so to speak.
The damage could have been a lot worse. The aileron has a slice and penetration from the prop and the square cf tube is split on one corner.
For others, be sure to check that all rivets are present or reinforce the hinge connection.
As for repairs, I did catch that there was a mod to the hinges for reinforcement by @Jed_Freeman. Do you have any guidance on the hinges or more details on your mod, Jed? It would be much appreciated.
I think I can fill in the aileron and am undecided on the foam hinge (maybe tape it or leave it be).
Open to recommendations moving forward.
Cheers,
Christian
Now that’s a bummer. That could have ended badly. I’m curious what @makeflyeasy says about it.
Hello @Christian_H ,
Thank you very much for your information, hope that your your health is good…
I am sorry about your Fighter serious problem… To be honest , I am a it worry since beginning about this rivet style connection… I prefer to use M3 long bolt and nut instead of this rivet. I think @makeflyeasy should evaluate again how to avoid this problem…
I start thinking to modify this arm boom for my next built…
We will solve this problem, thanks for the feedback from the majority of users, we will continue to improve and make a better EPO fixed-wing aircraft.
Thank you for helping to resolve this issue. I am happy to send more information on the failure to improve future designs. It should be noted that the epoxy used did not seem to hold strong to the carbon tubing as both hinges on the left arm slipped out eventually. I am not sure as to the reason why other than the resin didn’t bond properly to the carbon fiber and vibrations (?) from the motors perhaps loosened them. I was able to pull out the rear hinge by hand and while I am stronger than I look, I am not the incredible hulk. 
Cheers,
Christian
Hello. Which params ratio do u use for airspd sensor for fighter? Not vtol.
