For all those new AF to Ardupilot

ArduPlane
1

I just learned tonight how very little I know about a thing I thought I was starting to get comfortable with. I have found myself in near tears of frustration for entire days over things that where literal non-issues; nothing was ever broken, I just do shit wrong. When I scroll through the forum I see the same thing everywhere; more people like me bothering people who offer nothing less that love and effort for the hobby for simple things that we could easily find if we only knew where to look. The more I look, the more I see the same problems. Drivers. Firmware. Versions of firmware not compatible with old boards that used to run earlier versions of the same thing. Bootloaders. Drivers. Drivers. It looks like Com ports suck for people lately.

I have a little bit of personal experience writing arduino sketches, I’ve written 2 fully playable games in qbasic (that was an accomplishment in high school lol) and I fly a Cessna. Basically nothing that can help me configure an RFD900x to talk to a sik Radio, or make my stupid Matek M8Q-5883 appear as a device that exists in Ardupilot. I’m going to put together a beginners guide, but for the absolute beginner. BY a beginner. The stuff it took me months to work out could be done in a few hours, I just wasn’t aware of the tools, and there is no way for any Ardupilot dev, or anyone who COULD help you to know where you are starting. I remember trying to get multiwii to run; it would immediately close when I pressed read. It was assumed that I had the right Java version/update or whatever, but I did not. We are all on a different skill level, and there is no way for anyone in this forum to know you set the baudrate in ardupilot, but it was wrong in your device manager. So, it looks like there should be a place for information like this. Of course you can find it, but try doing that while you’re frustrated out of your hairline. Try waiting on a response from someone while your hands are shaking mad from following exact steps that lead you somewhere it didn’t lead the guy in the video lol. BUT, try being the person that has to diagnose that… Shit can’t be easy. I could only imagine how frustrated the devs get when they have to reply to 45 people saying “Check that box first,” or “you have to reboot it.” This is shit we should know.

I’ll end my stipid rant, and start putting a thing together. I love Ardupilot, I love Arduino, I wish more people knew what they could do with it, and that it isn’t all that hard to learn. I’m going to make a comprehensive guide to getting unstuck lol.

2 Likes
2

Bravo! Im also at ground level with Ardupilot and definitely share the frustrations. The acronyms for this beginner is another thing that steals my joy when learning the subject matter. I have a winter VTOL project that will prolly take two more seasons to complete. I want to encourage you on the beginners guide and hope you refrain using acronyms AMAP.
Sincerely, Sidewhiner

3

I will put together all of my growing pains lol.

For now I would offer this advice;

  • Make sure everything you buy is compatible BEFORE you buy it. Plan your build, and make sure you can find clear documentation on everything (or at least already know what you need to) before you start. I had to wait on servos for a month straight because I kept buying ones that wouldn’t fit my 3d print. I have a box of servos now.

  • MATEK seem to have decent stuff. You can buy all of your stuff from them if you wanted to. Everything other than my VTx is MATEK. They have really detailed info on their site for all of their products too, I’m constantly on there looking at what pin does what. Great reference.

  • Amazon telemetry radios suck. They SAY that they are the same as the 3DR/sik ones, but they aren’t. Spend $20 more dollars and get one you can find clear documentation for. They are usually good to go out of the box.

  • You can type “device manager” in your search bar on windows, and you can change the settings for the ports if you need to. Make SURE it matches what ardupilot (and literally everything that is considered a “port”) expects. I have hairline missing because “baudrates” didn’t match up in places. Don’t know enough to tell you how I did it though lol.

  • That stupid ass AHRS warning(s) will just go away after a few minutes. Usually happens when I move it to a different place and turn it on. I think it just takes it a second to figure itself out. Just let your plane/quad sit and calibrate itself for a minute and it will arm.

If I think of some other obvious noob shit I will post it. I’m going to put together this plane I 3d printed today, and as I do it I’m going to note everything that has tripped me up.