Ground Calibration

ArduPlane
1

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions about the recommended ground calibration for Arduplane:

  1. What does this actually do? Is this simply performing a level calibration? And if so, how does it compare to the “Calibrate level” in the initial config?

  2. The documentation says to simply “leave the plane motionless on the ground until the LEDs stop flashing blue and red (about 30 seconds)”. In my case though, this plane has a large set of forward landing gear that gives the plane an extremely pitch-up attitude. What I assume I should be doing here is balancing the plane on the edge of a table to keep a more neutral position for ground calibration, correct?

Something that I’ve noticed is that if I do just a regular ground calibration, my HUD horizon always seems to be off unless I instead redo the “Calibrate level” step in the initial config.

These are questions that have been nagging me in the back of my mind for a while now, so thanks in advance!

2

The documentation states that the startup calibration is for the gyroscopes. This is mainly for the autopilot to learn bias and noise of the gyroscopes due to temperature, orientation, etc. Keep the vehicle completely motionless during this time.