Landing Gear at Aux2 strange behaviour

Hi guys,
had my landing gear at a port of my X8R working perfectly. I changed it to AUX 2 of my Pixhawk 2.4.8 because of the automatic deploy function at RTL or Landing mode, but I do not get it working right. Sometimes it retracts and deploys, sometimes not. And the best: At switching to Landing mode or RTL it retracts!
My settings (it is btw an Tarot 650 Sport landing gear and frame):

3 Point switch with following PWM seen in MP: gear down 2006, middle 1494, gear up 982

CH9_OPT = 29

LGR_SERVO_DEPLOY 1250
LGR_SERVO_RTRACT 1750
LGR_STARTUP 2

SERVO10_FUNCTION = 29
SERVO10_MAX 1900 pwm
SERVO10_MIN 1100 pwm
SERVO10_REVERSED 0
SERVO10_TRIM 1520 pwm

RC9_DZ 0
RC9_MAX 2006 pwm
RC9_MIN 982 pwm
RC9_REVERSED 0
RC9_TRIM 1494

If I reverse the channel in RC nothing happens, same if I reverse Servo10 in MP??? I read several threads about malfunctions of this option. maybe it is safer to go back to my X8R output (where it works fine…)?

Regards,

Chris

Hey Chris, just throwing this out there mate try changing the LGR_SERVO_DERPLOY TO 1000 and the LGR_ SERVO_ RETRACT TO 2000, as this worked for me.

Cheers Dave.

Yeah, looks like you’ve got retract and deploy PWM reversed.

Shawn, the controller of the gear needs the foolwing PWM values:
Deploy <1500
Neutral 1520
Retract >1540
So the values are the ones,needed by the controller box of the gear, even if they are reversed…

Yes, I was just noting that you’ve got the smaller PWM value in Deploy when it should be in Retract, and the larger PWM value in Retract instead of Deploy. I guess it would operate in reverse, landing gear retracted when trying to land…

I will switch it back to an output of my X8R and handle it in manual mode as I can’t find a solution at the moment. Copter expects the lower PWM for retract and the higher for deploy. Maybe in some future versions this could be fixed by the developers.

You just have to use mission planner (or your preferred ground station software) to change those parameters, as Savage600 said.
That’s the beauty, you can tell it what to expect :slight_smile:

I thought I told in MP what to expect (see my first thread)… What are in your opinion my mistakes or what do you think i should change? Sorry for beeing a bit lamebrained in that case :sweat_smile:

Hi Christian,

I am using a Tarot TL8X002 landing gear controller together with TL8X003 actuator - so the setup is a bit different than your exact config - but I got it to work after some initial strugelling with the following parameters:

LGR_SERVO_DEPLOY 1900
LGR_SERVO_RTRACT 1100
LGR_STARTUP 2
CH9_OPT 29
SERVO9_FUNCTION 29
SERVO9_MAX 1900
SERVO9_MIN 1100
SERVO9_REVERSED 0
SERVO9_TRIM 1099
RC9_DZ 0
RC9_MAX 1901
RC9_MIN 1099
RC9_REVERSED 0
RC9_TRIM 1099

This does exactly what it should:

  • Landing gear stays down when booting,
  • Landing Gear reacts to 2-position switch on my RC (Spektrum DX9)
  • Landing gear automatically deploys when landing automatically (e.g. RTL/LAND).

Given your config is also Tarot I could imagine the same might work for you…

When I compare our config’s they look VERY similar, with three exceptions:

  1. You use a three position switch and I use a two position switch
  2. My TRIM values are not “midpoint” but “low-point”
  3. Most importantly: You have LGR_DEPLOY & LGR_RTRACT reversed…

Finally, I remember from the description on the Tarot website that you can get the electrical wiring wrong, i.e. maybe you need to change +/- wiring for the motor?

Try a two position switch, change the trim values, switch LGR_xxxx parameter and check your wiring.

It definitively can be done and works reliably, I can confirm that!

Regards,
Christian

Hy Christian,
my landing gear is the following: actuator Tarot TL65S04, controller Tarot TL8X002. All wirings are correct, no + - error.
If I can follow the describtion at Tarot website the right way, the controller behaves like following:

  • PWM <1520 landing gear deploys (safety if used at a standard servo output, no signal = gear deploying)
  • PWM at 1520 controller in neutral
  • PWM >1520 landing gear retracts
  • Link to Tarot website with instructions

In another Forum I got the info, that you need to switch to neutral after rectracting/deploying because otherwise the motors may burn (no limit switch). I don’t know if this info is correct, a limit switch could easily be realized in the TL8X002 by e.g. slope control. The neutral at 1520 PWM does not work at all, if I have the gear rectracted and switch to 1520 PWM it already deploys (connected to X8R receiver output).

So, if we have the same controller, how can it work on your site with your settings? Normally you have the reversed PWM functions like me, because it is standard Tarot TL8X002 controller behaviour? I am really a bit :confused:

Best regards,

Chris

I ran into similar issues with the landing gear on my Tarot 650 Sport.

I have previous experience with the Tarot “Small” landing gear on my 680 Pro, so I figured setting up the gear on the Sport would be a piece of cake. WRONG…

The first issue was with polarity. Apparently the controller is wired with one output set to one polarity, and the other output is set to the opposite polarity. At first this seems logical until you discover that ALL of the gear actuators are wired with the same polarity…

So, when you connect the gear to the controller and give the controller an acceptable input, one gear will retract and the other will deploy. To fix this I had to pick one and swap the pins in the connector. So far so good. Both gear move in the same direction…

The next problem was getting the gear to work on an AUX port and this turned out to be an issue with having the PWM values backwards.

And what are your settings regarding the PWM values working on an aux port? If you say PWM values “backwards”, what das this mean regarding deploy and retract PWM?

For the landing gear on my Tarot 650 Sport I’m using

LGR_DEPLOY = 1750
LGR_RETRACT = 1250
LGR_STARTUP = 0

For the landing gear on my Tarot 680 Pro I’m using

LGR_DEPLOY = 1000
LGR_RETRACT = 2000
LGR_STARTUP = 0

By “backwards” I mean you could be using the wrong values. I had this issue initially and to fix it I swapped the values.

See how the numbers between the two sets of retracts are different?