Large Copter tuning help - DJI E5000 M10 PRO propulsion

ArduCopter Copter 4.0
1

I bought a Crop Sprayer frame form a Chinese company already with propulsion system and I´m not managing to adjust the PID. I´m using Cube Orange and arducopter 4.0.5. The copter is a Quad design with about 32 kg of MTOW. It has 4 DJI E5000 M10 PRO propulsion with 32" propellers. I found it quite strange since on DJI´s page (https://www.dji.com/e5000) says that the system uses R2880 propellers and my kit came with 3211 inch folding propellers. Second, I’m not sure if this ESCs use thrust linearization, so this might be a cause that my autotune results are not working (wrong initial PID settings). I´m making the autotune process with no water tank, so the copter weights about 15kg with the batteries. Roll seems not to bad, but pitch is terrible and lead to a crash witch I was lucky to film. Roll has not so much momentum in the copter frame, but pitch has a lot since batteries are on the back and all the electronics and sensors are in front. I was careful to balance the copter so that it has equilibrium in its center of gravity. I placed the LOG files and the video in this shared folder:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Am9EOGWyWxXqhMdbtDTdYBvdsVC4xw?e=v8kEaD

I appreciate if someone could give me a direction to solve this control issue.

Thank you.

2

I don’t know about the DJI ESCs but have you been following this: https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/tuning-process-instructions.html ?

I also found that Autotune basically produced unusable PIDs for our 16KG hex. We had good results with the parameters we determined from that guide + a minor bit of PID tweaking.

4

Thank you Mark. I know this post and I´m following this instructions for a while. No results so far…

5

The log you linked to says the firmware is for Cube Black. Unless it’s some nonsense with that Skydrone version of firmware you are using.

Skydrones

And what is that SKYDRONES_PASS parameter supposed to do?

6

Pff, another Chinese company freeloading on AP. You should use a vanilla ardupilot firmware, otherwise the only one who can help you is the company who made the modified firmware (because I doubt that they publish their modifications).

7

Dave, thanks again for your time. You are right and I apologize for sending the wrong link. At the time I started my test I was using a Cube Black. Since I´m using the Orange in all new drones, I installed a Orange in that Drone hoping that the extra processing power would help. I did this because I was amazed how 2 exact same crop spraying drones behave in windy conditions, the one with Cube Black shakes a lot (kind of normal), but the one with Cube Orange is amazingly steady, as there was no wind at all…

Skydrones_pass is an old leftover attempt to keep “unauthorized” persons to access and change any of our parameter settings without this password. Does nothing now.

Anyway I will make another attempt next week to tune the drone using initial PID values from the Excel chart @xfacta Shawn sent me in another post.

8

The sheet is based on the tuning guide, so have a good read over that too, and when you think you understand it all and it’s nailed down solid - read it another 3 times :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

Thanks! I noticed that some start values are a bit smaller than the ones I´m using now.

I´m following this manual for a while and made all suggested settings with 100% sucess on HobbyWing based setups (all 25kg MTOW). Even the post flight settings like reducing ATC_ACCEL_P(R,Y)_MAX based on minimum and maximum TOW. This is my first (and probably last) unit using the DJI powertrain (I´m testing a new product). I never had any problems with HobbyWing. I´m using over 200 of these motors (X6 Pro and X8 Pro) since 2019 in very harsh environment (dusty agriculture roads) and so far not a single problem. I´m still betting on a propeller size mistake and response difference (thrust linearization). Hopefully I can post the results next week if I don´t run out of propellers :slight_smile:

10

Thanks, that’s great information and people will be able to use that.
I think there was a possible issue where the foldable props join to their T adapter.

11

I’d like to pile on and say we have also been impressed by the hobbywing x6 pros, the are great quality for any price, but the fact they cost only ~180 each is insane.

12

Do you, by any chance, still have the PID tuning values for your 16 kg hex?

13

Hi Subhadeep,

Below a PID I use for a hexa using HobbyWing X8 motors. This frame has 16kg of payload but takes off at 32Kg. I hope it helps to give you a tunning direction. The best way is always following the tunning process listed in the documents. Note that the values are specific to my setup, including the notch filter values.

ACRO_YAW_P,1
ANGLE_MAX,4500
ATC_ACCEL_P_MAX,29968
ATC_ACCEL_R_MAX,28764
ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX,9784
ATC_ANG_LIM_TC,1
ATC_ANG_PIT_P,4.156125
ATC_ANG_RLL_P,4.145734
ATC_ANG_YAW_P,1.659814
ATC_ANGLE_BOOST,1
ATC_INPUT_TC,0.15
ATC_RAT_PIT_D,0.007947674
ATC_RAT_PIT_FF,0
ATC_RAT_PIT_FLTD,10
ATC_RAT_PIT_FLTE,0
ATC_RAT_PIT_FLTT,10
ATC_RAT_PIT_I,0.1161786
ATC_RAT_PIT_IMAX,0.5
ATC_RAT_PIT_P,0.1161786
ATC_RAT_RLL_D,0.00929051
ATC_RAT_RLL_FF,0
ATC_RAT_RLL_FLTD,10
ATC_RAT_RLL_FLTE,0
ATC_RAT_RLL_FLTT,10
ATC_RAT_RLL_I,0.1486482
ATC_RAT_RLL_IMAX,0.5
ATC_RAT_RLL_P,0.1486482
ATC_RAT_YAW_D,0
ATC_RAT_YAW_FF,0
ATC_RAT_YAW_FLTD,0
ATC_RAT_YAW_FLTE,1
ATC_RAT_YAW_FLTT,10
ATC_RAT_YAW_I,0.1317302
ATC_RAT_YAW_IMAX,0.5
ATC_RAT_YAW_P,0.658651
ATC_RATE_FF_ENAB,1
ATC_RATE_P_MAX,0
ATC_RATE_R_MAX,0
ATC_RATE_Y_MAX,0
ATC_SLEW_YAW,5000
ATC_THR_MIX_MAN,0.1
ATC_THR_MIX_MAX,0.5
ATC_THR_MIX_MIN,0.1
INS_ACCEL_FILTER,10
INS_GYRO_FILTER,17
INS_HNTCH_ATT,40
INS_HNTCH_BW,35
INS_HNTCH_ENABLE,1
INS_HNTCH_FREQ,71
INS_HNTCH_HMNCS,3
INS_HNTCH_MODE,1
INS_HNTCH_REF,0.25
MOT_THST_EXPO,0.8
MOT_THST_HOVER,0.1731623
PSC_ACCZ_I,0.4
PSC_ACCZ_P,0.2

14

Thank you very much!