Life has kept my drones grounded. I just got some time to do firmware updates in the hopes of doing some flying. Silly me…
Everything seemed to be fine until I tested gimbals and landing gear. It took me two days to figure out the landing gear issues, but no matter what I do the gimbals refuse to work. One is a Strom32 3 axis and the other is a Storm32 2 axis. Both flight controllers (one FMUV2 and on FMUV3) are running the latest version of ArduCopter. Both gimbals were controlled over a serial connection and that is how I would like to keep it.
Any advice or assistance will be greatly appreciated.
I have been up, down, and sideways with the documentation and I just can’t get either of these gimbals to play nice.
Its hard for me to say this, but I need a step by step, parameter by parameter guide.
I am using two different radios. One is a FrSky Tandem X20 running ETHOS. The other radio is a Radiomaster T16S running EDGE Tx. In the X20 I am trying to use channel 10 for Pan and channel 9 for Pitch/Tilt. In the T16s I am trying to use channel 8 for Pitch/Tilt.
I am aware of the issues with Mission Planner and manual parameter settings.
I cannot use my radios to move the gimbals in pitch or yaw.
Like I said here: " In the X20 I am trying to use channel 10 for Pan and channel 9 for Pitch/Tilt. In the T16s I am trying to use channel 8 for Pitch/Tilt. "
The only thing that has changed is the Arducopter firmware. Clue: I can control each gimbal with the Storm32 GIU but I cannot control either gimbal with a radio.
I would suggest wait till someone like (Shawn @xfacta ) who has a lot more experience in this area can help you. I have not touched gimbals in a long time.
Hi OldGazer, nice to see you around on the forum lately.
I dont have any experience with the storm32 serial, but happy to try and help.
Can you post your parameter file, and version of the storm32 board and firmware please?
ArduPilot has seen lots of changes in the gimbal section recently and also STorM32 has seen changes over the years. So I think the pieces of info xfacta also asked for are most crucial:
what firmware version are your STorM32’s running on. I suspect v0.96, but it’s important to know
you implied it was working before upgrading ardupilot: what was this AP version for which it did work?
which AP version exactly is “latest version of ArduCopter”?
that’s just a speculation, and I don’t know, but there is now this build server, and it seems it comes along with that less and less functions are included in the default firmware binaries. Is it possible that the STorM32 support is just not included now in the default fmuv2/v3?
Olli, Both boards are running v0.96. The version of AP I was using 3.6.11. This was taken from the last flight log before I stopped flying in July of 2020. I always update my flight controllers as soon as a new version is released. I was in a motorcycle accident on July 12th of that year. I sustained a broken collar bone and 3 broken ribs. Healing and rehab didn’t take very long, but life had more in store for me so my camera drones sat idle until just recently. The first thing I did was to update the firmware on both of my camera drones to version 4.3. That is when I discovered that the landing gear and gimbals no longer functioned.
Serial1 is set to PROTOCOL 7, which is MP says is Alexmos gimbal serial (and STorM32 != Alexmos ;))
there are no MNT_xxxx parameters at all. This to me looks like you in fact have a firmware in which all gimbal stuff has been excluded. You probably need to create your own version via the cloud.
OK, I’ve generated a Stable build for that Pixhawk1-1M with the Storm gimbal support (and Landing gear) but took out all the extra rangefinder and optical flow stuff.
Download and install the .apj firmware from this link.
Now you should be able to make a start in the Storm32 config.
For the other flight controller:
A normal Pixhawk1 firmware install already has almost every possible feature enabled, so it should work OK. If you specifically installed the FMUv3 firmware, I think it should have the same features, but you could try installing the Pixhawk1 firmware and see what Messages says in regards to being the correct firmware or not.
There’s a Baro option to suit some of the newer Pixhawk 2.4.8 boards too, where the “manufacturer” (using that term very loosely) changed out the baro sensor for a different type.
Also keep in mind the AUX output system changed a bit recently. Instead of using BRD_PWM_COUNT now you just set SERVOx_FUNCTION to 0 for disabled, -1 for GPIO , or something else for specific functions.
Just mentioning it since this can be related to landing gear, gimbals and cameras.
I’m still lost. Back in the day it was so easy but now it seems like I’m just rat in a maze and there isn’t any cheese. I tried the custom firmware and it gave me mount parameters to play with but I still can’t get a gimbal to work.
I will restate my original goal: I have two Storm32 gimbals. I can connect to either gimbal using OlliW’s BGC Tool. Both gimbals are running the v0.96 firmware One gimbal is 3 axis and the other is 2 axis. I want to control these gimbals from my radio. I want to connect the gimbals to a Pixhawk telemetry/serial port. If this cannot be done with either a Pixhawk 2.4.6 or a Pixhawk 2.4.8 then just tell me and I’ll move on.
Should work but it would easier with a flight controller that’s not feature limited. They should be in the rear view mirror but are still being produced today with only lower cost in mind. The F405-blah blah blah board…
Good for BF of course.
