I am not exactly a complete newbie. I am not an expert but I have enough experience with these multicopters and various software such as BetaFlight, iNav and Ardupilot. I have used Ardupilot since the early days.
I original purchased a Mico Air H743 AIO directly from Mico Air (FC version 1.1) I encountered issues. So I bought the Mico Air H743 AIO Version 2 and am encountering the same issues.
I set it up with Ardupilot and can fly it without video just fine. I can fly it in stab mode. I can fly it in loiter mode. I can navigate a preset number of waypoints. I can have the machine come home when I hit RTL.
I wanted to add a VTX and camera to see where I am going. Since this FC does not have an onboard OSD chip (my understanding only.) I have decided to use a Walksnail 1S VTX V3. The VTX is plugged into the UART port meant for a DJI VTX using 4 wires. I get video image and OSD data on the goggles no problem. However I lost the ability to lock on to the GPS and cannot switch to loiter mode without an error message. I was getting GPS glitch messages and cannot establish position messages.
So I decided to order the MicoAir H743 AIO version 2 this time to see if that makes a difference.
I built up a new setup with the same four motors and receiver.
I am having the exact same issues.
The quad flies fine without the VTX connected. I tested it once with the VTX connected but the goggles not turned on and it loitered ok. However as soon as I turned on the goggles all hell broke loose.
I can fly fine using the goggles in stab mode but I cannot establish any GPS satellites fix when the goggles is on. I kept on getting an error message about not able to establish position.
I have tried Ardupilot Arducopter firmware versions 4.5.7, 4.6.3 and now using 4.6.2 on the Version 2 flight controller.
I have changed the frequency of the Walksnail goggles and VTX. I have changed the locations of the GPS modules. I have tried 3 different GPS modules. All have the same issues.
Mico Air support has not replied to my emails so I am hoping someone here can enlighten me. Maybe I just have to change a parameter in the Ardupilot firmware. Or maybe it is indeed a Micro Air flight controller and Walksnail video system compatibility issue.
I have built and flown quite a few multicopter using Ardupilot. From a small 3” to a large spray rig using Herelink system.
This is the first time I am encountering such issues. Please help.
I have quad with micoair h743 aio 45A with walksnail 1s and it works just fine. perhaps You have vtx antennas too close to gps. This is a common problem with getting fix and related not only to walksmail itself.
At the end this is not a problem with ardupilot itself.
Most people are using USB to power up FC and GPS wait for gps fix and then connect battery.
You might want to confirm, that You have low power mode set when disarmed.
Thank you for your confirmation that your setup works. I will try another VTX in my case. In the meantime my VTX antenna and the GPS module are at two extreme ends of the quad. So they are about as far apart as physically possible. I would love to power up the FC before the VTX. I will try using the USB port as power first.
Just to be sure… You have trouble getting gps fix inside?
I would also try to use shorter cable for GPS module, and perhaps shield it. Not sure how much improvement shielding gives You but I’ve heard that this helps.
Yes I do. That’s because I have corrugated iron roof that blocks GPS signals. I tried and it is not the shielding issue. It have multiple other quads with analog FPV and they work fine. I tested withe powering up using USB power before plugging in. Had one working flight for about 2 minutes. Then the second flight I had more issues. Now I am getting EKF error messages. EKF channels kept on changing between 0 and 1. One time it forced me to land for no reason. I also tested an analog video setup. Got it to work ok with video image but no OSD data on the goggles. I will try a different Walksnail VTX next just to be sure.
I am using various lithium polymer packs. Almost good news. I swapped out the Walksnail 1S VTX with another one I have on another quad. I just had two flights without any issue so far. Knock on wood. I will continue to test before I am more comfortable. It may very well has something to do with certain Walksnail VTX. Everything is the same except for the different VTX. Go figure! I will report back as I fly more.
Gentlemen, I like to express my gratitude for your help. I believe I may have solved the issue by swapping the Walksnail 1S VTX. I have no idea when one VTX can create such issues but I just tested 4 more flights. Very uneventful.
Two ideas that really hit home for me and helped a lot. One is the idea that someone else has similar if not same setup and working properly. That gave me hope that the issue was not the Mico Air flight controller and Walksnail 1S VTX compatibility issue. The second idea really hit home and changed my work flow now. That is the idea to use USB power to get the flight controller, receiver and GPS module powered up first so I have time to let the GPS module get some satellites fixes without over heating the VTX. That concept really helps a LOT. I had come up with all sorts of ideas before including putting a mechanical switch on the red wire to the VTX. Yes that worked but a bit clunky with a switch on a small quad frame. The other is to use a flight controller that has a controllable VTX power. I have the HolyBro Kakute H7 mini and it does have the switch controllable from the transmitter. I have that on a 4” quad with an analog video setup.
I have a few external power pack to recharge electronics which I have not used for a while. So this gave new purpose for those power packs.
looking to your mechanical antenna setup i have a small remark.
Such GPS antennas have best receive pattern from above and reduced to angles to the side greater than 90°. In your case the antenna is sitting below the I think vtx Antenna on the right and also below the video camera itself . So it is getting all noise from these systems. Best position for GPS systems is the highest point on a mast above all other electronic and electric systems
Yes thank you. I know what you are talking about and agree. To a point. I do have many other multicopters with the GPS modules as the highest point on the quad. However with this build I mounted the module in front for convenience. As I mentioned the module location did not contribute to my issues. It was the Walksnail VTX.
Instead of creating a new thread I am going to continue in this thread. Hopefully someone will read this and shed some light on the issue. Here is what happened.
This time I am testing a Mico Air H743 V2 AIO with 45 amp speed controllers. Walksnail 1S VTX with nano camera. ExpressLRS transmitter and receiver. Many successful flights until today. I was coming back from a short loiter cruise. Nice calm and sunny day. When the quad almost reached home it suddenly reared up at random three times. I click RTL right away and the quad settled into a landing at home point. No other issues. I continued the flight for the rest of the battery pack and it was nice and smooth.
I am just curious what could have cause such a glitch.
I am using Ardupilot firmware version 4.6.2 as came from the factory. Is it a software glitch?
The issue started at :41 seconds into the video.
Thanks for any help. Here is a link to the YouTube video.
Thank you for your prompt reply. I am not sure I have the bin log since I don’t remember setting up the log feature in the flight controller. I will check.
Update: I did check and managed to find the log files. However I have not setup any parameters to log so I am not sure if the files have any data on it. I am not well versed enough to read the file yet. I am still trying to come up to speed with logs.
However there is a jpeg file that showed the GPS route and it looked like the flight path I took. So I am including both files here. Hopefully someone can assist in finding out if there is any useful data in the file.
Oops, bin file too many to upload. What kind of work around do I have? I no longer have things like Dropbox to upload. I tried to compress the file but it is still 5.6 MB. Maybe too large still.
Logging is usually done by default and it’s stored on the SD card. You would have used logs when you tuned the drone. We can only make guesses here without the .bin log file.
You will need some kind of cloud drive to share the file. Google, dropbox, sync, proton. Most have a free account that will work for what you need here.
Thank you. Yes I have an SD card on the flight controller and I can see that the FC automatically logged every flight. I am not sure what type of data are logged since I have not done any setup yet. In the meantime I found out I do have a Google account. Thanks for the suggestion. I also managed to upload the bin file to my Google account. Now I just have to figure out how to link that file to here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vuuDe8qcMeEZBMkNkHZ2Lhch53F_pghg/view?usp=share_link
Yup, motors are hitting minimum speeds. I see the MOT_SPIN_MIN and MOT_SPIN_ARM are still on default and likely need to be turned down.
I see a lot of other tuning parameters are still on defaults.
There are performance gains to be had if you properly tune the quad. I suggest following this procedure (it would have prevented this issue in the first place):
Wow, thank you for looking at the file. Ok I will check the MOT_SPIN_MIN and _ARM parameters. Any suggestions as to whether I should increase or decrease the parameters. I know I am running a “relatively” high kV set of motors (5,500 kV) on 3 cells so my throttle setting is pretty low.
As far as the other parameters I am pretty of the philosophy that as long as the quad flies stable I leave the parameters alone. The only parameters I do tweak are the PID numbers if the quad is not as stable. For most of my flying the default settings seem to satisfy my needs. I had been down the road of chasing the optimum tune but mostly I cannot tell the difference much in a small quad like these. However I can change the motors setting if I am having low throttle issues that you can see.
They need to go down. The motors are hitting their min limit so you are getting a control saturation. I can’t tell you how much. It’s going to be based on your build. You need to follow the link I provided and test it to see for yourself.
