MicroArduCopter, 3" props, Omnibus Nano, Success!

ArduCopter Copter 3.6
343

But if he’s not recording HD video to post online, etc, and just wants a level image, the servo will work great… And any servo will work… I just use the smallest possible servo I can find, because we’re playing with sub 250mm size copters and tiny cameras. It’s much better than nothing. A servo gimbal won’t even begin to try to filter out little shakes and vibrations, etc… But neither will having no gimbal at all.

Mavic gimbal motors is a great idea for the brushless route! That wasn’t an option when I built mine a few years ago…

344

i looked at mavic ones but did not try yet to see if they can be retrofitted. it would be a great idea, but, i am not sure how heavy are they, from the air or other one, forgot the name, the small one.
i relaly need softserial protocol now - got gecko 4" built, and cannot fly it properly with no telemetry.

345

also, i rebuilt my owl and built gecko 4" - both came to 160g with no lipo, surprisingly. owl frame is a brick, it should have been less, but, it still works. owl will be on 3s power, using 5000kv tachyon 1108 motors. gecko is on armattans 3650kv, 4s power. both flew well on old pids, but, it is not good to fly them with no yaapu script working. i did not put wifi on them and no lidar, but they are stable in alt hold using nano v6.

346

just flew gecko4 - on nanov6 - so, it looks like it flips from time to time just like kakute f7 wsa doing. and i had all uarts set with NODMA on it, now altered last uart4 to use NODMA as well, but did not test it yet.

it flipped once immediately upon takeoff, then i got it flying in stab mode fine for a bit and it flipped inthe air over motor 3 and went down, very odd.

347

What ESC do you use? I’ve been flying the omnibus nano for about 12 minutes a day for the past few months… No issues.

348

Ori32. Will see tomorrow what that is. Owl is set on same exact hardware and flies great. Difficult to deal with it with no logs. May be i will put a esp8266 on it to have MP do logging. Will see. Got too much stuff at work now, this stuff will need to wait

349

OK, thanks. Mine is a racerstar, also blheli_32.

350

can you tell one more thing pls - in the hwdef you used on nano - do you have all serials without NODMA clause or with it? as build i used had NODMA added in there - i assumed it would be better with it, and did not try the original one yet.

351

I think I’m still using the original hwdef for that board…

hw definition file for processing by chibios_pins.py

Omnibus F4 Nano V6 only

with F405 mcu, mpu6000 imu, bmp280 barometer, 7456 series osd, no flash log storage

MCU STM32F4xx STM32F405xx

board ID for firmware load

APJ_BOARD_ID 133

crystal frequency

OSCILLATOR_HZ 8000000

STM32_PLLM_VALUE 8

board voltage

STM32_VDD 330U

STM32_ST_USE_TIMER 5

flash size

FLASH_SIZE_KB 1024

FLASH_RESERVE_START_KB 64

order of I2C buses

I2C_ORDER I2C2

order of UARTs

UART_ORDER OTG1 USART6 USART1

#adc

PC1 BAT_CURR_SENS ADC1 SCALE(1)

PC2 BAT_VOLT_SENS ADC1 SCALE(1)

PA0 RSSI_IN ADC1

#pwm output

PB0 TIM1_CH2N TIM1 PWM(1) GPIO(50)

PB1 TIM1_CH3N TIM1 PWM(2) GPIO(51)

PA3 TIM2_CH4 TIM2 PWM(3) GPIO(52)

PB5 TIM3_CH2 TIM3 PWM(4) GPIO(53)

PA4 MPU6000_CS CS

PA5 SPI1_SCK SPI1

PA6 SPI1_MISO SPI1

PA7 SPI1_MOSI SPI1

note that this board needs PULLUP on I2C pins

PB10 I2C2_SCL I2C2 PULLUP

PB11 I2C2_SDA I2C2 PULLUP

PB15 SPI2_MOSI SPI2

PB14 SPI2_MISO SPI2

PB13 SPI2_SCK SPI2

PA10 USART1_RX USART1

PA9 USART1_TX USART1

PC6 USART6_TX USART6

PC7 USART6_RX USART6

PA13 JTMS-SWDIO SWD

PA14 JTCK-SWCLK SWD

PA15 OSD_CS CS

PB3 BMP280_CS CS

PC12 SPI3_MOSI SPI3

PC11 SPI3_MISO SPI3

PC10 SPI3_SCK SPI3

PA8 LED OUTPUT HIGH GPIO(41)

#PB4 TIM3_CH1 TIM3 GPIO(70) ALARM

PA11 OTG_FS_DM OTG1

PA12 OTG_FS_DP OTG1

PC5 VBUS INPUT OPENDRAIN

#LED strip output pad used for RC input

PB6 TIM4_CH1 TIM4 RCININT PULLDOWN LOW

#Omnibus F4 V3 and later had hw inverter on UART6

#Overide it to use as GPS UART port

PC8 SBUS_INVERT_RX OUTPUT LOW

PC9 SBUS_INVERT_TX OUTPUT LOW

SPI Device table

SPIDEV mpu6000 SPI1 DEVID1 MPU6000_CS MODE3 1MHZ 8MHZ

SPIDEV bmp280 SPI3 DEVID3 BMP280_CS MODE3 1MHZ 8MHZ

SPIDEV osd SPI3 DEVID4 OSD_CS MODE0 10MHZ 10MHZ

define CONFIG_HAL_BOARD_SUBTYPE HAL_BOARD_SUBTYPE_CHIBIOS_OMNIBUSNANOV6

define HAL_INS_DEFAULT HAL_INS_MPU60XX_SPI

define HAL_INS_DEFAULT_ROTATION ROTATION_YAW_180

define HAL_BARO_DEFAULT HAL_BARO_BMP280_SPI

define HAL_BARO_BMP280_NAME “bmp280”

no built-in compass, but probe the i2c bus for all possible

external compass types

define ALLOW_ARM_NO_COMPASS

define HAL_COMPASS_DEFAULT HAL_COMPASS_NONE

define HAL_PROBE_EXTERNAL_I2C_COMPASSES

define HAL_I2C_INTERNAL_MASK 0

define STORAGE_FLASH_PAGE 1

define HAL_STORAGE_SIZE 15360

define default battery setup

define HAL_BATT_VOLT_PIN 12

define HAL_BATT_CURR_PIN 11

define HAL_BATT_VOLT_SCALE 11

define HAL_BATT_CURR_SCALE 18.2

#analog rssi pin (also could be used as analog airspeed input)

#PA0 - ADC123_CH0

define BOARD_RSSI_ANA_PIN 0

define HAL_GPIO_A_LED_PIN 41

define OSD_ENABLED ENABLED

#To complementary channels work we define this

define STM32_PWM_USE_ADVANCED TRUE

define BOARD_PWM_COUNT_DEFAULT 4

#define CH_DBG_ENABLE_ASSERTS TRUE

#define CH_DBG_ENABLE_CHECKS TRUE

#define CH_DBG_SYSTEM_STATE_CHECK TRUE

#define CH_DBG_ENABLE_STACK_CHECK TRUE

#font for the osd

ROMFS_WILDCARD libraries/AP_OSD/fonts/font*.bin

352

just tested gecko4 on this build - flies ok. but i also moved FC onto matek`s rubber studs instead of having it sitting on cl racing 3mm rubber inserts, so, if may have helped too, go figure. flies fine but needs an autotune now, it is too windy to do, so, will do later. i got to say dynamics of a 160g gecko on 4S and 1407/3650kv motors is something quite insane. i switched to stab mode and kicked up throttle - this thing jumped up like it got a kick in a butt, went up 20m fro mmy front porch, i had then a questionable fun lowering it down in the wind around wires and trees. :slight_smile: i did not expect it to go so fast.
dunno if those motors can handle a small 5s lipo on 4" props, but, may try, even if i fry them i have now tons of spares. most surprising thing - i got those props

and it is so crazy quiet on them, i am used now to a sound of gate brakers, or small 3" that sounds like a swarm of whizzing bumblebees - this one is actually almost nothing compared to anything i tried before, very interesting. not sure how power efficient those are but they will do for now.

353

so, here is the build - in rear stack: nano v6, ori32 esc under it, r-xsr in the place of front 20mm stack, eachine vtx03 on it, camera is foxeer falcorc - pretty nice one. matek gps on top - and if fine interference wise, i flew in position hold just now as well, and it holds fine.

alt hold drifts a bit, but not bad at all. not as solid as with a lidar, of course, but, manageable.

gecko4
gecko4.jpg1367×899 538 KB

354

Any issues w/ not having the flight controller centered? Did you set the parameters related to the FC position? I’ve got a double stack frame and am a little concerned w/ it not being centered… An example would be, in your case, if you are moving forward and pitch back to stop, the FC will move down relative to the center, and so will think it’s dropping, when really it’s just pitching back. But maybe on such a small frame it doesn’t matter.

355

i did not see any issues, but, i do not recall even if there is some param to be set for that, may be there is… frankly, i did not look, i had FC installed away from center before with no issues at all.

356

Hi, Wicked1.
Do you know the Raspberry Camera? Do you think this gimbal is okay to use with Raspberry Camera? Is it possible to do a smaller one (because raspberry camera weights less than 5g)? Can you share more details about yours (weight, board, motors…)?
Thanks in advance. Regards!

357

What’s everyone using as a buzzer on F4/F7 builds? Do you get multiple tones like ArduCopter on a Cube, or just an on/off buzzer like a typical Betaflight build? Thanks.

358

Look up hwdef for kakute f7. To play music tones pin has to be set as ALARM type with a timer channel.
Not all builds are same. On some there are no ways to find a usable timer, so, no alarm, like on nano v6.

359

you are probably aware, but, just in case - as i just autotuned all 3 recent models - 6" chameleon, gecko and owl - there is a new compass calibration function available - option 62 on the RCx_OPTION, it allows to calibrate compass while loitering in the air - it is a goddamn great thing. i got rid of all compass issues with it - i can see how under loiter current it produced different offsets compared to one done on the ground twisting it by hand.

works best with yaapu script as it says when it is done via mavlink.

to make gecko hold altitude was a royal pain - it took a HUGE piece of almost solid black foam, and i am now concerned that i have suffocated esc as more than a half of ori32 is covered now with that foam. but, it finally stopped going up and down in alt hold after that.

also, gotta say, to fly nano v6 blindly is no fun at all. it`s just too bad tridge is busy with something else, to do half-duplex thing took about half of the year and i feel this softserial thing is not coming any time soon neither…

360

No logs is indeed a real bummer. It has frustrated me with my 130 and tuning.

361

do you know by any chance - was anybody trying to review what code needs to be migrated to arducopter to support flashfs?

the structure of ardupilot code is one frustrating thing, i just do not know if it is only me but when i get to betaflight i can find stuff in there in minutes, what leads to what, etc… to figure out what leads to what in arducopter is one huge black box, i tried several times to wrap my brain around it but no use… i see pieces, but cannot see at all how it all merges into a whole picture - how chibios is included, what parts of it speak to outside services and classes, it needs a ton of time to understand which i simply do not have.
dunno what is the issue to grab flashfs from betaflight and plug it in in there, it cannot be that much different? or can it?

362

I don’t see any action on that. It would be a 1st to have logs written to flash memory so it might be one of those “if there was sufficient funding to support the effort” type of thing.