I converted the mower, a John Deere z445 to RC in 2020 during covid. It’s worked flawlessly from day one. I’m retired and have back issues and need to convert it to autonomous operation.
I am definitely not nearly as sharp on this stuff as many of you on here. I have read through many of the posts and am impressed with all the knowledge y’all have and your willingness to help out. I’ve read a ton and have a good start and have made some headway but it’s getting a little overwhelming.
I’m trying to perform the motor test in mp. The flight controller is denying the request. I’m connected to the fc via mavlink. I’m using a sabertooth 32 motor controller to power 2 linear actuators for steering and throttle. I’m using a Flysky I6x tx and a FS-ia6b receiver connected to a cube orange + and cube pilot uavonix carrier board. I’ve set what I believe to be all of the parameters for this stage of the setup. I eventually want to install the cuav rtk 2hp and get gps yaw working. I have the ntrip working. So, I’m getting there but some help and advise would be greatly appreciated!
I’m stumped. I’m pretty sure I have the DIP switches set correctly on the sabertooth 32. I may be missing a parameter setting. Still not able to do the motor test. Should I be able to see something that confirms some communication between MP and the flight controller? I have wired this up for simple serial on the telem2 terminal to the ibus/servo side of the fs-ia6b receiver. I haven’t done a radio calibration yet.
I too have had odd issues with the motor test being “denied by the autopilot” so I kind of gave up on that. It might work once then not again.
I am pretty much still a newbie with ardupilot myself but I’ve done a couple conversions now with great success. My method of motor / servo testing is basically set everything up in the servo mapping, force arm on the Data page and put it in Manual mode. That generally gets the AP to respond to throttle and steering commands from the RC remote. You should also see the servo outputs change in the servo config setup screen.
Oh yes def do a radio calibration. It will confirm the FC is getting data from your RC receiver.
Sounds like you have beenbdown this road. I’ll have to try that. I’m seeing throttle response for both servos/actuators through mavlink/servo output when I move the stick. Something is keeping the actuators from activating. Alot to dig through. Thanks
Yes I have definitely been in your situation. It can seem daunting but the fog eventually clears. It’s extremely rewarding to see it all come together though.
Ardupilot has its quirks but so does any complex system. You just have to be patient and persistent. And the help people give on this forum truly is world class which really helps.
Thanks for the encouraging words. I’ve made some progress and each time I advance just a little, it is a rewarding feeling. I’ve just never dealt with this level of complexity but I like a challenge. Up to a point though. Then I have to step back for a while. It appears that actuators aren’t as popular for these zero-turn conversions but I have over 100 hours operation with no problems.
Whatever works for you. Although I haven’t used actuators I think the concern is that they don’t react as fast as servos. My mowers make razor sharp lines and the servos are working like crazy to do it. I have a video somewhere and will try to post it.
I did a lot of research before I built mine and noticed the concerns about acuators but the setup for those favored the type drives and their location on my mower better. They have a 4" throw and 2" per second travel speed. I like your video!
