You should not be testing while armed. Disarm, then test.
Again, disarm, then test. The Q_M_SPIN_ARM parameter adjusts how fast the motors spin when armed. I prefer them to be off but some like them spinning for safety reasons.
Your settings are below. I would refer to the Configuring Arming section of the Wiki to better understand what is going on. As mentioned previously, you should change ARMING_CHECK to 1.
ARMING_CHECK,0
ARMING_REQUIRE,1
ARMING_RUDDER,2
Morning Greg:Thanks,I did change the armCk to 1,and when i check out the Plane i turn on the Tx,plug into MP and wait on more than 6 satās and when i get at least 12/14 i plug in the batt wait for all the beeps from the pix, i am in Q-Stab plane is NOT Armed everything looks Good motors straight up control surfaces flat and even,then go to Q-Hov no change ,then Q-Loit again no change, then switch to FBWA mode motors go down and point straight ahead then i do them in reverse order everything is good,now iām back to Q-Stab and then i arm the plane so i can check out everything and how itās responding to the Tx sticks,motors run,ail and v-tail work properly then while ARMED Throttle stick down motors off i go thru the Flight Modes again to check, nothing changed everything works like itās not armed Good.so now iām back in Q-Stab Mode itās still armed i start motors all 3 running thro stick in center i ck the ail stick both left and right the only thing that moves is the different pitch of the motors itās the same with the elev stick up and down is the pitch of the motors,then i go into Q-Hov the motors seem to go down and stay steady and the tilt motors wiggle slightly when i move the ail stick L/R, and when i when i pull back on the elev stick the motors speed up and when i go forward they sound different than when the stick is back, then i try the Rud stick nothing moves but the motors put stick to left the left motor come back and the right goes forward and visa versa when you go to the right then go to Q-Loit mode acts almost the same only the i have more motor movement while in loiter, then i go into FBWA Modethe motors go down to 75 Deg rear motor is still running i have full control of Ail and V-tail give full throttle the motors drop a few deg and as i throttle all the way down and go past the mid thro the motors start coming up until im at the bottom all 3 motors are still running, motors are straight up then i throttle to middle the motors go back down to 75 deg all 3 motors still running i go back to Qloit then QHov and back 2 QStab throttle down all 3 motors stop. this is how i thought i should test.Thank You B.k
Butch,
Since you have already hovered your Nimbus in a Q-mode, the bench testing when armed is irrelevant. If you arm the plane in FBWA mode, it will ready itself for transition so the motors going to 75 degrees is normal. Position the motors for straight forward when disarmed and youāll be all set.
Good luck!
Morning Greg:Thank You, Well that is good to know then cause thats what i have been getting,So Iām still going to keep practicing,take offās and landing in Q-Stab , Q -Hov and go up to 20-30 feet switch to Q-Loit and just see what and how the plane acts and i built up my confidence before i try to transition into FBWA, so what kind of flying time should i expect using the 8,000 Mah just messing around ? verses take off and get it up to 100 ft and switch to FBWA mode. Thank You so Much for all your help and knowledge and if you donāt mind iāll keep you updated on my progress thanks.B.K
Butch,
I have my timer set for 20 minutes. On your first flights, I would land early because it takes longer until you become familiar with the plane and concept of VTOL. It would be a shame to destroy a battery because you took too long to land or flew too long so measure the voltage after a flight and adjust your timer accordingly.
I didnāt do any autonomous flying this past summer so it was all manual flights. I got to where I could come in quite low over the field in FBWA mode and change to QSTABILIZE mode before reaching mid-field. The plane takes a bit to slow down so the coasting distance put it right in front of me where I could pull back on the right stick to stop it and have a short hover to the launch area. Others may prefer QHOVER mode when transitioning and then switch to QLOITER but I have been flying quads and hexas for a long time and prefer more control. As with any VTOL pay attention to the wind!
Cheers!
Good Morning Greg: your freezing at 18 and iām cold at 51 ,heck i donāt go out of this park model unless itās at least 65 deg, Thanks for the tips i put a voltage sensor on the bird to keep track of all the 6 cells so iām sitting here bored got the plane in the living room plugged into MP and trying to figure out how to learn to understand and read the data flash logs, the wiki in ardupilot really doesnāt explain it to where i can understand it how to get to different areas and what it should be or whats bad so is their a book,video school that you know of that can explain,teach instruct etc on this subject,iām just trying to learn ,stay warm Thanks B.K
Butch,
Yeah, winter came early this year. Itās too cold and snowy for November.
There is some good reading in the Wiki. I donāt know of any other documents.
Downloading and Analyzing Data Logs in Mission Planner
Diagnosing problems using Logs
Dear all
How are tou doing?
Anybody knows if is possible to fly with two pixhawk at same time? How can I integrate both? Im looking for a safest system with redundancy.
Tks
Hi Greg: did another Hover test it went pretty good except now it seems that when i put the elev stick forward it now comes backward and visa versa IDK what happened i donāt remember changing any thing it works ok in MP when i put stick forward it goes up and when i put it down it goes down, i got it in the air went forward 100 yds and back and forth 3 times then on the forth i went into Q-hover it seem pretty steady i brought it back and landed by Batt showed 3.8v per cell so i quit and then flew my Tarot X8 and tested it 4 times to Loiter and then RTL, so would you have a suggestion where i should reverse the control ? Tx or MP? and what would happen when i have the VTOL out about 150 yards in Q-hover and i would switch to Q- RTL would it be like my drones ( go up to 75 feet and come back and hover then land by itself?? well looks like iāll get another flight tomorrow winds 5-6 mph not bad for testing. Thanks B.K
BobJ,
It sounds like you should investigate using a Pixhawk 2.1. With built-in heat generating resistor for temperature-controlled IMU system, Pixhawk 2.1 is applicable for operations in very low temperatures. Triple redundancy IMU system also makes the flight more secure, greatly improved the reliability, IMU with built-in vibration dampening system which effictively filters high frequency vibration, reducing noise to IMU measurements. Also compared with the previous version, anti-jamming and stability of Pixhawk 2.1 are greatly improved.
Butch,
Try reversing the elevator in your transmitter. You need to check all the functions that involve elevator/pitch control like hover movements and tail movements. The tail movements can be either from the transmitter stick or from APM compensation due to the pitch of the plane in FBWA mode.
On a v-tail setup, it must be just right to have hovering pitch and tail pitch in the proper direction. Remember that Mission Planner has a radio setup screen where you can also reverse the pitch compensation.
Good luck!
Good Evening Greg: i reversed the elev in MP took it out again this morning it Q-STAB and Q-Hov really good IMO took it down the field about 100 yards in Q stab it seems to lose altitude then played with the yaw 360 to the left then 360 right put it in q hov and brought it back then landed the stick controls are really sensitive i barely touch the sticks for them to respond,i was going to try a Q-RTL but after 10 min my L-Cell was at 3.6v so i scraped that idea for the next flight test,my phone says 4-5 mph tonight itās 17:00 and my flags still whipping,fingers crossed ,Thanks B.K
Hi Greg:well just came back from another test ,well i got it up and flew up to about 50-60 feet and about 200 yards out put it into Q-Hover i held it there for about a minute everything looked good and steady so i put it into Q-RTL Whoa it took a nose dive so i took it off Qrtl and it went back to qhov and pretty steady so i flew it back and landed it was getting pretty dark and the mosquitoes were starting to bite , i got it plugged in now to download the data flash log, Have a Good Evening. B.K
Hey Greg , U are right! But we have to agree that it is still just an AP. Iām looking for a way to have two APs working in parallel, so if one of it fail, another one immediately start to work. The idea is to have redundant APs to increase safety.
Hi Bob,
An year or two ago, the company Aero-Enterprise developed the āAutopilot Managerā, whose function is to manage two independent autopilots in order to provide redundancy when it comes to the autopilots themselves. You will find some info related to this product here. I believe this device was originally built with their IC engine powered Heli (which experiences a lot of inherent oscillations) in mind.
Although I (like Greg) believe that with an autopilot, such as the Pixhawk Cube with multiple in-built redundancy features, you do not require such āAutopilot Managerā device for e-VTOL UAVs, I hope this helps with your search.
Cheers.
Butch,
I wouldnāt recommend testing QRTL until forward flight has been tested. There are several parameters that need to be set properly for QRTL to work as expected.
I didnāt see that you ground tested the control surfaces in FBWA after your elevator reversal. You need to check both the stick directions and the APM compensation before testing forward flight.
Good luck!
P.S. Our mosquitoes here are all frozenā¦which is the way I like them. 
Beautiful Cold Day Greg:So after last nites scare i down loaded the log and check out the video on the nose camera and saw what i thought was a sudden downward dip and it drifts back in Qhov but rock solid in Qloit so i spent the evening charging up the batteries for this mornings flying,VTOL,T- X8 Octo and the T-Hex,Both Drones did Great Man,Hov,Loit,and RTL, i put the VTOL together did a quick pre-trip and it took off very nice i went out 100 yds put it in Qhov and noticed the drift so put it in Qloit it stopped dead good so i wanted to try the RTL again this time i wonāt be so quick flipping the switch back to Qloiter i wanted to see what it will do once again it seemed to dip forward then stopped iām still in Qrtl throttle in the center so i watched and it rose up a little then slowly came back hovered over head then slowly came down and landed i put the throttle down fliped all switches back to Q-stab and then i took off again flew it out in different direction went to qhov still drifts went to Qloit still rock solid and went into QRTL the plane dips and wiggles stays rock solid rises and slowly comes back and lands on same spot where i plugged in the Batt and armed it and by this time the Batt Voltage showed 3.68 before i disarmed it so i quit and carried my drones back to the trailer all in all i got a cup of coffee saw your post and since i have not read nothing about setting Params or what or where i should look for QRTL params and i guess i thought they were set in the firmware(dummy Me),Oh iām kinda worried about the Batt situation iām lucky to get 10 to 12 min take off hovering around etc less when going to QRTL is this normal? well i feel Good (Lucky) i had a good morning (No Crashes) brought back all of them i one piece and Thanks to You even the Nimbus so Big Thank You Greg with your help i have gotten this Far.B.K
Morning Greg: took a video of my first Q-RTL https://youtu.be/K_nGleBi074 itās a Yi action Camera mounted on the nose this was part a it kinda shows the drifting in Q-hov mode and stops when in Q-loit then i switch to QRTL and you can see the reaction,I was going to try FBWA when it warms up and if the wind donāt kick up. Thanks B.K
Butch,
I donāt think you understand QHOVER mode as the name is misleading. QHOVER only uses the BARO chip to keep a constant altitude at mid-stick. It is supposed to move around with the breeze, unlike QLOITER mode which uses BARO and GPS to hold position.
There is no normal. This is a VTOL, not a copter so it is meant to hover for short periods and fly for longer periods. Your main battery determines these times.
Good job on the QRTL and not crashing!
Afternoon Greg: just got back from gathering up all the pieces from my failed attempt to go FBWA ,i took off in Q-Loit got it up about 100 feet put it in FBWA everything like it does in foxtech video it went forward a 100 feet i saw the front motors go down and the rear motor stop and while going forward i started to right turn when everything quit no control and it went straight nose down and stuff flew everywhere and the force crushed the front total loss the impact threw my Nose camera 43 yards from the crash site. Well this was certainly a great learning ( if only i can remember what i was taught by you) if i would invest in another one,i had posted my 2 vids on you tube on my successful Q-RTL and i thought iād get to do it on my first FBWA this is all i got on my attempt https://youtu.be/_j2PQfBC7fs Thanks again for all your Help i look at it this way I succeeded and i have You to Thank for it .B.K