No PWM output from skid-steer rover

ArduRover Rover 4.4
1

Hi,
I have a Hex Cube Black and an Aion R1 Rover chassis. I am trying to get ArduRover to work on it. But I am not getting any PWM output from channels 1 and 3. I used the params file for Aion R1 from the ardupilot github repo. I disabled all safety checks and made sure that servo1_function and servo3_function were set to 73 and 74, and that the Frame_Type is 2. Also, my MOT_PWM_TYPE is set to Normal. I am sure that the hardware is fine, I can move the vehicle when I flash it with Ardusub. But none of the Ardurover frames seem to work. I would appreciate any help with this :slight_smile:

2

You must arm the rover.

Also, frame type 2 is an omni vehicle that uses numbered motor outputs and not left/right throttle.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the quick response!! And yes, I armed it and set the flight mode to manual.

4

See my edit above. Frame type is probably set incorrectly.

5

Gotcha, I tried setting Frame_class to rover and left the frame_type to the default value. But I am still not getting any PWM output. I attached my parameters file.

rover.param (22.9 KB)

6

If you used the parameters from here, they are clearly outdated (see version info on the first line).

I have created a GitHub issue to update AP’s parameter file.

Aion themselves seem to offer support for issues directly, per contact info here:
Autopilot Setup — AION ROBOTICS 1.0 documentation (github-docs.readthedocs.io)

I think @rmackay9 has at least one of these in his possession and may be able to provide some more up to date guidance.

7

Thanks for getting back to me! Yeah, AION is gone man :skull_and_crossbones: there is no official support from them anymore.

But this seems like an ArduRover issue. I am using a standard HEX Cube Black controller, and the H-bridge that drives the motors takes PWM signals. I tried flashing PX4’s Rover firmware and that seems to work fine with the AION. Even Arudsub works fine on it and is able to move the vehicle.

And the parameter file I sent was the default ArduRover parameter settings for the Rover frame with only the servo 1 and 3 functions changed to left/right throttle.

9

Hi @itskalvik,

If you can post an onboard log file perhaps we can see what’s going on.

I’ve got an AION robotics R1 that I use all the time and it works fine.

Here’s a PR to update the parameter file for 4.4 or 4.5 (or higher). Tools: update AION R1 params by rmackay9 · Pull Request #26193 · ArduPilot/ardupilot · GitHub

1 Like
10

OK it was BRD_SAFETY_DEFLT, the default was 1 and your parameters file from the pull request had it set to 0. For some reason QGC was showing that the vehicle was armed even when BRD_SAFETY_DEFLT was set to 1.

Anyway that fixed! @Yuri_Rage Thanks for opening the pull request and @rmackay9 thanks for uploading your parameter file!!