A 700 heli with 600 class powerplant?
Yes, a machine with small rotor disc load and overall contained operating costs (compared to other 700’s)!
The conversion to FPV platform was obviously out of question since I got the kit in the house and the results were exactly what I was looking for: 700 class “feeling” on the controls with excellent speed to altitude conversion capability (huge loops and stall turns), possibilty to share batteries with other 600’s I have and, finally, cool look.
For the FPV bay I had to get a bit creative, being a very lightweight and compact frame there isn’t much space available to install additional equipment:
The AirUnit mount is 3D printed out of ABS material, while antenna supports are 3D printed with carbon-filled nylon filament (being prone to resonant behaviors during run-ups, a bit more stiffness and strength was required here).
I also had the honor to test @bnsgeyer new autotune on this platform, which I have to admit, saved a lot of time in the initial tuning phase. A total of 3 flights (about 6-7 minutes each) were required to have pitch and roll axis rate controllers tuned to an excellent point. It normally takes me about 10 flights to come to something acceptable, so a huge improvement!
Here’s a footage of the auto-tuning sequence:
After the autotune, only minor adjustments were required to “match” my FPV flight style :
Hi @Popey , for performance limitations. Most recent fw versions load these older fc heavily .
I have been testing for the last six months holybro pix6c mini. It’s ideal form factor at a really convenient price.
My personal experience with this board has been trouble free, reliable and stable . Hope this helps
Flycolor X-Cross BL Heli_32 ESC doesn’t have BEC,
red wire > + power to FC
black wire > -
white wire > dshot signal on Channel 8
yellow wire > ESC telemetry to UART serial port
I’m also thinking of adding a FPV camera.
could you share your 3D print files for camera mount?
I’m a little worried of your setup power distribution for the servos. Once installed on the heli, will be the Matek providing power to the servos? I’d be a lot less worried if this was a 500 class machine, being a 700, servo current might be a limiting factor if powered through the fc internal regulators. Remember commercial ESC for heli of this size have a BEC current output around 20-25 A.
Hi @heri ,
yes I used AT for yaw axis as well.
It did an excellent job, the only “manual” change after succesfully finding P & D gains was to raise I-gain to be equal to P-gain.
yes, of course I know which parameters he meant. I am not a beginner
I would just like a concrete example from @Ferrosan . In other words, specific values for P-Gain and I-Gain. And why he is changing them and not keeping the values from Autotune.
as you know I fly large scale helicopters. I am currently building a Bell 429 with a 2.30 meter rotor diameter. When I use autotune, violent oscillations bring me to the edge of my sanity. I’ve talked to you about this before, remember?
In Ferruccion’s video (testing the new autotune beta), I see violent oscillations again, especially when tuning pitch. No, I don’t dare to do that to my expensive model.
In another post, a few months ago, you mentioned that in the new Autotune version there is a parameter to limit the intensity of the oscillations. Will that be the case?
Hi Heri, yes I know and I do remember talking to you about this.
Yes, in copter 4.6, there are parameters that allow the user to limit the rates and accelerations. 4.6 is still in Beta and I have found an issue that I need to resolve but when 4.6 goes stable, it should be resolved.
Hi @heri , these are the values I have on the Piuma 700:
ATC_RAT_YAW_P : 0.12929348
ATC_RAT_YAW_I : 0.12929348
ATC_RAT_YAW_D : 0.00223
After precise static and dynamic balancing of the rotors, setup of the notch filter (rpm based), I also set these:
ATC_RAT_YAW_FLTT : 40
ATC_RAT_YAW_FLTE : 40
ATC_RAT_YAW_FLTD :20
INS_GYRO_FILTER : 40
I see you have HW ESC, there is a (P) single cable from the same Fan pins, this is for Telemetry sending RPM and voltage info etc…
Where did you plug it in the
FC? And is there any changes you made to the parameters?
I got two helis with HW ESC, both have one cable ( single ) comes from the front for GOV RPM controller; if you want to use the arducopter GOV and disable the ESC Gov.
And the other cable that is located on the side of the unit, third pin of the fan. That one is the one sending telemetry info to the FC.
I also use Hobbywing ESC’s and have wanted to get their telemetry as well (the signal wire would go to RX on an available UART), but as far as I can tell, the protocol is SBUS2, which I don’t think is currently supported in the Ardupilot firmware.
@Ferrosan , if you have found a way to make this work, please let us know how!
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