Pixhawk Calibration Problems

Hi all,

I’m about as new as one can get here, so i’m hoping that my issues are due to missing something silly any not some deeper problem. Any assistance is very much appreciated, even if you’re telling me i’m posting in the wrong subforum. :blush: I picked up the 3DRobotics 2014 DIY quad kit (https://store.3drobotics.com/products/diy-quad-kit) and after having to make several re-orders from slightly wrong items, was finally able to get to the ‘Calibration’ step of the instructions.

I went with APM Planner 2.0.10 and had a lot of trouble getting it to flash the firmware – eventually realizing I needed to use the rear USB ports of my desktop computer and not the front mounted ones on it or my HTPC. That and I needed to be running off USB power only, no battery. Finally, to the mandatory setup section!

Unfortunately, I’ve hit a total wall at this point. I was able to select my frame easily enough (was I supposed to load params here?). I’ve tried to calibrate the compass with live calibration and after selecting Pixhawk & APM with 3DR GPS/Compass and all I get there is a 60 second timer that tells me not enough data points. The accelerometer calibration gives me nothing other than command timed out.

If anyone can point me in the right direction for what to try, I would be grateful. I’ve done a fair amount of googling around and it seems like there aren’t as many folks using the Pixhawk as the older APM 2.5/2.6, so it’s hard to tell what applies and what doesn’t.

You did do the “dance”, right? Not just let the copter sit on a table?

Sent from my Ainol Novo 7 Fire using Tapatalk

Yep, I did the super twirly action to try to get it as many facings as possible. I also tried talking to it with soothing words, angry scolding and desperate pleading.

Then a log file would be helpful.

Well, I have an update…this morning I opened up log.txt and it looked like it wasn’t properly saving itself. log.txt.1-5 were all empty and it looks like log.txt itself wipes and repopulates every time APM Planner is started up. So I went to make a clean one and ended up having problems getting to the calibration screens again.

After that I decided to just try Mission Planner 1.3.5 instead and that has allowed me to successfully calibrate both the accelerometer and the compass. Unfortunately I’m not getting any green bars in radio calibration, so on to the research there! I’ve successfully linked my Delta-8 receiver with my Taranis X9D and made sure the connection has the ground wires in the right spot.

I’m about out of time to fiddle with it for now but I’ll do some more research/playing with it tonight and see if i can get it to recognize.

Just wanted to update, got it!

The issue was that while I was successfully linking to the D8 receiver, I wasn’t doing so in CPPM. To do that, I had to link while a jumper was connecting pins 3/4 and it resulted in solid red & green lights vs just solid green. Hopefully the next person to try this combo finds this post helpful!