Reverse Thrust Landings


In case people missed it, here is a video of 2 (of many) reverse thrust landings that Tom Pettenger showed off at the recent Developer un-conference in Canberra Australia.

Instructions on setting up reverse-thrust landings are here on the wiki but in short, it requires a motor that can spin backwards and also having a folding prop is good so that it is not damaged during landings.

Reverse thrust landings allow much more accurate landings because the vehicle has better control of its glide slope.

The landings in this video were quite dramatic because the desired glide slope was set to 45 degrees, much more conservative landings are possible of course.

Also Tom says the porpoising at the end is something he’s working on getting rid of. It’s a tuning issue apparently.

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Really interesting. Is there a way to setup a channel activation reverse channel ? On hobbywing platinium 60A v4 for example, reverse throttle is activate when throttle below 20% and activate with a RC switch done.
manual here if needed more clarification.
http://www.hobbywing.com/products/enpdf/Platinum60AV4.pdf

The big advantage of these ESC is this ‘Reverse throttle’ feature is standard from factory and ESC very reliable, with quality efficient active freewheeling.

Will be great if could have any clarification. Again Ardupilot Team do a great great innovation that will preserve our big wing !

@macfly1202 We have an Issue to track that feature here.

JNice ! didn’t see it, sorry !

I test just now with my hobbywing platinium v4 and it’s work like you describe. The 0-50% range from switch correspond to 0-50% throttle and activate the normal rotation ; this switch must be in 0-50% position at radio power ON. Activate switch on 50-100% with trottle at 30% for example cause the motor to stop 1sec approx and reverse a the same throttle positon and acceleration parameter set in ESC config. In reverse mode you have the full throttle range from 0 to 100 but in reverse.

It will be nice for landing when will be on stable build.
Don’t hesitate ask if more precison needed. I have 2 of these ESC.

I did a Short video, perhaps not really clear for everyone :
https://youtu.be/5eUVtf5vJvg