Hi everyone,
I was recently tasked with building an antenna tracker for a group project and its safe to say i’m a little out of my depth here . I have managed to put one together but i am struggling slightly to get it working and i was wondering if anyone has an experience with these issues or can at least point me in the right direction.
Currently, i am having three issues:
The tracker refuses to track the uav both in real life and in simulations. I have followed the docs and steps from other community posts to try and get simulations setup but i haven’t had much luck at getting it to work. Occasionally, the tracker will move randomly but thats all i get.
I believe the yaw servo is moving in the wrong direction as when i set the slider in the “extended tuning” tab to the maximum pwm value, it moves anti-clockwise rather than clockwise and for whatever reason i cannot reverse the servo direction in mission planner. I have tried both changing the settings in the full parameter list and in the servo output tab but even after trying to reverse the servo, it continues to move in the wring direction. I have setup the AHRS direction correctly so i don’t believe it to be an issue with the FC’s orientation.
Finally, the third issue i am having is i am using JX-5921MG servos which should be able to move 180 degrees but for whatever reason, when setting the servo to max (2200us) and min (800us) pwm values in mission planner, they only move about 100 degrees. This limited motion shouldn’t pose a great issue when using the tracker but its been bugging me and i’m curious as to why this is happening.
Incase its of any help, i am using a holybro durandal FC, a gps+compass module, an RFD868x for telemetry and (as previously mentioned) two jx-5921MG servos. I am also using v4.5.7 of the AT firmware.
I’m sure there are some simple settings that i have overlooked but i have been at this for a while and i’m burnt out from it so i am turning to the forums. I really appreciate any guidance anyone can give me regarding these issues .
Hi Emanuel,
Pity you received no response, I know your feeling as I also have problems with AntennaTracker and haven’t received help.
My yaw servo moves in the correct direction by default so I haven’t had to change direction, but since your query I have now experimented to change it’s direction and wasn’t successful.
In MissionPlanner CONFIG> Extended Tuning, the Reverse box is grayed out so it can’t be clicked.
So I went to SETUP>Mandatory Hardware>Servo Output, and clicked reverse for the yaw servo, and the servo’s direction has not changed.
So I don’t see a way to change direction, this may be a bug or I’m doing something wrong.
Unless someone offers a solution to fix it, I think you would have physically change the servo orientation if possible, or buy a servo signal reverser/inverter as a crude workaround.
You have to set the servo max value to 2200us both in the Extended Tuning page and the Servo Output page. Did you do that?
Because if one of them is still at a lower value the servo will not be commanded more than that.
Also, your servo may need a range of 500-2500us to have the full 180° of rotation, while Ardupilot’s normal range is 800-2200.
But I tested and using the Full Paramater list I was able to force the range beyond that.
For example I just tried it on my pitch servo, so in my case I changed both SERVO2_MAX to 2500, and RC2_MAX to 2500, MissionPlanner will say it’s out of range but you can click yes to continue, and then I was able to command the servo to 2500us.
. I have managed to put one together but i am struggling slightly to get it working and i was wondering if anyone has an experience with these issues or can at least point me in the right direction.
.