SingleCopter & CoaxCopter Support

Hi,

Here are mine if you are still having trouble:


let me know how you go!!

The CoaxCopter flies! Have only tried Acro mode so far, but intend to test GPS soon!

Thanks @Leonardthall and @rmackay9!!

We need a video!!!

Congradulations!!

Hope to record some flight this afternoon. Then I will try a 6S ducted fan singlecopter!

The coaxcopter is kinda funny because my landing gear is too flexible. I have to punch the throttle to take off or else the copter will do the Twist and shimmy on the ground. I could probably tune it out in PIDs, but itā€™s not really a problem.

Hereā€™s the video! Sorry that the copter falls out of frame a few times.

1 Like

Great! Thanks for sharing, why donā€™t start to improve the single/coax copter in the wiki to spread the world with this new frame/design type inspiration and attract mekers to join testing ?

@Leonardthall @rmackay9

On my EDF singlecopter (see top post) I have my fins installed in an X configuration rather than the typical + configuration. Is there a setting that will allow be to rotate the copterā€™s coordinate system so that pitch forward will cause forward motion of the X orientation? I know how to rotate the AHRS orientation of the board to the frame so that the PX4 and copter are aligned, but thats not what Iā€™m asking here.
Itā€™s basically the same transformation between flying a quad in the + config and the X config.

What do I do?

Thanks!

Hey all! This is an awesome thread and I am excited to contribute in any way I can. I have a Coax Copter setup with 4 fins (4 HS-125MG servos on each fin) and two 6s packs running in parallel. I am using a Holybro Pixhawk which takes V2 of the code in this thread. I have uploaded the most recent coax code from dropbox via QGC and I have two questions for this forum.

  1. How do you guys do the compass/accel calibration for a coax copter? My pixhawk is oriented with itā€™s arrow pointing toward the motors. The motors are at the top plugged into ch 5 and 6. When I try to arm it says it canā€™t arm because itā€™s leaning (even though itā€™s pointing straight up). Makes me think I have performed the calibration incorrectly. SOLVED: Calibrate as if when the copter is in the normal flying position (props on top) and the ā€œnoseā€ of the aircraft is parallel to the ground

  2. My servo is buzzing (I only plugged in channel 1 cause I had read earlier that servos had been burned and I didnā€™t want to do that) and gets very warm after a while. Based on the thread I was under the impression that this issue had been fixed. SOLVED: But it may be a bandaid fix. I had to change MOT_SV_SPEED to 50 in MP @Leonardthall @rmackay9

Let me know if anyone has any ideas.

Regarding Issue 1. Dissabling the IMU pre-arm check allows me to arm both motors and to see them spin. More of a band aid then a solution so let me know if you guys have lean issues. SEE ABOVE: Donā€™t dissable pre-arm checks. Simply calibrate correctly.

When you say you borked the Pixhawk for a bit. How exactly did you fix this? I have done the same thing where the Pixhawk boots fine but then the Main LED turns off and I canā€™t connect to it. I have re-flashed the firmware to factory standard but still the Main LED doesnā€™t change. @DroneWrangler

Hi Everyone - My 1st post. In fact 1st everything really. I am building a coax copter to my own design - about 60% complete, but the first un-tethered flight is many months awayā€¦ It has 4 motors - 2 for each rotor, and 4 servos - at 90 degrees - activating a shared swash plate. Phew !
It has an Arducopter 2.8, and Iā€™ve just got Mission Planner past the Pre-Arm checks. I chose the standard Heli frame, because nothing else is close, so obviously itā€™s not going to work like this. Can somebody please advise me how to download (not upload ?) the Coax firmware ? Is there a central source of information, or is it too early in the development cycle for that ? Iā€™m a semi-retired developer, and fancy looking into the code at some stage, but for now it has to be binaries only. Also, Iā€™m happy to beta-test.

I used one of the most recent links to Dropbox in this thread. That will give you 4 files you can download. You would select coax v1 or v2 depending on your board.(I just used trial and error for this).

In Mission Planner, I select Load Custom Firmware, and choose ArduCopter-v1-coax.px4. It then scans the comports and reports that it canā€™t find the board. I then tried the Force PX4 Bootloader option beforehand, with the same result.

I read somewhere that QGroundControl should be used for PX4 files, but this doesnā€™t find the board either. Iā€™ve tried different USB cables - also no result.

Mission Planner seems very happy with the standard firmware options - I can load any of the standard options.

Is there another binary format that I should be using, or am I doing something wrong ?

If you have a Pixhawk you should use v2.

I have the Arducopter vr 2.8

I have no idea what board that is, but Iā€™ll bet it is a Pixhawk clone and you need the v2 anyway.

EDIT: Or is it an old APM clone? If it is, you canā€™t use this firmware. The old APM boards are limited to old firmware, 3.2.1

I donā€™t like the sound of this ā€¦ Youā€™re going to tell me Iā€™ve wasted my money. If so, where do I buy the latest recommended flight controller ?

Why are you using an old APM? This hardware canā€™t take the latest software (Not enough memory space)

At present (OCT 2016) The best one is :slight_smile:

But if vibrations arenā€™t too much of a problem and you want a small unit then :slight_smile:
AUAV-X2

There are so many clones of all sort of the pixhawk that the choice is yours!
Henri

Like Henri said thatā€™s old hardware, a clone of the old APM boards. There are a lot of different supported boards:

  • Pixhawk (production was ended by 3DR, but they had some units recently; also
    Northox has them; mRobotics will also start producing the Pixhawk)
  • The Cube (more commonly known as Pixhawk 2, is going to be released in November, although you can pre-order now)
  • Pixracer
  • Navio2
  • Erle-Brain 2
  • PXFmini
  • VR Brain
  • Intel Aero
  • and moreā€¦
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Thanks for the advice everyone. But I only bought that ā€œold APMā€ a few weeks ago ! This is all new to me, so I made a bad decision. Iā€™m saving up for a real one now ā€¦