Skid Steer/Tank/Catermeran with two stick control

ArduRover
1

I’ve got a twin hull boat I want to automate. It has fixed props with brushed DC motors on a direct drive to each withh no rudders. I’ve got it setup with a Mode 1 radio that I’ve modified to have centering gimbals both sides and as such, I can drive it like a tank - right stick (radio throttle) does fwd/back for the right hull and left stick (radio pitch) does fwd/back for the left hull.

It works very well direct from the radio receiver or with the Pixhawk channel set to RCpassThru. However, if set it to anything other than RCpass Thru or RCin2&3 it won’t work. I have tried SERVO2_FUNCTION = 73 and SERVO3_FUNCTION = 74

It’s firmware is as a Rover, PILOT_STEER_TYPE is 1. Modes (Ch8) are setup as Manual, Auto and RTL, but it won’t work even in manual.

I gues my first question is - can ardurover even cope with a two stick system with the centre of each stick being stopped, down is reverse and up is forward. Left stick (Ch2) controlls the left hull, Right stick (Ch3) controls the right.

If so, what am I missing??

If not, what radio/control setup should I be using?

Thanks,
Dene

2

Please define “won’t work”

3

The motors won’t run at all when in manual mode.

4

RC passtrough and RCin settings do not require arming your vehicle. Servo function 73 and 74 do require you to arm the vehicle to activate the outputs.

5

Yep -aware of that. Board is armed.

6

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Further Info:

The board is definitely Arming ok.

When I do select Throttle Left and Throttle right, the two displays for those servo channels just sit at 1500 no matter where I move the sticks. On the radio calibration page I can see the signal varying from 1080 to 1980 when I move the sticks and sitting at about 1500 when they are centred, but on the servo output page, they do nothing.

The only time I see any movement is when they are on RCPass Thru or RCIN*.

7

Hello,

can you provide us with a log (from the pixhawk sd card ) ?