Thanks for the quick reply! I continue to work on this project. Is the value of parameters for a glider with an area of 0.56 square meters and 3,5 kg suitable for use SOAR_POLAR_B,0.031 SOAR_POLAR_CD0,0.027 ? For Radian_Pro is SOAR_POLAR_B,0.033 SOAR_POLAR_CD0,0.042.
Hello, I’m new here and that’s my first post.
I’m using ArduPlane 3.10.0 (04.05.2019) on MATEK-405 wing and my ASW17 from HYPE is flying very well.
Since some weeks I tested the SOARing option, but I’m not really satisfied with the results. If there are thermals, it works fine, but if there are no thermals, it seems, that the plane is falling from one stall to the next.
I had no and I will not install a speed-sensor, because my aim is to equip my existing scale-sailplanes with ArduPlane.
Now my question:
I would like to test the TECS_SYNAIRSPEED option. But the cryptic warning “Do not enable this option unless you fully understand the limitations of a synthetic airspeed estimate” made me unsecure. I understood that that option is resulting in an estimated airspeed only, but that should be better as using no airspeed at all (except the GPS-groundspeed?).
So what’s the risk?
If my plane is in trouble I can fly it MANUAL - so I tend to try out that option.
What do you suggest?
Hi Willy,
Yes soaring will definitely not work without an airspeed sensor as the documentation says. In fact in the next version I am going to check this automatically and turn soaring off in this situation.
I haven’t tested TECS_SYNAIRSPEED but I would expect it to work better than no airspeed sensor at all.
Airspeed sensors are very easy to install and will make your plane fly a lot better and more reliably - highly recommended!
Sam
Hi Sam,
I thank you for your quick feedback.
I will test TECS_SYNAIRSPEED and will report here.
If it works (as a less-than-ideal solution) it would be helpful to let exist the option of SOARing with no airspeed-sensor and give just an additional hint in the documentation.
But first let’s see if it really will work.
The last two days I tested SOARing with using of TECS_SYNCAIRSPEED - and … it’s working 
So that supports my minimalistic concept to equip my bigger scale-sailplanes with just a MATEK-F405-wing, a GPS and a FrSky R-XSR - no compass, no speed-sensor, no SD-card.
@Sam: Would you please let exist the option of SOARing with no airspeed-sensor.
Willy
Hi Willy,
Glad to hear it’s working well! I’ll update the docs to add it as a backup option.
If you feel like experimenting you could try my newest soaring work here
Already tested by Marco and I but not yet in the master branch.
Sam
I look forward to test your last version, Sam. But I have to become familiar with GitHub first, to be able to build a version for my MATEK F404-wing Hardware. For many years my job was software-development, but with GitHub environment I’m not experienced. So I need a rainy weekend first 
Willy
FYI if anyone would like to try the most recent version, I have uploaded binaries here for a few boards.
Sam
I’ve been looking for the variometer-value/vertically-speed in the log-parameters, but I couldn’t find it.
Could anybody give me a hint?
Willy
Hi Willy,
All the vario data is in the VAR log item.
VAR.raw is the instantaneously calculated value, while VAR.filt is smoothed.
A full list of the VAR fields:
- aspd_raw Airspeed straight from the sensor (unused in latest version)
- aspd_filt Airspeed after filtering
- alt Altitude
- roll Roll angle
- raw Unfiltered vertical airspeed estimate
- filt Filtered vertical airspeed estimate
In the new version (not yet in master) there are also:
- cl Raw climb rate
- fc Filtered climb rate
- exs Expected sink rate while thermalling at specified radius
- dsp Current longitudinal acceleration
- dsp_bias Estimated bias of longitudinal acceleration
Not sure I can inquire here. SOAR_ENABLE parameter is missing in AP 4.0. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance
it is removed to save flash on some flight controllers, what are you running?
Oh I see. It is PixHawk 2 (clone 2.4.8 one). So should I build with config.h SOARING_ENABLED comment removed? Let me try.
Thanks.
Hum, i think it should be there on that, make sure you have the pixhawk 1 build not the pixhawk 1 - 1M
https://firmware.ardupilot.org/Plane/stable/Pixhawk1/
Yes, looks like I have loaded incorrect firmware somehow through Mission Planner. Custom loaded the correct one showed SOAR_ENABLE in parameter list.
Thank you for your help.
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Hi everyone. We are trying to figure out what part of the code actually detects thermals from the repository https://github.com/samuelctabor/ardupilot
Any help would be great! Thank you in advance.
René
What about the inclusion of improvements on ArduSoar by Samuel_Tabor and on telemetry vario-values by yaapu?
The early-spring-thermals will start in some weeks here in europe and I’m very keen on testing that improvements.
Willy
Hi @ARborn ,
The logic to actually switch modes in contained in https://github.com/samuelctabor/ardupilot/blob/SoaringUpgrades/ArduPlane/soaring.cpp . This is supported by the files in https://github.com/samuelctabor/ardupilot/tree/SoaringUpgrades/libraries/AP_Soaring, in particular check_thermal_criteria() in AP_Soaring.cpp.
This is in my SoaringUpgrades branch, which contains the most recent work on the soaring feature and is the basis for this PR https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/12210
@Quaxwilly, I’m a user of the yaapu script so would love to see some more soaring related telemetry. All ideas welcome!
@Samuel_Tabor Hi Sam, I didn’t mean the yaapu-script - yaapu improved the serial protocol 4 and included the sending of vspd in a good frequency and reached a good frequency for GPS value, too.
Hi @Quaxwilly
Oh I see. When both are merged they should work together well. However the waiting time for a lot of PRs to get merged seems to be very long right now. In the meantime I will add the yaapu changes to my repo so that both can be used.