I did follow that step-by-step process, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating …
Since my drone does not behave as expected, I’m probably doing something wrong, but doing the step-by-step process each time again in the same way (and I did that ..) l’ll get the same result, so I’m trying to understand what I did wrong.
The obvious (for me, but my knowledge is very limited) things to check are:
battery monitor
RTL and CRT procedure
but I don’t see anything wrong (again, with my limited knowledge).
I’m not even sure I have indicated the correct data for Sensor and HW version:
Sensor is set to 0 for “Other” (it’s not branded) (picture below)
4 for Pixhawk. I doubt this one most: there’s also 0:CUAV V5/Pixhawk4 or APM1), 3: PX4, 4: The Cube or Pixhawk and 10: 10: Pixhawk 6C/Pix32 v6.
I don’t think it’s 10: my Pixhawk (see the picture before in this thread) is too old, but the others I don’t know. I guess 4 is the right choice (because that is printed on the controller), but I don’t know it for sure, and doing the same procedure over and over will not help with that .. (BTW: I didn’t buy it myself: the drone was given to me by a friend who is electronic engineer and made it for fun).
Yes, it only works if you configure it correctly. And you can only configure it correctly without trial and error if you know which components you have and how they are connected to each other.
If you used the ArduPilot methodic configurator software, post a .zip file with the contents of the vehicle configuration directory so that we can help you better.
If you have not used it, continue your trial and error tests, read the wiki and continue to post questions.
I’ve answered as correct as possible the Minimalistic Mandatory Tuning screens, but I take it these can only be done after the first (and subsequent) flights, so I mostly used the defaults.
I still didn’t know what to answer for BATT_VOLT_MULT, and I now get the message that my battery would be unhealthy. There are again impossible values in that setting, so I changed it (sorry, but I see no other way to be even able to do a flight) in MP again; it now looks lik this:
a Lua script was downloaded, but I have no idea how to have that executed by my controller ? Is that even possible with my Pixhawk ?
I lowered RTL height to 200 cm: in my garden, that’s plenty (500cm would be too high for my neighbours).
Edit: after the above, I hovered in my garden, and after 5 minutes the drone executed RTL and landed. The battery was at 11.52V, so there must still be something wrong here. I must have that corrected to be able to do flights for the first tuning, but that’s my problem … The voltage shown is correct now, both in the setup and on the data screen.
Don’t know what to make of that statement. I don’t think you understand what the RTL parameters do. RTL Mode
Understand what you are doing before making parameter changes. There are Wiki docs available and the parameter description is right there in the Full Parameter List.
And you already have a description of how to set the Battery Multiplier. Simple as entering the actual battery voltage measured with a volt meter and enter it where it says…Measured Battery Voltage.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear: I changed RTL_ALT to 200cm from the 500cm suggested by the configurator (and from the 1500cm suggested by default). That’s high enough in my garden for a RTL. You noticed earlier that I had changed RTL_ALT_FINAL to 200cm: that was one of my mistakes, and as you said: that’s why it didn’t land.
BTW, it is not so that I’m browsing the parameter list and changing some parameters here and there, hoping to get lucky: I followed all steps of the mandatory hardware setup https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/configuring-hardware.html and I AM reading the docs.
I do make mistakes, but I’m not just guessing, hoping it will work sooner or later …
As for the battery multiplier: I measured my battery just now once more and I put the value in the correct fieldb (11.05V) at the moment of writing this. This is what I get when I go to that part: (sequence of screen prints now):
Connect the battery to the craft and then connect to Mission Planner. I then measure the full battery voltage on the Balance connector (outside pins) while it’s connected.
Go to the Battery Monitor and replace whatever is in the Measured Battery Voltage with the correct value and hit ENTER. Do nothing more. You will notice the Voltage Divider change when you hit Enter. Now go to the HUD and see if the voltage displayed is correct.
If it’s not correct or you continue to have very high values for the divider then it’s probably not seeing the battery voltage and it’s just floating around.
From your photos it looks like you have built a craft from hardware to avoid so perhaps the power module is bad.
No. The guide explicitly tells you to only perform the first flight after completing the first 18 steps.
Only steps 19 and above do require real flight data.
You are having problems on step 08. That vehicle must stay grounded until you fix step 08.
Use 10.04848 as a BATT_VOLT_MULT voltage multiplier. It seams to get the job done.
The documentation that gets presented in the AMC software explains you how that gets executed.
With custom FW some users have been able to do it, yes.
Do you know what battery internal resistance is? Was that voltage measured by the FC while flying or by a battery checker after the flight (resting voltage)?
Resting voltage is very different from voltage measured under load.
I’ll reset it all to their default. Do I do that first using AMC, taking the suggested values there, or in MP ?
Or is there a way to reset them all at once ? Maybe just starting all over in MP ?
After that, I copy your files in the proper AMC directory and run it again. That’s the way to go, right ?
Sorry if my questions sound stupid, but by now, I learned not thinking too fast I’ve understood everything …
I gave your method a try (I’ll follow the procedure Amilcar suggested anyway, but I wanted to see what happend), and I indeed got a reasonable divider (10.something) and the HUD gives a correct value.
The proposed changes ( New Value for BRD_HEAT_TARG and LOG_BITMASK) are what you put in the files I just read in the software, right ? I just accept them ?
But suppose I would have to do all this on my own, how do I know e.g. what LOG_BITMASK value to use ? How do you calculate that without using MP (since all other software has to be closed) ?
The docs about this parameter say: Bitmap of what on-board log types to enable. This value is made up of the sum of each of the log types you want to be saved. It is usually best just to enable all basiclog types by setting this to 65535. Note that if you want to reduce log sizes you should consider using LOG_FILE_RATEMAX instead of disabling logging items with this parameter.
You are setting a string of bits, and that value is entered in decimals, but how did you calculate that ? Not of the top of your head, do you ?
The easiest way for you is to use Mission Planner and not calculate anything. Connect to it, go to the Full Parameter List and to the LOG_BITMASK parameter. Click on the Options column and it will highlight Set Bitmask. Then you select what you want and let MP figure out the bitmask value.
This can be used for many parameters once you know the process.
