Super Simple Mode - Needs tweaking I think

ArduCopter Copter 3.2
1

Super Simple mode is a stroke of genius - I can see it being really useful for aerial photography where you might have 2 members of crew - one piloting and one controlling a camera and the multi-rotors yaw…

Any way - there seems to be a slightly “un-natural” behaviour to super simple mode that i think would feel more intuitive if it was corrected.

As I understand it in super simple mode the position of the copter is calculated relative to home and then a stick movement up on the pitch moves the copter directly away from home and a stick movement down on the pitch moves the copter directly towards the home. A stick movement left on the roll moves the copter perpendicular to home to the left and vice versa…

All is good so far…

the thing that feels weird to me is that the copter seems to grab that orientation of away from home and towards home and the perpendicular lefts and right at the point it starts moving and then keeps them regardless of the fact its position has now changed relative to home.

As a simple example of what I mean - i would expect if i was standing on the home spot with the copter 5 meters in front of me and to hold the stick to the left that the copter would travel in an anti clockwise circle around me 5 meters out. But it does not. Instead it carries on travelling in what was left in the position it was in but very quickly once the copter is a few 10s of meters away feel now like its travelling almost straight away from me even though im holding the roll in a left direction.

if I let go of the sticks then press left again the copter seems to re-initialise its position and left now does indeed travel to the left in a totally different direction to what left gave me before i released the sticks.

What I’m proposing is that rather than reset the directions that the sticks will move the copter only when I release the sticks for a moment - this should be a constant process as I feel this would be more natural to the pilot.

sorry for really long post - and i hope this forum is where i should be raising stuff like this ?

2

What you describe is how super simple is described as working with copter operating on polar co-ordinates centred at home, as opposed to simple mode, where the heading is fixed and the copter moves on Cartesian co-ordinates irrespective of yaw [I’ve never personally tried either mode].

See the following link,
copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/flying … ple-modes/

Note the following,
“The orientation is not updated when the vehicle is within 10m of home meaning close fly-bys of the home location should be avoided.”

Which I think will result in the behaviour you are describing at 5m out. Perhaps try again at a distance more than 10m from home location.

3

ah… i wasnt aware of the not updating position within 10 meters

so your saying as long as i stay more than 10m out - holding constant left should result in the copter flying around me in a circle ?

Ill give it another try.

4

From the link above,
“If the pilot holds full right roll the vehicle will fly a circle clockwise around the pilot (although the circle’s radius may tend to grow slightly with each orbit due to “lag”)”

Also, you must have GPS lock for it to work,
“The disadvantage is that mode require a GPS lock because so you should ensure you have GPS lock before take-off.”