Tricopter Firmware Flashed But Still Shows Quadcopter

I have an APM 2.6 here that I am trying to install on a tricopter. I am using the current version of Mission Planner to flash the firmware (3.2) and then be manipulate the settings on the Flight Controller.

Before “connecting” to the FC, I go to the firmware page of MP and select the Tricopter firmware (v3.2) and then install it on the FC. Everything appears to go perfect. At the end of the installation of the firmware, the status bar shows “done,” and a pop up window comes up mentioning the default setting about the props spinning when the motors are armed. All is well!

However, when I “connect” to the FC via MP and then go to the setup wizard, I get to the page where I have to select which frame layout I am using. The only options to choose from are quadcopters. There is no tricopter option.

I have tried repeating these steps several times to see if something was just not going perfect, but I have not made any headway. I searched around google for any solutions and have not found any. I sure someone on here knows exactly how to address this problem!

Thanks ahead of time for your help!

Jon

Might sound odd but try flashing apm plane onto it then the tricopter firmware. It will makes sure all the quad firmware is wiped before the tricopter firmware goes on.

Mark,

Just did what you said. I took it a step further and went into the Wizard after installing the plane firmware and it the software was definitely the plane software.

Next, I went back and flashed the trickster firmware into the FC. I then went into the wizard and just like the first time, the only options are four quad layouts and the Y6B variation.

The Y6B has three arms, but has six motors and no tail servo. So that couldn’t be it.

I’m stumped!

Jon

FYI…I got it.

Advice given to me on another forum let me know that, when going through setup, tricopter do not need to select their frame type.

While this was an easy “fix,” I’m baffled the software developers would not make a quick change so that a tricopter would be listed so that a user can know with certainty that they are doing things correctly.

…onward and upward!

Jon

Just looked at the parameter file for my mates tri-copter and his frame type is set to “1” if that’s any help.
To be honest, I’ve never used the wizard as I like to go through the settings myself to make sure nothing has been missed.

Where are the “Parameter files?”

If not the wizard, how do I manually go through all the settings? Is the the same as clicking on “Mandatory Hardware?”

In mission planner you have the “initial setup” page (where mandatory hardware is) and next to it is the “config/tuning” page. Go to that page and at the bottom you should see “parameter tree” or “full parameter list”, click on eiter (both do the same job just display the info differently) and you will get a full listing of every parameter you can set. Further to the right of that are a few buttons, clicking “write” will update anything you change to the apm/pixhawk. Clicking “save” will save all the parameters into a text file making it easier to keep track of what you have changed and making it very easy to go back to a previous setup.

This is really a mission planner issue so I dropped an item in the mission planner to-do list to fix this:
github.com/diydrones/MissionPlanner/issues/738