I can’t tune this. Not just 3.3, all of them… Not well anyway. Im in way over my head at this point but refuse to give up. I think I need help at this point. Any well seasoned pilots that know the ins and outs and details of tuning Plane and Pixhawk based system - please contact me! Someone with a lot of time and getting it tuned up perfectly is what I’m trying to do at this point. I want to get it dialed in, auto land, auto takeoff all nailed down as well as some real solid setups with a few different power systems I bought (again, in over my head). I will supply everything needed, pay if need be or work something out - just looking for someone with a lot of knowledge, loves to fly and can rip through tuning and parameters otherwise it will be yet another takeoff to vertical to crash to rebuild… Great system, I just need lots of help!
I’m in southern California but honestly am happy to just mail it to someone at this point, work something out with them, pay for the hours, etc.
I am very much a trial and error kind of person at heart but I can’t seem to get things dialed in like so many people here do and only so many times can you crash before discontent sets in… FYI - I tried skywalkers (T tail, carbon version, old foam tail version, etc), X8 wing (which I actually had some success with) and a bixler 2 (crashed the moment went to FBWB, I think minimum speed was set too low).
This is very much a DIY community and not the place for a set it and forget it mentality which is in some aspects is what I know I am asking for so I get that that goes against the spirit of things here - I just am wanting to fly and willing to ask the people who know much more than me to at least get things set up even reasonably well. Can’t seem to get the throttle to stop pulsing now in FBWB (it’s like full gas, full brake)…
Copter I had good luck with but Plane I am finding very difficult.
Do you have an airspeed sensor? as that is highly recommended for a flight mode that is controlling you’re throttle. If you don’t then going with FBWA might be better.
To be honest I put an APM in my Cessna and flew in stabilise to make sure it was working, stuck it in autotune and did some pitch and roll moves and that was it for tuning. Except for the airspeed sensor tuning , but that only took a few minutes flying in a circle using loiter mode.
It sounds like something else is wrong to be honest. First, do you know how to fly RC planes without autopilot? It is critical the plane flies well in manual mode before tuning and going to auto modes.
If not, step one is to learn to fly in manual mode and make sure the plane is flying well and you properly trim it.
From there it should be quite easy. Accel Calibration, compass calibration, airspeed calibration (if using, if not just put your minimum airspeed a bit more conservative above true minimums) and auto tune and you should be good to go.
If it’s that difficult on that many planes, I suspect something else is off. ie the plane isn’t setup properly before using autopilot
Ok, so let me level with you and just bare the embarrassment. I bought one of those 3m Mugin planes… Bigger=More stable??, no just kidding about the bigger/more stable comment. It looked pretty awesome (going to run it electric, not gas) but I’m not going to even attempt giving it a go till I have someone who knows what’s going on. Dig airspeed, pixhawk, gps x2, LidarLite, etc. All here for the project - now just need someone who knows what they’re doing… Really knows what they’re doing. I expect some ridicule at this point, I know…
As Jman841 said, to be able to have any success here you are going to need to learn to fly the plane manually. You need to be comfortable with the basics of takeoffs, trimming, approaches, and landing. I would seriously look for a local hobby flying club and find and experienced RC pilot to help you get going. While this isn’t a must, in the long run I believe it could save you ALOT of time and more importantly, money.
Once you can handle the plane manually and it is properly trimmed, the tuning is quite easy to get it to a reasonable point. To take it to the next level of tuning, you need to be a good enough pilot to ‘feel’ how the plane is responding to the incremental changes you make to the PID values.
If you’re flying the same air-frames as others on here, sometimes people will share their config files to use as a starting point. BUT, this will only work if the air-frames are configured near exactly the same.
Someone with a lot of time and getting it tuned up perfectly is what I’m trying to do at this point. I want to get it dialed in, auto land, auto takeoff all nailed down as well as some real solid setups with a few different power systems I bought (again, in over my head). I will supply everything needed, pay if need be or work something out - just looking for someone with a lot of knowledge, loves to fly and can rip through tuning and parameters otherwise it will be yet another takeoff to vertical to crash to rebuild… Great system, I just need lots of help!