Ok so I am brand new and have so much to learn, but I am hoping you guys can help me get off the ground. I am using the AMP “2.8” kit from Amazon on a quad I 3d printed. Its the Crossfire 2 frame. and this is my first build.
I have a few separate questions, but the biggest issue I am having is arming and getting the motors to spin. I have gone through the setup wizard multiple times and i am seeing a few issues. my radio calibration is showing inputs for my sticks but not my switches. I am using the Taranis QX-7 and the X8R receiver. I created the channels on the radio, but cant seem to get any input to register on channel 5 in the mission planner setup wizard.
Separate issue. I mounted my GPS/Compass puck on the top of the frame, not on the supplied mast, when I went to do the compass calibration, I could not seem to get it to hit all the data points with the compass mounted to the frame. I detached the compass and rotated it around separate from the APM and the frame, and it seemed to capture all the data points. is this ok? or is it going to screw up since it was oriented separately from the APM during the calibration?
I guess all this boils down to, when I finish the setup, I cant get it to arm or spin the motors. If I understand correctly, I am supposed to bring the throttle down, and to the right for 5 seconds to arm, but it does nothing. I would really prefer to arm with the switch on the transmitter if possible, but whatever get it to arm would make me happy at this point.
Thank you for the help. I am really excited to see this thing work, Ive been printing the quad piece by piece for about 8 months, and I feel like I am SOO close. so you can imagine my frustration.
First you need to have the compass on the quad during calibration. It needs to “see” any influences of the rest of the copter. If you see the calibration targets there should be no difference in capturing them other than the difficulty of rotating the full quad around.
If you can’t see channel 5 but you see the rest of the channels you setup then I would look at the QX7 configuration for channel 5 something is more likely wrong there. If you see the other channels in Mission Planner it just shows what it “sees” coming from the transmitter. Channel 5 is your flight modes and it must be working to establish the flight mode.
There are lots of failsafes to prevent a crash during flight. Anyone of these not addressed can stop the flight controller from arming. You need to have all your calibrations done, the GPS must have a minimum quality satellite lock, the voltage on the battery must be correct etc etc.
The arming sequence is both sticks down to center. So throttle down-right and pitch down left.
Thank you Mike, I will give these things a shot. I’m not sure what else to do in the QX7, I assigned the channel to a switch, and set it in the mixer.
When calibrating the compass I first pointed it north, then began rotating it around its axis as directed in the instructions. I could see the data points but when I would rotate it a given direction, it would spaz out, zoom WAY out from the rotating plane, and I could no longer see the data points. It also seemed that while I had the compass mounted to the quad, regardless of the rotation all the data points would remain on one side of the rotating plane.
Are you running Mode 1 or 2 transmitter? (mode 1 - throttle on the right, mode 2 - throttle on the left)
Arming is throttle to minimum, rudder to the right for 4 or 5 seconds.
When you try to arm have you been connected to Mission Planner or other GCS?
If you look in the “messages” tab of mission planner it should be telling you why it won’t arm.
You CAN calibrate the compass off the mounts but it’s not recommended.
The compass is sensitive to all electrical fields around it, hence the mast to mount it on.
Calibrating it away from the frame means it is not really in it’s try ‘state’ with electronics and field around it.
Before flight best to mount it on its mast and redo your compass calibration.
If the QX7 is like my taranis, on the main lcd there is a mode that lets you see the movement of the sticks and switches and what the values are associated with the switch. You might have a switch set on ch 5 but not have the right values. There needs to be three parts to the switch definition one for up, middle and down with values like 1000, 1500 and 1800.
The calibration of the mag needs to be done away from all iron/steel objects that might influence the calibration. I have trouble because there is a big buried tank in my backyard. Others have noticed rebar in concrete pads to affect calibration. It is possible to have a bad connection to the mag that "pulls’ when you have the copter in a certain position?
Thank you all for your posts. So I ended up updating the APM so I could use the sbus/ppm on my X8R. That was scary but between the Now it looks like I am getting the response i expected on channel 5 for my 3 position switch in the radio calibration. I expect I will be able to get my other switches to work too. I still didn’t get my motors to arm but only because I have been to busy today to try and mess with it again. Is there a good write up for setting switches/flight modes on the taranis qx7?