Unable to determine motor count

ArduRover
101

If the steering does not point straight, you can adjust the servo1_trim value, till it does. If it pointed straight initially and now it does not anymore, the servo might have taken a hit during one of the crashes. Sometimes the servo gears skip a tooth, if to much torque is applied and then the middle position is off afterwards. This might happen without further damage to the servo, but should not happen to often. If there is a servo saver in the mechanics between servo and front wheels, this could be the cause of the offset, too.
The servo working/the throttle not working,while the rover is disarmed is normal. Now we need to find out, why the steering stops working after arming. Troubleshooting with QGC is a lot harder than it would be with Missionplanner, because QGC is missing a lot of features for ardupilot. (No status values, no tuning graphs, etc.)
Is the rover in manual mode?
Does the steering move, when you change the servo1_trim value?

The telemetry radios can be unreliable sometimes. I would just powercycle everything and see if the connection gets more reliable.

102

Initially, the wheels were forwards-facing. After the crash, they were titled slightly left. I will try to change this with the servo1_trim value.

If I configured the vehicle with MissionPlanner, would I be able so save the new parameter values on the vehicle/in an external file and upload them to QGroundControl later?

As I have said earlier, I do have a laptop running MissionPlanner, but it is way slower than the laptop I am using that is running QGC but cannot run MP. I just want to know so I can do the configuration, which doesn’t need such an accurate real-time processing as a real mission, on the laptop that runs MP.

Thank you already in advance for your help!

103

I hope the servo did not get damaged, but if it works alright, adjusting the trim should help.
The parameters/configuration is saved in the autopilot. You can configure it with one GCS and connect it to another and the values will be there. So there is no need to save/load files between different GCS softwares. The MacBook should also be able to do dual boot or run Windows in a virtual machine.

104

We managed to fix the servo position by setting servo trim in the Graupner settings to -25%, I will also try it with the GCS. If that fails, I will try to fix the control lever.

That’s good to know! My MacBook is from 2012 and has a SMART defect which I have to fix, so I’m not sure if it would be able to run Windows rn. However, I will keep the dual boot and the virtual machine Windows running in mind for when I get around to fix it.

The question is, how would I set the SERVO1_TRIM to make the steering face front?

Also, there is now a new problem with the Graupner. Sometimes, nothing works. Whether armed or disarmed, neither the steering nor the motor respond to any joystick movements. When I do a motor test with QGC, both the motor and the servo respond.

At times, things work, sometimes they just don’t – and I have no clue why it acts like this. It worked before, now it doesn’t.

105

Using the transmitter trims is a bad idea. The trim is an input just as the stick movement. The autopilot can not know the difference and will react to this input. It might seem fine in manual mode, but in acro, steering, etc. the autopilot will try to follow this 25% input.
Just change servo1_trim from 1500 to ±50 and see which direction is correct. Then adjust it, till the steering is straight. First center the trsnsmitter trim again, of course.
25% is a lot, so you might want to adjust servo1_min/max, too, to get an equal amount of servo travel. It is now set to 1500us±200us, so adjust min/max to the new servo trim value ±200.

Are you sure it is a transmitter problem? Does arming with a transmitter switch work?
Does the radio calibration screen show movement?

The SMART error is an error reported by the HDD/SSD. The only way to fix it, is to replace the HDD/SSD, or perhaps the connection cable (unlikely in a MacBook)
There are many HDD operation values monitored by the SMART system. Some are just reporting certain conditions, some mean the HDD/SSD is about to fail. If you have any valuable data on that Macbook, I strongly recommend doing regular backups to an external drive or a cloud service.

106

Thanks for this information. It seemed like an easy fix, but if it affects the movement in the other modes this negatively, I will change it back to 0 and change the parameters instead.

I’m going to check the radio calibration screen and see if it shows any movement.

Yeah, I’m already doing backups regularly and I even found a well-detailed tutorial on how to replace the SSD, but Apple really hates users who try to repair their stuff, so there are a zillion mechanism and screws all with slightly different sizes plus the SSDs that work best are extremely pricey. It’s a shame that there are no regulations demanding that companies need to make their stuff repairable.
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EDIT: Now the motors work again in the manual mode when armed. According to the radio setup screen, it registers all movements both in the disarmed as well as in the armed mode.

Setting SERVO1_TRIM to 1375 gives me the best forward-facing impression. SERVO1_MIN and SERVO1_MAX were at ±400 to the 1500 value, so now they are at 975 and 1775 respectively (±200 was for SERVO3, which is the trottle).

107

Yeah, my bad! I mixed up your settings with the ones I was doing while writing the post.

Do not get me started about Apple and their repair politics. I rather use pencil and paper, than any Apple product.

108

No problem!

Apple is very nice and intuitive to use, but their repair politics are just not user-friendly at all. Even if you head to one of their repair stores, you will pay more for the cheapest replacement part than if you did it yourself and got a premium product. It’s not fair. They really expect people to buy a brand new product every two years or so, when their devices can easily be used for 15+ years just by replacing faulty elements – but that is a ridiculously difficult task. There is this guy on youtube who has many tutorials on repairing apple products simply because he’s fueled with spite. If I find his account I’ll link him.

I will try the cruise learning and all of that tomorrow morning with MissionPlanner. If it doesn’t work, I will get in contact with my professor in the afternoon – either he tells me a solution or organizes someone experienced with RC cars to setup the car, the focal point of my thesis was the programming of an autopilot and not the hardware setup.

I still hope that I will get it working. I’ll let you know if I made any progress.

Thank you for your continous help!

109

I have reinstalled MissionPlanner. I plugged the USB telemetry radio into my laptop and powered the vehicle on. The telemetry radios are communicating with one another.

If I try to connect the vehicle with ArduPilot over that connection symbol in the top right corner of the GCS, I get the following error:
Timeout waiting for autoscan / no mavlink device connected.

Under setup, all I can see is “Firmware installieren” (install firmware), “Firmware installieren Leg
” (it’s cut off after install firmware), “Optionale Hardware” (optional hardware) and “Advanced”.

Under CONFIG, I only get a “Raw Param Warning” when I try to access the full parameter list.

I guess the current problem is that the GCS is not connecting with the vehicle. I’m indoors, but I can’t connect the two at all, which is weird, considering that connection over QGC with my other laptop worked just fine.

When I open QGC on the windows laptop I get the error message Error binding UDP port: The address is protected.

Trying another USB port changed nothing for MP, and QGC still gives me the same error message.

I’m doing everything exactly the same as on my MacBook, except that nothing works the way it should on my Windows laptop. I’m out of ideas here, all I could do is check what’s going on with that port. It’s been one hour since setting everything up and starting things, but I don’t have a connection yet. That is suboptimal.

If you have an idea, I’m happy to hear it. Thank you already in advance for your help!

EDIT: Looking at the Telemetry Radio, it seems that there is no driver software (according to the laptop settings). However, when I reinstalled MP, it installed a driver software, so I’m not sure what is going on here.

110

In the dropdown (where AUTO is selected) next to the “Connect” button, should be a list of possible connection methods. If the telemetry radio is recognized correctly there should be a com port listed. Try to select the com port, sometimes the autoconnection does not work.
Missionplanner installs drivers for autopilots being directly connected via USB cable.
There are many different telemetry radios and the USB to UART chip differs between manufacturers.
Holybro says the drivers should be installed by Windows automatically. Is there a com port listed in device manager?

111

Under AUTO, I have the following things listed:
COM8, COM1 Kommunikationsanschluss (COM, COM7, COM5, COM6, TCP, UDP, UDPCI, WS

Selecting COM1 at least got me a popup that it’s trying to connect to MAVLink, but it received no heartbeat packets.

Looking at the device section of the settings, there doesn’t seem to be a COM Port list anywhere.

Checking the device manager, the COM1 seems to be the main communication port.
It has the following driver software: \serenum.sys and \serial.sys 
 the first one is selected.

112

Is there anything else connected to the laptop? Other USB devices? Remove everything except the telemetry radio.

113

Only a USB mouse 
 I’ve plugged it out and I’m trying to connect again over COM1 
 which didn’t work because no heartbeat packets were received.

114

It is unlikely the telemetry radio got assigned to COM1. On an old laptop this is a hardware COM port. USB COM ports usually get COM5 and higher. Try the other com ports listed in the MP dropdown.

115

Okay, I will test them one by one and tell you if any of them worked. Thank you for your help!

116

COM8: Did not connect.
COM7: Did not connect.
COM5: Did not connect.
COM6: Did not connect.

I could try the other listed things, which aren’t COM Ports, as well.

(un)surprisingly, they failed as well. :pensive:

117

No, that will not work.
Could you open the Windows Device Manager. There should be an entry “COM and LPT ports”. Open it and see if a COM port diappears when you plug out the telemetry radio.
Also, is there any (USB) device marked with an “!” ?

118

Under COM & LPT, nothing changes when I plug it out.

However, under “other devices”, the FT230X Basic UART (the telemetry radio) is listed. And it has a yellow exclamation mark. Checking this one, the status is that there is no driver software installed. The laptop is currently searching for suitable driver software which it downloaded and installed. It selected “USB Serial Converter”.

Under “other devices”, there is now a USB Serial Port with the exclamation mark that doesn’t have driver software.

119

After installing the driver, is there a new COM port listed?

120

Unfortunately, no. :pensive: