Neither of you will be happy to hear this, but it didn’t work.
SW3 is mapped to channel 6. Under RC6_OPTION, I have selected Learn Cruise. The MAVLink telemetry connection is working. I can control and drive the vehicle around.
However, when I switch SW3 up and down or down and up while driving at lower than full speed, I didn’t see a change of parameters. Neither somewhere on the DATA screen (as Mackay describes it in his video), nor under CRUISE_SPEED AND CRUISE_THROTTLE in the CONFIG Basic Parameters.
I have done everything exactly as described and suggested, but it still doesn’t work. I didn’t just try once, but at least ten times, so it’s a reoccuring error.
I’m not sure where it comes from, but it might be notable that when I connect the vehicle, I get a message that parameters 920 vs 919 are missing.
If you have any ideas what I could change or improve, let me hear it. I’m happy for any help and suggestions, and I appreciate it a lot. Thank you already in advance for your answers.
I then started the Cruise Learning by switching switch SW3. However, I get “cruise learning started” for switching in one direction, and then immediately after “cruise learning failed” when I switch in the other direction.
However, in Mackay’s video, he switches the switch back and forth immediately, so I don’t know what is causing this problem.
Do not imnediatly switch it off again. Switch cruise learning on, drive in a straight line at the desired speed for a few seconds and switch off while driving.
The error seems to indicate a unreliable telemetry connection, so not all parameters are coming through. I stopped using telemetry radios a long time ago. I always had problems with them. Certain radios would not connect to each other (same make, model and settings, different pair), they died for no reason, mostly when at the flying/driving field and so on. I use Wifi on all of my rovers for telemetry and video now.
Thank you, that’s good to know! The video made it seem like the on/off is an immediate thing.
Yeah, the telemetry connection is super slow or fails at times, even if there is just a little over 1m distance between radio 1 and radio 2. It’s unfortunate.
I will try again tomorrow, and let you know if it was successful.
Now, I have a problem. The sticks don’t behave like before, and as soon as I arm the vehicle, the throttle goes off. I cannot control it with the sticks and all I can do is disarm it via QGC. Luckily, I have put the vehicle on a stand, otherwise, it would have crashed again.
I also get an error message sometimes that states “vehicle does not respond arm/disarm”.
What also doesn’t make any sense to me is that the vehicle does not respond to the Graupner anymore. I can’t arm/disarm with SW8 on CH7, the vehicle only responds to left/right movement on the right stick (moves steering), and it doesn’t respond to anything else.
The problem with the throttle going off on its own only happens when I have the Graupner active and the vehicle is connected to QGC and armed. I don’t know what is causing this.
RC7_OPTION was Manual after the firmware update, so I set it to ArmDisarm now, since that is what it should do.
UPDATE: Arming works again with the Graupner, but there is still no reaction to the stick movement from the vehicle.
The parameters missing error was a transmission problem with the telemetry radios, it had nothing to do with the parameters saved in the Pixhawk. Both parameter files look fine, except the new one is missing a lot of settings you did before. It would take to long to set this all up again.
You have the old parameter file. Load it in QGC and write it to the Pixhawk again. Then you will have the old (working) settings back.
Thank you very much! I was feeling very frustrated because of that.
It’s very odd that the telemetry radios behave like this; they shouldn’t have such a high failure rate, I mean, it’s above the tolerable 5% according to the Gaussian bell curve – as an (aspiring) engineer I don’t consider it a good product.
But well, thank you for this helpful reply!
UPDATE: Throttle still cannot be controlled with the joystick. Even under Vehicle Setup, Motors, I cannot control or active the throttle. I don’t understand why.
UPDATE 2: It still doesn’t work. I don’t know why. By the way, how can I use wifi for a more stable connection between GCS and vehicle? Telemetry is very unstable. Thank you already in advance for your help!
Does the right stick up/down move the throttle input in radio calibration?
Does the servo output move when the rover is armed? Does the ESC beep its normal beeps when powered up? Is a cable loose?
Troubleshooting should always follow a path/checklist. Identify which parts of the system might be part of the problem. Determin an order to follow the signal/problem from its source to its destination. Collect the tools you might need to solve the problem (hard/software, documentation). Adjust/correct every step while you are troubleshooting and take notes, so you do not have to start from scratch the next time.
I use Raspberry Pis as companion computers on the rovers with cameras and ESP8266 on the others.
Depending on the Wifi adapters I use with the RPis, I get up to 200m video range, which is more than enough for a rover. The range of the ESP8266 is about 50m. The connection is much faster than with telemetry radios and you do not need extra hardware on the GCS side. For telemetry/setup at normal distances, that is. For longer range, I use Alfa adapters on the rover and GCS, with directional antennas on the GCS adapter.
No loose cables, they are all fastened.
Upon powering up, the ESC, UBEC and the Pixhawk 4 all beep.
The ESC’s LED is solid green, that of the UBEC is solid red and that of the Pixhawk 4 blinks green (when disarmed).
There is no reaction of the trottle in the motor setup.
In the radio calibration, right stick up/down moves the throttle bar on C2.
Right stick left/right moves yaw on C1, left stick up/down moves pitch on C3, and left stick left/right moves roll on C4.
Using QGC, I see nothing that indicates why the throttle shouldn’t be moving.
EDIT: Wait, under the parameters needed for the throttle, there is SPEED_MAX, which is set to 0.0m/s … that doesn’t seem to make any sense to me.
Speed_max is not needed in most cases. If at 0, max speed of the vehicle is calculated from cruise throttle/speed. And it would have no influence in manual mode, anyway. You should really be using Missionplanner, QGCs main target is the PX4 firmware and it is missing many tools to troubleshoot Ardupilot.
Okay, then I will do the tests again with MP. I can’t do them immediately now, since the Graupner needs to charge, but in an hour or two I can do it. I’ll keep you update, and thank you for your help!
Powering up the vehicle, the ESC beeps and there is a blinking green light. Then this light goes off.
On the Pixhawk 4, under FMU, the light for ACT flashes blue and blinks red, the light for B/E blinks red and PWR is solid green.
Fo I/O, PWR is solid green, B/E is clear and ACT blinks blue.
Arming with the Graupner, only the steering responds, but not the throttle.
There also seems to be a problem with the windows laptop now – no devices plugged in via USB are being registered – neither the external mouse, nor the telemetry radio (both work perfectly fine on my macbook). This leads to COM4 not being shown, so I cannot connect the vehicle with MP over telemetry rn – and seemingly over no USB cable either, as the mouse isn’t working.
Turning the laptop on an off again helped. USB is connected now.
I still cannot connect the vehicle and the GCS; there is an element on the vehicle giving off a shrill sound, which sounds loudest at the Graupner received (its LED is solid red). This shrill sounds appears sometimes after powering up the vehicle, but not always.
Anyone having an idea why it is that way? Thank you already in advance!
UPDATE: I finally managed to connect the vehicle to MP again.
UPDATE 2: Using MP, the vehicle and the Graupner RC, I cannot control either steering or throttle with the Graupner. Neither can I find any status parameter that tells me if there is a reaction to what I’m doing with the transmitter.
In MP status screen below the HUD, there are all channel input output values listed. You can also see input and output in setup, mandatory hardware, radio calibration and servo outputs. Is the rovers lipo charged?
From ch1in and ch1out to ch16in and ch16out I don’t see any changes in the status window below the HUD.
Since CH1, CH3 and CH7 have special functions, I just put their values here:
CH1_in: 1499
CH1_out: 1500
CH3_in: 1499
CH3_out: 1500
CH3_percent: 0
CH7_in: 1100
CH7_out: 0
According to the preflight window, the telemetry signal is 0% and the battery level 0V, but the LiPo is charged and the GCS is receiving packages, so I don’t know why it claims that.
It’s just that the vehicle either doesn’t react to throttle input or that it reacts to neither throttle nor steering input.
Are you sure the rover is connected to MissionPlanner?
Does the HUD show movement/values if you move the rover?
The parameters you uploaded are not equal to the working ones, you had uploaded before. For example all servo values are at their defaults again. You had the throttle output reduced to 1300 to 1700us and in those files it is at 1100 to 1900us.
Yes, both telemetry radios have a solid green light, which means they are connected, and the rover is connected to MP over COM4, where the USB telemetry radio is plugged in. And I’m seeing parameter lists, so they should be connected.
The HUD doesn’t show any movements or values.
Okay, then that means that the old parameter file I uploaded to the vehicle wasn’t the latest one with all the right parameters …
I name them like this (just front-end programmer things) too, but I hadn’t saved enough files … I did the beginner’s mistake of not saving a file before updating the firmware … so now I’m reading through this entire thread again to find all the correct parameters that I need.
