Hi,
My arduplane VTOL has 2 pusher throttle motors.
I want pusher A to constantly work when cruising, and motor B which is for redundancy, to only start spinning in the case of motor A failure detection by the AP.
Is this supported by the Arduplane?
Thanks!
Ardupilot supports two impulse based RPM sensors and ESC telemetry. You could use Lua scripting to monitor for RPM loss on primary motor and if failure is detected suppress main motor, send message to GCS and unsuppress the auxiliary/backup motor.
Is there a reason you want to keep backup suppressed until the primary fails? Most aircraft run all engines as it provides safer transition to n-1 engine operation.
I want my backup pusher suppressed to keep my pusher motor working at its most efficient point.
Is there a way to implement the solution without using Lua scripting, only params?
Not really, you could implement backup throttle in C++ nut it is significantly more difficult and if you mess something up you have potential to bring the whole flight controller down. Lua is the easiest and safest way of implementing custom behaviors.
Given electric motor reliability I would consider setup with two smaller motors that together operate at peak efficiency but can sustain slight climb at (reduced) cruise airspeed solo. Then you can forego scripting but won’t get automated failure detection, I would still install RPM sensors.
If you go with a script you could adjust TECS max airspeed and climb to prevent it from pushing the plane above its degraded performance when motor failure is detected.
RPM based failure detection won’t detect propeller related failures such as lose or broken propeller, you could monitor for excessively high throttle demand to detect that.