We are all proud of you and thanking you for passing on your valuable knowledge to us, sometimes it's like 2 am here in the UK when I get a youtube notification that you have uploaded a new video, it's so exciting so I can't go back to sleep until I watch it lol. Thanks
L0ND0N200012 Thanks so much for the feedback. I greatly appreciate it and hope my passion for this hobby comes through in the videos. I really enjoy learning as much as I can and sharing it with others. Take care.
Dennis, Just wanted to say thank you, I have built a qav500 v2 with pixhWk from scratch watching your videos and aside from my errors I.e. Crashing while learning, your videos have been spot on and easy to understand.The auto tune is the next step once I replace my bent leg and I get a nice calm day and am sure it will go off without a hitch.Thanks again and please keep it up as your videos are a great help.Cheers, Tatey
I think you just answered my last question about reliability. Just to let you know i bought some super low kv motors for my hexa and am geting close to an hour on a 6 cell battery. These motors are designed to run on 8 cell for super high flight times and they do work. You might want to try it Dennis! Thanks for all your great work! Kevin
It's nice to see how all these arduino communauties are still moving on. While, companies like Gopro or DJI just do not bring a lot of innovations anymore. I planned to use an APM system on one of my future planes :) Happy end of week Dennis. Thanks for your great video :)
ANOTHER BLACKMENNEWSTYLE PRODUCTION I really love the open source hardware movement, especially what 3DR is doing. Totally agree there's a lot of innovation going on in that space. I love the idea of passionate contributors that get involved with projects and help them evolve....and a lot of times it happens at a much quicker pace than within large, corporate organizations.
Yes got 2 questions, where did you get the "Auto-tune" procedure...? I just upgraded the Firmware on my Pixhawk in QGRoundControl and I don't see it as an Option in the Flight Modes...? Also, when I try to set up Flight Modes to the AUX Switches, lots of them are being Rejected, like Take-Off, Land, Return to launch, Altitude Hold, Loiter, the only one that does not get rejected is the "Stabilize" mode....whats up with that...? Thanks in Advance...! =) James......
Hi Dennis, You can now do a single axis at a time for copters without the duration to run all axis at once. The gimbal can sometimes mess up Autotune so if you see poor results from Autotune it is worth giving it a go with the gimbal off. If you do have the gimbal on during autotune it should be powered and stabilising the camera to minimise the flapping around it does. Another nice video!!
+Leonard Hall Thanks :) I learned that powered gimbal approach the hard way. I couldn't get my autotune just right and discovered I needed to power it. The tune was MUCH better after that. Appreciate your insight.
Hi Dennis Do you really advise using auto tune when tuning a quadcopter? Would it give a fine tune where it flies very stable and hover very solid in place like DJI ?
Hi Dennis; Sorry for my bad english (mtl canada) :) I have the same component and my drone flight good in stabilize but the drone bunce repeatitivly and lost altitude when i switch to autotune or switch flight mode ... some idea? completly fonctional in stab with my dx9 and x8r px4 pid gps fix ok ......
Dennis , What length are your arms on the octo? In feet,hate that other stuff.What motors and esc? And props. I'm building one my self from a bunch of kits. Building the way I think I want it. Need ideas. Thanks steve
steve USMC page Great to hear from you. From motor to motor diagonally it's just a bit more than 2 feet across. Here is the detail page: www.helipal.com/tarot-fy680-pro-hexacopter-frame-set.html It's a hexacopter so only 6 rotors. Let me know if you have any other questions.
It aims to give you a more stable copter that is responsive and hopefully no oscillations. You can learn more about it here: ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html
Really helpful and good video Dennis. I want to try the autotune mode for my bachelor thesis research. And I have a question before I start the autotune. How do you land the copter in autotune mode? Are you switching to Land mode or are you just lowering the throttle until the copter reach the ground? Thank you. I'm looking forward to your answer.
Keep the copter in Autotune, but you can switch the main flight mode back to stabilize to land. If you land while the autotune switch is still activated, it will save the new parameters from the tune. If you land with the switch back off, it won't save and will keep the old parameters.
Thanks Dennis! Good stuff, one question: When performing the auto tuning is it necessary to have your telemetry and Misionplaner running out on the field or you can assume the process is complete after few minutes?
Georgi Tushev You will know when it's done because it will stop pitching back and forth when done. So it's not necessary, but helpful in case anything goes wrong. And definitely good to have telemetry for watching your battery voltage.
Hi, it's really a matter of preference. They should all do the job for the VTOL and my personal preference is the Cube. It's what I'm currently flying in my VTOL. Best of luck with your project.
Jamie Nelson Yes totally! Sorry if I didn't mention that. I was just too dumb and stubborn that I let it get a little too low and I think the ESC voltage cut-off kicked in and sent the hexa to the ground. But great question and I hope others don't think that once you're in AutoTune you're stuck there :)
Dennis, I would love to see a video like this that demonstrates "follow me" mode of the pixhawk with an GPS enabled phone, like an android. I think its the coolest feature (the ultimate selfie) that know one has demonstrated beyond a glossy sales video. I want to know how hard it is to pair your device and get it configured.
Quadrysteria You got it. Great suggestion and I'll get around to it soon. I've been flying my hexa a lot with DroidPlanner lately and I plan on doing a series that shows many different flight modes. I'll plan on starting with Follow Me. Thanks.
Great videos Dennis... would you please confirm something for me, can autotune be set up as a flight mode? And if so would the procedure be to take off in stabilize then switch to alt-hold and then on another switch that I have autotune set as a flight mode switch that to autotune? Thanks so much
Thanks for the good words. Check this out: In Copter-3.3 (and higher) AutoTune can be setup as a flight-mode. Switching into or out of the AutoTune flight mode responds in the same way as raising or lowering a ch7/ch8 aux switch high assigned the AutoTune function. From here: ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html Good luck.
That's good to know. I've done a successful first flight and it seemed very stable. Not sure if I need to do the autotune or not. If it feels ok to fly what does autotune actually do?
Jamie Nelson AutoTune should be able to help you fine tune your gains from the default params, but if you have something you really like then you could be taking a step backwards. I'd probably recommend you stay with what you have for the time being. Or save your params to a file then AutoTune to see what you think. If you don't like it you can always revert to your saved params.
+Dennis Baldwin Hi Dennis, Thanks for your comments. Looking forward to implementing Pixhawk. Actually, my X8 is the exact same scale as the quad and is also foldable, with 8 motors instead of 4. Foldable X8 with 18.6 extreme pitch props. Both copters exceed 75 minutes of flight time . Longest flight to date is 88 minutes. Yes, Seriously : ) Will let you know how first flight goes with PX4. Expecting the FC in the mail tomorrow.... Cheers, D
+Derek Hughes Dennis, You can check some pics of the copters on the promo site I'm building , if this is of interest. I am currently commissioning pre-production models and hope to be in full production over the next few months, should the planets align : ) blindspotscontent.com Cheers, D
You said within mission planner you will here a auto tune success and then you can land,so will i need to have my lap top at the field so i will no when the autotune is finnished?
jay ish No. You'll see that your multirotor will stop "twitching" in the air. It moves back and forth enough that you'll know when it's done. The voice alert from Mission Planner is just an added bonus :)
Hi, thanks for posting. I am trying to figure out, if and how I can make sure auto-tune works BEFORE I fly?! Is there a way to bench test if auto-tune is activated, or not?! Auto-tune is on my Taranis assigned to channel 7, which is the SF switch. Upon flipping the switch I get a "Auto-tune stopped" message in Mission Planner?! How that be?! Thanks, G.
***** The best suggestion I can make it try flying in AltHold mode. If you can fly in this mode successfully then you should be able to AutoTune in the field. This article talks a bit more about it: copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/autotune/ Good luck and keep us posted.
You want to toggle into AltHold mode. This article talks about the procedure: ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html Good luck and hope it works out for you.
Hi Dennis, is it mandatory to write 4 or 17 in Full Parameters List to get Autotune and Alt Hold on Ch 5 and Ch 7 when you select them...or just to choose Alt Hold in Flight Modes with ch 5 and choose Autotune on ch 7 with Extended Parameters...? Happy Fly Philippe
Hi Philippe, great question. If you are running Copter 3.3 or later you can set Autotune up as a flight mode and then switch to it from Alt Hold. I've always done it with Autotune on CH7 and leave my flight modes separate. This thread talks more about it: diydrones.com/group/arducopterusergroup/forum/topics/can-not-invoke-autotune-flight-mode Let us know how it goes
In the nick of time Dennis. You may have spared me from a similar fate. I've been struggling to get Autotune going the last couple days. Occured to me it might be a weight/thrust issue. I swapped out battery and props and sure enough, Autotune engaged. So I was thinking to give it a try tomorrow with a lighter battery that only gives me about 7 minutes (!) flight time....Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but thanks for sharing that. Scarry crash. Impressive you didn't have more damage. Speaking of which, is that the FY680? I've been eying the Tarot hexes for my next build. Would love to hear/see more details about your build. How about some vids on that guy?
B Fun Glad to hear you're in AutoTuning mode :) One thing I didn't mention in the video is that it's easy to disengage AutoTune and land. I was just being stubborn and wanted to finish the process. Yes, I'm flying with the FY680 and I'd be happy to do a video or two on it. I have a couple of videos already in the queue, but I'll definitely get to it. In the meantime if you have any specific questions about it please check out the forums at www.garagepilots.com and post there. Thanks and take care.
Hi Dennis, i come back to you because i don't remember how to set AltHold correctly...my problem is...i take off with Stabilize mode and when i switch on ( SG )... Taranis plus...for AltHold my quadcopter go down slowly but down...i keep the control manually with stabilize again and i switch on SG again...( CH 5 ) then i switch on SF ( CH 7 ) for Autotune but no result...! may be i have to increase or decrease THR_MID fist time to get a great hover but i can't to find it on M.Planner...GRRRR...!! the second problem is ...if i want to set on SF ( CH 7 ) for Autotune then set SB ( CH 8 ) for RTL my LEDs blink double yellow...due to this i keep only one or the other SF fisrt time to get good PIDs then SB for RTL when these PIDs will be good for me... Thank's a lot for your help, happy flies Philippe
Hi Philippe, it's hard to say what's going on but have you checked that your throttle is above 50%? If you'll need to make sure that happens for autotune will engage. More info here: diydrones.com/forum/topics/autotune-not-engaging Keep us posted on your progress.
Hey Dennis. First let me say that your videos have helped a complete rookie learn a ton. Thanks so much. I have a Turnigy 9x Tx and am not smart enough to figure out how to program certain channels to do what I want. I would like to use the ail. D+R switch to activate the Ch 7 option for auto tune. Like the way you have instructed in the video in Mission Planner. Is there a simple answer or should I just kill myself now! I have been able to do the channel mixing, for 6 way mode switching, as you have described but don't have a clue how to make this work. I will totally understand if you are just shaking your head..thanks..
+Dennis Baldwin Thanks. .this is kinda what I have learned so far. So I need to attach servo connection between channel 7 on Tx to channel 7 on APM. It was never explained to me that it had to be hard wired!!! Like I said, I am very new to all of this. Unfortunately, it is not very intuitive as how to actually program one of the two way switches to be channel 7 on the Turnigy 9X. It is easy for the gear switch as it is one of the choices for the aux channel of the T9X. But I am already using that channel for my 6 way mode switching. The other obvious options are all potentiometer knobs and not really suited for triggering autotune...
Hi 1 and all> I have got a telemetry connection but have tried every version of windows from XP to win 10 and can not get a USB connection, i did a couple of times and managed to get firmware loaded but that's it. now my question is can I do everything I need to do via the telem or if I can not connect via usb does that mean I am stuffed? I haven't tried the calibration of the hardware yet but hoping I can with the only connection I get via the telem. I have usb drivers loaded but every time get usb device not recognised. No one has responded to any of my questions on a number of forums and youtube channels so I am hoping a someone who uses the pixhawk can help me out as I only have 7 days to work out if I should keep it or not and times getting short down to 3 days now. Many thanks in advance Gus
i would think you would want the copter to be as close to normal operating mode as possible, the pids could be different between a gimbal and a dummy weight
+pballerss That's a great question. I would expect that to be the case, but have never tested this. May be worth a test soon. So I think yes, but not 100% confident.
I just crashed my TBS Discovery trying to autotune it. You must make sure you have a full battery when attempting this. I used a 5200 mah Lumineer battery but still crashed due to low battery before the tune was complete. Make sure you do this on a calm day like Dennis says or you will have to keep repositioning your aircraft which will deplete your battery. I learned the hard way. I lost two DJI arms a Pixhawk gps mast and a gimbal.
Thanks. I need two replace 2 DJI arms, a Pixhawk GPS mast, and a part of my klinker gimbal. Total cost is about $50 plus shipping so I'm alright. This happened about an hour ago while thanksgiving dinner was cooking. Still... I'm thankful.
***** I feel you man! Been there, done that :) Always good to hear confirmation from others though. Thanks for sharing and I hope you get it dialed in!
jay ish I would think so, but don't have one so not 100% sure. This makes it sound like it's possible: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1365727 You obviously want one channel to switch to Altitude Hold and the other to engage AutoTune
Ahmad Sofian Mohd Hazani I don't have them right now, but I'm working on a video for AutoTuning my QAV500 with Pixhawk and will definitely be sharing those soon.
S1mpleSparrow Sorry to hear that. Perhaps after you reset your firmware you lost some configuration params. Not sure what exactly would have caused that so it's just a guess. Hope you didn't suffer too much damage!
I broke an arm, stuffed a motor bending the shaft, and destroyed five props. But today I fixed almost everything. I'm not sure if it was an issue with the barometer or if it was with my stick only being at quarter throttle. I can hover at a quarter in stabilize but I'm not sure how to change that.
Phani Vyas Great question. I hadn't even looked into this before. I believe these are non SimonK. They are the HobbyWing Platinum ESCs: amzn.to/1vfucZj I got them as part of a kit and are designed for multirotors. They seem very responsive, but I'd like to compare them to my SimonK ESCs to see if there's any lag. Thanks for the question.
Dennis Baldwin Actually I have an issue with these SimonK ESCs. I use DYS 30A on my F450 APM 2.6 quad. During flight when I give full roll or pitch, I could hear some strange knocking sounds from the motors (may be sync problem). I have lowered ESC refresh rate in MP and have done a test flight yesterday, now it seems OK. Until I do some more flights with these settings I can't be sure if it is a sync issue. Initially I thought of replacing all ESCs on my quad to non simonK.
Hi Dennis. Great vids! I am switching from DJI to pixhawk for my extreme endurance platforms and am a bit nervous about getting it tuned with PH. Any tuning advice for 4s4p (14.8V) with 390 KV and 18" props? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. blindspotscontent.com Best Wishes, D
+Derek Hughes Sounds like an awesome build. I'm not sure about tuning something with props that large. I've tuned a hexa with 16" props and it worked well. Make sure you run compass mot to make sure you don't have much magnetic interference. Good luck and let us know how your build comes along.
We are all proud of you and thanking you for passing on your valuable knowledge to us, sometimes it's like 2 am here in the UK when I get a youtube notification that you have uploaded a new video, it's so exciting so I can't go back to sleep until I watch it lol. Thanks
L0ND0N200012 Thanks so much for the feedback. I greatly appreciate it and hope my passion for this hobby comes through in the videos. I really enjoy learning as much as I can and sharing it with others. Take care.
Dennis Baldwin hii brother I can have your WhatsApp number I have some questions
Dennis, Just wanted to say thank you, I have built a qav500 v2 with pixhWk from scratch watching your videos and aside from my errors I.e. Crashing while learning, your videos have been spot on and easy to understand.The auto tune is the next step once I replace my bent leg and I get a nice calm day and am sure it will go off without a hitch.Thanks again and please keep it up as your videos are a great help.Cheers, Tatey
+Andrew Tate I really appreciate those good words. Thank you and glad the videos are helping.
I think you just answered my last question about reliability. Just to let you know i bought some super low kv motors for my hexa and am geting close to an hour on a 6 cell battery. These motors are designed to run on 8 cell for super high flight times and they do work. You might want to try it Dennis! Thanks for all your great work! Kevin
Thanks Dennis, these clips are great - Pixhawk can be pretty daunting at first.
Wow that's a nice new system you got there Dennis ;-) congratulations :-)
L0ND0N200012 Thanks. It's been a challenging process to get everything tuned, but I'm getting there.
It's nice to see how all these arduino communauties are still moving on. While, companies like Gopro or DJI just do not bring a lot of innovations anymore.
I planned to use an APM system on one of my future planes :)
Happy end of week Dennis. Thanks for your great video :)
ANOTHER BLACKMENNEWSTYLE PRODUCTION I really love the open source hardware movement, especially what 3DR is doing. Totally agree there's a lot of innovation going on in that space. I love the idea of passionate contributors that get involved with projects and help them evolve....and a lot of times it happens at a much quicker pace than within large, corporate organizations.
very good video .
and a big thank you for the warning on flight time of the test.
keep up the good work
cheers
roylecopters No problem and thank you for the feedback!
Yes got 2 questions, where did you get the "Auto-tune" procedure...? I just upgraded the Firmware on my Pixhawk in QGRoundControl and I don't see it as an Option in the Flight Modes...? Also, when I try to set up Flight Modes to the AUX Switches, lots of them are being Rejected, like Take-Off, Land, Return to launch, Altitude Hold, Loiter, the only one that does not get rejected is the "Stabilize" mode....whats up with that...? Thanks in Advance...! =)
James......
Hi Dennis,
You can now do a single axis at a time for copters without the duration to run all axis at once.
The gimbal can sometimes mess up Autotune so if you see poor results from Autotune it is worth giving it a go with the gimbal off.
If you do have the gimbal on during autotune it should be powered and stabilising the camera to minimise the flapping around it does.
Another nice video!!
+Leonard Hall Thanks :) I learned that powered gimbal approach the hard way. I couldn't get my autotune just right and discovered I needed to power it. The tune was MUCH better after that. Appreciate your insight.
Hi Dennis
Do you really advise using auto tune when tuning a quadcopter?
Would it give a fine tune where it flies very stable and hover very solid in place like DJI ?
Hi Dennis; Sorry for my bad english (mtl canada) :) I have the same component and my drone flight good in stabilize but the drone bunce repeatitivly and lost altitude when i switch to autotune or switch flight mode ... some idea? completly fonctional in stab with my dx9 and x8r px4 pid gps fix ok ......
Hi - thanks for this vid. Going to head out to auto tune now. What happens if you land before the tune is finished? Is everything lost?
Dennis , What length are your arms on the octo? In feet,hate that other stuff.What motors and esc? And props. I'm building one my self from a bunch of kits. Building the way I think I want it. Need ideas. Thanks steve
steve USMC page Great to hear from you. From motor to motor diagonally it's just a bit more than 2 feet across. Here is the detail page:
www.helipal.com/tarot-fy680-pro-hexacopter-frame-set.html
It's a hexacopter so only 6 rotors. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Why the Pixhawk buzzer didn't give an alarm indicating a low battery ? it suppose to do that , isn't it?
Fahad Al-Saadi Yes it is, but I didn't have the audible alert set up at the time. Won't be doing that again :)
hi Dennis I am building tarot x8 t1000 and still learning all about the pixhawk can I ask what is the purpose of auto tune
It aims to give you a more stable copter that is responsive and hopefully no oscillations. You can learn more about it here: ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html
Really helpful and good video Dennis.
I want to try the autotune mode for my bachelor thesis research. And I have a question before I start the autotune. How do you land the copter in autotune mode? Are you switching to Land mode or are you just lowering the throttle until the copter reach the ground?
Thank you. I'm looking forward to your answer.
Keep the copter in Autotune, but you can switch the main flight mode back to stabilize to land. If you land while the autotune switch is still activated, it will save the new parameters from the tune. If you land with the switch back off, it won't save and will keep the old parameters.
Excellent advice Dennis thankyou
My pleasure, Dave. Thanks for following along.
Thanks Dennis! Good stuff, one question: When performing the auto tuning is it necessary to have your telemetry and Misionplaner running out on the field or you can assume the process is complete after few minutes?
Georgi Tushev You will know when it's done because it will stop pitching back and forth when done. So it's not necessary, but helpful in case anything goes wrong. And definitely good to have telemetry for watching your battery voltage.
Dennis Baldwin BIG thanks!!
Dennis i am looking for a evtol drone and land mobile robot, which one is good pixhawk 4 or cube or cav
Hi, it's really a matter of preference. They should all do the job for the VTOL and my personal preference is the Cube. It's what I'm currently flying in my VTOL. Best of luck with your project.
If the battery is getting low can you not break out of the autotune process before it crashes?
Jamie Nelson Yes totally! Sorry if I didn't mention that. I was just too dumb and stubborn that I let it get a little too low and I think the ESC voltage cut-off kicked in and sent the hexa to the ground. But great question and I hope others don't think that once you're in AutoTune you're stuck there :)
Dennis, I would love to see a video like this that demonstrates "follow me" mode of the pixhawk with an GPS enabled phone, like an android. I think its the coolest feature (the ultimate selfie) that know one has demonstrated beyond a glossy sales video. I want to know how hard it is to pair your device and get it configured.
Quadrysteria You got it. Great suggestion and I'll get around to it soon. I've been flying my hexa a lot with DroidPlanner lately and I plan on doing a series that shows many different flight modes. I'll plan on starting with Follow Me. Thanks.
Dennis Baldwin Thank you! looking forward to it.
Dennis Baldwin Which droid do you recommend for follow me? It needs GPS so I'm not sure which one is best. Not a phone but a tablet.
Great videos Dennis... would you please confirm something for me, can autotune be set up as a flight mode? And if so would the procedure be to take off in stabilize then switch to alt-hold and then on another switch that I have autotune set as a flight mode switch that to autotune? Thanks so much
Thanks for the good words. Check this out:
In Copter-3.3 (and higher) AutoTune can be setup as a flight-mode. Switching into or out of the AutoTune flight mode responds in the same way as raising or lowering a ch7/ch8 aux switch high assigned the AutoTune function.
From here:
ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html
Good luck.
hi, can you please resume your tips to avoid a suddenly crash during the autotune process? thanks
Emanuele
+Emanuele Scappaticci Sure. I will look into this. Thanks for the suggestion.
That's good to know. I've done a successful first flight and it seemed very stable. Not sure if I need to do the autotune or not. If it feels ok to fly what does autotune actually do?
Jamie Nelson AutoTune should be able to help you fine tune your gains from the default params, but if you have something you really like then you could be taking a step backwards. I'd probably recommend you stay with what you have for the time being. Or save your params to a file then AutoTune to see what you think. If you don't like it you can always revert to your saved params.
Oh, I have this copter in a quad as well as an X8. Thanks!
+Derek Hughes Cool. That X8 has got to be pretty huge! Tune the smaller one first and get a feel for it then go with the bigger one.
+Dennis Baldwin
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for your comments. Looking forward to implementing Pixhawk. Actually, my X8 is the exact same scale as the quad and is also foldable, with 8 motors instead of 4. Foldable X8 with 18.6 extreme pitch props. Both copters exceed 75 minutes of flight time . Longest flight to date is 88 minutes. Yes, Seriously : ) Will let you know how first flight goes with PX4. Expecting the FC in the mail tomorrow....
Cheers, D
+Derek Hughes
But the X8 carries 2 packs, as opposed to one pack on the quad. Using custom HD packs...
+Derek Hughes
Dennis, You can check some pics of the copters on the promo site I'm building , if this is of interest. I am currently commissioning pre-production models and hope to be in full production over the next few months, should the planets align : )
blindspotscontent.com
Cheers, D
You said within mission planner you will here a auto tune success and then you can land,so will i need to have my lap top at the field so i will no when the autotune is finnished?
jay ish No. You'll see that your multirotor will stop "twitching" in the air. It moves back and forth enough that you'll know when it's done. The voice alert from Mission Planner is just an added bonus :)
Dennis Baldwin
Thank you
Hi, thanks for posting. I am trying to figure out, if and how I can make sure auto-tune works BEFORE I fly?! Is there a way to bench test if auto-tune is activated, or not?! Auto-tune is on my Taranis assigned to channel 7, which is the SF switch. Upon flipping the switch I get a "Auto-tune stopped" message in Mission Planner?! How that be?! Thanks, G.
***** The best suggestion I can make it try flying in AltHold mode. If you can fly in this mode successfully then you should be able to AutoTune in the field. This article talks a bit more about it:
copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/autotune/
Good luck and keep us posted.
Thanks for the video, its very usefull.
You takeoff in stabilize mode (with GPS) and then you turn into altitude mode and you enable autotune ?
You want to toggle into AltHold mode. This article talks about the procedure:
ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html
Good luck and hope it works out for you.
Hi Dennis, is it mandatory to write 4 or 17 in Full Parameters List to get Autotune and Alt Hold on Ch 5 and Ch 7 when you select them...or just to choose Alt Hold in Flight Modes with ch 5 and choose Autotune on ch 7 with Extended Parameters...?
Happy Fly
Philippe
Hi Philippe, great question. If you are running Copter 3.3 or later you can set Autotune up as a flight mode and then switch to it from Alt Hold. I've always done it with Autotune on CH7 and leave my flight modes separate. This thread talks more about it:
diydrones.com/group/arducopterusergroup/forum/topics/can-not-invoke-autotune-flight-mode
Let us know how it goes
In the nick of time Dennis. You may have spared me from a similar fate. I've been struggling to get Autotune going the last couple days. Occured to me it might be a weight/thrust issue. I swapped out battery and props and sure enough, Autotune engaged. So I was thinking to give it a try tomorrow with a lighter battery that only gives me about 7 minutes (!) flight time....Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but thanks for sharing that. Scarry crash. Impressive you didn't have more damage.
Speaking of which, is that the FY680? I've been eying the Tarot hexes for my next build. Would love to hear/see more details about your build. How about some vids on that guy?
B Fun Glad to hear you're in AutoTuning mode :) One thing I didn't mention in the video is that it's easy to disengage AutoTune and land. I was just being stubborn and wanted to finish the process.
Yes, I'm flying with the FY680 and I'd be happy to do a video or two on it. I have a couple of videos already in the queue, but I'll definitely get to it. In the meantime if you have any specific questions about it please check out the forums at www.garagepilots.com and post there. Thanks and take care.
Dennis Baldwin Very cool Dennis. Looking forward to seeing your FY680 vids, thanks. BTW, I finally got Autotune to complete. Took about 11 minutes!
Hi Dennis, i come back to you because i don't remember how to set AltHold correctly...my problem is...i take off with Stabilize mode and when i switch on ( SG )... Taranis plus...for AltHold my quadcopter go down slowly but down...i keep the control manually with stabilize again and i switch on SG again...( CH 5 ) then i switch on SF ( CH 7 ) for Autotune but no result...!
may be i have to increase or decrease THR_MID fist time to get a great hover but i can't to find it on M.Planner...GRRRR...!!
the second problem is ...if i want to set on SF ( CH 7 ) for Autotune then set SB ( CH 8 ) for RTL my LEDs blink double yellow...due to this i keep only one or the other SF fisrt time to get good PIDs then SB for RTL when these PIDs will be good for me...
Thank's a lot for your help, happy flies
Philippe
Hi Philippe, it's hard to say what's going on but have you checked that your throttle is above 50%? If you'll need to make sure that happens for autotune will engage. More info here:
diydrones.com/forum/topics/autotune-not-engaging
Keep us posted on your progress.
Hey Dennis. First let me say that your videos have helped a complete rookie learn a ton. Thanks so much. I have a Turnigy 9x Tx and am not smart enough to figure out how to program certain channels to do what I want. I would like to use the ail. D+R switch to activate the Ch 7 option for auto tune. Like the way you have instructed in the video in Mission Planner. Is there a simple answer or should I just kill myself now! I have been able to do the channel mixing, for 6 way mode switching, as you have described but don't have a clue how to make this work. I will totally understand if you are just shaking your head..thanks..
+Dennis Baldwin Thanks. .this is kinda what I have learned so far. So I need to attach servo connection between channel 7 on Tx to channel 7 on APM. It was never explained to me that it had to be hard wired!!! Like I said, I am very new to all of this. Unfortunately, it is not very intuitive as how to actually program one of the two way switches to be channel 7 on the Turnigy 9X. It is easy for the gear switch as it is one of the choices for the aux channel of the T9X. But I am already using that channel for my 6 way mode switching. The other obvious options are all potentiometer knobs and not really suited for triggering autotune...
Hi 1 and all> I have got a telemetry connection but have tried every version of windows from XP to win 10 and can not get a USB connection, i did a couple of times and managed to get firmware loaded but that's it. now my question is can I do everything I need to do via the telem or if I can not connect via usb does that mean I am stuffed? I haven't tried the calibration of the hardware yet but hoping I can with the only connection I get via the telem. I have usb drivers loaded but every time get usb device not recognised. No one has responded to any of my questions on a number of forums and youtube channels so I am hoping a someone who uses the pixhawk can help me out as I only have 7 days to work out if I should keep it or not and times getting short down to 3 days now. Many thanks in advance Gus
I thought you had to take off gimbal (since it shakes) and replace it with dummy weight
i would think you would want the copter to be as close to normal operating mode as possible, the pids could be different between a gimbal and a dummy weight
Hey! during the auto tune can you use the option of landing when the battery level hits a low percentage?
+pballerss That's a great question. I would expect that to be the case, but have never tested this. May be worth a test soon. So I think yes, but not 100% confident.
Dennis Baldwin cool! I will give it a try too! will be doing this soon.
and thanks! this was the best tutorial I have found on the subject :)
I just crashed my TBS Discovery trying to autotune it. You must make sure you have a full battery when attempting this. I used a 5200 mah Lumineer battery but still crashed due to low battery before the tune was complete. Make sure you do this on a calm day like Dennis says or you will have to keep repositioning your aircraft which will deplete your battery. I learned the hard way. I lost two DJI arms a Pixhawk gps mast and a gimbal.
sorry to hear that Sherman
Thanks. I need two replace 2 DJI arms, a Pixhawk GPS mast, and a part of my klinker gimbal. Total cost is about $50 plus shipping so I'm alright. This happened about an hour ago while thanksgiving dinner was cooking. Still... I'm thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the family
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
Same to you!
***** I feel you man! Been there, done that :) Always good to hear confirmation from others though. Thanks for sharing and I hope you get it dialed in!
Also do you know if i can use Channel 6 on my dx6 that i can use to switch into autotune?
jay ish I would think so, but don't have one so not 100% sure. This makes it sound like it's possible:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1365727
You obviously want one channel to switch to Altitude Hold and the other to engage AutoTune
did you land in alt hold?
great vid :)
Good question. Yes.
Dennis Baldwin thanks :)
Thank you Dennis
No problem. Thanks for watching.
were you able to revive that 3300 mAh battery?
Richard Davies Thankfully yes. What I think happened is that the LVC of one of the ESCs kicked in.
Can u share pid result after auto tune ??
Ahmad Sofian Mohd Hazani I don't have them right now, but I'm working on a video for AutoTuning my QAV500 with Pixhawk and will definitely be sharing those soon.
I did this my on my maiden and had no problems. I had to reset my firmware and did this again but my copter just dropped to the ground
S1mpleSparrow Sorry to hear that. Perhaps after you reset your firmware you lost some configuration params. Not sure what exactly would have caused that so it's just a guess. Hope you didn't suffer too much damage!
I broke an arm, stuffed a motor bending the shaft, and destroyed five props. But today I fixed almost everything. I'm not sure if it was an issue with the barometer or if it was with my stick only being at quarter throttle. I can hover at a quarter in stabilize but I'm not sure how to change that.
I had the same thing happen the first time i tried autotune. Snapped my gps mast as well.
hi, which ESCs are those? simonK or non simonK?
Phani Vyas Great question. I hadn't even looked into this before. I believe these are non SimonK. They are the HobbyWing Platinum ESCs:
amzn.to/1vfucZj
I got them as part of a kit and are designed for multirotors. They seem very responsive, but I'd like to compare them to my SimonK ESCs to see if there's any lag. Thanks for the question.
Dennis Baldwin
Actually I have an issue with these SimonK ESCs. I use DYS 30A on my F450 APM 2.6 quad. During flight when I give full roll or pitch, I could hear some strange knocking sounds from the motors (may be sync problem). I have lowered ESC refresh rate in MP and have done a test flight yesterday, now it seems OK. Until I do some more flights with these settings I can't be sure if it is a sync issue. Initially I thought of replacing all ESCs on my quad to non simonK.
Nice
Janxah Boots Thanks. Appreciate you watching.
Great
Thanks. I appreciate the feedback.
It is advised to not do Auto Tune with the gimbal attached and should be hard mounted, not live. Just FYI.
That should be "It is advised to do Auto Tune with the gimbal attached and should be hard mounted......"
Hey Dennis, You should check out my 3D Printed EDF that I designed. I think you might find it interesting. 3D PRINTED EDF .
Gavin Bendtsen Man that's killer. Nice work! I look forward to seeing that in the air someday.
But why need auto tune
Hi Dennis. Great vids! I am switching from DJI to pixhawk for my extreme endurance platforms and am a bit nervous about getting it tuned with PH. Any tuning advice for 4s4p (14.8V) with 390 KV and 18" props? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. blindspotscontent.com Best Wishes, D
+Derek Hughes Sounds like an awesome build. I'm not sure about tuning something with props that large. I've tuned a hexa with 16" props and it worked well. Make sure you run compass mot to make sure you don't have much magnetic interference. Good luck and let us know how your build comes along.
Wow man you test a bit high
Too old to really make much of a comment on, but you just showed your quad auto-tuning, not "How to auto tune pixhawk....."
Screw it! Buy a DJI! 😂