Are Beltish CP's upgradeable to FPV?

[Tomstoy2]

Wow! That's impressive!

Ahem,,,, Sut, I think it's time for you to mod the 600!

[Heli Yea!]

So I get it probly need more than 5a BEC to run 5 servos. Will look at CC BEC. I need another ESC for this bird in the 35a range since I want to keep consumtion low. The Align 35w/gov works great on the other bird.

[sutty]

Originally Posted by CyprusDave

Yes, it has been done, just not by many people. By the way, Rob Lefebvre is the moderator of the APM:Copter forum that I posted the link to. I believe he is one of the APM developers, primarily of the code for traditional helis. Good to know he's on Helifreak too.

Cheers Dave, I knew he was a developer, but didn't know he was the moderator of that forum, though I'm not surprised. I've had a number of disucssions with him on the freak about different things, including quads, and I've had a brief chat with him in regard to failsafes by PM.

I wasn't being sneaky saying it could be done by posting that. I linked his name because I knew he was a developer, so people could look at other things he's done. Pretty sure the version is reasonably standard, though the video does say 'modified'. I bet he'd be more than happy to share it though. That's what it's all about isn't it?

I'm definitely going to give it a try, and soon.

Cheers

Sutty

[Heli Yea!]

When I get done Im gonna buy the APM unit DFC head and anything else needed from China since they will take a weekish to arrive.

Go for it Andy! Here we go again...

Jerry time to tihs or get off pot. LOL com'on buddy lets be "The 3 Amigos!"

[sutty]

I won't be long. Promise. Jerry, who knows, he's had all his parts for about 2 years now.

Now, just briefly back to my odd landings issue. Since I'm fairly confident it was a range issue, can anyone explain to me what the difference is between going out of range, and turning off my Tx?

Also, and this suddenly came to me at work today, knowing that I have successfully turned off the Tx probably 4 times, and it has immediately invoked an RTH. I'm missing something though, because I don't even understand now how the APM knows that the Tx is off?

All the channels that go to the APM hold their last value, or would have. Now, with my new settings, they will go to centre, apart from throttle which used to go to off, and now will go to 60% ish.

This being the case, how does it know that Tx/Rx communication has failed when the AR continues to output valid signals?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Cheers

Sutty

[CyprusDave]

Setting the throttle failsafe at 60% may be a problem, as I believe RTL is triggered when the throttle PWM value goes low (below 950 by default, I think, but this is configurable). Normal zero throttle setting is about 1050 - 1100, so going below 950 indicates a failure somewhere. This is the explanation from the Ardupilot site (which you have probably seen):

http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/throttle-failsafe/

Also, this explanation of fence behaviour is interesting:

http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/ac2_simple_geofence/

[sutty]

Yes, I did think of that Dave, but when the AR goes failsafe in the absence of signal it goes to 0, 1100, nowhere near 950, and yet it would RTL on Tx off. On intermittant, or failing signal, effectively out of range I think, it made it land. Judging by the throttle behaviour, it should RTH, unless it has no GPS lock, where it would land, but before I tried those long trips I made sure I had a good GPS signal. If that was the cause, what could have happened to my GPS lock?

Anyhow at least if I set it to climb, I will get it back in range, or at least it will loiter there on the ceiling, and wait for me to get near enough, as this is the behaviour I have observed during a few tests.

And you're right, I read that fence article, but as my late father would have said, "I can't make moss nor sand of that". Problem is perimeter works perfectly, and ceiling just stops it climbing, but nowhere in that article can I find that as written.

There seems to be some contradictions. I do however like that it re-calculates the fence repeatedly up to a limit of a 100m breach, and then default lands, since it assumes at that point that the RTH has failed and it will continue to do so.

Cheers

Sutty

[Heli Yea!]

Andy heres what im going to do. I will try turning my power down to -5db range should be very short. Ill let you know what happens. I hope to test tomorrow.

[Heli Yea!]

Well I just ordered the APM mini unit the DFC head and 2 OSD units. Figured id get one for the Quad too. these

https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...dProduct=36844

[CyprusDave]

Minim OSD works well with APM

[sutty]

And so it begins.

I think that is the one Jerry has, and suggested to me. If you get one for the quad, there is some internal surgery needed, if you recall from my earlier discussions about how and why it isn't just plug and play with the Walkera.

Taking it apart, soldering to a few tiny pads, and possibly having to try and replace a resistor, though I couldn't find anything definitive on that, as one said they hadn't needed to do it? Don't get how it can be optional, lol.

Good luck with it all Chad.

Cheers

Sutty

[CyprusDave]

Yeah, I remember you saying that the header/socket for the telemetry output was not soldered in place on the Walkera flight controller. Possibly partly down to space within the case (if it's in a case, I'm not sure). Also possibly down to their cynical attitude that someone who buys an RTF quad isn't going to know much, and is just going to go out and fly without making any mods. And if they do want to add anything else, they'll just buy a new RTF that already has those features.

I have to say, it's why I go with the DIY approach rather that RTF. You're not hindered by custom, cut-down hardware that's pre-configured for a particular purpose. Sure, it took me maybe 6 months or more to get to a point that you got to in a couple of weeks. But it was an interesting journey My quad went from the most basic cheap HK frame with rubbish motors, cheapest ESCs and FC, on 2S batteries. Just to see if I could get something to fly. Now it's an all carbon fibre frame, APM with 433mHz telemetry, HD camera, FPV with OSD, brushless gimbal, 270 watt motors on 4S batteries, the works Nothing left of the original at all, although throughout the evolution, there were only one or two components changed each time. Just made a few more final changes this week, so will have to get some pictures uploaded.

This is the last video I took with the servo gimbal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIGLTv5sDs
Brushless gimbal, FPV and OSD finally all hooked up about a week ago, and I've had one quick movie-making test flight with it, but weather has been rubbish here since, very windy.

[sutty]

That's excellent Dave, and I'm impressed that you could do it from scratch, but I wouldn't have even known where to start or what questions to ask. That's exacty why I went ARTF, as it afforded me the same luxury that the Belt-CP RTF did when I started with helis. Sure I had all sorts of problems, just as I'm doing now, but I now know what bits it has to have, and how they mount, and what things are called, and am learning fast in regard to issues, etc.

If I had been putting something together absolutely from scratch I could not have done what you did. For one thing 6 months to achieve a goal isn't how my brain works. I like to think, if it's worth doing, then it's worth doing quickly, lol. I know that's wrong, but it's how I am. I'm patient until I start, like building a new heli. I can wait ages to start but if I haven't finished and test flown a new helil in 2 days from starting the build, something is wrong with me. I find myself up until 5 just to finish it, as it makes me feel odd that it is incomplete.

Same reason I can't leave them broken. All my helis are flyable, nearly all of the time, or they are completely decomissioned. If I crash them, then they are re-built that night, or shall we say at the absolute earliest possible opportunity.

Once I say 'go' in my brain for the heli version of ardupilot, I will be quick with that too, and if I can't make it work you will see and feel the frustration leaking out into my posts as they become more and more desperate. You might have seen in the early stages of my Walkera Quad, when unbeknown to me I was fighting a failing satellite on my brand new AR receiver. (Won't work at all if you try to initialise and something is faulty, and it needs a minimum of two to work, by the way.) When I found out it was like a massive load being lifted, lol.

Cheers

Sutty

[CyprusDave]

I completely understand what you're saying. I guess I didn't start out with a goal in mind for 6 months in the future. The initial goal was to get a simple quad in the air. That took a few days (and a few days to crash/trash it ). Then the next goal was to get one that flew better, so new frame and better flight controller. That only took a few days. Then there was another goal, and another, and another. Each one some weeks apart, but only taking a few days each. I didn't start out with a goal to build what I have now ended up with, because at the time I didn't know it was possible

Kinda like the saying I heard, How do you eat an elephant? Answer, one bite at a time. Except when I started, I couldn't see that I was starting on an elephant

[Tomstoy2]

Or;

how do you eat a frog?

One leg over this ear, one leg over the other.

[Heli Yea!]

+1 Andy I feel naked having uncomplete projects. I like to get it done. That is why parts from China come first cause parts in US only take 2 days. I just need more coustomers to pay up. that is frustrating knowing you made the funds but dont yet have them.

[Heli Yea!]

I have not tested short range yet but Andy all of my failsafes are set to servo hold. Perhaps that is your issue.

[Heli Yea!]

My thinking goes if it continues to head out as signal becomes intermitent then it will continue out of range till signal is dropped completely. Then RTL should be invoked.

[Heli Yea!]

Its not looking good for any testing today. Its dumping rain

[Heli Yea!]

The HDX 3550 is a 320w motor and runs great/cool with the Align 35a esc. The new 5200 lipos claim to be 30c (we'll say 15c to be safe) can push a 500w 45ampish motor and push a 10a BEC. So whats better guys? IMO if I drop to a 12T on the hdx I could get almost 17min flights. Power might be 12-13mins but better alt recovery/stability? What would you do? Do you think gov mode for fpv?