MultiWii / NAZE / SP Racing F3 Trying to go from multiwii to cleanflight

[fengshuidrone]

Ok, I just finally mastered all of the fine points involved in getting a multiwii based craft to fly. It was a steep learning curve to put it mildly. Now I'm looking at a Cleanflight based FC that I like. Trouble is, it looks like another 6 to 8 months of learning before I can do anything with it. The setup procedure doesn't look anything like easy to me and to be honest the process is almost putting me off buying the CF based FC. Is it worth my while to go from my old 8 bit multiwii pro mega to a 32 bit cleanflight based system? Is it easier than it looks?

 

[Rgolfer]

Ok, I just finally mastered all of the fine points involved in getting a multiwii based craft to fly. It was a steep learning curve to put it mildly. Now I'm looking at a Cleanflight based FC that I like. Trouble is, it looks like another 6 to 8 months of learning before I can do anything with it. The setup procedure doesn't look anything like easy to me and to be honest the process is almost putting me off buying the CF based FC. Is it worth my while to go from my old 8 bit multiwii pro mega to a 32 bit cleanflight based system? Is it easier than it looks?

Give Cleanflight a shot. I think you will find it easy to set up and get in the air. I've got several Naze32/Cleanflight quads flying and have had virtually no problems.

 

[fengshuidrone]

Let me ask one more question. I'm in need of a replacement for a multiwii pro2 FC that I messed the baro up on. I'm looking at an SP racing F3 Deluxe that I can pick up at about only $2.00 more than it would cost me to get a multiwii pro2. Both are equal in features (but I'm not sure if the F3 can do waypoint nav) and price with the only difference being that one is an ATmega 2560 at 8 bits and the other is an F3 at 32 bits. My question is, can the SP Racing F3 do waypoint nav missions and is it any "better" than a mega pro3? Should I just stick with what I already know (at $2.00 cheaper up front) or is there some magic reason that I should change over to the SP? Is cleanflight (which I know very little about) a more capable firmware than MW 2.4? (which I can do in my sleep....)

 

[Rgolfer]

Let me ask one more question. I'm in need of a replacement for a multiwii pro2 FC that I messed the baro up on. I'm looking at an SP racing F3 Deluxe that I can pick up at about only $2.00 more than it would cost me to get a multiwii pro2. Both are equal in features (but I'm not sure if the F3 can do waypoint nav) and price with the only difference being that one is an ATmega 2560 at 8 bits and the other is an F3 at 32 bits. My question is, can the SP Racing F3 do waypoint nav missions and is it any "better" than a mega pro3? Should I just stick with what I already know (at $2.00 cheaper up front) or is there some magic reason that I should change over to the SP? Is cleanflight (which I know very little about) a more capable firmware than MW 2.4? (which I can do in my sleep....)

If waypoint nav requires good GPS hold, then the SP racing is not for you. That is a very weak point in the current state of it's software development much like the NAZE32.

 

[fengshuidrone]

Thank you. That's something I didn't know. I will most likely just replace the board with the Multiwii and save a couple of dollars and headaches.

 

[Rgolfer]

Thank you. That's something I didn't know. I will most likely just replace the board with the Multiwii and save a couple of dollars and headaches.

If you want more info on the SP3 here's, IMHO, a really good series on You Tube by Painless360

He also has a series on the NAZE32 and the Taranis transmitter.

 

[fengshuidrone]

Very informative video (as always) by Painless 360. OK, the setup doesn't look too hard. I like the sonar support. Is that functional yet? If the Cleanflight GPS can't do waypoint I'm probably still going to pass.

 

[fengshuidrone]

I went with Multiwii. End of thread

 

[Rgolfer]

I went with Multiwii. End of thread

I'd like to learn more about your multiwii nav missions. Is there some place where I could read up on that a bit?

 

[fengshuidrone]

I have some video's of my mission flights. This first video was my first successful (but short,only two waypoints) mission out in my driveway:

You can tell I was pleased to finally get to the point where a mission actually worked.
Second video is my second flight on my first big mission day (I consider it big at least) at a local park:

the lens got wet from the dew on the grass and ruined my shots. I also found that my GoPro clone cam has bad optics. This video is an on board shot of my second big mission. Sorry, I have some work to do getting my camera angles right and not filming into the sun:

That was Duck Lake in the background and lake Michigan just beyond that and this next video is that same mission filmed from the ground.

I have flown a couple more since but my footage was accidentally deleted. I'll make more as soon as the weather and my old bones permit. The in-flight videos posted here were made using a servo driven 2 axis gimbal running off the FC's cam stabilization. This crude gimbal has since been replaced by a brushless one that is much less jerky.
It (the Multiwii FC) really does a top notch job of navigating the missions that I program into it. I have since bought a better (hopefully) cam. I also plan on putting a GPS on my new H quad I built from scratch that is set up as an FPV. I just bought the cam, TX and RX and headset today. The quad in the videos (my namesake, Fengshuidrone) was using a multiwii Mega Pro2 AIO FC in that video. I have since upgraded that FC to a remote mag black Mega Pro3 (only acc, gyro, and baro on board) that uses a GPS with mag mounted up high away from everything. I am using the old Mega Pro2 from Fengshuidrone on my new H quad. I bought a serial GPS only module for that today. Now I will be able to fly missions on all three of my multiwii FC equipped quads.

 

[Rgolfer]

I have some video's of my mission flights. This first video was my first successful (but short,only two waypoints) mission out in my driveway:

You can tell I was pleased to finally get to the point where a mission actually worked.
Second video is my second flight on my first big mission day (I consider it big at least) at a local park:

the lens got wet from the dew on the grass and ruined my shots. I also found that my GoPro clone cam has bad optics. This video is an on board shot of my second big mission. Sorry, I have some work to do getting my camera angles right and not filming into the sun:

That was Duck Lake in the background and lake Michigan just beyond that and this next video is that same mission filmed from the ground.

I have flown a couple more since but my footage was accidentally deleted. I'll make more as soon as the weather and my old bones permit.
It really does a top notch job of navigating the missions that I program into it. I have since bought a better (hopefully) cam. I also plan on putting a GPS on my new H quad I built from scratch that is set up as an FPV. I just bought the cam, TX and RX and headset today. The quad in the videos (my namesake, Fengshuidrone) was using a multiwii Mega Pro2 AIO FC in that video. I have since upgraded that FC to a remote mag black Mega Pro3 (only acc, gyro, and baro on board) that uses a GPS with mag mounted up high away from everything. I am using the old Mega Pro2 from Fengshuidrone on my new H quad. I bought a serial GPS only module for that today. Now I will be able to fly missions on all three of my multiwii FC equipped quads.

Nice videos. Thanks for the discussion of your equipment. I like the idea of programming the quads to do something rather than just buzzing around but, at the moment, I know essentially nothing about nav/waypoint programming or equipment. Sounds like this could be my next challenge. I speculate that, like everything else, there must be tons of info available if you can find it.

 

[fengshuidrone]

Nice videos. Thanks for the discussion of your equipment. I like the idea of programming the quads to do something rather than just buzzing around but, at the moment, I know essentially nothing about nav/waypoint programming or equipment. Sounds like this could be my next challenge. I speculate that, like everything else, there must be tons of info available if you can find it.

Actually, there is not much info out there that is easy to find. Most of the info that I used when getting to know my GPS was found here: http://www.multiwii.com/
with the most useful info found at the forum there. This wiki page helped some too from what I remember:http://www.multiwii.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Other sources used in getting a successful GPS way-point mission were from equipment manuals and other printed sources I found by searching online. I actually chose to go with Multiwii as my FC because it had way-point capabilities better than most even more expensive FCs have. If you want to do really extensive way-point CHEAP, I think a Multiwii Mega board is the way to go. Mega Pro 2 or Pro 3 are both great GPS boards. Pair it with a Leah6H Ublox GPS unit and use your arduino setup programming (not hard to do) to set up your port speed at 115200, GPS baud at 57600, enable serial port 2 for use, enable the Ublox, enable the way-point statement, and set your magnetic declination.
Here is a snippet of the Arduino Multiwii config.h sketch from the GPS section showing some of the code:
/* ENable this for using GPS simulator (NMEA only)*/
//#define GPS_SIMULATOR

/* GPS using a SERIAL port
if enabled, define here the Arduino Serial port number and the UART speed
note: only the RX PIN is used in case of NMEA mode, the GPS is not configured by multiwii
in NMEA mode the GPS must be configured to output GGA and RMC NMEA sentences (which is generally the default conf for most GPS devices)
at least 5Hz update rate. uncomment the first line to select the GPS serial port of the arduino */

#define GPS_SERIAL 2 // should be 2 for flyduino v2. It's the serial port number on arduino MEGA
// must be 0 for PRO_MINI (ex GPS_PRO_MINI)
// note: Now a GPS can share MSP on the same port. The only constrain is to not use it simultaneously, and use the same port speed.

// avoid using 115200 baud because with 16MHz arduino the 115200 baudrate have more than 2% speed error (57600 have 0.8% error)
#define GPS_BAUD 57600 // GPS_BAUD will override SERIALx_COM_SPEED for the selected port

/* GPS protocol
NMEA - Standard NMEA protocol GGA, GSA and RMC sentences are needed
UBLOX - U-Blox binary protocol, use the ublox config file (u-blox-config.ublox.txt) from the source tree
MTK_BINARY16 and MTK_BINARY19 - MTK3329 chipset based GPS with DIYDrones binary firmware (v1.6 or v1.9)
With UBLOX and MTK_BINARY you don't have to use GPS_FILTERING in multiwii code !!! */


//#define NMEA
#define UBLOX
//#define MTK_BINARY16
//#define MTK_BINARY19
//#define INIT_MTK_GPS // initialize MTK GPS for using selected speed, 5Hz update rate and GGA & RMC sentence or binary settings


/* I2C GPS device made with an independant arduino + GPS device
including some navigation functions
contribution from EOSBandi http://code.google.com/p/i2c-gps-nav/
You have to use at least I2CGpsNav code r33 */
/* all functionnalities allowed by SERIAL_GPS are now available for I2C_GPS: all relevant navigation computations are gathered in the main FC */

//#define I2C_GPS

// If your I2C GPS board has Sonar support enabled
//#define I2C_GPS_SONAR

/* indicate a valid GPS fix with at least 5 satellites by flashing the LED - Modified by MIS - Using stable LED (YELLOW on CRIUS AIO) led work as sat number indicator
- No GPS FIX -> LED blink at speed of incoming GPS frames
- Fix and sat no. bellow 5 -> LED off
- Fix and sat no. >= 5 -> LED blinks, one blink for 5 sat, two blinks for 6 sat, three for 7 ... */
#define GPS_LED_INDICATOR

//Enables the MSP_WP command set , which is used by WinGUI for displaying an setting up navigation
#define USE_MSP_WP

Notice that some of the //#define STATEMENT's have their // missing? That is how you enable something. Easy! The code I included is a small portion of the setup file called config.h which is the only file that you actually need to make any changes in to get things working (unless you are a developer/programmer writing a new function or fixing something to make it more streamlined. Then you can go and modify other files to your needs as well.)
Then after you get things set up correctly you upload the sketch, re-calibrate the ACC and mag and you are off to fly a mission. I do that by entering the desired way-points in my EZ GUI Android Multiwii configurator phone app and sending the mission to the FC.

 

[Rgolfer]

Actually, there is not much info out there that is easy to find. Most of the info that I used when getting to know my GPS was found here: http://www.multiwii.com/
with the most useful info found at the forum there. This wiki page helped some too from what I remember:http://www.multiwii.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Other sources used in getting a successful GPS way-point mission were from equipment manuals and other printed sources I found by searching online. I actually chose to go with Multiwii as my FC because it had way-point capabilities better than most even more expensive FCs have. If you want to do really extensive way-point CHEAP, I think a Multiwii Mega board is the way to go. Mega Pro 2 or Pro 3 are both great GPS boards. Pair it with a Leah6H Ublox GPS unit and use your arduino setup programming (not hard to do) to set up your port speed at 115200, GPS baud at 57600, enable serial port 2 for use, enable the Ublox, enable the way-point statement, and set your magnetic declination.
Here is a snippet of the Arduino Multiwii config.h sketch from the GPS section showing some of the code:
/* ENable this for using GPS simulator (NMEA only)*/
//#define GPS_SIMULATOR

/* GPS using a SERIAL port
if enabled, define here the Arduino Serial port number and the UART speed
note: only the RX PIN is used in case of NMEA mode, the GPS is not configured by multiwii
in NMEA mode the GPS must be configured to output GGA and RMC NMEA sentences (which is generally the default conf for most GPS devices)
at least 5Hz update rate. uncomment the first line to select the GPS serial port of the arduino */

#define GPS_SERIAL 2 // should be 2 for flyduino v2. It's the serial port number on arduino MEGA
// must be 0 for PRO_MINI (ex GPS_PRO_MINI)
// note: Now a GPS can share MSP on the same port. The only constrain is to not use it simultaneously, and use the same port speed.

// avoid using 115200 baud because with 16MHz arduino the 115200 baudrate have more than 2% speed error (57600 have 0.8% error)
#define GPS_BAUD 57600 // GPS_BAUD will override SERIALx_COM_SPEED for the selected port

/* GPS protocol
NMEA - Standard NMEA protocol GGA, GSA and RMC sentences are needed
UBLOX - U-Blox binary protocol, use the ublox config file (u-blox-config.ublox.txt) from the source tree
MTK_BINARY16 and MTK_BINARY19 - MTK3329 chipset based GPS with DIYDrones binary firmware (v1.6 or v1.9)
With UBLOX and MTK_BINARY you don't have to use GPS_FILTERING in multiwii code !!! */


//#define NMEA
#define UBLOX
//#define MTK_BINARY16
//#define MTK_BINARY19
//#define INIT_MTK_GPS // initialize MTK GPS for using selected speed, 5Hz update rate and GGA & RMC sentence or binary settings


/* I2C GPS device made with an independant arduino + GPS device
including some navigation functions
contribution from EOSBandi http://code.google.com/p/i2c-gps-nav/
You have to use at least I2CGpsNav code r33 */
/* all functionnalities allowed by SERIAL_GPS are now available for I2C_GPS: all relevant navigation computations are gathered in the main FC */

//#define I2C_GPS

// If your I2C GPS board has Sonar support enabled
//#define I2C_GPS_SONAR

/* indicate a valid GPS fix with at least 5 satellites by flashing the LED - Modified by MIS - Using stable LED (YELLOW on CRIUS AIO) led work as sat number indicator
- No GPS FIX -> LED blink at speed of incoming GPS frames
- Fix and sat no. bellow 5 -> LED off
- Fix and sat no. >= 5 -> LED blinks, one blink for 5 sat, two blinks for 6 sat, three for 7 ... */
#define GPS_LED_INDICATOR

//Enables the MSP_WP command set , which is used by WinGUI for displaying an setting up navigation
#define USE_MSP_WP

Notice that some of the //#define STATEMENT's have their // missing? That is how you enable something. Easy! The code I included is a small portion of the setup file called config.h which is the only file that you actually need to make any changes in to get things working (unless you are a developer/programmer writing a new function or fixing something to make it more streamlined. Then you can go and modify other files to your needs as well.)
Then after you get things set up correctly you upload the sketch, re-calibrate the ACC and mag and you are off to fly a mission. I do that by entering the desired way-points in my EZ GUI Android Multiwii configurator phone app and sending the mission to the FC.

Thanks again. this really sounds like fun not to mention a good reason to build another quad. I may have a new project for after Christmas.

 

[fengshuidrone]

You're welcome. If you go with a MWFC and get stuck somewhere in the learning curve or need any help I probably can do that for you too. I think you are being too kind about my videos being nice. They actually suck pretty badly. Some day I will step up and get a decent cam (and then hopefully learn to use it more skillfully.