A few snags

[SFC76]

Doing a basic build I ran into a few issues I can't quite solve without a little help.
I just want to get to the maiden flight, and when I'm happy with the build, I am planning to add GPS (or should I add it right away?)

This is my setup (I'm leaving out the obvious like frame, motors and props):

- Crius AIO Pro v2, running on MegaPirateNG 2.8 R3 (for now, soon 3.0.1 R4)
- EMAX 4in1 25A ESC, running SimonK
- Corona RP8D1 35 MHz
- robbe Futaba FX-18 35 MHz (Mode 2)

First issue I encountered was with calibrating the ESC's. I calibrated them by connecting each ESC directly to the throttle channel of the receiver (ch.3).
Oddly enough, the throttle is reversed while it is set to normal in my transmitter (full throttle is stick up). I changed it to reverse in my transmitter, and works like it is not reversed after calibrating . I can live with it for now, but has me pondering what can cause this.

Second issue is that I don't see the green bars in APM move in the receiver calibration step. I do see the green bars move in the failsafe section (and to my amazement, throttle shows as reversed there?!? )

Third issue is that after arming the idle speed seems way too high. It responds to stick input (making it more confusing I don't see stick response in APM), but shouldn't idle speed be very low RPM if not full stop?
I haven't been able to find a setting for idle speed yet, but I will search deeper in MPNG when I have the time this weekend.

I do have a PPM encoder, but it should be of no use on this build since my Corona receiver is PPM (correct me if I'm wrong).

Any help would be much appreciated (especially the first issue, it's driving me nuts)


Cheers,

SFC

 

[SFC76]

Well, I found snag #1. when I was checking the motor rotation, I found that when pushing the elevator stick forward (my radio is set to mode 2) the motors stopped. And when pulling it back, the motors spun at max.
Motors 1 and 4 turned the wrong way, and while changing the motor wires I looked at the transmitter. The antenna was pointed towards me, and than it hit me.. the TX setting must be wrong in Arduino.
I had selected standard PPM layout which should be Robbe/Hitec/Sanwa, but since it was obviusly the wrong one, I tried MultiWii layout. And behold, throttle was on the correct stick (left) This change also eliminates snag #3, so that's good..
Throttle is still upside down, so my radio is still set to reverse to correct it. The rest of the controls seem to work in the right direction.

However I'm still not there yet, for now the aileron is not centered. The quad immediately starts drifting to the right (resulting in clipped rotor tips, it drifted into a chair ), and aileron to full left is (near) centre.

So back to the drawing board..

 

[SFC76]

I have a few questions about GPS;

I have the NEO-6M v2 and also a I2C-GPS board;
Should I hook it up ditectly to the AIO Pro, or via I2C (which will work faster)?

The antenna and circuit board won't fit together in the GPS box I have;
Can I make the cable which connects the antenna to the circuit board longer, or will it have negative impact?

 

[SFC76]

Ok, I googled a bit (even before this post, discarding it), and something came up a couple of times as a solution for drift.. Exchanging the rotors diagonally..

At first I was like.. yer, right, as if that would help
Then I hooked my quad up to APM, checked level, it was. Checked compass, spot on. Checked motor rotation again, all spinning correctly. Checked the sketch, every setting looked fine. *sigh*
Must be a faulty ESC or motor (it was level in APM and roll/pitch/yaw showed to function as they should).

Ok, just for arguments sake, swap rotors diagonally.. Arm.. Moving throttle by the millimeter.. Wut.. it seems not to drift..
Propwash was an issue when trying this, so I picked it up and used my hand as a launch pad..

Only slight drift?!? You got to be joking me This is absurd..

Have any of you encountered this? And does anyone have a 'scientific' explanation?

 

[SFC76]

 

[SFC76]

I have a strange issue with my GPS which I could use a little help with.

First of all, I did not check the wires prior to connecting it for the first time (stupid, I know) so the TX got fed with steady flow of 5 volts for a bit.

That said, it might explain why I can't get the GPS to work, but..

..My flight controller sees it. Here's what I did;

After finding out the wiring was wrong, I corrected it. I cross-connected TX/RX from the Crius AIO Pro serial port to the GPS board, as found in various posts and manuals.
When I power up the FC, led's A and C start blinking but the led on the GPS board remains dead (rising my initial concern). I tried swapping TX/RX on the GPS, but then de FC does not 'see' the GPS (led C does not blink).
This kind of proofs the GPS board is not entirely 'dead'.
When I hook the FC up to my computer and fire up APM Planner, I see GPS Fix as 1.00 (no sats for I was indoors). I also see GPS HDOP (m) as 99.99, which is kind of strange since it needs to 'see' at least one sat for it to determine any DOP 'flavor'. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I did power up the FC close to a window and left it for about 5 to 10 minutes, but led C just kept flashing so no fix.
I have soldered a longer wire (20 cm) to the GPS antenna module, for only the antenna will fit my GPS case (on a stick )

So here are the questions;
Is it safe to assume the TX was not damaged, for the FC and APM both 'see' the GPS?
And could the lack of fix have to do with either the battery on the GPS board being empty or the antenna wire being too long?
The fact the led on the GPS board stays off, could it just be a broken led or should I worry?

Any help would be much appreciated..

 

[SFC76]

Well, I ordered a new GPS module, which is already on its way.

Since I also have an I2C NAV module laying around, I was thinking if it made any sense using it. I figured it would, but need a bit of input from some of you guru's out there

I figured using the I2C socket on the AIO Pro would free up the Serial port for dedicated telemetry use.
I also figured since the I2C NAV module uses its own ATMega 328P Microcontroller, it would free up computing power on the AIO pro.
Using the I2C module I could set the GPS baud rate to 115200 and refresh at 5Hz.

Does the above make sense? Is it useful? Would it work?