Tau Labs Open Pilot forum is now Tau Labs forum.

[Bartman]

Recent activity in the Open Pilot Forum has led me to change the name of the forum to Tau Labs Forum.

You are welcome to also discuss Open Pilot hardware/firmware/issues here as they continue to maintain enough similarities to justify it.

PLEASE KEEP THESE DISCUSSIONS ON TOPIC AND CIVIL AS I DON'T WANT TO BEGIN LOSING MY HAIR OVER THIS STUFF (I'M 45 THIS MONTH AND SO FAR STILL HAVE MOST OF WHAT GOD GAVE ME).

 

[DIYDroneSafety]

Do you guys have any information to pass on to RMRC CC3D users to help get them up to speed on TauLabs? How does the support structure work?
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1555

 

[Bartman]

Kevin,

I'm not sure I understand your question. There are references to the relevant OP pages in the link you posted including one that goes into detail about recent OP firmware bugs. I think there's enough info in the link for RMRC buyers.

 

[SamaraMedia]

Happy Birthday!

 

[DIYDroneSafety]

Everyone that asks me about TauLabs GCS or firmware seems to get lost in the Google Threads. I am asking what the best way to get TauLabs specific support is. Someone mentioned in the other thread that they love their CC3D / CC boards because they are supported by TauLabs. I was just wondering how to help people hop on the bandwagon.

I was not sure if there was a *structure* or a method to the madness so to speak. Ed implied that Tau is not for "noobs". I am just confused I guess.

 

[ProPilotWannaBe]

PLEASE KEEP THESE DISCUSSIONS ON TOPIC AND CIVIL AS I DON'T WANT TO BEGIN LOSING MY HAIR OVER THIS STUFF (I'M 45 THIS MONTH AND SO FAR STILL HAVE MOST OF WHAT GOD GAVE ME).

I just turned 46 this past week, and I don't got any of it left! (I've gone with the shave head look for years since I was loosing it too fast... LOL)

 

[Bartman]

Everyone that asks me about TauLabs GCS or firmware seems to get lost in the Google Threads. I am asking what the best way to get TauLabs specific support is. Someone mentioned in the other thread that they love their CC3D / CC boards because they are supported by TauLabs. I was just wondering how to help people hop on the bandwagon.

I was not sure if there was a *structure* or a method to the madness so to speak. Ed implied that Tau is not for "noobs". I am just confused I guess.

let's please not use the word madness, it's implied.

Here's the link to a Tau Labs guide that has started in another thread.

http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?13219-Getting-Started-with-Tau-Labs

It can be a bit confusing but there are plenty of people here that are more than willing to help any new folks sort it out. So long as the end result is a nicely flying helicopter there's going to be some head scratching regardless of what anyone chooses to do.

Bart

 

[DIYDroneSafety]

let's please not use the word madness, it's implied.

Forgive me... I thought that was the point of the seemingly spiteful rename of the forum to "Tau Labs". I thought we were mincing words, and very subtly indirectly poking fun at each other (the Tau fansbois + the OP fanbois).

I think I've seen this all on NatGeo before.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/going-ape/videos/whos-boss/

"So long as the end result is a nicely flying helicopter there's going to be some head scratching regardless of what anyone chooses to do."

That was where my confusion came from. My experience with Tau did not at all result in a nicely flying helicopter. I actually gave away two Quanton boards to the first people that would take them from me. The lack of polish on the project in general is a bit unfortunate. I had a hard time following along in the forums in general.

Hopefully this forum name change will help the end users out and give them a home.

So can someone tell me what caused RedDog to crash? Was it a code error, or was it poor documentation, or was it user error? I've been unable to follow along and need someone to just tell me. I am a bit apprehensive about flying this Tau code.

https://github.com/TauLabs/TauLabs/issues/849
http://vimeo.com/72132594
"Still not sure why -90 would make the board think it was upside down though..."
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/phoenixpilot/VhkXFchcHBo/J3-eutMqc-MJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/phoenixpilot/ATaJ7TEcP2g
"There's not much point for a convention if we're not going to use it systematically."

Did you guys ever figure this out? The thread abruptly died.

edit: see post #14 in this thread
BC

 

[ChrisViperM]

I still got no clue about OpenPilot or Tau Labs, but........:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!

Chris

 

[Bartman]

Forgive me... I thought that was the point of the seemingly spiteful rename of the forum to "Tau Labs". I thought we were mincing words, and very subtly indirectly poking fun at each other (the Tau fansbois + the OP fanbois).

I think I've seen this all on NatGeo before.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/going-ape/videos/whos-boss/


That was where my confusion came from. My experience with Tau did not at all result in a nicely flying helicopter. I actually gave away two Quanton boards to the first people that would take them from me. The lack of polish on the project in general is a bit unfortunate. I had a hard time following along in the forums in general.

Hopefully this forum name change will help the end users out and give them a home.

So can someone tell me what caused RedDog to crash? Was it a code error, or was it poor documentation, or was it user error? I've been unable to follow along and need someone to just tell me. I am a bit apprehensive about flying this Tau code.

https://github.com/TauLabs/TauLabs/issues/849
http://vimeo.com/72132594
"Still not sure why -90 would make the board think it was upside down though..."
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/phoenixpilot/VhkXFchcHBo/J3-eutMqc-MJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/phoenixpilot/ATaJ7TEcP2g
"There's not much point for a convention if we're not going to use it systematically."

Did you guys ever figure this out? The thread abruptly died.

You'd have to be more specific as to when you had problems. How long ago was it?

Being an OpenPilot kind of guy I'd expect you to be more forgiving of efforts that lack a bit of polish. OP didn't exactly hit the ground running.

 

[peabody124]

Lol. Yeah happy birthday and (edit) Labor Day!

 

[Bartman]

I still got no clue about OpenPilot or Tau Labs, but........:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!

...............


Chris

Thanks! I actually watched most of it.

 

[Bartman]

Lol. Yeah happy birthday and (edit) Labor Day!

Thanks James.

Can you address the problems Kevin mentioned above? Are they ongoing or have they been resolved?

Care to provide some forward visibility regarding projects/plans you might have for Tau Labs?

Bart

 

[peabody124]

Dang. I get all my days confused.

Sorry, missed his question in all the text. It was user error. He typed the yaw orientation in backwards so the FC thought the front was the back and when it tried to go level obviously pushed the control surfaces the wrong way. It's an unfortunately easy mistake to make if you don't look for it really carefully. I've once done something similar, where I was looking (I thought) carefully at the control surfaces responses to moving the plane and really missed the fact they were backwards.

I thought in the thread where Reddog says

Mate its no ones problem but my own, definitely not yours or anyone elses.

I rotated the board 90 degrees counter clockwise from the front of the plane. The front of the plane was 90 degrees clockwise from the arrow on the board.

This was made relatively clear.

 

[DIYDroneSafety]

Btw my Birthday is on the 6th! I am only 33 though :/ Your age trumps me by far Bartman.

I thought in the thread where Reddog says. This was made relatively clear.

Sorry it wasn't clear for me at least (and a few folks that have asked me about it)... again it seems to be an odd mix of poor documentation, user error and a bug? Kenn touched on it a bit here I guess? https://github.com/TauLabs/TauLabs/issues/849#issuecomment-23661987
"This is partially Reddog's fault, and partially a failure of the system. By increasing complexity we increase the likelihood for these kind of errors."

 

[peabody124]

Do you guys have any information to pass on to RMRC CC3D users to help get them up to speed on TauLabs? How does the support structure work?
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1555

BTW I would very much discourage anyone buying a CC3D at this point in time. Don't get me wrong - it is a great board and I loved developing for it. But now it's 3-4 years old and really limited. We keep maintaining it, but it doesn't really have the resources to improve further.

IMO people would be much better served with a Quanton, FlyingF3, or a Sparky.

Some videos http://taulabs.org/videos.html (btw note the last videos with Kipkool tearing around actually is a CC3D testing some improved flight modes, so I'm contradicting myself a bit here).

 

[DIYDroneSafety]

As an end user what it boils down to is that at the very least there is a *static* *stable* *supported* community around with which the OpenPilot CC3D landscape sits. This has unfortunately yet to manifest in the TL world.

The mentality of Tau labs has been stated several times "we do not want end users" to boil it down to an essence.

"people" that are better served flying Tau Labs code on either a Quanton, FlyingF3 or Sparky are not the same class of end user that the more *hobby* centric OP sees. Unfortunately as such the suggestions of a deeply embedded developer for both projects (historically and otherwise) may not be the most solid advice to rely upon if you are simply looking to fly with a minimal amount of hassle. The facts remain that TL is not for the faint of heart or for "noobs".

Vinz is nice and I respect what his company does... Quanton however is no where near an apples to apples comparison vs. cc3d and quite honestly it has a form factor the size of a small tank. One could certainly argue the differences in quality however that would be out of scope for the conversation. It is however the closest thing to a consumer grade product that TL has to offer? Unless of course we are discussing running TL code on the more polished cc3d hardware. What ever happened to the Taulabs "work for hire" board from James "Freedom" btw?

The mere suggestion alone that "people" would be better served with "FlyingF3, or a Sparky." really frames that "we don't want noobs" mentality. As Ed once put it to me TL does not have the overhead of a forum or a website... the reasoning for this is clear to me. TL is not meant for the end user... it is meant for the closet developer with lots of time to tinker.

You guys may perhaps be improving upon flight modes and want not, unfortunately you are severely lacking in the end user experience arena. Bart eloquently mentioned that as an OP user I should be used to this... I was actually appreciating the view more so as someone that has a day job focusing on pointing out the inadequacies in various processes, procedures and systems.

It is all about how you like things to taste...

 

[Bartman]

As an end user what it boils down to is that at the very least there is a *static* *stable* *supported* community around with which the OpenPilot CC3D landscape sits. This has unfortunately yet to manifest in the TL world.

The mentality of Tau labs has been stated several times "we do not want end users" to boil it down to an essence.

"people" that are better served flying Tau Labs code on either a Quanton, FlyingF3 or Sparky are not the same class of end user that the more *hobby* centric OP sees. Unfortunately as such the suggestions of a deeply embedded developer for both projects (historically and otherwise) may not be the most solid advice to rely upon if you are simply looking to fly with a minimal amount of hassle. The facts remain that TL is not for the faint of heart or for "noobs".

Vinz is nice and I respect what his company does... Quanton however is no where near an apples to apples comparison vs. cc3d and quite honestly it has a form factor the size of a small tank. One could certainly argue the differences in quality however that would be out of scope for the conversation. It is however the closest thing to a consumer grade product that TL has to offer? Unless of course we are discussing running TL code on the more polished cc3d hardware. What ever happened to the Taulabs "work for hire" board from James "Freedom" btw?

The mere suggestion alone that "people" would be better served with "FlyingF3, or a Sparky." really frames that "we don't want noobs" mentality. As Ed once put it to me TL does not have the overhead of a forum or a website... the reasoning for this is clear to me. TL is not meant for the end user... it is meant for the closet developer with lots of time to tinker.

You guys may perhaps be improving upon flight modes and want not, unfortunately you are severely lacking in the end user experience arena. Bart eloquently mentioned that as an OP user I should be used to this... I was actually appreciating the view more so as someone that has a day job focusing on pointing out the inadequacies in various processes, procedures and systems.

It is all about how you like things to taste...

Kevin,

I"m running out of patience for you. We're all trying to move on, and you're here trying to make it difficult.

It may not be for you, I've been honest in stating that non commercial, open source projects might not be suited for everybody, you're beating on a dead horse trying to keep the OP vs. tau Labs animosity going.

I've got end users to worry about also and you're becoming a liability for me and everyone else.

Consider this a ban warning. We've been here before, I've got no patience for it.

Bart

 

[DIYDroneSafety]

"We're all trying to move on, and you're here trying to make it difficult."
Ohhhhhh now ya know how it feels eh? Funny that THAT old tune starts to get played.

"beating on a dead horse trying to keep the OP vs. tau Labs animosity going."
So says the man that actually brought me here by saying ohhhh so sarcastically "they're so open minded and gracious"
http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...elopers-banned&p=121567&viewfull=1#post121567

"I've got end users to worry about also and you're becoming a liability for me and everyone else."
Is that really what this is all about? Gimme a break. I knew you were ban happy a loooooong time before I started to speak up. I actually didn't expect you to last this long. I figured the usual censor flying and ban hammer would ensue.

"Consider this a ban warning. We've been here before, I've got no patience for it."
Trust me my friend... ban me all you want. IF I feel like being around. I will be, don't fool yourself.
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/kevin-finisterre-diydronesafety-and-drone-savant-persona

I've got nothing against you Bart... but seriously bang on your chest all you want bro. Ban me up. Censor my posts up. IF I want to be back, I will be. Go ask the folks on the RCG thread how well trying to censor my comments up went. I have email accounts and IP addresses for weeks...

Fake it till ya make it though. Go for it Mr. Gracious... make me that example that you were wanting.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/going-ape/videos/fake-it-to-make-it/

 

[peabody124]

As an end user what it boils down to is that at the very least there is a *static* *stable* *supported* community around with which the OpenPilot CC3D landscape sits.

You are talking about the same community that has driven away practically all development? I guess that does make it static. Not sure how supported it is given how many low hanging fruit end up hanging around unanswered (heck the auto-flipping feature in the last release was great and took 2 months to fix?).

"people" that are better served flying Tau Labs code on either a Quanton, FlyingF3 or Sparky are not the same class of end user that the more *hobby* centric OP sees. Unfortunately as such the suggestions of a deeply embedded developer for both projects (historically and otherwise) may not be the most solid advice to rely upon if you are simply looking to fly with a minimal amount of hassle. The facts remain that TL is not for the faint of heart or for "noobs".

We did lose a lot of documentation that we helped write back at OP which is unfortunate. It's also why the TL wiki uses git and an open format to prevent that happening again in the future.

However, given that the TL software is written by the same people that put all the work into making CC3D easy to use, your comments simply make you sound uninformed. FlyingF3 requires someone to put a shield together (as indicated by that page) but only costs 25$. Quanton is tons more capable than CC3D (5 UARTS is great for people running GPS, MAVLink OSD, Telemetry, etc) and the size is on the page for people to decide if it's a problem. Sparky is smaller and costs less than CC3D.

All of them have the ease of configuration and setup for basic flight of CC3D - which is reasonable but still harder than some of the commercial options. They all are capable of much more than CC3D too and more future proof.

But to each their own.