Tau Labs OpenPilot GCS Mixer setup

[jes1111]

There's been a few questions/problems about setting up CopterControl for various motor configurations. I thought I'd point out something that's perhaps obvious to many but can easily be missed if you're not familiar with how OpenPilot works.

When you select a particular frame (quad, tricopter, hexa, etc.) there are no "hidden" settings being made in the background. In fact there are two ways to see what is really going on in the background:

1. in the UAVObjects Browser
2. in the Mixer Settings tab by switching to "Custom"

If the UAVObjects browser is not showing in your Configuration screen, go to Window > Edit Gadgets Mode to add it.

Expand the Settings section then expand MixerSettings - there you can see (and therefore verify) all the values that are set by the GUI.

The other "trick" is to select a frame type (say "Tri-copter"), save that choice, then change your selection to "Custom". Now you can see the "actual" settings that were made by your choice of "Tri-copter". (This is also an interesting way to see how all the different frame types work.)

I hope this helps a few people.

View attachment 382

 

[peabody124]

And just to explain how to interpret that:

Each column is an output (with type specified at top like motor or servo. the difference here being motors go to minimum when disarmed)

Each row of the column is the weighting by each of the control inputs. Curve1 and Curve2 come from passing the throttle through the two curves at the top (to allow a separate RPM and Collective) and each other row is self explanatory. So in the example pasted the first column is strongly influeced by throttle (via Curve1) and Roll, and a little by Pitch.

The values are signed so if you wanted to reverse your tail servo you could replace teh 127 in the fourth column by -127

 

[Crash]

Great tips. I had not discovered changing from multi to custom to view the settings. You guys probably saved me hours of tinkering.

 

[Kilby]

Agreed, the custom view saves a lot of time and puts it all in one view. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[jes1111]

And thanks to James (peabody124) and Ed (edouard) (and all the other OP coders) for creating such a wickedly good system!

 

[Kilby]

Hear, hear! Even though I have had some minor set backs getting my system up and running properly, I'm still more excited about the possibilities with OP than anything else I've looked at recently. Good job, guys!

 

[dankers]

The Mixer was Les Newall, a very good developer.

 

[edouard]

Thanks! Jes1111, mind if I add those tips to the wiki ? Or even better, would you mind adding those tips to the wiki ? ;-)

 

[jes1111]

Thanks! Jes1111, mind if I add those tips to the wiki ? Or even better, would you mind adding those tips to the wiki ? ;-)

Added as "Tips & Tricks" on the Multirotor Mixer page: http://wiki.openpilot.org/display/Doc/Multirotor+Mixer