Pixhawk left roll

Chalagi

Member
After calibrating the gps and accel several times I still have a left roll on my quad, I run a Taranis tx with a X8R rx on 4S battery. I was told that my compassmot was not set correctly but after several resets it still moves left with the right stick centered. And I have re-calibrated my radio many times over. Any other suggestions before i smash this crappy thing.
 

dazzab

Member
Without providing the flight log I doubt anyone will be able to help you. That's one of the strengths of the Pixhawk software, it logs absolutely everything. If you pop on to the DIYDrones site, ask you question and provide the log I'm sure you'll get an answer. I'm familiar with logs but I don't think I could analyse this specific question or I'd be happy to help you out.

If you are lucky RobL on this forum may see your post. He's actually one of the developers who writes the Arducopter software so no doubt he could help.
 

Chalagi

Member
Well I was informed by a person on diydrones to reload the MP and re-calibrate everything from start. And it have re-calibrated the accel. compass, tx and flight modes. Now when I enter the extended tuning section I see that some of the settings are " In gray
not changeable. I have attached the file below.
 

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dazzab

Member
REMOVE YOUR PROPS BEFORE TRYING THE TEST BELOW

That looks odd. I'm only guessing but since those parameters are all related to Throttle I'd check that your throttle is working. Go to:

Initial Setup
Mandatory Hardware
Radio Setup

When you move your throttle does it show the proper range on the throttle channel?
What version of Mission Planner are you using?
 

Chalagi

Member
Every thing worked correctly in the radio setup. This happened when I upgraded to the latest FW so I went down 2 on the firmware list and downloaded that one. And now everything is back to normal. I really think that the MP has some bugs that need to be taken care of for sure.
 

dazzab

Member
Every thing worked correctly in the radio setup. This happened when I upgraded to the latest FW so I went down 2 on the firmware list and downloaded that one. And now everything is back to normal. I really think that the MP has some bugs that need to be taken care of for sure.
I agree with you. Although the author of Mission Planner is one of the most responsive developers I have ever seen (i've seen many updates done in the same day), MP is still sometimes lagging a bit behind the most current firmware releases. I haven't upgraded to the most recent version of Arducopter for exactly this reason.

I'm using the Mission Planner function that takes GPS info from the logs and injects it in to the EXIF info of the photos I take which is required for mapping. The logs have changed in new releases and there have been issues with the geotagging function so I'm sitting tight on the last version of Arducopter for now. It's a shame as the newest version of Arducopter has some big advances in it.

You could always try Tower or APM Planner etc. Mission Planner isn't the only GCS for Arducopter. Although it's my favourite and I like to support the author as he's done fantastic work over the years. He's also Australian. :)
 




Chalagi

Member
After the reinstall and calibration I did a test flight and now the quad moves (Pitches) forward. I tried to download the flight file data but MP gets picky sometimes and its a fight to get anything. I did manage to download a text file of the flight and I tried to download the data to set my hover rpm but when I opened the file all it said was "Dump". Tried to upload the flight text file but this site would not allow it.
 

dazzab

Member
An issue I have had with the Pixhawk is that when changing firmware you aren't actually resetting the parameters to the defaults as they are held in a different part of memory. I think you need to ensure that you are starting with totally default values. I can remember one time when i upgraded my hexacopter the next flight it yawed to the point that I had to give it full yaw the other direction to stop it. I spent a long time trying to figure out what the issue was convinced it was a hardware issue. Then a developer looked at it and found that there was a huge offset in a yaw parameter. I didn't check that as I knew that I hadn't changed anything. Personally, I think it was an issue with Mission Planner but I never found out. We reset the parameter and it flew perfectly once again.

It really sounds to me like you might have something similar going on. You have changed the firmware a few time and across multiple versions. See if you can figure out how to start with default settings and make darn sure you don't have any trim set on your Tx or in any parameters. The copter should fly quite well with the default settings. I've gone months before even bothering with tuning some of my Arducopter configurations. People tend to think fiddling with settings and PIDs will fix issues but the reality is that it should fly well fairly well with the defaults or there's more than likely an issue that has nothing to do with Arducopter or the Pixhawk.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. It does concern me that you can't get the flight data though. If you connect with a USB cable you should be able to use the log download feature in Mission Planner to download the flash log. If you can't, that points to even more issues.
 

Chalagi

Member
Well like I said above it onyl gave me a "Dump" after opening the log and I tried more than one time. Sometimes MP will startup and sometimes not. The 3DR radios will connect but not always. I'm thinking it depends on what mood the pixhawk is in at the time. I will try and get all the parameters set to default and then start over on the calibration of the compass, accel, tx, ect. And thanks for the help and comments Dazzab
 

dazzab

Member
Can you describe how you are trying to access the logs? It sounds like you might be trying to use the terminal connection which is a bit tricky. It's much easier to use the tab located underneath the Heads Up Display. Have a look at the wiki instructions for accessing the Data Flash logs. Using the terminal connection does provide a sure fire way to clear any parameters and reset the Pixhawk to default but it's a bit tricky to connect to and not user friendly at all so I've avoided bringing up the topic as it's rare to have a need to access it.
 

Chalagi

Member
I use the tab under the HUD that says "Datalog" and I download the last or last 2 files. But when I open them I get the "Dump" word only
 

dazzab

Member
I use the tab under the HUD that says "Datalog" and I download the last or last 2 files. But when I open them I get the "Dump" word only
OK, now I remember. I had the same thing happen. I took the SD card out of the Pixhawk and put it in my computer to check it. There was nothing on it. I think at some point they sped up the frequency of the logging and the cards that ship with the Pixhawk can't keep up. Anyway, mine was corrupted but even after fixing that it wouldn't capture logs on the Pixhawk. I put another micro SD card that I had in the Pixhawk and it all started working again. I posted about this on their forums but never heard back. The only reason I knew about it is that I know one of the developers and he mentioned it once in relation to ArduPlane which I also use. I haven't heard other users complaining about this so I guess it's not an issue. Maybe 3DR ships better cards now. I have had my Pixhawks for a while now. Anyway, try another SD card in the Pixhawk and I bet it will work. They are super cheap now so it couldn't hurt to try.
 

Chalagi

Member
I just pulled the sd card from the pixhawk. And the sd card list the flight logs from 1.bin thru 65.bin but I can't open any of them
 

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