Hoverfly PRO/GPS Firmware Update v4.8 Beta

hoverben

Person of Interest
Al, I am flying a VENU built by you. The canopy is painted black and there is a HFGPS sitting over the HFPRO.
Do I also need to install some light blocking foam?

You will not need to cover the barometer - it is not exposed. This is actually one of the reasons we put a canopy on our aircraft in the first place.
 


hoverben

Person of Interest
It's based on a CX4 frame, yes. But I meant that we generally put a canopy or dome of some sort on all of the aircraft we build.
 

kloner

Aerial DP
2) Maybe because I was at or below launch altitude when I tried the long range FPV RTH test? GPS remembers altitude and freaks out because it thinks its on the ground?

that sucks,,, almost every fpv setup i do is purposely up over looking the flight area, gives us better signal and we can watch LOS with binos alot easier........ ruby has that problem too

Wonder what naza does
 

yeehaanow

Member
I didn't think RTH did anything to do with altitude...yet. So it wouldn't make sense to me. And to me it looked like he was above the home elevation.
 

Aerovideo

Member
Doesn't the MK have a 250m limit on GPS waypoint functions because of regulations? Here's a thought on my long range RTH test. Is there a max distance in the HF code for GPS functions that I exceeded?

Just thinking out loud...
 

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
regarding your earlier post about altitude hold, check the foam you've got on your pressure sensor. if it's closed cell you won't be able to blow air through it and that is bad for your pressure sensor. find some "open cell" foam, you can blow air through it and it will absorb water, cut a small piece and that's what should be used for shielding the pressure sensor.

bart
 

elossam

Member
https://hoverflytech.zendesk.com/entries/23296187-PRO-GPS-Firmware-Update-v4-8

(6) There is no gain adjustment for Altitude Hold. You can return your switch values to their default settings. The Altitude Hold feature no longer needs to be tuned.

I changed mine back to 100%/100% on my Futaba 10C.

Pete

Tried the 100% and still far away from what a dji wkm performs. We compared a couple centimeters variation on dji vs quite a meter up and down in hfp. Time to remove the hfp once again and wait for another firm update to see if HF can do as fine as DJI guys.
 

yeehaanow

Member
Big weirdness.
First flight of 4.8.
Auto leveling was acting very strange and not flyable. At first it started big ocsillations an i had to switch to manual. Also in AL, When I pitched forward it went to the right, back went left, Right went forward and left went back! (not 100% but still doing it) I played with the gains and taking them down made it soupy, while going up made it more stable, but still would not fly the right direction.
Manual mode flew fine.
What's going on!!!?
 


Photronix

Pilot
Altitude Hold didn't change.

Big weirdness.
First flight of 4.8.
Auto leveling was acting very strange and not flyable. At first it started big ocsillations an i had to switch to manual. Also in AL, When I pitched forward it went to the right, back went left, Right went forward and left went back! (not 100% but still doing it) I played with the gains and taking them down made it soupy, while going up made it more stable, but still would not fly the right direction.
Manual mode flew fine.
What's going on!!!?
 

yeehaanow

Member
Tim do you have carefree mode turned on in the setup client?

Nope. Good thought, though.

Altitude Hold didn't change.

I wasn't using altitude hold, I"m assuming you mean Auto-Leveling?

Any idea why in AL mode it would not go the correct direction, but in Manual it would? I have the mag hold turned off.
I did a very careful accel calibration, compass calibration, made sure all the boxes were checked and everything working in the setup client when i installed 4.8.

Only thing I can think of was my bird was top-heavy, having no camera on the gimbal.
 

Whopis

Member
Nope. Good thought, though.



I wasn't using altitude hold, I"m assuming you mean Auto-Leveling?

Any idea why in AL mode it would not go the correct direction, but in Manual it would? I have the mag hold turned off.
I did a very careful accel calibration, compass calibration, made sure all the boxes were checked and everything working in the setup client when i installed 4.8.

Only thing I can think of was my bird was top-heavy, having no camera on the gimbal.

Al did mean Auto-Level, not Altitude-Hold.

Are you using just a PRO board, or a combo of PRO and GPS? (Actually I think you must have a GPS board since you mentioned compass calibration). Do you have magnetic hold enabled in the setup client?

That does sound a lot like CareFree is enabled - though I would have expected slightly different behavior even if that were the case. From your description, it sounded like the pitch axis was rotated 90 degrees clockwise, but the roll axis was rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Is that accurate? Also would you say that it was completely 90 degrees off, or just some portion of that?

Can you hook up the setup client and verify that the artificial horizon is going the proper directions?
 

yeehaanow

Member
OK, very strange, opened up the setup client and Carefree WAS on, and also my auto-leveling smoothness had changed from 30% to 48%. I guess that must be the issue. I was SURE it was off, but maybe I was mistaken, or it changed after I did a second accel calibration.
So when carefree is on, it must be activated when Auto-Leveling is engaged? Good thing it didn't really screw me up and I was flying relatively straight out.
That would explain why it was not flying right, because my compass on the gps board is sitting in the middle of the ESC's, with a power harness around it and the batteries above. If I use mag hold it will suddenly yaw, especially when applying power. I tried Position hold too and it went into a toilet bowl pretty quickly. Guess I have to put the external mag back on.
Phew. now, of course I can't test-fly because it's snowing...
 

yeehaanow

Member
All is good after turning off carefree. It might be because I had a much heavier camera, but it was as smooth in wind as it's ever been.
 

Aerovideo

Member
So I didn't change anything but my location and I did some more testing. This time in my usual wide open, flat, weed field. There was a slight breeze but it was pretty calm over all.

First I tested AH, it worked reasonably well. Best when you get it into a stable hover first.
Next I tested PH with AH and it worked GREAT! Oddly enough it would make one large circle then settle in and hold the position really well.
I then tested RTH, twice by LOS and not turning the copter around. Worked like a charm.
Then I repeated the test of last weekend and flew out about 700ft with my goggles and without turning around I activated RTH. Worked Great!
I flew out again several times but this time turned around and activated RTH, each time it worked as expected without the violent, crazy maneuvers from the last video.

That pretty much rules out all my ideas except altitude being at or less than the arming point or possibly I lost satellite signal last weekend. Those are the only two things I can think of for the freak out RTH performance.
 

yeehaanow

Member
I went to a shoot at a ski mountain and could NOT get a GPS signal. I was getting 100% the day before at my house. This particular mountain had a giant cell/microwave transmitter tower at the top about a 1000' from where I was trying to launch. Also, the mountain blocked off a portion of the southeastern sky, but i was able to get gps on my phone very quickly, not that that means anything.
Since I was stuck at 0% GPS I could not arm and everybody was waiting on me! We tried 3 different locations, the last very far from the transmitter tower and still nothing after ten minutes.
Eventually, I had to take off the GPS board and fly without it, but what a pITA.

If it's not going to arm without a GPS signal then I'll need to figure out a quick way to disable it.

I think this is a new feature? I did a whole week of ski mountains on 4.6 and never ran into this issue.

Otherwise, flying great!
 

mbsteed

aerial video centric
Surely you can fly without a GPS lock - I don't have the GPS board but there will always be reasons why a person wouldn't get a GPS lock, so to make that a requirement to arm the HFP, doesn't make sense.
 

Photronix

Pilot
You can arm without GPS lock. However, watch the LED on the HFGPS carefully. If it continues to blink purple then its not seeing the GPS antenna and will not arm. If it turns red (indicating that the GPS antenna was detected and is now waiting for a fix) then you can arm. If you wait till it goes green then you can use PH and RTH otherwise if you arm while red you cannot.
 

yeehaanow

Member
I was seeing a blue light on the gps antenna, so at least it was powered. It was fairly cold, around 15F. Could that have anything to do with it?
 

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