SamaraMedia
Active Member
Wow, not sure I would call that a drift, more like a lurch.
XAircraft Is Xaircraft Technical support gone? I need help.
- Thread starter mspencer1
- Start date
Thank you very much for the help! My email address is mspencer32@gmail.com
I'll follow the instructions and see how it works! BTW, one of the problem controllers I have was doing this out of the box as well.
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
That's great to hear, hopefully this works out. Please let us know how it goes.
Love when the member can get other members out of a jam before the companies can!
Love when the member can get other members out of a jam before the companies can!
traxx2003
Member
My pleasure mspencer! I no longer fly the SuperX, last June I lost my quad after loosing complete control of the quad while hovering above me. To this date I'm not sure what happened. I created a thread about the crash with black box logs. Now I'm in the middle of another build, a Skyhero 850, and I just don't know which controller to use. I lost confidence in the SuperX after my experience and now that we have no support here in the US!!!! I was considering the Pixhawk but I not 100% sure since it appears that it can be difficult to tune it correctly. DJI is definitely not an option (flyaway s). I just do not want to loose another expensive quad. Is there another FC that offers the easy of setup like the SuperX. My SuperX survived the crash with the exception of the antenna.
I originally started out with Hoverfly. It was that most stable controller I've ever used. But something happened behind the scenes to the boards development. During that time I was also messing with APM. Then I moved onto the Super X. But I do fly the Pixhawk on my other ships a lot. Their setup has gotten much easier. It has many settings but it has evolved. It has basic settings or advanced settings if you prefer. It even has the auto tune feature. But I get away with the basic settings. They seem to work for me so I don't have to PID tune the ship. This is on a large X8 with Canon 5D (which I normally use the Super X with). Its not as smooth as the super X but its highly reliable. I'm using the Chinese Clones of the Pixhawk. I own 5 of them and never had an issue with loss of control. Its a cheap option. Around $150 for the whole pixhawk setup or around $90 for the board only.
traxx2003
Member
Mspencer1, I appreciate your inputs!! You know they only reason I switched to the SuperX was because anybody who was flying an expensive/ professional craft, had the SuperX. Then look at what happened. I lost more than $3000 on that rig. So now, I just don't know if I should try the SuperX again or just go for the Pixhawk. I do like the super easy setup and the plug-n-play option that the SuperX offers. But right now, reliability is my top priority. I just don't know which controller to use. Care to offer your opinion on this? Maybe it will help me decide. Thank you again!!
I can tell you based on the controllers i've used. Hoverfly was the first. Excellent controller. It was super stable, smooth and I would use it on my big Octo's. However the GPS features were very under developed. All other manufacturers passed them up very quickly. It was manufactured in the US and the customer service was excellent. Three $900 controllers were eventually sold for $100-200 a piece after moving to super x. I then moved on to Zero UAV testing it on a Tarot 960 hex frame (mid size). I immediately had buyers remorse. I had a bad USB to serial cable that didn't work. Customer service said I was doing something wrong and it wasn't the cable. After arguing over email for a month I got a new cable and got it flying. It flew great until it wanted to do a random flip and crash. I never found out why. I bought it for $1200 and sold it for less than half the cost. I then tried APM (pre Pixhawk). I was testing it on a small hex. I was amazed how accurate the GPS was. It had tons of features. It had an excellent instruction manual. But it was very hard to setup. PID Tuning! I tried it on a large Octo and flew great. However it didn't like a large gimbal being attached. The Code didn't like heavy setups (yet). The forums and customer service were excellent though. Along the way I read about the Super X. People were comparing its smoothness to Hoverfly and I purchased one. I was amazed how stable it was when flying very heavy loads. I made a video of my large Octo carrying a tool box of lipos that weight 15 pounds. The GPS seemed to handle it like it wasn't there so I bought two more. However the third one had the leveling issue right out of the box.
At the same time I was trying the newly released Pixhawk. But I received a bad one and it liked to do some very unpredictable and dangerous things. Over time the code became much better. The setup became way more simple. By this time I was very familiar with most of its settings (basic and advanced). China was releasing the clones so I bough a few. I'ver never had a crash with any of them that was not my fault. It still lacks the smoothness of the Super X but it works. Once you tune the basic settings it can handle any size and weight of ship. yes there is a learning curve but there is lots of help. Customer service is great. The forums are large and dense with information.
So how do we weigh this? The Super X is an excellent controller. Its very smooth, reliable and easy to setup. But like all controllers they do get their problems. Super X in my opinion is over simplified (i.e. the leveling calibration). You don't have access to some important settings. That where customer support comes in and its got me very worried. The Pixhawk is also very reliable, fairly smooth and not as easy to setup. But they have an excellent support base. Pixhawks are truly flying robots. They have every feature you could ever want or need.
In the end for me its all about customer service. I will keep flying my working Super X until it doesn't anymore though and no one can help me.
At the same time I was trying the newly released Pixhawk. But I received a bad one and it liked to do some very unpredictable and dangerous things. Over time the code became much better. The setup became way more simple. By this time I was very familiar with most of its settings (basic and advanced). China was releasing the clones so I bough a few. I'ver never had a crash with any of them that was not my fault. It still lacks the smoothness of the Super X but it works. Once you tune the basic settings it can handle any size and weight of ship. yes there is a learning curve but there is lots of help. Customer service is great. The forums are large and dense with information.
So how do we weigh this? The Super X is an excellent controller. Its very smooth, reliable and easy to setup. But like all controllers they do get their problems. Super X in my opinion is over simplified (i.e. the leveling calibration). You don't have access to some important settings. That where customer support comes in and its got me very worried. The Pixhawk is also very reliable, fairly smooth and not as easy to setup. But they have an excellent support base. Pixhawks are truly flying robots. They have every feature you could ever want or need.
In the end for me its all about customer service. I will keep flying my working Super X until it doesn't anymore though and no one can help me.
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traxx2003
Member
I am also worry about the lack of support for the SuperX. I think it's time for me to start reading about the Pixhawk. I may latter get a cheap test quad to install the SuperX and see if it still works. I wanted to ask, can the SuperX fly without the GPS antenna connected? Like the N aze32 control boards?
Last edited by a moderator:
traxx2003
Member
Mspencer1, can I ask what made you decide to move away from the SuperX? After reading your response above, it seems like it doesn't matter which controller you use, every single one of them will have issues and in the worst cases, those issues will end up costing you the aircraft. I honestly can't belief that there isn't a company out there that is capable to make a flight controller that is reliable and consistent. When you consider that according to some experts, that the drone industry in the US is on its way to become a multi-billion dollar industry, if is not already there that at least one serious company would step-up and do the necessary R&D and do whatever it took to produce a good dependable professional level flight controller. For this build I am going to give the Pixhawk a try and see how it goes. But if it ends up costing me another expensive craft, that will be the end of the road for me with multi rotors. Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions in such detail. Good luck to you.
fltundra
Member
Yes, Atti and Manual mode.
Fly it around on a test quad for a while and see what you think. Start reading the instructions for the Pixhawk in the meantime. The address is copter.ardupilot.com Their very detailed and easy to follow. BTW... any luck on finding the file?
traxx2003
Member
Yes I have it, what's your email? The forum will not let me attach the file. Here is mine: rrotaryjoe@yahoo.com.
mspencer32@gmail.com I sent you an email so you can just reply to it.
traxx2003
Member
"mspencer1" Could you please look into this eBay Pixhawk. Looking at the 3DR Robotics site, they sell just the board for $199 adn GPS antenna for $89. How come this one is so cheap? I'm assuming it is probably a clone; Would you buy this? In Amamzon, they have a complete set similar to the ebay one, but is listed at $405.00.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pixhawk-PX4...ca9719&pid=100338&rk=5&rkt=17&sd=111555697474
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pixhawk-PX4...ca9719&pid=100338&rk=5&rkt=17&sd=111555697474
Motopreserve
Drone Enthusiast
Keep in mind that the APM flight controllers (including Pixhawk) have always been based on open source - so technically, there really is no "clone."
3DR has headed up much of the decelopment - but they do not "own" it. So cheaper versions of the Pixhawk style FC may be good quality - but may lack the tech support that 3DR may offer. But again, being open source, the real tech support will one from the community - so might make that factor moot.
I think @violetwolf has had good results with the RCTimer versions if I remember correctly.
Has anyone determined whether the superX file is for quad only? I'm thinking it might be a good thing to have on my computer for if/when the issue arises on my 2 superX units. But I have the upgraded versions with hex and Octo.
Thanks!
3DR has headed up much of the decelopment - but they do not "own" it. So cheaper versions of the Pixhawk style FC may be good quality - but may lack the tech support that 3DR may offer. But again, being open source, the real tech support will one from the community - so might make that factor moot.
I think @violetwolf has had good results with the RCTimer versions if I remember correctly.
Has anyone determined whether the superX file is for quad only? I'm thinking it might be a good thing to have on my computer for if/when the issue arises on my 2 superX units. But I have the upgraded versions with hex and Octo.
Thanks!
traxx2003
Member
Actually fltundra, I purchased my SuperX from Jeff, and mine had the drift problem that was fixed by replacing the STATUS file with one I received from XAircraft China tech support. After that it flew great. Until I lost the quad in a crash caused be the GPS antenna coming loose in flight.
SamaraMedia
Active Member
traxx, is this good for all configurations, quad, hex, octo?
traxx2003
Member
jwoike, I honestly cannot remember. However I do remember that XAircraft had mentioned that they had found some incorrect parameters in the software that deals with the onboard gyros if the FC. One thing you can do is make a copy of your current STATUS file and save it. If it doesn't work you can always reinstall the old file back following the same instructions.