I ran the wires for the Gimbal and installed a separate BEC but I have not yet hooked it up to the DJI. I'd rather get the ship all tuned up before adding another variable.
New build AD-4 HL
- Thread starter AIRCONROB
- Start date
I ran the wires for the Gimbal and installed a separate BEC but I have not yet hooked it up to the DJI. I'd rather get the ship all tuned up before adding another variable.
Thanks! I was impressed with the stability for the first flight. Can't wait to dial it in.
The next video is almost finished uploaded but while that is still going on I wanted to mention this. After flying around for about 8 minutes, the motors were warm but not hot. However, 1 of the motors was much warmer than the others and was on the verge of being hot. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
The temp sensor I attached to one of the ESC's showed a max temp of 155 degrees F. The manual says its max temp is 230 degrees. I'll keep an eye on that as well.
I took the cover over immediately after the flight and noticed that DJI IMU, MC and GPS were all good and warm. They never got warm on my Gaui. Should I be concerned? Is it normal for them to get warm? I wondering if I should switch to the extended mounts on the cover to give more air flow.
Here's the second video with the camera on board. No stabilization, just a hard mounted GoPro Hero 2 on the AV130.
I promised myself I would only go some gentle hovers for a few packs until I felt confident of my build. That lasted only about a minute.
I promised myself I would only go some gentle hovers for a few packs until I felt confident of my build. That lasted only about a minute.
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I'm not rubbing it in, I'm just giving you added motivation to finish up. :nevreness:
So my original setup was giving me problems getting GPS lock (I couldn't get it). Today I picked up a double sided copper clad board from my local electronics shop and went to town with a dremel. This is what I finished up with. When I first tried just the copper plate I still couldn't get full lock (down to 1 blinking red). Then I went back to the drawing board and added the carbon fiber plate and a little more height with some 1/4" standoffs. Outside I went and I had full GPS lock within 30 seconds.
I took the bird out to the local park for a good flight and I got GPS lock within seconds. I then had a good 9 minute flight in GPS mode. Here are my observations:
- Position hold when the quad is already in a stable hover is really nice and solid with very little drifting.
- While in GPS mode if I fly forward at a decent speed and then let off the sticks the quad goes into the dreaded toilet bowl whirlpool (going counter clockwise). This is exactly what I kept getting when the WKM was on my Gaui. My basic gains are around 115% and if I go any higher I get the shakes. I have my ATTI gains at 100% and have not tried adjusting them in flight yet. I sure hope I can figure out this whirlpool because it really sucks.
In other news... I switched to using the Droidworx extended height hardware on the cover to get the GPS a little higher and to give better ventilation. That seems to have helped because during my last park flight with the cover at its minimum height my ESC temp sensor showed a high temp of 196 degrees F. That's scary since the operating limit before it goes into protection mode is 230. I just had another park flight with the cover extended up and I showed a max temp of 168 degrees after a good 9 minutes of flight. That makes me feel much better.
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I took the bird out to the local park for a good flight and I got GPS lock within seconds. I then had a good 9 minute flight in GPS mode. Here are my observations:
- Position hold when the quad is already in a stable hover is really nice and solid with very little drifting.
- While in GPS mode if I fly forward at a decent speed and then let off the sticks the quad goes into the dreaded toilet bowl whirlpool (going counter clockwise). This is exactly what I kept getting when the WKM was on my Gaui. My basic gains are around 115% and if I go any higher I get the shakes. I have my ATTI gains at 100% and have not tried adjusting them in flight yet. I sure hope I can figure out this whirlpool because it really sucks.
In other news... I switched to using the Droidworx extended height hardware on the cover to get the GPS a little higher and to give better ventilation. That seems to have helped because during my last park flight with the cover at its minimum height my ESC temp sensor showed a high temp of 196 degrees F. That's scary since the operating limit before it goes into protection mode is 230. I just had another park flight with the cover extended up and I showed a max temp of 168 degrees after a good 9 minutes of flight. That makes me feel much better.
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@up Buddy, That looks realy neat, it pays off in the long run to spend that little more time in having the finnish like that. And yest don't let our side down now with the carbon fiber
The PET braiding does make it look very nice, and the boom lights we share the same style "BLING" only one part missing, where's the flood lights?
You want flood lights... I give you flood lights. Thanks for the idea! :tennis:
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Very nice mate, I like your style, between the pair of us we could start an all night rave lol. I've nearly finished mine off just a few little touches and I'll be able to spot you from here.
So going back to the GPS mounting, are you happy with its peformance now, or does it need more tweeking?
So going back to the GPS mounting, are you happy with its peformance now, or does it need more tweeking?
I'm with you there. Club Quadworx! I can hear it (or more like see it) now.
Just got back from a great sunset flight at the park. I squeezed 11 minutes from a single 4S 6200mah battery and it had 15% left so that's all she got. Not bad as I figured I'd get about 8-9 minutes. I wonder how the quad would do with 2 of those batteries in parallel. That would bring the AUW to about 3600g.
Anyway... GPS was great. This time it took a couple minutes for full lock. Not sure if it had anything to do with the new LEDs on the cover (that was the only change since the last GPS flight). Position hold is really rock steady. I'm still getting the whirlpool if I let off the sticks while flying. A couple little corrections and it hold steady again. I have to begin tweaking my DJI settings and see if I can dial out the whirlpool. Overall I'm really happy.
OK, I'm officially done my build. I ended up removing the carbon plate and replacing it with another double sided copper plate that I fabricated (i.e. went to town with a dremel). So now the GPS is shielded with 2 copper plates above the IMU. I quick try late last night and I was able to get GPS lock within a couple minutes. I also hung the rig by some string and hopefully did a much better job at calculating the COG (I came out with -10 on the Z for the IMU and -15 for the GPS). I'll give it a flight today and report the results.
I also finished hooking up the gimbal servos to the external BEC and setting it up in the DJI software. Can't wait to see the results.
There is nothing left to do (hopefully) except tune it all up. I told my wife she will no longer be a multirotor widow at night (love ya honey!).
I also finished hooking up the gimbal servos to the external BEC and setting it up in the DJI software. Can't wait to see the results.
There is nothing left to do (hopefully) except tune it all up. I told my wife she will no longer be a multirotor widow at night (love ya honey!).
Sorry to hear about the GPS mate, I've been very busy with work so i havent had any energy to do anything with mine, it would of been so neat to have it inside the canopy, I've myself made the plates ready while at work, I'm just wondering if there's too much bouncing around inside the canopy and GPS signal for some season is getting blocked. I think for the peace of mind i might end up putting it outside the canopy:livid: not what i was hoping for, but hey.
There still might be hope!
This is the solution that didn't work. What you can't see is that the IMU is mounted under the bottom copper plate on the G10 plate (only a few cm away from the GPS).
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While I was outside, unable to get a GPS lock, I picked up the IMU (after removing the mounting tape) and held it away from the multi. What you know I went from 3 blinking lights to no blinking lights after about 15 seconds. I then pulled the battery, placed the IMU back under the GPS and plugged back in the battery. Back to blinking lights. Move the IMU, I get GPS lock. So, I went back inside, reconfigured a few things and mounted the IMU on the top of the center plate at the front of the multi. I cleaned up, placed on the dome and went back outside and plugged her in. GPS lock in about 30 seconds.
I'll cross my fingers and hopefully give it a flight tomorrow. Work is about to get in my way really soon.
Here is after everything was finished before I put the dome back on.
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Hot damn! Now were cooking with butter. Had a good sleep then took my quad in the backyard to test last nights changes. I had full gps lock in under 3 minutes. Took her in the air in atti and tweaked my gains which oddly I could now set around 200% (basic gains) when previously I could only get to 110% before getting the shakes. Atti was super smooth and solid. Next I flipped on gps mode and the quad stayed put with about a 2 ft circle. Flying forward and then letting off the sticks however would still cause the quad to start the counterclockwise whirlpool effect. If I made made a few adjustments to stop the whirlpool it was stop and stay put. I'm a happy camper. Hopefully this weekend can get out to the park and tune out the whirlpool. Time to get to work before I get fired. :black_eyed:
I'm just trying to understand why it have made such a change just by moving the IMU to the front of the plate, it doesn't make scense, but if its working than it's a bonus, Ill have to try that coz still against on putting the GPS outside the dome.
It seems as though the IMU puts out some serious electrical interference or it's because the IMU has a metal cage inside it that causes magnetic interference. In any case, moving it as far away from the GPS as possible seems to make huge improvements.
Remember, I didn't just move it to the front of the plate. Previously it was 3cm directly below the GPS (just under the second copper plate). Now it is nearly 8cm below and 5cm forward of the GPS.
Looks like I got rid of the whirlpool effect. First I increased the Z mounting setting in the software by changing from IMU(-8)/GPS(-15) to IMU(-10)/GPS(-17) and it got worse. Then I changed it to IMU(-6)/GPS(-13) and now it the quad locks position within a foot or two with no whirlpool. Going to run to the park for lunch and give it a real test including a try of RTH.