Hoverfly New Hoverfly PRO Firmware v4.6

[Bartman]

No, do not remove the board to calibrate the mag. You want to calibrate it on your bird with all accessories (gimbal, camera, etc). You want to calibrate the mag with your birds inhearent magnetic fields present.

The reason the accel needs to be redone is most likely the recent change in how AH and AL use all sensors now.

when compasses are being calibrated in full scale aircraft the engine is running, all accessories are powered, and the various lights/strobes are on. to really do this with a multi-rotor heli then it's beginning to look like we should have motors running while doing the procedure.

anyone?

 

[workshop]

Precisely... What is it about the magnetometer that HFT is using that makes it so untrustworthy and difficult to calibrate? I know of no other vendor that is making it's users spin large craft in open fields to calibrate magnetometers. Doing the HoverFly Compass Spin will be challenging with the motors running. Props on or off?

Going external with the magnetometer is one way to work around the problem. There seems to be a readjustment and learning curve with each version update that over time, I am less and less inclined to test.

 

[Bartman]

Precisely... What is it about the magnetometer that HFT is using that makes it so untrustworthy and difficult to calibrate? I know of no other vendor that is making it's users spin large craft in open fields to calibrate magnetometers. Doing the HoverFly Compass Spin will be challenging with the motors running. Props on or off?

Going external with the magnetometer is one way to work around the problem. There seems to be a readjustment and learning curve with each version update that over time, I am less and less inclined to test.

this has been standard operating procedure for Mikrokopter users from day one so it isn't so unheard of.

with the motors spinning though is another story, maybe not necessary, who knows.

 

[Bartman]

for anyone planning to flash 4.6 R2 to both the PRO and GPS boards, keep in mind the Program Switch isn't oriented the same way on both boards. In towards the middle is Position 1 on the PRO board but Position 2 on the GPS board. If this isn't done correctly then it will prevent the firmware from updating properly.

Bart

 

[PaNt]

for anyone planning to flash 4.6 R2 to both the PRO and GPS boards, keep in mind the Program Switch isn't oriented the same way on both boards. In towards the middle is Position 1 on the PRO board but Position 2 on the GPS board. If this isn't done correctly then it will prevent the firmware from updating properly.

Bart

BART R2 is for GPS?

 

[Bartman]

I had an R2 option when I chose my PRO software. I'll do it again and see about it.

Maybe that's why I can't get an active Connect button while in the Calibrations tab of the HoverCLIENT?

 

[Bartman]

definitely R2, from George's post earlier,

Flash v4.6 r2 to both the HoverflyPro and HoverflyGPS. Pay particular attention to the program switch positions.

doing it again now.

 

[workshop]

this has been standard operating procedure for Mikrokopter users from day one so it isn't so unheard of.

I stand corrected... Thank you. MK is one of the platforms we do not use at work and I've never tooled with it either.

 

[Bartman]

my bad, the connect button isn't active in the Calibration tab. the HoverCLIENT will connect automatically when you begin each calibration.

disclaimer: there is no such thing as HoverCLIENT, it's a name I made up and I'm hoping will be adopted by HF because it's so damn cool. well not really damn cool but it's consistent with the other cheeky HF names for things. the real name is Hoverfly Setup Client.

carry on.

 

[PaNt]

Just to save you time. Here is how you should proceed.

Flash v4.6 r2 to both the HoverflyPro and HoverflyGPS. Pay particular attention to the program switch positions.

Disconnect the USB cable from the HoverflyPro and re-connect it. When the HoverflyPro's LED is flashing red, it is calibrating the gyro. It must remain perfectly still when this is happening or your horizon will not be level. Anytime the HoverflyPro's LED flashes red, it must remain absolutely still.

Connect your HoverflyPro to the setup client via the pro info tab. Check that the firmware version says v4.6 r2 and that the LED is flashing purple.

Repeat both the accelerometer and temperature calibrations. Make sure the check box is checked for both after calibrating.

Connect to the setup client under the general tab. The horizon should now be level when the HoverflyPro is level.

On 4.6.0.0 My horizon after calibration was perfect...!!!
i will do the update so..!

 

[Efliernz]

I have just taken my time and done step by step slowly, waiting for the LED, waiting for things to connect properly.

4.6r2 flashed and calibrated. The horizon is still off 5-10deg. I needed "84" right roll trim on my 10C to make AL steady. I put 3 packs through it with 5-10 km winds.

I am using 25% Autoleveling so I'm not being too hard on it. It is flying ok but the AL is not consistently level. 20% of the time after a turn, it will be slightly out of trim. A hard roll in the opposite direction - then release stick makes it balanced again. Strange...
Flying around in manual is nice. Climb and descents are ok on AL and manual - with a high-speed oscillation if I am descending too fast. I will try with my other board in my quad and test that later to see if AL wanders too.

AH - this was fun. The sweet-spot for me is only 5-6% on the Futaba 10C, that is only 2-4 on the client. Any greater % and it drops 2-5 meters. The AH doesn't hold for more than 5 seconds before it slowly descends - 30 seconds from 20M to 0M. 4.3.802 AH was so much better.

Pete

 

[yeehaanow]

Just switched to Grapner 14x8 props on my CS8 on 4.6.0. Turned OFF mag compass in autoleveling. All I have to say is WOW, it's flying the best it ever has in AL mode. It was a gusty 10-15mph wind and it was very very stable. I was descending very fast and it did not wobble hardly at all. Totally useable for a shot. Before with the APC 14x4.7 it would get the shakes in wind and descents.
It's quieter now too. Haven't recalibrated the compass so it was still going haywire, but it didn't matter because it was OFF. Looking at the castle logs shows the grapners are slightly more efficient and used 1 amp less per motor on full throttle climb. Pretty fun to toss this thing around.

The only other thing I tried was AH hold, which works very well for me. Holds within a meter, doesn't drop on initialization. Gain is about 15 on the TX.

 

[tahoelight]

Yeahaa, what motors are you running? I switched from APC 14x47 to wood 14x5 with good results as well. Tiger 2826 550kv. Still struggling with 4.6.02 by I have a feeling all will be fine when I turn off the mag as well. That does not help GPS though.

 

[Efliernz]

After getting frustrated with the Hexa board, I grabbed the 3Kg X-Quad and flashed that for 4.6.r2 and it is nice. Really nice. AH and AL working well. Horizon level when I hit Al - as shown on the Client Software. Sweet... I'm not going mad

Thanks to the weather for giving me a 5 minute break from lightning and torrential downpours...

I now need to swap boards simply as I have to as part of the fault-finding process... Unfortunately the OSD doesn't work on the #2 board (they are both 2nd hand, I didn't break them).

Pete

 

[ghaynes]

I'd like to add to what George says about the compass calibration. Coming from the MK world the HF process is very similar. I can tell you that any ferrous metal will affect the outcome. On the MK machines the software actually checks the compass and magnetic values and if they are not in agreement you don't get a motor start (they use data from the GPS to help with this).

So let me give you a concrete example. You walk outside to your concrete driveway or sidewalk. Put the copter down on the pavement and start the process. Almost can guarantee that it won't calibrate correctly due to the rebar that is in most concrete pours. So something as simple as that can mess you up. Grass is much safer but in my yard at home there is construction scrap from when the house was built. Found that out when I was learning my metal detector and tossed stuff like coins into the grass and tried to find them. Lots of false readings. Hoped for treasure and found scrap metal

Usually safe? Grass and asphalt and dirt.

Lastly as someone else pointed out did you calibrate it with everything powered up? FPV system, gimbals, cameras? They all can cause interference. As said in regular A/C everything is turned on when the calibrate/check a wet conference for compass swing and record the results on the little card that you see attached to the compass to show the correction factors for that particular installation.

 

[yeehaanow]

Yeahaa, what motors are you running? I switched from APC 14x47 to wood 14x5 with good results as well. Tiger 2826 550kv. Still struggling with 4.6.02 by I have a feeling all will be fine when I turn off the mag as well. That does not help GPS though.

I'm on 6s with the tiger 400kv motors.

 

[Efliernz]

I now have 30 min on the X-quad on 4.6.r2 and while I am still sorting the gains, it is nice - especially in manual mode.

I removed the problem board from the VM-6 Hexa and set it up without any other connections on the table to 4.6.r2. Everything worked perfect.
I moved it into the frame. Final check with the HFP client was good. Nice test hover in manual. A few clicks of AL roll trim but it was nice. Not chance to check AH. The artificial-horizon is good.

I have no idea what caused my problems but now it's good. Ready for proper flight testing. A good end to a very testing week...

Thanks for the patience of those that put up with my moaning
Thanks George.

Pete

 

[Stacky]

Good news, god only knows what causes some of these problems. I wont be taking the Hexa with me tomorrow, no point with the weather right now.

 

[S11D336B]

Really happy to see you guys are having success!!

 

[S11D336B]

The motors should not be running when doing the compass calibration for a multi-rotor. If running your motors causes interference with the compass, no amount of calibrating will be able to fix it. If you're seeing compass issues, using the external mag is about the easiest thing I can tell anyone to do.

when compasses are being calibrated in full scale aircraft the engine is running, all accessories are powered, and the various lights/strobes are on. to really do this with a multi-rotor heli then it's beginning to look like we should have motors running while doing the procedure.

anyone?