I recently purchased a Cinestar 8 from Quadrocopter. I've now got it home and am trying to figure out what's going on with my LED lights on the bottom of the heli. Typically when the LED's are flashing this is a low voltage warning, but I have confirmed with several batteries this is not the problem. After calibration they should stop flashing and be solid. Any suggestions or ideas as to what is set wrong in either my radio or MK Tool. I am running V2.04. Thank you to anyone that can help.
Charlie: In MK tool, if you connect up to the Flight Control board, and switch to the Misc window (see http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/MK-Parameter/Misc) what do you see for the Under Voltage setting please? Also what do you see for the Voltage Reference? Can you also confirm what number you see to the left right of the exclamation mark in the red triangle at the bottom of the screen? When you checked with several batteries, what voltage were the batteries at please? Thanks Andy.
Charlie: Sorry...that should be "number you see to the right of the exclamation mark in the red triangle...." Andy.
Here are two screenshots that should hopefully answer the questions you have. Also, I'm using one 6S 10,000mAh battery for my heli.
Show us a screenshot of the “Output” screen in MKTool. If you updated the MK Firmware, it usually defaults to the factory settings, and those set the LEDs to flash slowly under normal conditions. You have to change that to get them to stop flashing. I guess Holger and Ingo kinda like their kopters to have a certain amount of bling.
Here is a screenshot of the output tab. I'm asking about the flashing, because I know before I left Quadrocopter, once the chopper is calibrated they should not be flashing, we had it set to flash on low voltage. That's why I'm puzzled, I'm still learning the ins and out of what the software and chopper are capable of still. Thank you for your help.
Charlie: Based on my data, all the bits of the Out2 bitmask should be red. Click on the rectangles that are not red and the Write those settings to the controller. (Steve: Can you confirm this is the case on your copter?) I can't explain why these settings reverted -- did you do any firmware upgrades? That's the usual cause. Andy.
Yes, that’s why your LEDs are flashing. Follow Andy’s instructions. Most likely cause is a firmware update, as that’ll revert things to factory defaults.
Hello Charlie, Some other items to note that revert to default in the MISC tab after you update the MK firmware. --"Undervoltage"- we set that to "35" instead of "33" --"CH voltage"- we set that to "0" or "disable" --"Auto land voltage"- we set that to "0" or "disable" "CH voltage" and "Auto land voltage" are both failsafes that are user defined that we recommend to leave disabled until you are comfortable with the kopter. Greetings, Adam
That solved it, I did not update the firmware on the chopper, we flew it in MT and then packed it up and I reassembled it in MN. That is how the settings came up the first time I plugged it in to my computer. I also forgot that I had a UBS drive with my saved settings from Quadrocopter. So all is now good. Thanks to everyone for your help. Look forward to learning more from all of you. -Charlie Cushing
Hmm. So it would seem that somehow the settings became corrupted. I suspect it would be a good idea to use MK Tool's Save option to save a new .mkp file, Charlie -- just in case it happens again. What sometimes happens is that you can use the Transmitter control sticks to inadvertently switch to a different parameter set (the number to the right of the exclamation mark in the red triangle) -- and that creates the appearance that the firmware settings have suddenly changed. I'm not saying that that is what happened here, but I just want you to be aware of it. The .mkp file preserves all of the five different parameter sets. The best one to use is parameter set 3. You can select the current parameter set either in MK Tool or via the transmitter sticks. There is more information here on the different parameter sets as well as how to change them from within MK Tool and using the Transmitter sticks: http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/MK-Parameter The slightly easier to understand description is: Setting 1 = Throttle up / Yaw left + Roll left Setting 2 = Throttle up / Yaw left + Nick up / Roll left Setting 3 = Throttle up / Yaw left + Nick up Setting 4 = Throttle up / Yaw left + Nick up / Roll right Setting 5 = Throttle up / Yaw left + Roll right I know I've seen a diagram of the sticks and the settings, but I cannot find that on-line right now....I seem to recall it always was hard to find. Andy.
I have absolutely no doubt that is what happened, when I first got it assembled I was screwing around with the sticks and that's definitely what happened. I'm still learning to crawl with the electronics, thanks to everyone for your quick responses helping me solves this minor problem.
If I do this command Setting 3 = Throttle up / Yaw left + Nick up, the heli with beep three times, but then if I calibrate how I normally do it, which is both sticks to the upper left corners it then beeps twice. Do I have to save it in MK TOOL for it to save that setting?
Charlie ACC calibration is: Throttle up + Yaw right Nick middle Roll middleBasically only the left stick to up/right. If you used both sticks then you reprogrammed to Setting 2. Setting 2 => Roll left + Nick up plus Gas up + Gier left