2nd time out of the barn for me and my new Cinestar 8. Hung one of my GoPros on it and went for a little more gas this time. But when I tried to turn on GPS position hold, things went a little wonky (just a little). I don't have a microSD in the Navi board yet, so I have no saved telemetry (or at least I don't think I do). I have a card in my mx-20 (failed attempt to get the voice stuff working). Does the mx-20 save any telemetry? Anyway, didn't end tragically (just a little mess) but I want to find out what I did wrong (I'm assuming it was me). Here's a short 60 second video showing what I saw. See if it makes sense to you. Thank you for watching! Steve
Hi Steve: It's hard to say what's happening without the GPX file that you'd get if you had a microSD card installed on the Navi Control board. From that we could see whether you had a good compass calibration, and how many satellites the GPS module had detected and what was going on.... The MX-20 should be saving telemetry, but, to be honest, I've never bothered to check it because the real story is in the NC Board's telemetry. I think I see a quick trip to Fry's in your future to get a 2GB microSD card in your future. Don't leave the ground without one! As this is a Full Service Forum™, the nearest one to you should be: Fry's Electronics 340 Portage Avenue, Palo Alto, CA (650) 496-6000 ? · frys.com They are open until 9:00pm tonight. They have the Patriot microSD card with adapter on sale for $5.99. Their SKU is 5171506. You know you want one. <evil grin> Andy.
Yes, but the drive from Half Moon Bay to Palo Alto and back will cost me about $8.00 in gas. Amazon are delivering two of them tomorrow morning. But we're forecast for Porlandish weather here for the next 4-5 days, though. So I guess I'll be fiddling with the gimbal and the Radians in the meantime.
You've got me there! I know that feeling. Right now we're in the weather phase best described as: if I can't see downtown Portland, it's raining. If I can see downtown Portland, then it's about to rain. Thanks for posting that video though. It was helpful to see what was going on, even though it's not obvious what might be causing it. Sometimes I've seen either (a) magnetic compass interference or (b) solar flares produce erratic position hold, but usually it's more of the so-called "toilet bowling" (flying in small circles) than the spasms that your bird was having. It was flying just like I fly manually... And the current solar weather is pretty good: http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html -- the lower center chart is the one to watch. If the Kp index > 4 then GPS can get a bit iffy. It would be very helpful if you could post a video from motor start up to and including the wobbly behavior, along with the GPX file that will be recorded on the microSD card. Actually, for the DVD I'm working on, if you wouldn't mind posting the KML file too, it would make an excellent example of how to use the GPX file to diagnose a problem. Would you be OK with me using it on the DVD I'm working on now? (A Rather Good Beginners Guide to MK Tool and MK_GPXTOOL (or MK_GPX -- I've not decided yet))? I'm happy to give you credit for the footage and the files. Andy.
Andy, I'd be more than happy (ecstatic, thrilled, euphoric) to help out. Assuming me and my bird aren't washed away by this biblical storm headed our way, I'll definitely put something together for you. And whether or not it fixes itself, it'll be interesting to see what secrets are revealed. Or maybe I'm just a total spaz on the sticks.
steve where you touching the sticks while in PH? its hard to look at that view but also maybe look at the min gas settings in the altitude hold settings just raise or lower it to you get that bounce out! Also position holds works best with altitude switch on too. I always turn on the gps/position hold first then flick on the altitude switch for a perfect hover. You may also want to look at gps gain. Under navi tab this also may be your problem to much or to little of this can cause your bounce
Cool. The requirements are: 1. FPV video from motor start until shutdown (to make it easier to synchronize with the data in the GPX file). 2. GPX and KML files. That's it -- doesn't have to be any kind of daring special flight unless, of course, you're inspired by this: Seriously though, just take-off, get to safe height place, turn on GPS hold for long enough to demonstrate the spazzing out, turn it off, and bring the bird home. Just don't land it the way I do. In aviation terms it's called CFIT. Controlled flight into terrain. Andy.
"They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one." -- Alan Shepard Not sure this is attributed correctly, but you get the point.
Great point. I guess I have to RTFM about position hold. I am just experienced enough after several months of flying a mostly-manual quadcopter to be very hesitant to ever let go of the sticks. So maybe it was me fighting the autopilot. But it didn't seem like it wanted to park. How long (a second or two? longer?) is it before the PH function completely assumes the helm? And you're also probably right about altitude hold. I didn't realize that you needed to engage both of them. #facepalm
I've modified that to be more copter pilot specific (and in consideration of the way I fly): Things to Remember: A good landing is one where all the copter’s bits arrive on the ground close together and in the place you chose for them to arrive. A great landing is when the copter can take off again right away and all its bits take off together. Just to clarify smokeshow's comment: You don't need both PH and AH -- they're independent, but, as he points out, PH works well with AH because you get the copter to station-keep in all three axes. PH by itself should allow the copter to remain stable and more or less in the same place in the sky, but without AH, you can ascend or descend. Could you post a screen shot of your MK Tool "Easy Setup" window, Steve. That's something we can check while you're waiting for the rain to stop. Andy.
As a seasoned chopper pilot our saying was "the definition of a helicopter is a bunch of parts flying in close formation trying to beat themselves to death". Steve good to see you asking questions and supplying good data points. That's what is great about this forum. To bad this guy didn't do the same...
The AVRO Lancaster WWII bomber was described as 10,000 loose rivets flying in close formation. We need to come up with something more appropriate for the Cinestar, I think.... Ten grand's worth of well-built carbon fiber just itching to fly far, far, away.... Andy.
Hey there folks...somewhere deep in the MK wiki there is a reference to a requirement for the Navi's microSD card to be no more than 2GB and formatted as FAT16. It's hard (read: impossible) to find 2GB cards anymore. Can I use a larger one (4GB or 8GB) and format it in FAT16? Or is that requirement no longer relevant? Thanks!
I've not tried anything larger than 2GB -- I think that's a File Allocation Table issue as you point out. Amazon seems to have lots of 2GB micro-SD cards so I'm curious what you're seeing that I'm not. Don't tell me Silicon Valley's run out of them! I'd stay with 2GB just to be safe... Andy.
Disregard. I looked up my order, and I got it confused with the 32GB cards I'd ordered for my GoPro. I did, in fact, order the 2GB cards. Go figure. I'll crawl back into my hole now. Sorry!
Better hold on to something heavy....looks like Half Moon Bay has forecast wind speeds Thursday through Monday, up around 26mph - 31 mph, and up to 12" of rain. Stay dry! Andy.