To say I am frustrated would be an understatement. I had a little incident with my copter a few weeks back I sent the main ring back to Riley at Quadrocopter for some re-soldering and a new BL. While Riley had it I asked him to upgrade the Altitude Hold to the latest version, which he did. Everything looked superb when I got it back. I rebuilt everything over the last couple of days and took it for a test flight. Everything seemed good, apart from the GPS hold. I emailed and left a message for Riley and he asked if I had calibrated the compass, which I had. While I was waiting for a response I was flying short test flights trying to get my radians dialed back in because I made some mods to my gimbal. I went outside to fly after making an adjustment and now my motors won't start. I connected Mikrokopter tools and it did not show any errors. When I looked through the sub menus, some of my settings weren't there. Altitude hold was not even turned on. There was also no allocation for a switch to start the motors and there must have been, as I started them 5-10mins previously. I have no idea whats going on. The Altitude hold circuit board flashes amber when its powered up. The BL lights are all green I reset my preferences and still no luck. I am particular about reading and writing to the control board so I don't thinks its anything to do with that, besides it worked fine one flight and then 10 minutes later it didn't. I was testing just the 'Roll Radian' so while I was flying I was simply flying from left to right and back again Any ideas? I'm nervous I have an event to cover tomorrow Nick
Nick: Did you happen to capture any screen shots when you had MK Tool connected up? Or did you happen to save the current settings when you got the copter back from QC (it would have created a .mkp file)? I'll have a look at the GPX files, but the really interesting stuff, based on your description, is likely to be the MK board settings. So screen shots of those would be a good thing. Are you also aware that there are five independent parameter sets for the MK boards -- and if you have inadvertently changed away from the "default" Easy setting (#3), that could explain the sudden change. You can actually do this using the stick on the transmitter, or you can do it from within MK Tool. Andy.
Nick if you have the new AH installed you really need to update the firmware to the version that will use the AH ACC. Looks like you are still on 90h. When you say the motors won't start, yet post GPX that show flight, were these files prior to the issue? Best to go back methodically and do the update closely following the instructions for the latest 2.0 software on the MK wiki. Pay very close attention as some of the default settings have been changed. When you check the install you may find that settings that you had have been overwritten. You can either take screen shots prior to doing the upgrade of each of the tabs or save the settings to an .mkp file and read it with Andy's Archaic DOS notepad program Also please note that the default with the new software is that you need to use both sticks to start the motors. It is discussed in the firmware posting.
Nick: To follow up, the parameter sets are described in more detail at http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/Setting_Up under the heading Writing and Reading Settings from the MK Tool. How to select the parameter sets using the sticks is covered at http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/Mikrokopter-Get-started under the heading Calibrate sensors and choose setting I suspect, but don't know for sure, that you might have accidentally set the parameter set to the wrong one -- but that will not show in the GPX files, I'm afraid. Only in the MK Tool screen shots, or any .mkp file that you might have created to save the settings using MK Tool. Andy.
FYI -- here are the stick setting positions: NOTE: THE LATEST FIRMWARE 2.xx changes the motor start stop stick positions by allowing the option of the right stick being required to be used in conjunction with the left stick -- the intent being to prevent accidental in-flight motor stops. These have been determined to be a a Rather Bad Thing!
Gary I just included the GPX files to show the pattern and frequency of the flights. After the last flight, I went outside to fly again and thats when they wouldn't start. Not sure if the GPX files are relevant I was just trying to give as much info as possible. When I got the copter back from Riley he said I would simply have to have Navi firmware 30h and Mk tool 1.80b, which I checked and it looked like it was all good. Nick
Andy, This is the only screenshot that I have since it has been returned from Quadrocopter. This was taken before I did anything. Nick
I'm confused, Riley suggested V30 h for the firmware, which I think I have. On the opening page of Mikrocopter Tool V1.80b and in the rectangle that looks like an old green calculator screen, it shows the Navi-Ctrl as: 'HW V2 SW V0.30h,V 30 h was what Riley had recommended, are you saying I need version 90h?ThanksNick
I think I figured it out. The motor safety switch channel mode was not selected. I think your right Andy, I think I may have switched the parameters with an incorrect stick input. I am still curious to know which firmware version I should have, or at least why Riley would recommend something different to the Wiki? Thanks guys, Truly appreciated, Nick
You are confirming that you have 30H. I'm sure Riley sent your board back with 90H for the firmware for the flight control board. 90H should work I run 90J with the new ACC and runs fine. Gary is suggesting you upgrade to 2.0 so that you have all the latest updates, and Andy is saying that if you upgrade to 2.0 make sure that you know the new motor start procedure is to have both left and right sticks down to the lower right corner. At least thats the way its setup for default, you can bypass it but its a very nice safety feature to have.
This is a deliberate double posting as it just occurred to me that anyone searching the forum with a similar problem to Nick's might end up on this thread: When you do your pre-flight gyro calibration, count the number of beeps the copter makes. It's actually telling you which parameter set it's using, so it would normally be three. If it's not, you may have inadvertently set to a different parameter set. It also beeps the parameter set number when you do an ACC calibration. See http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/Erstinbetriebnahme/Step12 It's a useful safety check to make sure you've not accidentally changed parameter sets using the transmitter sticks. Andy.
THANKS SO MUCH for this answer, Andy! I just build my first CS HL and couldn't figure out why the machine wouldn't start up. Glad its such a simple fix On this note: also big thanks for your DVD and all the information that is available in this forum. It really makes the whole build process a lot of fun! Cheers!
Couldn't agree more with this comment. Andy, Gary and all the flightsquad and moderators have saved my arse many many times. I am forever in your debt.