Battery Low action request

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Battery Low action request

Postby bluuu » Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:26 pm

I would suggest adding features RTH or landing when voltage drops below the alarm threshold.
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby Andrej » Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:47 pm

It a bit complexity work but will save copters sometimes.
Stage one - return to home (at predifined altitude) and land, to cancel rtl mode switch have to be toggled.
Stage two - slow descend, land, turn off motors. Stage two have to have priority over any tasks or procedures including rtl.
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby bluuu » Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:09 am

any interesting in from dev team ? please guys ... it's simple to implement for you and can save some copters.
(one of my friend broke down hexa ...)
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby Kisssys » Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:36 am

We have talked about all your suggestions a long time ago. Code changes have been slow, I would be quite frustrated if I didn't have the ability to add the few features I feel important like being able to pass a channel through and trigger a servo.

Hopefully this will all come about soon.

If you look at the logs of the source code you'll see lot's of changes are being made but they need to be thoroughly tested. If you have any programming experience, get Crossworks non commercial version to compile the code and experiment with the little changes you would like to see released.
Steve
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby bluuu » Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:05 am

I have Crossworks and i still study code. I saw changes but my programming experience is to low for this project.
I can programming "safe" equipment for now :)

But ok I must do it.
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby Max » Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:10 pm

Errr, yea, last time we discussed this there was no consensus as to what a reasonable low-battery action would be. Except a warning signal, which we DID add. Everyone seemed to agree that it was the pilot's responsibility to take care of such things. There are several ways of watching your volts in real-time and it's typically a gradual process (unlike loosing radio control). In case of sudden and catastrophic battery failure, there's nothing to be done anyway.

Stage 1 is only a warning to the pilot, no action should be taken at all (what do you set your warning level at?). At stage 2 there is no way to tell if it has enough juice to go to home or whatever. Worst case, when the battery runs down, the 'copter will gradually (or not) "land" anyway.

-Max
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby bluuu » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:11 pm

This part of forum (from your link) isn't for "normal" user ;) I can't see it.

Let me explain here.

Yes, there are other ways to monitor the voltage, but:
- BT range is small and requires a tablet (hands or pockets and looking at it) (I "using" my wife for it ;) )
- 3dr - ok, but it is an additional transmitter in the model and its impact was found on a compass
- By telemetry, but eg. futaba r7008sb is not (I hope for now) supported and it requires an additional connection (doubled)
- Via OSD - ok, but not everyone needs to use it

Signalling is already implemented, very good and praise you for it. However, I know from experience that not every moment can be seen and heard.

I suggest a compromise.

Like you said: stage 1 (first level) - only signaling, nothing happens
stage 2 - stop, hold position and landing.

I think that the slow landing (even in a place undesirable) is safer (see and hear copter, the environment can react) than copter like a stone falling from the sky.
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby Max » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:30 pm

Eh, sorry for that link... guess it was for Steve's benefit. :)

I don't get what stage 2 would do. What do you mean stop? What if I'm flying it back to landing? What if it's over water, or worse? W/out sophisticated sensors and intelligent situation awareness on the part of the AQ, it's going to be up to the pilot to decide the best course of action. If the pilot is passed out, then it's either already in PH and will just descend as the battery runs down, or it's already out of control and dangerous before the low battery event happens.

This isn't a new problem... we've managed to fly RC with batteries for a long time. Now that I have telemetry built into my Tx/Rx system, I don't know how I lived w/out it (well yea, I do, but it was a pain). Sort of like the Internet. :) Get a super loud LiPo alarm if you need it (or just find the loudest 5v beeper/buzzer you can -- I can hear mine easily from >50m away).

Anyway, it was discussed, no one came up with anything better than signaling. If something else can be agreed on, we will consider it.

-Max
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby bluuu » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:48 pm

Stop - I mean pos hold.

You can add this feature by option, switch in QGS.
Pilot can decide about it.

I have Futaba and telemetry reciver can't work with AQ (I wrote about it) :evil:
This feature will be like additional protection ...

Max, mercy;)

This is just one option, the rest of the procedure is done.
This decision would still be by pilot.
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Re: Battery Low action request

Postby Max » Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:13 pm

So when it goes into this mode, are you suggesting it will ignore all radio commands from there on? I don't see how it could reconcile what the radio is telling it to do instead of the actions you describe.

The low voltage cutoff is an arbitrary number. If you can make it back to a safe landing at the cost of a battery or two, that's typically the best option. Not to mention that you can also hit low voltage intermittently, for example while hurrying back to the landing zone. :)

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