M4 N4 Quatos Simonk ESC questions

Info and discussion about the autonomous Micro FC, suitable for nanos, micros and mini multirotors

M4 N4 Quatos Simonk ESC questions

Postby pilotnbr1 » Wed Dec 30, 2015 5:01 pm

I thought I would start a new thread so I don't further pollute the N4 thread. As the title implies (and those who have already helped me and are familiar) I have a

M4 N4 combo
generic Emax Nighthawk 250 all carbon
Emax 2204 2300kv and Gemfan 6x3 props
12a Simonk

I got it (poorly) flying on pids after calibrating the esc using experimental hott firmware. I am ultimately interested in flying it using quatos. EDIT- NOW FLYING NICELY WITH SOME PID TUNING... STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS

For the geometry using the file in this thread for Menno's GLB 250AV frame
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=3650&start=10

All the docs here seem to support ESC32 builds. I am wondering how I diverge away with my Simonk ESC. I guess I still need to calculate thrust curves. How close do I need to be? Can I once again borrow someone elses data?

Here once again Menno has supllied some config files to support pwm esc but I am not sure what to do with them or if that is even required as that is such an old post.
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=3650&start=20

On a tangent it occured to me that perhaps so many measurements are not needed to generate a thrust curve. Perhaps as few as a 50% point and a 100% throttle point. Then the curve could be generated by interpolating the middle settings.

Thanks for any pointers guys!

Luke
pilotnbr1
 
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:19 pm

Re: M4 N4 Quatos Simonk ESC questions

Postby pilotnbr1 » Thu Dec 31, 2015 5:47 pm

If anyone is interested I took notes on setting up the above mentioned quad in pid form for now. Perhaps it will help someone- especially another Linux user. Most of this is redundant to the wiki...




Things to do to get QGC working

NEED UBUNTU 14.1 or higher I am running 15.1
in terminal
“sudo apt-get install qtcreator qttools5-dev qtbase5-dev qt5-default qtdeclarative5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libsdl1.2-dev build-essential libudev-dev”

this might be missing ????
“sudo apt-get install qtmultimedia5-dev”

make a dir for all this

go into that dir and “git clone https://github.com/AutoQuad/qgroundcontrol_aq.git

have issues finding the festival dir...disable the text to speech by uncommenting-
#DEFINES += NO_TEXT_TO_SPEECH

“qmake” in the qgroundcontrol_aq folder

open qtcreator and build it

had issues with some code look here for fix- viewtopic.php?f=24&t=4730&p=35717#p35717

NEED TO GIVE PERMISSION TO USE SERIAL PORT SO THAT YOU CAN CONNECT..could be acm1 acm2 etc
but first add your username to dailout
“sudo usermod -a -G dialout username”
“sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyACM0”
for using bluetooth you will need to give permission to rfcomm serial ports
“sudo chmod 666 /dev/rfcomm1”
might have to restart so new permission sticks….

For android QGC app go to http://autoquad.org/software-downloads/?did=166
download app then email and open the apk file on phone
To connect to M4 bluetooth the code is 1234

get m4 firmware http://autoquad.org/software-downloads/ ... ad-wizard/
Starting with non quatos build, external esc-
Ended up flashing with this experimental firmware (supporting Hott) so that I could calibrate esc without an external reciever http://autoquad.org/software-downloads/?did=153

to flash firmware get dfu-util...no luck installing via qgc
“sudo apt-get install dfu-util”
then to install firmware- plug in m4 while holding boot button
“sudo dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000 -D Quad/aqv7.1.1852-hwv8.6-ext_esc.bin”
quatos
“sudo dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000 -D Quad/aqv7.1.1852-hwv8.6-quatos-ext_esc.bin”

radio tab-
-using internal m4 radio
-setup radio channels--got a mix going with switches

Misc tab-
-motors - set it to 1000,1050,1100,1900 or 1050 1065 1110 1950 for the arm,min,start,max
-for me in Atlanta GA mag declination 4.55 and mag inclination -62.404500
-BOARD ORIENTATION- +135 no flip
-quatos key - 65291

Mixing and Output tab-
-grabbed a txt file with params from forum and uploaded….
-motor ports set 5 thru 8
-throttle needs to be 100 for non-quatos

Things to do to m4

-In order to power the internal receiver you need to close the solder bridge next to arm nr. 2
-for internal radio - make own antenna 31.25mm exposed

Things to do to n4 expander

-solder close blue tooth conector so it is powered
-solder pins for esc m5-m8
-solder black box on that came with kit- power filter??
- I found picture of m5 to m8 misleading in wiki confusing as I wasnt sure if the picture was the right way or wrong and once the board was mounted couldnt easily check board version number. Order of pins when looking head on
| m5 | m6 |
| m7| m8 |

Things to do M4 and N4 together

-Connect Vsens and GND to the ADC and GND pads on the M4 using a small gauge wire
-CHANGE SETTING IN QGC MISC TAB TO EXTERNAL VOLTAGE SENSOR
-follow mounting instruction with focus on insulation and not bending- in THE FUTURE INSERT mounting screws for mounting the N4 to your quad BEFORE connecting the 2 boards. there is difficult access later

Bluetooth Pairing to Ubuntu PC and QGC

-bluetooth code “1234” to a pair
-Blueman manager and gnome bluetooth could both connect.. Blueman would even connect to a serial port and give me the solid blue on the quad but in QGC would fail
-ultimately followed instruction to connnect to xbee from here- http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/Bluetooth_Bee

-in terminal after connecting via gnome bluetooth
“sudo rfcomm bind 1 98:D3:31:80:30:79 1”

-to view serial connections
“ls /dev/rfcomm*”


Things to do to ESC-brushless 12a simonk generic with bec

-don't connect the red +5v lines from the ESCs to the N4. Only GND and signal. these ESC have BEC, on N4 middle wire is for ESC32
-Signal in my case was yellow wire. ground brown
-ESC signal and ground plug into N4 with signal going into pin with small white triangle
-N4 silk screen is not correct for motor port numbers which are 5 to 8
-Calibrate esc by-
-In the all params field, search for the param MOT_ESC_CALI. It should be 0. Set this to 1, hit transfer and save.
- Pull the power (I assume the ESC's are also powered with the same main battery).
- Now power up and watch the communication console. A warning should be displayed (Warning: ESC calibration, full throttle in 5 sec), than the message that the maximum is set (most common esc's will beep once to confirm), after 5 seconds the minimum is set and all esc's shouldbeep to confirm and be ready.
-ALL esc's have now set the same endpoints.
-The calibration param is now set to 0 to prevent a second calibration.
-NOTE motors just pulse during calibration and do not actually spin up

Things to do to Transmitter

-I still have settings from my old m4 install...but I know I had some issues binding from the first time...believe I had to set my DX6i to DSM2 only but am not sure as it was about a year ago I set that up….


PIDS

-copied these and used as a starting point from 250 size super blackout
viewtopic.php?p=34510
-biggest difference was increasing my Tilt D up to 16,000
pilotnbr1
 
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Re: M4 N4 Quatos Simonk ESC questions

Postby Mullet » Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:10 am

I did Quatos on a 180mm sized racer quad not too long ago. Everything seemed to be fairly successful with some further tuning done after initial setup. I documented it in a build log.

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4662

I have since then done motor tests on both Sunnysky 2204-2300kV and Sunnysky 2207-2100kV with HQ 6x3 and FC 6x4.5 props and KISS 12A and DYS BL20A ESCs. I'm finalizing info, but have plans to post thrust curves for both. There is no guarantee that your 2204 motors will match my combination, but it might be close.

For the thrust measurement I use a Turnigy Thrust Stand in conjunction with an EmeterII. The EmeterII allows one to create profiles which then run a test schema. I have mine set to run from 1000uS of PWM to 2000uS of PWM in intervals of 100uS. Each runs for 6 seconds, so I can easily mark down the results of the thrust measurements in an excel spreadsheet. The EmeterII also has a phase tachometer, which allows me to determine RPM. I use the RPM and Thrust in grams and use that to generate my thrust curve. I also do 20 tests and average them for accuracy. It works quite nicely.
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Location: Fairfield County Connecticut

Re: M4 N4 Quatos Simonk ESC questions

Postby pilotnbr1 » Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:07 pm

Thanks for the reply! I like that size quad and weight especially with the new FAA 250g limit. I will eventually get some kiss escs to duplicate your build! Thanks for sharing!

Luke
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Posts: 86
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