First flight CAN, DIMU no Cal = WOW!!!

[Jdmagoo]

Well since the forums are mostly trying to solve problems and rarely success stories get posted, i thought i would post my experience with my first flight since the upgrades.

Over the past 3 days i have rebuilt my Hexa from the ground up. Im using the FCP-HL frame, MN3110-17 T-Motors, ESC32's and have just changed my crappy hobby king BEC's over to castle creations BEC's (1x12V and 1x5V) I have changed all my ESC32's over to CAN including the two spares I have. I made a wiring harness to connect it all up to the DIMU.
(Waiting on the components so i can use Mennos breakout board which i ordered from OSHpark - Thanks Menno)

Using GCS 1.4B1 (thanks Max) i flashed all the ESC32's to the latest firmware R54 and calibrated my brand new T-Motor 12x4 props. No problems at all using the Beta GCS. I calibrated twice using a max current of 21A (which is the max current the motors are rated). The reason for two calibrations is to compare the figures with each other to ensure accuracy. The values were very close to been the same so was happy to continue using those. Conducted both the Current limiter and RPMtoVoltage cals without issue.

For reference i used an Advance = 10 and Switching Freq = 12 all other ESC32 settings were left default. The ability to change the motor direction in GCS is fantastic and makes wiring a lot easier.

Installed the DIMU which i purchased from Viacopter and connected everything up. From here i flashed to Mennos modified MavtoHott firmware which is based on R380 and conducted the Tare function. I used a 'Wixey' digital angle gauge to ensure the frame was level in all directions (an accuracy of 0.1degrees) before conducting the Tare. From here i loaded the Inclination and declination along with all other pertinent values using GSC. Also, changing the PWM to CAN under the motor mixing table. I can confirm all worked under GCS 1.4B1. The Tare saved to the Eprom - yay!

Then take off!! - I went to my usual footy oval which was been used for practice so i decided to go to my alternate location but unfortunately people were playing with their dogs so i found another location. Didn't want to risk my first flight with people nearby just incase. With 3 batteries charged and darkness falling i was ready.

WOW!! Without any form of calibration other than the TARE this thing flys pretty close to my calibrated AIMU board. PH as reported in the transmitter was 68cm accurate and the Hexa didn't seem to move at all. AH was good however it did move up and down very slowly (probably around +-1m) what PID should i adjust to tune this??
Return to home was spot on and all characteristics of flight seem to be excellent.
Mennos firmware is excellent, i tried waypoint recording which worked very well and viewing the ESC32 telemetry through the transmitter is way cool
I didn't try the PID tuning through the transmitter because the mosquitos were really bad I mean i would of had near 50 of the blood suckers on me and as such could only use one battery before I had to get out of there!
So my first flight was an absolute success, now its dark so will have to wait until tomorrow to push some more batteries through it.

In summary,

- CAN = excellent
- DIMU with Tare = Excellent
- Mennos firmware with the cool goodness through the transmiter = excellent

Admittedly i only used one battery and do need to tune AH a bit but so far the 3 day rebuild has been worth it.

Would like to thank the entire AQ team for making this all possible

James

[kinderkram]

Congratz, James and thx for your detailed feedback!

btw: do you use 4s lipos?

[Jdmagoo]

[joebar.rc]

Great James, good to hear the maiden was successful!

I'll send the update to 384 with HoTT waypoint editor later for you to try when you dare


and included what we briefly discussed: a first try for a geofence, in this case a circular horizontal limiter where when you breach the wall the user control is reduced to 20%, so its like hitting a wall and move very slow until youre inside the wall again. Its one param (simple fence) where you limit the fence in meters from your home position.



Menno

[chschmid]

[Jdmagoo]

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

[JussiH]

Yeah this is way cool...seriously considering getting a Hott system soon!

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

... not that cool as Menno's demonstration, but this is how the CamCruiser flies with TARE only (no additional tuning except NAV_ALT_SPEED_I slightly increased).



Joerg

[Jdmagoo]

A couple of more flights now using Menno's modified R380.

Very impressed. I do need to adjust the altitude hold a bit more as it does very slowly oscillate up and down whilst in PH. But I'm working on that.

Conducted the waypoint live recording and am still amazed how good this works, one question though, my alexmos gimbal pitch does tilt up between points, why?

Attached is a youtube video with some boring flying around at my local football field. I did manage to fly up to 87km/h as reported in the log. (Only briefly though) Towards the end of the video is some tree surfing on a windless day. (Rare given how close to the beach I live).

The precision of autoquad and DIMU rocks. All this with no cal only the Tare.

If interested, best to watch in a minimum of 720p

James