Rahul, I haven't done any manual PID tuning and have only auto-tuned. When I get around to it, and have a better understanding, I definitely will. Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks for the feedback. I have some APM videos planned soon. Just working on getting it up and running again. Had a small problem with the PDB, but should be resolved this week.
Glad to hear that. I think you'll really enjoy the APM if you're familiar with the Naza. The Naza is one of the best out-of-the-box flight controllers, but once you get APM dialed in with all it's features, it's really tough to beat.
Good question. I'm not sure if it was available on the APM 2 board. My first encounter was with APM 2.5 and that's where I learned about the trimming process. I started with the Naza and when it was time for me to integrate GPS into my quad I decided to go with the APM 2.5 because of all the features. I'll be doing a video soon with the 2.9.1 firmware and will let you know how it goes. The 2.8.1 trimming process works great.
No problem. You know, I've heard from a few others saying they're having problems as well. I'm going to need to revisit soon. I'll post an update when I dive into this some more. Thanks for the feedback.
Mark, that is a good question and I don't currently know the answer. I will do some testing to find out, but let me know if you beat me to it. Glad to hear you got it figured out.
Many thanks for the kind words. I'm glad these are helping. I've been in learning mode over the past year so I'm glad to share my experience. The 9X is a great transmitter especially for the price. Check out the 9XR if you haven't seen it already. Looks amazing!
I would recommend looking at your throttle curve (also referred to as "expo") on your transmitter. Unfortunately I can't tell you specific values for your settings, but look at your TX manual and see if you can read up on it.
Jason, I do have a couple of APM videos in the works that demonstrate loiter mode, RTL, and waypoints. Once I get through these I'll consider a full APM tutorial. It shouldn't be a big deal to take apart my APM quad and put it back together :) Thanks for the suggestion!
Yeah, sorry for the trick video :) That's funny now that you mention it. It does look as though the quad on the table was the one I was focused on. Good luck with the trim setup.
That was the exact decision I was faced with. I already had the Naza but decided that I wanted GPS and the flexibility of the APM 2.5 was the way to go for me. I don't regret the decision for 1 minute. It's been a great little flight controller for the functionality and reasonable cost.
I hear you and I had the same problem. I was glad to find out about the auto trim procedure and it's really helped me get my quad super stable. Thanks.
Simply amazing videos. Very well explained and detailed. I am following your steps everytime you do a video. Keep it up and hope you had a wonder full festive days. Jason
I own one, and it works exactly the same as APM2.5. I know people on various forums who own both the original 3DR APM2.5 and the Arduflyer and they say it's the same. Made in the same factory in China as the "original" used to be made in
You do great precise and informative vids, so thanks for sharing...got the 2.5 board coming at the end of january so by then i will know all i need to know thanks to great vids like yours...i fly with a 9x as well so it makes it super easy thanks again and a happy new year to ya.......fly safe
Yes, it sure does. You have to configure it. There are currently two types of failsafe with the APM 2.5: throttle and battery. Throttle is when a loss of signal situation happens and battery is when one of the following occurs: "your battery voltage becomes low for more than 10 seconds" "your flight uses more than 80% of your available battery"
Hi Dennis, I own an ArduFlyer and it works seamlessly with the MAVlink / mission planner. The only issue I had with it was when I had a really hard crash... now the sensors don't initialize, so the board is dead. But I have enough confidence in this alternative that I went ahead and ordered a 2nd one :) great videos btw Dennis, they helped me to program my 9x for flight modes and this auto trim video is very informative too. many thanks :)
I've read that it does still work, but they're changing the function in a future version. I will do a test in a few days and post my results. If you get around to it before I do then I'd love to hear how it works out for you.
Yes, although I've never tried to push the quad forward like I've seen in some of the NAZA videos. You have both loiter and altitude hold flight modes. Loiter maintains the heading, position, and altitude. Altitude Hold just maintains the current altitude. I may have to give this a try soon and will let you know if I do.
Chris, thanks for the info. That's great to know and I'll definitely consider it in the future. I appreciate your feedback on my vids. I figure I might as well get all this learning out of my garage and into other people's hands. I grew up building RC cars, but this is like a whole new world of RC for me.
No problem. I'm actually a bit west of ATX in Dripping Springs. There are several fields near me where I fly. I'd really like to fly FPV over town lake one morning early. I'm sure that would get me in a ton of trouble, but can you imagine the footage???
Hi and thanks for your reply Dennis, I used to have a kk2 and recently fitted the apm2.5, today I maiden hovered and it was drifting a lot, so I'll sure give it a try with auto trim tomorrow. I'm using the hobbyking aq600(550) frame and it's quite difficult to align the motors perfectly vertical due to the circular arms!
Very impressive I think I will be rethinking my decision to go with NAZA M for my Hex camera ship as I like the APM system with GPS and waypoints. I'd like to see how much the GPS hold on the APM 2.5 has improved as well as the altitude hold.
Glad to hear it and let me know if you have any specific video requests related to APM. It's been quite an adjustment for me going from Naza to this. Thanks!
Hi Dennis, what is the possibility to do full setup of the APM 2.5 such as wiring system from scratch, explanation how to setup firmware on the actual board, and do explanation how to use the Misson planner how to set way points etc etc! I do appreciate your effort to do the mentioned tutoriols. Thanks Jason
Congrats Mark. I'm glad to hear you're getting close. Yeah 50% in any direction for trim is definitely too much. I may be one or two clicks just to get things dialed in. Make sure you're arming the multirotor on a level surface is one of the first things I normally recommend. I'm assuming you've done some bit of configuration via mission planner.
If you want a no-fuss setup for your first quad I think the NAZA Lite is the way to go. If you're technically savvy with software and configuration then you can definitely give the APM a try, but there's a decent learning curve. I started with the NAZA before I went to the APM, but now I prefer the APM because of its flexibility. It just came with a bunch of trial and error.
No problem, Jake. Glad to hear it. What version of firmware did you do this with? I ask because I read somewhere the process is changing with newer versions of the firmware, but haven't been able to test yet.
Initially stabilize mode was pretty good with a little bit of drift. Then after I did auto-trim I felt like my ArduCopter was much more stable and held it's position very well. Have you gone through the TX calibration in Mission Planner?
I've been experimenting with GPS loiter mode and will post a vid soon for you to check out. I wouldn't rule out the Naza just yet. I've read a lot of posts where professional photo/video guys prefer the stability of the Naza. But if waypoints are a requirement then the Naza is out of the question. There is the Wookong option, but that's a pretty significant investment.
No. I had never heard of it until you mentioned it. I just checked it out and looks pretty nice. Do you own one? I'm curious to know how the IFLYC4 flight controller performs. Thanks for the feedback on my channel. It's much appreciated.
What version of the APM firmware are you running? Also, I'm assuming that your GPS has a fix before your arm your ArduCopter and take it into loiter mode?
Have you tried loitering with GPS only to see if that helps? What is your terrain like where you're trying to use sonar? I knew one guy that was trying sonar in snow and ran into all sorts of problems.
Very cool that you're flying in Scotland. Looking forward to seeing some aerial vids when you get to that point. Glad to hear your crashes didn't result in any breakage. What frame are you flying with? Great question about seeing what changed after an auto trim. To be honest I'm not 100% sure. Sometimes I can just "feel" it based on how my APM quad flies. Will let you know if I find out anything related to your question.
Hey Dennis, thanx voor this vid. I was a little surprised though when i was concentrating on the quad on the tennistable and than the other obe came into the frame!! hahaha But abouot the trimming... i will get my apm 2,5 end of this month so i will test this out and keep you posted. Greets Gerard
For starters you should be able to get your quad to where you can hover it without too much trouble. Then you can take it through this process to fine tune it.
As usual thanks Dennis. Im having trouble with flight modes on my 9x stock firmware. I tried acro mode with mixes like your video suggests but no go. I seem to be missing something with the 3 way switch.
Jason, thank you for the feedback. I'm glad to know these vids are helping. Let me know if there's anything in particular that you'd like to see and I'll try and cover it. Take care.
Again very good tutorial Dennis! Wasn't aware of the auto trim feature yet. I'll try that tomorow out in the field. Today I completed my copter and tried to takeoff a view centimeters indoors. On my Turnigy 9x I had to add lots of trim to accomplish an acceptable takeoff. It is normal to add so much trim? I'am about +50% for each direction. Seems a lot to me???
@Soldier53flyer aside from it costing less (I paid $199 for mine from DIY Drones) it has the GPS waypoint navigation, which you can't get with the Naza. I believe you can get it with Wookong, but that's an insanely expensive flight controller (~ $1,000). @Chris Blackburn I assume you're talking about ArduFlyer? I had looked into that at one point, but wasn't sure of the quality. Do you have any experience with it? Definitely looks like a viable alternative.
Dennis, My APM is just on the way and I was studying and watching your vids again and again. But I am stuck understanding the PID tuning basics and how to do that? Can you do a tutorial on it? Thanks.
Hi Dennis, excellent tutorial. Still a question: Are the values gone after switching off the power to the APM 2.5 or are the values written to the eeprom? Thanks.
I tried auto trim today and now hovers pretty good! I'm considering transfering all my electrics to a dji hex f550. Do you think that's a good idea? I want stability so I can put fpv gear on. Will check out garagepilot now, thanks :)
I've read about it, but haven't done it yet. I may experiment and put a video together that demonstrates the process. In the meantime, if you'd like to give this a try Google "AC2_Tweaks" and then scroll down to the "In-flight tuning" section. It talks about using CH6 in conjunction with your control knob to tune during flight. Let me know if you get around to this and I'll do the same.
Thanks Dennis, flights went pretty well only had one manual dogey landing, although did have 2 major crashes when the apm was in control (a loiter fail and a RTL total fail!), no damage though thanks to soft Scottish mud :) I tried to calibrate whilst in simple stabilise and I think it worked, though not certain (quad still a bit twitchy), is there any way I can check what may have changed whilst using autotrim ? (been going though the logs but cant see anything obvious yet). Thanks again.
Thanks Dennis! I checked everything again and I found one major issue: compass calibration was not set up properly. Once I corrected that everything was way better. Additionally I found a page about 'AutoTrim' inside the ArduCopter wiki. With that my RC trims are now centered again. About your comment above: when arming the motors: will the APM recalibrate the level/compass setups? (Will it overwrite the calibration one did before via mission planner?)
Dennis, That was a nice tuning video.Is this the new feature in APM2.5?. Earlier i had APM2.0 board and i tried tuning by assigning TX pots to PID's and try to tune it and finally gave up and sold it and got NAZA.So what's your PID tuning experience so far?. Really i wanted to buy APM2.5 bcos this has lot's of features compared to NAZA at and way cheaper.
Hi Dennis, I attempted to do test flight 1 today. I need to do some trimming to improve stability. My question is, during the 40 seconds of Auto Trim, do you tweak with the trim buttons on the radio or just try to stabilize with the throttle, yaw, pitch and role joysticks? Thanks.
Hi Dennis, another very good video and informative video :) I am hopefully taking my 3DR out for its first flight tomorrow (if it doesnt rain) and planned to have a go at auto trim if everything works as expected. Good to know you can set the mode at take off as the arducopter wiki seem to indicate using a switch on channel 7 whilst in mid flight. I wondered if you know wether you can complete the auto trim procedure whilst in 'simple' stabilisation mode (compass flying). I am a bad pilot ;)
I recently bought the 3DR X8 and I'm having trouble with it. I will test the autotrim, thank you for the vid. One question I do have, my throttle is way to sensitive when trying to hover but when trying to slow it dow when descending it reacts way to slow resulting in very hard landings, is there a way to trim that in?
Apm 2.5 or dji naza lite what one should I buy I am an experienced heli pilot this is my first qaud build. I have setup fbl unit but the apm looks like a pain.
Dennis what is Apm2.5 V3.1 rc4 Autotune that is displayed in a couple of other RUclips videos? I noticed you interchanged the term Auto Trim and Auto Tune at one point but they are different beasts, are they not?
Good question. You're right I may have used auto tune at some point in the video but that was prior to my knowledge of the official AutoTune sequence. Which, as you pointed out are completely different beasts. I have yet to AutoTune, but plan on doing so in the next few days. Here is the wiki page if you haven't seen it already: copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/autotune/ Thanks for helping me clarify this. All the best.
hey i have an adrucopter too, but with a sonar. so if i go into loiter mode that thing just shoots into the air and after i change the mode stabilize it just falls out of the sky. that happed twice and i had about 4 hours of rebuilding each time!!! :( can you help me?? please
Dennis- On the APM 2.5, does this have the ability to be able to adjust the gains (or PIDs) w/ the radio knobs on-the-fly like the NAZA? I also have the NAZA, but am thinking of getting an APM 2.5.
hi dennis, do you notice any different when in the auto trim mode? (like, the quad is kinda hard to control & stabilize..sometimes a lot more sloppy than in the stabilize mode) i first tried flying my quad in stabilize, it flies ok but need some trimming cause it tends to move in one direction. however, when I tried to auto trim, the quad becomes very hard to be flied. do you have that kind of experience? thanks for your time.
Thanks, I found the $90 clone. Was not aware of its existence. Very interesting although I cannot imagine that all components are the same Quality as the original, the GPS for instance. Still, could be a good deal depending on what you are after. Very interesting!
Thanks for the feedback. It's much appreciated. Sounds like a good setup you have going and let me know if you run into any problems. Better yet, check out garagepilots . com. It's a community for multirotor enthusiasts that I run with a few other guys. Good luck!
Dennis am using Apm pro flight control board but my quad flips away if i try to takeoff. Sometimes with the help of pitch and roll i manage to take off.Plz help
Does the apm 2.5 board have the feature to leave the throttle stick in the middle and the copter will hold its altitude no matter how far you push the copter forward like the naza?
Don't tweak any trim and just keep it as stable as possible. Then land and you should be good to go. Good luck and let me know if you run into any problems.
Rahul, I haven't done any manual PID tuning and have only auto-tuned. When I get around to it, and have a better understanding, I definitely will. Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks for the feedback. I have some APM videos planned soon. Just working on getting it up and running again. Had a small problem with the PDB, but should be resolved this week.
Thanks so much for the feedback. Yes, the values are persisted in memory so that when you power cycle your APM everything will still be there.
Glad to hear that. I think you'll really enjoy the APM if you're familiar with the Naza. The Naza is one of the best out-of-the-box flight controllers, but once you get APM dialed in with all it's features, it's really tough to beat.
Good question. I'm not sure if it was available on the APM 2 board. My first encounter was with APM 2.5 and that's where I learned about the trimming process. I started with the Naza and when it was time for me to integrate GPS into my quad I decided to go with the APM 2.5 because of all the features. I'll be doing a video soon with the 2.9.1 firmware and will let you know how it goes. The 2.8.1 trimming process works great.
No problem. You know, I've heard from a few others saying they're having problems as well. I'm going to need to revisit soon. I'll post an update when I dive into this some more. Thanks for the feedback.
Mark, that is a good question and I don't currently know the answer. I will do some testing to find out, but let me know if you beat me to it. Glad to hear you got it figured out.
You're very welcome. Thank you for the positive feedback.
Many thanks for the kind words. I'm glad these are helping. I've been in learning mode over the past year so I'm glad to share my experience. The 9X is a great transmitter especially for the price. Check out the 9XR if you haven't seen it already. Looks amazing!
You're very welcome. Thanks for watching and the feedback.
I would recommend looking at your throttle curve (also referred to as "expo") on your transmitter. Unfortunately I can't tell you specific values for your settings, but look at your TX manual and see if you can read up on it.
Jason, I do have a couple of APM videos in the works that demonstrate loiter mode, RTL, and waypoints. Once I get through these I'll consider a full APM tutorial. It shouldn't be a big deal to take apart my APM quad and put it back together :) Thanks for the suggestion!
Yeah, sorry for the trick video :) That's funny now that you mention it. It does look as though the quad on the table was the one I was focused on. Good luck with the trim setup.
Thank you. I have a version coming out for firmware 2.9.1 soon so stay tuned :)
That was the exact decision I was faced with. I already had the Naza but decided that I wanted GPS and the flexibility of the APM 2.5 was the way to go for me. I don't regret the decision for 1 minute. It's been a great little flight controller for the functionality and reasonable cost.
I hear you and I had the same problem. I was glad to find out about the auto trim procedure and it's really helped me get my quad super stable. Thanks.
No doubt. It's probably my favorite board for the money and capabilities.
Simply amazing videos. Very well explained and detailed. I am following your steps everytime you do a video. Keep it up and hope you had a wonder full festive days.
Jason
Of course I don't mind at all. Thanks for the plug and I appreciate the heads up. Hope all is well.
Awesome. Congrats and I hope you get in the air over the weekend.
I own one, and it works exactly the same as APM2.5. I know people on various forums who own both the original 3DR APM2.5 and the Arduflyer and they say it's the same. Made in the same factory in China as the "original" used to be made in
Dennis Thanks a lot man. My tri is all trimmed up because of you. more videos would be awesome. :)
You do great precise and informative vids, so thanks for sharing...got the 2.5 board coming at the end of january so by then i will know all i need to know thanks to great vids like yours...i fly with a 9x as well so it makes it super easy thanks again and a happy new year to ya.......fly safe
Yes, it sure does. You have to configure it. There are currently two types of failsafe with the APM 2.5: throttle and battery. Throttle is when a loss of signal situation happens and battery is when one of the following occurs:
"your battery voltage becomes low for more than 10 seconds"
"your flight uses more than 80% of your available battery"
Hi Dennis, I own an ArduFlyer and it works seamlessly with the MAVlink / mission planner. The only issue I had with it was when I had a really hard crash... now the sensors don't initialize, so the board is dead. But I have enough confidence in this alternative that I went ahead and ordered a 2nd one :)
great videos btw Dennis, they helped me to program my 9x for flight modes and this auto trim video is very informative too. many thanks :)
The ifly4 looks great. Just watched your vid and subscribed. Keep up the good work.
Making my apm experience so much smoother cheers!
I've read that it does still work, but they're changing the function in a future version. I will do a test in a few days and post my results. If you get around to it before I do then I'd love to hear how it works out for you.
Yes, although I've never tried to push the quad forward like I've seen in some of the NAZA videos. You have both loiter and altitude hold flight modes. Loiter maintains the heading, position, and altitude. Altitude Hold just maintains the current altitude. I may have to give this a try soon and will let you know if I do.
Thank you, this video was very helpful. I just ran the calibration sequence and flew my quad in a confined space of 6' x 8'. Its dialed in now.
No problem at all and thanks for the feedback. What tricopter frame are you flying with?
Chris, thanks for the info. That's great to know and I'll definitely consider it in the future. I appreciate your feedback on my vids. I figure I might as well get all this learning out of my garage and into other people's hands. I grew up building RC cars, but this is like a whole new world of RC for me.
Thank you for your APM Videos! Keep posting videos like this!
No problem. I'm actually a bit west of ATX in Dripping Springs. There are several fields near me where I fly. I'd really like to fly FPV over town lake one morning early. I'm sure that would get me in a ton of trouble, but can you imagine the footage???
Hi and thanks for your reply Dennis, I used to have a kk2 and recently fitted the apm2.5, today I maiden hovered and it was drifting a lot, so I'll sure give it a try with auto trim tomorrow. I'm using the hobbyking aq600(550) frame and it's quite difficult to align the motors perfectly vertical due to the circular arms!
Very impressive I think I will be rethinking my decision to go with NAZA M for my Hex camera ship as I like the APM system with GPS and waypoints. I'd like to see how much the GPS hold on the APM 2.5 has improved as well as the altitude hold.
Awesome vid! Helped me so much. adjusting the pid's was driving me nuts!
Glad to hear it and let me know if you have any specific video requests related to APM. It's been quite an adjustment for me going from Naza to this. Thanks!
Hi Dennis, what is the possibility to do full setup of the APM 2.5 such as wiring system from scratch, explanation how to setup firmware on the actual board, and do explanation how to use the Misson planner how to set way points etc etc! I do appreciate your effort to do the mentioned tutoriols. Thanks Jason
Congrats Mark. I'm glad to hear you're getting close. Yeah 50% in any direction for trim is definitely too much. I may be one or two clicks just to get things dialed in. Make sure you're arming the multirotor on a level surface is one of the first things I normally recommend. I'm assuming you've done some bit of configuration via mission planner.
No problem. Thank you for the feedback.
If you want a no-fuss setup for your first quad I think the NAZA Lite is the way to go. If you're technically savvy with software and configuration then you can definitely give the APM a try, but there's a decent learning curve. I started with the NAZA before I went to the APM, but now I prefer the APM because of its flexibility. It just came with a bunch of trial and error.
No problem, Jake. Glad to hear it. What version of firmware did you do this with? I ask because I read somewhere the process is changing with newer versions of the firmware, but haven't been able to test yet.
Thanks for the info. I'm going to be doing this on my 2.9.1 soon and wanted to know how it went.
Okay, looks fairly similar to the process used in the video. Thanks for verifying this.
Initially stabilize mode was pretty good with a little bit of drift. Then after I did auto-trim I felt like my ArduCopter was much more stable and held it's position very well. Have you gone through the TX calibration in Mission Planner?
I've been experimenting with GPS loiter mode and will post a vid soon for you to check out. I wouldn't rule out the Naza just yet. I've read a lot of posts where professional photo/video guys prefer the stability of the Naza. But if waypoints are a requirement then the Naza is out of the question. There is the Wookong option, but that's a pretty significant investment.
No. I had never heard of it until you mentioned it. I just checked it out and looks pretty nice. Do you own one? I'm curious to know how the IFLYC4 flight controller performs. Thanks for the feedback on my channel. It's much appreciated.
Hi Michael, make sure to do Auto Trim in Stabilize mode. Hope this helps and good luck!
What version of the APM firmware are you running? Also, I'm assuming that your GPS has a fix before your arm your ArduCopter and take it into loiter mode?
Perfect video tutorial and just what I was searching for. Thanks m8
Have you tried loitering with GPS only to see if that helps? What is your terrain like where you're trying to use sonar? I knew one guy that was trying sonar in snow and ran into all sorts of problems.
So glad to hear that. I love the Auto Trim feature. Thanks for checking out Garage Pilots. It's very much appreciated.
Very cool that you're flying in Scotland. Looking forward to seeing some aerial vids when you get to that point. Glad to hear your crashes didn't result in any breakage. What frame are you flying with?
Great question about seeing what changed after an auto trim. To be honest I'm not 100% sure. Sometimes I can just "feel" it based on how my APM quad flies. Will let you know if I find out anything related to your question.
Excellent tutorial. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your time!
Hey Dennis, thanx voor this vid.
I was a little surprised though when i was concentrating on the quad on the tennistable and than the other obe came into the frame!! hahaha But abouot the trimming... i will get my apm 2,5 end of this month so i will test this out and keep you posted.
Greets Gerard
Nice! Glad to hear you're dialed in. What firmware version are you currently flying with?
For starters you should be able to get your quad to where you can hover it without too much trouble. Then you can take it through this process to fine tune it.
No problem. Not sure if it helps, but let me know what happens once all the snow has melted :)
As usual thanks Dennis. Im having trouble with flight modes on my 9x stock firmware. I tried acro mode with mixes like your video suggests but no go. I seem to be missing something with the 3 way switch.
Thank you and definitely count on more APM stuff soon.
Yeah, it's a mini I built last year just when I need a little skate break and can't get to the park. You skate?
Jason, thank you for the feedback. I'm glad to know these vids are helping. Let me know if there's anything in particular that you'd like to see and I'll try and cover it. Take care.
Thanks. Appreciate you watching.
Glad it helped. Thanks for the feedback.
Again very good tutorial Dennis! Wasn't aware of the auto trim feature yet. I'll try that tomorow out in the field.
Today I completed my copter and tried to takeoff a view centimeters indoors. On my Turnigy 9x I had to add lots of trim to accomplish an acceptable takeoff.
It is normal to add so much trim? I'am about +50% for each direction. Seems a lot to me???
@Soldier53flyer aside from it costing less (I paid $199 for mine from DIY Drones) it has the GPS waypoint navigation, which you can't get with the Naza. I believe you can get it with Wookong, but that's an insanely expensive flight controller (~ $1,000).
@Chris Blackburn I assume you're talking about ArduFlyer? I had looked into that at one point, but wasn't sure of the quality. Do you have any experience with it? Definitely looks like a viable alternative.
Dennis, My APM is just on the way and I was studying and watching your vids again and again. But I am stuck understanding the PID tuning basics and how to do that?
Can you do a tutorial on it?
Thanks.
Hi Dennis, excellent tutorial. Still a question: Are the values gone after switching off the power to the APM 2.5 or are the values written to the eeprom?
Thanks.
I tried auto trim today and now hovers pretty good! I'm considering transfering all my electrics to a dji hex f550. Do you think that's a good idea? I want stability so I can put fpv gear on. Will check out garagepilot now, thanks :)
I've read about it, but haven't done it yet. I may experiment and put a video together that demonstrates the process. In the meantime, if you'd like to give this a try Google "AC2_Tweaks" and then scroll down to the "In-flight tuning" section. It talks about using CH6 in conjunction with your control knob to tune during flight. Let me know if you get around to this and I'll do the same.
Nice video , does the flight mode matters?I tried and it switched to disarm after 15 sec in arming position...
Thanks Dennis, flights went pretty well only had one manual dogey landing, although did have 2 major crashes when the apm was in control (a loiter fail and a RTL total fail!), no damage though thanks to soft Scottish mud :)
I tried to calibrate whilst in simple stabilise and I think it worked, though not certain (quad still a bit twitchy), is there any way I can check what may have changed whilst using autotrim ? (been going though the logs but cant see anything obvious yet).
Thanks again.
Great video. At what mode do you fly when performing auto trim?
Thanks Dennis! I checked everything again and I found one major issue: compass calibration was not set up properly. Once I corrected that everything was way better. Additionally I found a page about 'AutoTrim' inside the ArduCopter wiki. With that my RC trims are now centered again.
About your comment above: when arming the motors: will the APM recalibrate the level/compass setups? (Will it overwrite the calibration one did before via mission planner?)
Dennis, That was a nice tuning video.Is this the new feature in APM2.5?. Earlier i had APM2.0 board and i tried tuning by assigning TX pots to PID's and try to tune it and finally gave up and sold it and got NAZA.So what's your PID tuning experience so far?. Really i wanted to buy APM2.5 bcos this has lot's of features compared to NAZA at and way cheaper.
Awwwww, you skate too......I noticed the mini there.....nice:)
Hi Dennis,
Awesome video.
I got one question though.
Do you do this procedure in "Acro mode" or "Stable mode"?
Hi Dennis,
I attempted to do test flight 1 today. I need to do some trimming to improve stability.
My question is, during the 40 seconds of Auto Trim, do you tweak with the trim buttons on the radio or just try to stabilize with the throttle, yaw, pitch and role joysticks?
Thanks.
Thx.I too own a NAZA and it's good but to upgrade to GPS it's expensive. I got my APM2.5 and i have to test it now..
Hi Dennis, another very good video and informative video :)
I am hopefully taking my 3DR out for its first flight tomorrow (if it doesnt rain) and planned to have a go at auto trim if everything works as expected. Good to know you can set the mode at take off as the arducopter wiki seem to indicate using a switch on channel 7 whilst in mid flight.
I wondered if you know wether you can complete the auto trim procedure whilst in 'simple' stabilisation mode (compass flying). I am a bad pilot ;)
i think ill build a launch pad like yours to deflect the downwash up the sides of the garage.
Cool idea. Let us know how it goes.
That rocks! what is the price point compared to the Naza?
I recently bought the 3DR X8 and I'm having trouble with it. I will test the autotrim, thank you for the vid.
One question I do have, my throttle is way to sensitive when trying to hover but when trying to slow it dow when descending it reacts way to slow resulting in very hard landings, is there a way to trim that in?
Dennis, whats the size of your garage and miniramp ? ( in meters ) thanks dude
+Lifestyle media 25' x 25' garage and the ramp is about 3' tall, 12' wide and 24' long. Hope that helps.
+Dennis Baldwin thnks !!!! haver you ever have the problem of apm responde slow the radio control signals. delay response. ?
Very helpfull video. Go on making some videos about the apm2.5
Apm 2.5 or dji naza lite what one should I buy I am an experienced heli pilot this is my first qaud build. I have setup fbl unit but the apm looks like a pain.
did you ever fly a Ideafly Ifly 4? Just curious, he great channel if i had the time i would watch them all ; P
Is that a halfpipe in your garage? Awesome
i have a question, does this also work with version 2.1.9b thanks btw nice video
Dennis what is Apm2.5 V3.1 rc4 Autotune that is displayed in a couple of other RUclips videos? I noticed you interchanged the term Auto Trim and Auto Tune at one point but they are different beasts, are they not?
Good question. You're right I may have used auto tune at some point in the video but that was prior to my knowledge of the official AutoTune sequence. Which, as you pointed out are completely different beasts. I have yet to AutoTune, but plan on doing so in the next few days. Here is the wiki page if you haven't seen it already:
copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/autotune/
Thanks for helping me clarify this. All the best.
hey
i have an adrucopter too, but with a sonar. so if i go into loiter mode that thing just shoots into the air and after i change the mode stabilize it just falls out of the sky. that happed twice and i had about 4 hours of rebuilding each time!!! :( can you help me?? please
Dennis- On the APM 2.5, does this have the ability to be able to adjust the gains (or PIDs) w/ the radio knobs on-the-fly like the NAZA? I also have the NAZA, but am thinking of getting an APM 2.5.
hi dennis, do you notice any different when in the auto trim mode? (like, the quad is kinda hard to control & stabilize..sometimes a lot more sloppy than in the stabilize mode)
i first tried flying my quad in stabilize, it flies ok but need some trimming cause it tends to move in one direction. however, when I tried to auto trim, the quad becomes very hard to be flied. do you have that kind of experience?
thanks for your time.
Thanks, I found the $90 clone. Was not aware of its existence. Very interesting although I cannot imagine that all components are the same Quality as the original, the GPS for instance. Still, could be a good deal depending on what you are after. Very interesting!
Thanks for the feedback. It's much appreciated. Sounds like a good setup you have going and let me know if you run into any problems. Better yet, check out garagepilots . com. It's a community for multirotor enthusiasts that I run with a few other guys. Good luck!
Dennis am using Apm pro flight control board but my quad flips away if i try to takeoff. Sometimes with the help of pitch and roll i manage to take off.Plz help
Does the apm 2.5 board have the feature to leave the throttle stick in the middle and the copter will hold its altitude no matter how far you push the copter forward like the naza?
Don't tweak any trim and just keep it as stable as possible. Then land and you should be good to go. Good luck and let me know if you run into any problems.
Works great!
Thanks.