DX7s/ APM

[Royston]

Hi guys

Anyone out there with a DX7s??

Changed board on quad from Crius to APM. All seemed well. Following Peter Kings You Tube vid fine til got to flight modes. All I have is Stabilise with all sticks forward or Auto with Gear Mix1.

PMd Rob Shaw as he was upgrading and he had no issues, different tranny, but didn';t have to change any setting.

I';ve tried a number of things.
1/ Created new model and downloaded DX7s set up file from Peter Kings google docs. No change.
2/ Tried changes recommended in DIY Drones forum but still no different.

The F mode/elevated or flap sticks do nothing. Do I have to input something to allocate them?

The flight modes were there when connected to crius board so don';t understand it. Can';t retry with crius as mini USB knackered.

Any help would be most appreciated a I just want to fly the bloody thing.

Regards
Roy

[Hands0n]

You are going to have to re-adjust the TX so that it puts out the correct PWM for each flight mode setting in Mission Planner.  It is completely unlikely that the TX settings for the Crius will work "out of the box" with the APM.

Basically, you will have to start from scratch in respect to Flight Modes and then save them as a "model" specifically for that blend of aircraft and FC.  I hope that makes sense ...

[Royston]

Cheers Danny
I know this is a biggie but is there a step by step you know
of showing how to do it with a DX7s.
Cheers
Roy

[Hands0n]

Roy, I use a DX6i so probably not much use to you in that specific respect. However, I am a bit of a fan of the Peter King YouTube videos and found this that may help you no end ... Spektrum Dx7s & Dx8 SPM file load

Assuming your Spektrum DX7 is the same then you may be able to load a custom-ready set from what I see in the information and comments section below even.  Not watched the video so can';t say for certain its what you';re after.

But it may give you a hint as to what and how to adjust in your TX.  Once you';ve got that you can then customise to your own specific needs. 

[kilby]

Peter Kings mode selections are selected via the gear switch and the 3 position flap switch.

I had to tweak the servo min value as I could only get 5 of the 6 modes.

When I switched to a spektrum receiver I had to tweak the values yet again (and the dx7s firmware update to 1.03 also changed the values)

The current version on Peters google docs comes from my transmitter when it was paired with the orange receiver

[Royston]

Thanks guys
Danny I';m also a big fan and have already got that file loaded but just watched video and noticed he said for the AIOP and it doesn';t look like he';s done another one for the APM yet.
I';ve set it up as a new model with these setting but no luck. I  don';t know but is there some way of allocating the other switches in the transmitter to link to flight modes??
Cheers
Roy

[Royston]

Thanks again guys
Found another set of mix settings which actually work. Well I';ve been able to get 4 flight modes set up anyway. Stabilise/loiter/alt hold and RTL.
THESE WILL CETAINLY DO ME FOR THE PRESENT.
Will finish off set up tomorrow now as head is cabbaged.
Thanks again
Roy

[kilby]

If I get a chance tonight I will try and knock together a 2 or 3 paragraph hiw to tweak the values for the modes on the current dx7 model

[Royston]

Cheers Kilby
That would be FAB
Thanks again
Roy

[robshaw]

I know I';ve mentioned it you Roy but I didn';t have to fiddle with my mixes when I transfered to APM from crius. I set my mixes myself, so not peters but obviously that won';t make a difference. If you just have it connected and viewing the radio calib page in mission planner. You can see the pwm value at the top of the page. Below are the bracketed values each flight modes requires. If you tweak the mixes on tx live you will see the pwm value on the screen as you change it.

[marckatzenmaier]

Perhaps this can help: http://diydrones.com/m/blogpost?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A637661

[Royston]

Will give it a go Rob, if I can follow it.
Got 4 flight modes working via mix settings off DIY Drones forum.
Have got the 6 flight mode PWMs from radio calibration section. Just got to work out how to adjust them now.

Flaps 2 not working with or without Gear switch.

Still it';s a big improvement.
Gonna be Saturday now as got grandsons all tomorrow.
Thanks for all the help guys

[kilby]

Sorry about the delay in posting this as I';m having to live with a single working eye at the moment <grumble>

Ok I was slightly surprised that changing the receiver led to (slightly) different being received by the APM module.

There are multiple ways of doing this but this is what worked for me and helped me get some idea of what was actually going on in the transmitter.

Modes worked like this G=Gear F=Flap

G=0 F=0 Mode 1
G=1 F=0 Mode 2
G=0 F=1 Mode 3
G=1 F=1 Mode 4
G=0 F=2 Mode 5
G=1 F=2 Mode 6

Anyway for me this is what worked using a Orange 6 channel and the 1.03 software on a DX7s

Go into the Servo menu and choose the Gear servo
Under the Travel settings Peter uses default values are set to 100% & 40%

Upping the 40% value to 45% tweaked all the values into the correct range.

That';s was all I had to do but you may have to tweak that value a little.

With the Spektrum 610 receiver I did the following:

Go to the Servo menu and select the Gear servo

Set the percentage values under Travel to 100% & 40%

Select the Travel mode and change to Sub Trim, all I had to do was change the numeric value from 0 to 5

This was enough to shift the values into the correct ranges.

It';s not rocket science, but took me ages as this is all new to me.

The link below may be of interest, but in the end I was happy with changing a couple of values in Peters standard configuration file

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/getting-6-modes-out-of-channel-5-on-a-spektrum-dx7s

[Royston]

Thanks Kilby. Will have another look at it tomorrow.
Thanks again for all your time and trouble.
Will check what DX7s firmware is currently and if needed upgrade to 1.03.
Will let you know he outcome.
Cheers
Roy

[kilby]

Just wondering if you had any success with your modes?

[Royston]

Sorry Kilby been a bit up the wall.
Not had much chance to play. I think it';s a matter of tweaking things but not sure what.
If you go onto DIY Drones there are a couple of posts there but they have wildly different setting which are both supposed to give you the same 6 flight modes using the gear and flap sticks.
What I can';t understand is how you can adjust the PWM settings to get all 6 modes.
I';ll keep on trying though. Just had a test flight and altitude hod was ok but  loiter started to climb rapidly. Read post on forum and have reduced mid throttle to 400 in parameters and will try again tomorrow. Practice makes perfect.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Roy