APM 2.5 v3.0 firmware - Loiter and RTL Tested/Demoed

[Hands0n]

I wanted to share these two short videos which already appear buried deep within my other thread about APM 2.5 PIDs.  The problems in that thread have been resolved and Saturday 30 Aug I took the Firefly 450 out into a large field for the first time since it';s maiden flight/s in my back garden.

The objective was to fly the aircraft more naturally in open space rather than the confines of the back garden with all its trees and other paraphernalia.  I flew Stabilised, Manual, Alt Hold, Loiter and RTL. The only mode I did not attempt was Auto, I';ll build up more courage before I go doing that.  ::)

So, first up, RTL. I flew the quad out about 200m from where I was standing and hit up Loiter (briefly) and then straight to RTL. I did think that it would land itself at the end of the sequence but that didn';t happen. More reading to be done as I really did think it did that    Anyway, the video

http://youtu.be/5g5GQiEisc4

Next up is the Loiter test, and what I was trying to do here is perform the same "nudge" demonstration that the Arducopter guys do on their website. It is quite impressive how stable the APM 2.5 is in that mode being shoved about.  I haven';t tried this with the Naza M Lite, something I';m going to have to check out next time I fly it.

And so the video

http://youtu.be/Vp1MMyO7418

I need to do a little work to tidy up the PIDs for the auto modes. Although they fly reasonably well, they are a bit jittery, suggesting the values are slightly too high. My plan is to do that when the telemetry kit arrives (hopefully this week so I can tackle it next weekend).

[DarrenG]

There is a parameter for RTL that controls the height at which it hovers when it RTL';s.

RTL_ALT_FINAL

A setting of 0 will have it perform an auto landing. Default is 2m.

As for the nudge test, my advice would be not to!  It looks impressive in demo videos but it';s too dangerous to do if you value fingers and staying out of casualty.

[dazza22]

its nice when a plan comes together...

I agree with Darreng , keep your hands away .. Just take a sudden voltage drop, APM glich etc .

Look forward to your auto test video , I got such a buzz on my first auto mission . Just make sure you double check your mission in mission planner and double check it again before flying .

[Hands0n]

Thanks Darren - I';ve set RTL_ALT_FINAL to 0 and will test it out next time I can get out.

No plans, gents, on sticking hands under the quad again  ::) It was one of those "I had to try it" moments - it was scarier than working on live mains 

Meanwhile, in other news ...

My Fly Away
I think that I may have found the answer to my Fly Away where I lost my quad forever recently.   Considering that I flew the APM 2.5 with stock OOTB settings with "powerful" 1100KV motors in relative terms it makes sense.  The reaction of the quad in the video matches that exactly of my quad as it shot up vertically from the initial hover that I had raised it to, around 1 metre from the ground.

http://youtu.be/42HnOx-4s-4

In this particular APM 2.5 I have installed the latest PPM Encoder firmware 2.3.16
Details here http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-ppm-encoder-apm2x-atmega32u2/
Discussion here http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-ppm-encoder-apm2x-atmega32u2/

I guess the best advice is, when maiden flying an APM is to make sure that Chan 6 is set to control Rate_P Pitch/Roll with high = default and low = something rather low!.  At least you';ll be able to get your quad back.