Flip 1.5 Questions

[Snarls]

Hi all. I just finished my build of a 500mm spider quad and had a maiden flight in the snow. The flip 1.5 FC works pretty good right out of the box, but I want to change some throttle and yaw curves and adjust the PID a tad. The problem is, access to the boards USB is blocked by other electronics. There are a few solutions I have, but I question their possibility:

First, is it possible to add a telemetry module to the Flip 1.5? I see that the board has all the same pin outs that the MW Pro has for telemetry.

Second, I could raise up to FC to gain access to the USB for tuning. This however would raise the height of the FC about 1/2" higher. Will there be a significant difference in performance between a change in height of this amount?

Lastly, I may be able to access to USB right where it is if I rotate the FC 90 degrees. Is it possible to redefine what is forward for the board?

Thanks!

 

[makattack]

I think you may find installing a bluetooth telemetry radio your best bet. I believe Paul sell one, but they are pretty generic:

http://witespyquad.gostorego.com/serial-bluetooth-module-for-multiwiicopter-configuration.html

This assumes you have an Android mobile device (phone or tablet) and can run any of the MultiWii apps like MultiWiiGui, which I find better than the standard PC/Java based MultiWiiConf app.

This will also allow you to adjust your settings without lugging a computer out to the field with you, with USB cable, etc.

Before I got the module, i was using the android MultiWiiGui program with a USB OTG cable, but even that was a pain to keep plugging/unplugging the USB port.

That said, there should be no problem with raising the flight board.

Rotating the board seems possible with the sensor orientation config.h values:

http://www.multiwii.com/wiki/?title=Config.h#IMU_settings

But, I think it would be easier to just raise the board...

Interesting that there's a 45degree board orientation flag, but it's only for 45degrees, and seems mostly designed for + vs X quads.

 

[Craftydan]

If you're handy with coding, you *could* just turn the board 90 or 180 degrees.

- Open defs.h and search for "FLYDUINO_MPU" -- the flip boards are the same layout -- and copy off the "ACC_ORIENTATION" and "GYRO_ORIENTATION" values (Ok, I just looked it up, it's X,Y,Z and -Y,X,-Z, but go there and make sure I did it right )

- Open the config.h file and search for FORCE_ACC_ORIENTATION (the FORCE_GYRO_ORIENTATION shoudl be the next line).

- uncomment both, then enter the coordinates above in the same order (won't change anything, but it'll be our starting point)

- figure out which direction you'd like to turn it, then change the first two values to what they'll change to (if it helps, lay the flip on a piece of paper and draw X/Y axies on it that line up with where the ORENTAION value says it is, then pick up the board and turn it the new direction. and read off what the axies have moved to). do it for gyro and acc seperately.

- After you've changed the first two values in both ACC and GYRO, remount the board, plug everything in (including the USB) and upload the new sketch.

- TEST. open multiwiiconf and see that the multirotor icon moves the way you expect it will (ACC is right). pull off the props and fire it up -- do the motors correct in the right directions or not? (GYRO is right) It's easy to get these backwards . . .

 

[Craftydan]

Oh, and get a Bluetooh module for tuning.

Mak is spot on with that one.

 

[Snarls]

Thanks for the quick responses Mak and Dan! I'm not new to coding, but I'm not that well versed either. I think I'll take a look at redefining the axes tonight, but if it's too much I will go ahead and solder some pins to use the 915MHz telemetry kit I used on my MW Pro. I think these will be better long term solutions than just temporarily raising the board.

 

[Snarls]

Alright I took the challenge and dove into the code to redefine the axes, as well as tweak a few other values. Finding what values to reassign to was tricky, but as Dan said a picture helps. This thread also helped explain what Dan said in detail.
After much thought I tried some new values and both the ACC and Gyro values seem to respond OK using the sensor graph in comparison to what the MW manual describes.