Hi guys,
Flight controllers don't seem to be a popular subject on Flitetest. But I'm the kind of person that likes to dig deeper into subjects until I get bored or conclude I've hit a dead end.
Since getting into FPV a couple of months ago, I've been troubleshooting my kit to make it safer and perform better. I had some video performance issues in some areas, which I fixed by making some cp antennas. I then ran out of battery on my first flight with the new antennas, because I forgot to set a timer and didn't have an OSD, so I got a G-OSD II and flashed it with CL-OSD. I then flew behind myself and lost control signal, which prompted me to get a FrSky system to beep at me when the signal was low. I was also restricted to the length of my cable, so I got a 5.8 100mW vtx to relay the video feed to my goggles. My current issue is interference between my rx and vtx, which I've moved further apart but haven't tested my range yet.
In any case, something that still plays on my mind is what happens when I ignore the beeping on my tx and suddenly lose control. I didn't want to get a whole new OSD, like the NOVA, purely for the RTH feature, given how happy I am with the G-OSD. So I started looking into flight controllers. I considered APM2.5, which looks pretty amazing, but I came across the Crius AIO Pro which was 1/4 of the price, though it was missing a GPS. Hobbyking suddenly started bringing out new boards, and when the MultiWii PRO with MTK GPS came up, I pulled the trigger.
Before I bought it, I checked the sensor list, which were identical to the Crius AIO sensor board (not the AIO Pro) - ITG3205 (works with the ITG3200 coding), BMA180, HMC5883 and BMP085. Also the GPS is a great unit and supported in APNG firmware. Not knowing anything about programming, I thought it'd be pretty simple for someone to adjust the scripts for MPNG/APNG to use this board, and I'd just copy them. Wrong.
So, I thought I'd have a fiddle and see what I could come up with. Unlike the Turnigy 9x and G-OSD, the powerful Atmega2560 requires much more than a quick eeprom and/or hex flash. I used eepee and eXtremeBurner respectively for the 9x and G-OSD, without modifying the .hex and .eep files. For the MultiWii PRO, I've been playing with Arduino 1.01. This program allows you to adjust parameters and active sensors etc, as long as they are defined in the coding. To check whether the settings are correct, I've been using APM Planner for APNG and Wingui for MultiWii
The setup for MultiWii 2.1 on the MultiWii PRO board is really simple - the sensors are able to be selected individually, rather than picking a particular board's set like in APNG. I could get RTH function using MultiWii, however I've become more and more interested in waypoint navigation - RTH kicking in on failsafe pushes the control system to its boundaries, but waypoint nav makes the flight battery the only restriction on range!
Anyhow, I started this thread to hopefully kick off some meaningful brainstorming on how to get the MultiWii PRO working with APM Planner. At this stage, using ArduplaneNG 2.4, I can get the GPS and baro to work, but not the other sensors, just by selecting the BlackVortex board and specifying the mtk GPS. However APM Planner won't connect to the board. With ArduplaneNG 2x R5 I can get the magnetometer working, but not the other sensors, no matter which boards/GPS I select. I haven't started mixing and matching cpp or h files yet, but hoping someone gives me a steer in case I make the solution (if it works) more complex than the problem.
Flight controllers don't seem to be a popular subject on Flitetest. But I'm the kind of person that likes to dig deeper into subjects until I get bored or conclude I've hit a dead end.
Since getting into FPV a couple of months ago, I've been troubleshooting my kit to make it safer and perform better. I had some video performance issues in some areas, which I fixed by making some cp antennas. I then ran out of battery on my first flight with the new antennas, because I forgot to set a timer and didn't have an OSD, so I got a G-OSD II and flashed it with CL-OSD. I then flew behind myself and lost control signal, which prompted me to get a FrSky system to beep at me when the signal was low. I was also restricted to the length of my cable, so I got a 5.8 100mW vtx to relay the video feed to my goggles. My current issue is interference between my rx and vtx, which I've moved further apart but haven't tested my range yet.
In any case, something that still plays on my mind is what happens when I ignore the beeping on my tx and suddenly lose control. I didn't want to get a whole new OSD, like the NOVA, purely for the RTH feature, given how happy I am with the G-OSD. So I started looking into flight controllers. I considered APM2.5, which looks pretty amazing, but I came across the Crius AIO Pro which was 1/4 of the price, though it was missing a GPS. Hobbyking suddenly started bringing out new boards, and when the MultiWii PRO with MTK GPS came up, I pulled the trigger.
Before I bought it, I checked the sensor list, which were identical to the Crius AIO sensor board (not the AIO Pro) - ITG3205 (works with the ITG3200 coding), BMA180, HMC5883 and BMP085. Also the GPS is a great unit and supported in APNG firmware. Not knowing anything about programming, I thought it'd be pretty simple for someone to adjust the scripts for MPNG/APNG to use this board, and I'd just copy them. Wrong.
So, I thought I'd have a fiddle and see what I could come up with. Unlike the Turnigy 9x and G-OSD, the powerful Atmega2560 requires much more than a quick eeprom and/or hex flash. I used eepee and eXtremeBurner respectively for the 9x and G-OSD, without modifying the .hex and .eep files. For the MultiWii PRO, I've been playing with Arduino 1.01. This program allows you to adjust parameters and active sensors etc, as long as they are defined in the coding. To check whether the settings are correct, I've been using APM Planner for APNG and Wingui for MultiWii
The setup for MultiWii 2.1 on the MultiWii PRO board is really simple - the sensors are able to be selected individually, rather than picking a particular board's set like in APNG. I could get RTH function using MultiWii, however I've become more and more interested in waypoint navigation - RTH kicking in on failsafe pushes the control system to its boundaries, but waypoint nav makes the flight battery the only restriction on range!
Anyhow, I started this thread to hopefully kick off some meaningful brainstorming on how to get the MultiWii PRO working with APM Planner. At this stage, using ArduplaneNG 2.4, I can get the GPS and baro to work, but not the other sensors, just by selecting the BlackVortex board and specifying the mtk GPS. However APM Planner won't connect to the board. With ArduplaneNG 2x R5 I can get the magnetometer working, but not the other sensors, no matter which boards/GPS I select. I haven't started mixing and matching cpp or h files yet, but hoping someone gives me a steer in case I make the solution (if it works) more complex than the problem.