LitterBug's ZOHD Altus VTOL build

[LitterBug]

I believe Litterbug will have his maiden flight before I get all the *options" figured out tested and implemented. I'm moving at a snail's pace because I've never done a flight controller and some of it is almost overwhelming, but I'm too stubborn to say **ck it and buy the ready to fly version.

Some "ready to fly" aren't any better than what you are going through. Even some of the $$$$ ones are a mess and should have never been called RTF. POS... Pile Of Stuff after maiden.

I have weather to deal with here. I am also 99% sure the motors should be replaced before maiden, possibly the ESCs too. I need to hook my FC up and see if the ESCs are proprietary or if they can be reprogrammed. If they are propeietary, they should be replaced. I'll check the tail first since it was pinned rather than direct soldered. Would have been tough to pull the ESC through the tail boom. LOL. I also should have checked the direction on the front motors before assembly. If they need reversed, and they are proprietary, yet another reason to replace. I would rather have full customization than to have to work around odd ESCs.

 

[tomlogan1]

Both Flysky FS-i6X & Radiomaster TX16S have the following completted:

Arming works via switch AND rudder stick. Still working on that.

Modes now working on 3x switch.

Servos still not working.

 

[tomlogan1]

Delay of Game:

Servos will NOT activate. Working back & forth with Heewing. Only 2 of the 3 motors will run. I've swapped motors, escs an ports and it comes down to only 2 working motors. Looks like some type of exchange will be needed or I can find someone to solder the SpeedyBee I have as a spare. Gonna talk to the club at next month's meeting.💩

 

[tomlogan1]

Let the Games Resume!

ALL issues resolved. Really a case of RTFM. I missed a 5v connection from the PMU to the controller. That resolved the servo issue. The 3rd motor is the rear motor and in forward flight mode it does not activate. ABSOLUTELY GREAT SUPPORT from Heewing.

 

[LitterBug]

Let the Games Resume!

ALL issues resolved. Really a case of RTFM. I missed a 5v connection from the PMU to the controller. That resolved the servo issue. The 3rd motor is the rear motor and in forward flight mode it does not activate. ABSOLUTELY GREAT SUPPORT from Heewing.

Woah nillie! You are going to force me back in action. Gotta dig my FC out tonight. The motors and ESCs swap can wait! LOL

This is what I plan to use

Mateksys F765-Wing — Plane documentation

ardupilot.org

 

[tomlogan1]

Woah nillie! You are going to force me back in action. Gotta dig my FC out tonight. The motors and ESCs swap can wait! LOL

This is what I plan to use

Mateksys F765-Wing — Plane documentation

ardupilot.org

I am in your shadow, just trying to get to a new level. Advice requested.

Was going with Bronco, but wondering if one of the following might be better:

FT Cruiser
FT Explorer

The Game is still on.....

 

[LitterBug]

Good sign, I had 3 30A ESCs all ready to go in my parts bin. 3-6 S capable too..... Have the motors I've been contemplating too... SunnySky 2207 2100kv. Can also get them on clearance for $6 a pop in CW and CCW variants. The motors I already have are on a stalled quad (quint) build..

 

[L Edge]

I believe Litterbug will have his maiden flight before I get all the *options" figured out tested and implemented. I'm moving at a snail's pace because I've never done a flight controller and some of it is almost overwhelming, but I'm too stubborn to say **ck it and buy the ready to fly version.

In following a guy doing his work on getting a VTOL to work said this, "YOU ARE GOING TO FIND OUT THE LIFESPAN OF A VTOL MODEL IS VERY SHORT."

 

[tomlogan1]

You are presuming anything I fly has a lifespan not measured in minutes...

 

[L Edge]

You are presuming anything I fly has a lifespan not measured in minutes...

Are you doing a thread on your build?

 

[tomlogan1]

Are you doing a thread on your build?

Just hanging out here. 1 good day and then a week of cr@p trying to fix whatever somehow got screwed up. Had all 3 motors running, servos moving as expected and decided a good time to shut down and get some sleep. Next morning, Mission Planner will not connect to the flight controller and I've been fighting that for 3-4 days. 2 different windows computers, one Ubuntu with Mission Planner and 3 different esc cables and nothing works. I think somehow the Ardupilot instance on the flight controller got compromised or I screwed up on the config and I haven't yet found a way to connect. Hoping Heewing can reflash if needed.

 

[L Edge]

You are presuming anything I fly has a lifespan not measured in minutes...

I went thru what you are going to do. Especially when you program it. Get the wrong value, sign direction, wind gust, transition and one wrong reading and it can fall out of the sky. I chose bi-copter and it is very hard that two props have to handle all three axis .

 

[Houndpup Rc]

Just hanging out here. 1 good day and then a week of cr@p trying to fix whatever somehow got screwed up. Had all 3 motors running, servos moving as expected and decided a good time to shut down and get some sleep. Next morning, Mission Planner will not connect to the flight controller and I've been fighting that for 3-4 days. 2 different windows computers, one Ubuntu with Mission Planner and 3 different esc cables and nothing works. I think somehow the Ardupilot instance on the flight controller got compromised or I screwed up on the config and I haven't yet found a way to connect. Hoping Heewing can reflash if needed.

It might be a good idea to start your own thread....As this is @LitterBug's thread👍 I am just sitting back and watching how you guys fair, and then when I find out what works then I will give it a try!🤣

 

[LitterBug]

I went thru what you are going to do. Especially when you program it. Get the wrong value, sign direction, wind gust, transition and one wrong reading and it can fall out of the sky. I chose bi-copter and it is very hard that two props have to handle all three axis .

I have flown quite a few Tricopters and planes with FCs. It is easy to test everything on the ground to make sure the control reactions are configured correctly. What usually bites people the quickest is having a reaction backwards so when the FC tries to correct the flight it ends up flipping rather than correcting. Been there, done that. The transition is all I haven't done. Testing both modes of operation is a must. It is possible to fly each mode individually as well without the transition.

 

[LitterBug]

Mmmmm.... NEW "old stock"!

Going to upgrade the ESCs and motors this weekend during SnowMageddon. They are calling for 8"-12".

HECK of a good deal for $90. 4 motors AND individual ESCs. Picked up the last set BuddyRC had. Perfect for those who need independent ESCs with no BEC, 2 CW 2 CCW. VERY hard to find single ESCs like these any more. So upgrading Motors from 2204-1850KV to SunnySky Racing 2306 2300KV. Proprietary ZOHD 30A PWM only ESCs with BECs to SunnySky 30A Blheli_S ESCs that can run just about any protocol and no BEC. Have an FC with BECs so no need for them on the ESCs.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

For simplicity, I am going to use the "Stock" setup now and possibly update the motors and ESCs later. I have been digging through all my piles of stuff, organizing things and looking for a spare GPS module to use. No luck, so I picked up a new TBS M10Q GPS with Compass. I actually picked up two so I have one for a 3" CineWhoop build that has been stalled out for a long time. The QMC5883P Compass on these is so new, I had to use the latest INAV version to get it to work for that project. I'll be installing the latest Stable ArduPilot (4.6.3) on the Matek F765-wing tonight and getting the RX/GPS working before dropping it in the Altus. Have a small amount of soldering to do to get power to the tail motor. XT60 on that ESC and Either a Y cable or another XT60 output from the PDB on the FC. Need to put connectors on the GPS wires so it can easily be plugged in to the FC.

Time to move this along. This is on my move it along february list.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Initial Configuration changes. These may change as the build and testing progress. Going to use a "default" GPS port. By default 2 are enabled, so I will disable the 2nd GPS port

1) RX config. I am using ELRS with TAER mapping on RX4/TX4, which means a few things must change.
Serial port mapping in ArduPilot does NOT always match what is on the board. In my case RX4/TX4 is Serial 6. My channel for flight modes will be 6 instead of 8. Arming will be on channel 5. Baud rate will be autodetected so no need to set. I have added comments here for Documentation purposes. They do not go in the config file.

SERIAL4_PROTOCOL = -1 (disable 2nd GPS)

SERIAL6_PROTOCOL = 23 (CRSF/ELRS)
RSSI_TYPE = 3 (RSSI Telemetry)

RCMAP_PITCH = 3 (Set Up TAER mapping)
RCMAP_ROLL = 2
RCMAP_THROTTLE = 1
RCMAP_YAW = 4

FLTMODE_CH = 6 (set flight mode channel)

ARMING_RUDDER = 0 (do NOT do stick arming)
RC5_OPTION = 154 (Switch Arm/Disarm for quadplane)

2) Enable Quadplane and set mixer type (Tricopter Tiltrotor ) Q Documentation can be found: https://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/guide-tilt-rotor.html

Q_ENABLE = 1
Q_TILT_ENABLE = 1
Q_FRAME_CLASS = 7 (tricopter)
Q_TILT_MASK = 3 (front two motors tilt)
Q_TILT_TYPE = 2 (vectored)

More parameters not yet set. Need to determine ports for ESCs and Servos first (1-4 will be reserved for motors)
SERVOn_FUNCTION =

TiltMotorFrontLeft	75
TiltMotorFrontRight	76

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Thoughts on PWM channel mapping:
1-4 need to be for motors only due to timers used for the PWM channels. That leaves the rest for servos and accesories

1 Motor 1 (FL)
2 Motor 2 (FR)
3 Motor 3 (rear)
4 Motor 4 (unassigned)
5 Ruddervator L
6 Ruddervator R
7 Aileron L
8 Aileron R
9 Motor Tilt L
10 Motor Tilt R

I May use Y cables on the ailerons and Ruddervator. In theory I can do yaw with the motors.... Need to look at the feasability of it since they are already in the Q- config...

EDIT: Looks like differential thrust IS doable based on this in the documentation:

Other YAW mechanisms¶​

If twin engines are used (THROTTLE LEFT and THROTTLE RIGHT output functions), then the pilot and ArduPilot can use differential thrust to produce yaw in Plane, or in QuadPlanes when in fixed wing modes, if using twin/quad forward motors for fixed wing flight modes. This is enabled by setting RUDD_DT_GAIN to a non-zero value.

 

[LitterBug]

I have not abandoned this, and actually have a second larger plane like this. A ZMO V1. Hard to believe but it came BNF with a F103 processor, unknown FC software, and DJI compatible walksnail VTX. (Pre avatar). It had two basic modes of operation. Tricopter, and plane. Also had RTH capability. The airframe looks great. I am going to ditch the stock FC and go with ardupilot.