OrangutangSurfer
Member
Hey everybody!
I managed to get a Flip 1.5 that I purchased a while back from RTFQ to work as a flight stabilizer. I'm no programmer and I fumble around at best in arduino sketch files. None the less, I managed to make it work.
Let me first say that I originally tried to get a similar setup working using a KK2 board Flashed with OpenAero2 and had only minor success, the board is far too sensitive to vibration and it would test fine on the bench but as soon as throttle was applied the controls would oscillate terribly. I have found vibration dampeners and adding weight to the board (thanks to another user) helped dramatically but all that can't compare to the light weight smooth function I have found with the MultiWii board.
I did not try to set this up using PWM inputs from the receiver. I used a FrSky D4R-II setup in PPM mode, it will do 8 ch output but the Flip 1.5 will only accept 6 incoming channels. Aileron, Elevator, Throttle, Rudder, Aux1, Aux2 - both the Aux channels were setup to control flight modes.
I did lots of google searching for a "How To" and didn't find one, I hope to refine this information to eventually turn it in to an article but I'm afraid it will still only benefit a limited audience using PPM Receivers.
I started here: http://fotoflygarn.blogspot.com/2012/03/multiwii-airplane.html
To clarify some things I felt were not clear...
1.) The Rx will receive power from the MultiWii board. You don't need a separate BEC. You connect your ESC and Servos to the assigned pins and the Rx in PPM mode connects to the Throttle IN and will receive power from the FC.
2.) There are 2 wing servo outputs, HOWEVER, everything will work just fine if you run your aileron servos off of a Y cable.
3.) Just when you're freaking out because your motor won't spin up but everything seems to be connected properly you'll need to ARM the board to get any throttle output (just like you did on your quad). When you start freaking out again because it won't ARM; you need to have 100% Rates setup on throttle and rudder to activate the Arming function. then it will work
4.) For Taranis users, if you are using a PPM Rx like the D4R-II which is a 4ch PWM Rx, make sure you change the channel range on your radio from 1-4 to 1-8 or you will not get any output for channels 5 and 6 and thus have another freak out as to why you can't change flight modes.
5.) I adjusted the Gyro filters to 20hz eliminate the servo feed back from the motor vibration it helped but wasn't perfect, until I fly it I won't know how this will effect the controls. there is a Low Pass Filter in the sketch file. It was necessary to uncomment that line as well. with the LPF enabled I may be able to adjust the gyro filter up (not sure if it's even beneficial). If flight performance is poor that will be my first adjustment.
6.) MultiWii config is slightly misleading when configuring your servos. If gyro moves servo in the wrong direction correct it in Multiwii config if the Transmitter moves the servo in the wrong direction reverse it in the transmitter.
7.) When choosing a flight mode GYRO (stabilize) mode is not on the list. This is the option that is selected if NOTHING else is checked in MultiWiiconf. To program my panic button I used the SH switch for PANIC and SG for flight modes. Passthrough is selected in Low position, nothing selected for MID (which is actually gyro mode) and Horizon mode for High. ANGLE mode is selected when SH is in High position. I don't know how the board will assign priority if two modes are selected at the same time SO.... I used a special function on the Taranis Radio that when SH is placed in high position it will override CH5 (SG) to 0 (mid position, gyro mode, nothing selected) Forcing Angle mode to be the only ACTIVE mode. SH is spring loaded and will not stay on with out constant pressure, which makes it perfect for a panic button.
My pinout for all controls on my FLIP 1.5 from RTFQ is as follows:
D2: PPM Input from RX - remember DO NOT POWER YOUR RX DIRECTLY OR WITH A UBEC, it will get power from the board
D12: Wing1 - I assume this is the Left aileron I'll know for sure when I get this hooked up to my spitfire and will update.
D11: Wing2 - Right Aileron?
D10: Elevator
D9: Throttle
D3: Rudder
I currently have the BloodyWonder's solo aileron servo plugged in to D12
HERE is the sketch file for Arduino. View attachment MultiWii_Airplane.zip NOTE!!! This sketch file includes enabling the Baro/Mag on my board you will need to comment those lines out or you will get an error when uploading. As far as I have found the baro/mag are useless on an airplane with out a GPS.
I dunno if it's completely necessary but I used MultiWiiConf 2.4 (vs 2.3) to configure all my settings on the computer.
Lastly your MultiWiiConf program allows you to adjust all the PID settings just like your quad. All i have done was make the necessary changes to get the airplane servos/motor to work. I'm running Pauls stock PID settings (i'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing yet) I imagine you could tune your air frame similarly to a MultiRotor and start with I, D at zero and turn up P until you get oscillations. again... needs flight testing before I go that far. I throttled up the motor as I changed the filter settings and eventually got ZERO servo feed back as the throttle was Ramped up from min to max. for the time being I'm satisfied.
Let me know what questions you have and I'll try to improve this information as I'm sure there will be plenty of people upgrading to the 32bit FC boards as they gain in popularity, keep that Flip board out of the trash and setup an Autolevel trainer for a family member.
There is additional information about using a GPS, this could be even cooler, as it can provide PH and RTH functions, as well as some failsafe functions.
- Jes
PS along with my Naze32 I have a Sparky board coming. this is something else that there is information on but not a good start to finish How to. I hope to cover that as well.
PSS - Once i get my flight in with the FC installed I'll post a follow up video and the official success or failure of using the MWC 1.5 as a flight stabilizer.
PSSSS - as soon as I get some time I'll get some screen shots and try to place them throughout this post to help some things make more sense.
I managed to get a Flip 1.5 that I purchased a while back from RTFQ to work as a flight stabilizer. I'm no programmer and I fumble around at best in arduino sketch files. None the less, I managed to make it work.
Let me first say that I originally tried to get a similar setup working using a KK2 board Flashed with OpenAero2 and had only minor success, the board is far too sensitive to vibration and it would test fine on the bench but as soon as throttle was applied the controls would oscillate terribly. I have found vibration dampeners and adding weight to the board (thanks to another user) helped dramatically but all that can't compare to the light weight smooth function I have found with the MultiWii board.
I did not try to set this up using PWM inputs from the receiver. I used a FrSky D4R-II setup in PPM mode, it will do 8 ch output but the Flip 1.5 will only accept 6 incoming channels. Aileron, Elevator, Throttle, Rudder, Aux1, Aux2 - both the Aux channels were setup to control flight modes.
I did lots of google searching for a "How To" and didn't find one, I hope to refine this information to eventually turn it in to an article but I'm afraid it will still only benefit a limited audience using PPM Receivers.
I started here: http://fotoflygarn.blogspot.com/2012/03/multiwii-airplane.html
To clarify some things I felt were not clear...
1.) The Rx will receive power from the MultiWii board. You don't need a separate BEC. You connect your ESC and Servos to the assigned pins and the Rx in PPM mode connects to the Throttle IN and will receive power from the FC.
2.) There are 2 wing servo outputs, HOWEVER, everything will work just fine if you run your aileron servos off of a Y cable.
3.) Just when you're freaking out because your motor won't spin up but everything seems to be connected properly you'll need to ARM the board to get any throttle output (just like you did on your quad). When you start freaking out again because it won't ARM; you need to have 100% Rates setup on throttle and rudder to activate the Arming function. then it will work
4.) For Taranis users, if you are using a PPM Rx like the D4R-II which is a 4ch PWM Rx, make sure you change the channel range on your radio from 1-4 to 1-8 or you will not get any output for channels 5 and 6 and thus have another freak out as to why you can't change flight modes.
5.) I adjusted the Gyro filters to 20hz eliminate the servo feed back from the motor vibration it helped but wasn't perfect, until I fly it I won't know how this will effect the controls. there is a Low Pass Filter in the sketch file. It was necessary to uncomment that line as well. with the LPF enabled I may be able to adjust the gyro filter up (not sure if it's even beneficial). If flight performance is poor that will be my first adjustment.
6.) MultiWii config is slightly misleading when configuring your servos. If gyro moves servo in the wrong direction correct it in Multiwii config if the Transmitter moves the servo in the wrong direction reverse it in the transmitter.
7.) When choosing a flight mode GYRO (stabilize) mode is not on the list. This is the option that is selected if NOTHING else is checked in MultiWiiconf. To program my panic button I used the SH switch for PANIC and SG for flight modes. Passthrough is selected in Low position, nothing selected for MID (which is actually gyro mode) and Horizon mode for High. ANGLE mode is selected when SH is in High position. I don't know how the board will assign priority if two modes are selected at the same time SO.... I used a special function on the Taranis Radio that when SH is placed in high position it will override CH5 (SG) to 0 (mid position, gyro mode, nothing selected) Forcing Angle mode to be the only ACTIVE mode. SH is spring loaded and will not stay on with out constant pressure, which makes it perfect for a panic button.
My pinout for all controls on my FLIP 1.5 from RTFQ is as follows:
D2: PPM Input from RX - remember DO NOT POWER YOUR RX DIRECTLY OR WITH A UBEC, it will get power from the board
D12: Wing1 - I assume this is the Left aileron I'll know for sure when I get this hooked up to my spitfire and will update.
D11: Wing2 - Right Aileron?
D10: Elevator
D9: Throttle
D3: Rudder
I currently have the BloodyWonder's solo aileron servo plugged in to D12
HERE is the sketch file for Arduino. View attachment MultiWii_Airplane.zip NOTE!!! This sketch file includes enabling the Baro/Mag on my board you will need to comment those lines out or you will get an error when uploading. As far as I have found the baro/mag are useless on an airplane with out a GPS.
I dunno if it's completely necessary but I used MultiWiiConf 2.4 (vs 2.3) to configure all my settings on the computer.
Lastly your MultiWiiConf program allows you to adjust all the PID settings just like your quad. All i have done was make the necessary changes to get the airplane servos/motor to work. I'm running Pauls stock PID settings (i'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing yet) I imagine you could tune your air frame similarly to a MultiRotor and start with I, D at zero and turn up P until you get oscillations. again... needs flight testing before I go that far. I throttled up the motor as I changed the filter settings and eventually got ZERO servo feed back as the throttle was Ramped up from min to max. for the time being I'm satisfied.
Let me know what questions you have and I'll try to improve this information as I'm sure there will be plenty of people upgrading to the 32bit FC boards as they gain in popularity, keep that Flip board out of the trash and setup an Autolevel trainer for a family member.
There is additional information about using a GPS, this could be even cooler, as it can provide PH and RTH functions, as well as some failsafe functions.
- Jes
PS along with my Naze32 I have a Sparky board coming. this is something else that there is information on but not a good start to finish How to. I hope to cover that as well.
PSS - Once i get my flight in with the FC installed I'll post a follow up video and the official success or failure of using the MWC 1.5 as a flight stabilizer.
PSSSS - as soon as I get some time I'll get some screen shots and try to place them throughout this post to help some things make more sense.
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