Will upload some videos to youtube later. However, I was able to get the bugs worked out of the GPS simply by making the first and second waypoints take the quad above the trees. I did a very short 150 foot flight today that took me above the trees and then landed in the clearing behind my house. Needless to say I am excited for what this means!!!
Success, autonomous flights!!!
- Thread starter Kogashuko
- Start date
Crius. I did a .5 km flight after posting this and then tried a 1km flight. Something went bad and instead of following my waypoint it went off in a random direction. The quad is stuck in a 50 foot tree right now with the go pro in the middle of the forest. I will have more info on what happened tomorrow when I get more light. The gopro will last damn near forever and that is all I am concerned about. In the meantime I am going to edit and upload my .5km flight info.
Please excuse the burn barrel, I use it to delete mail with my address including credit card offers.
The trip was .5 KM. I am not sure why this, which was perfect 4 out of 4, went great and the fifth one landed in a tree... Oh well.
Here is the parts. Remember, this was designed as a prototype and disposable model for my Dreadnaught 650.
DJI 450 clone frame
4x DT700 motors
Crius V2 Board running Megapirate.
Ublox GPS
Hobbyking 20amp ESCs
Gopro2.
Damaged balancer plug 4000mah 3c 40c lipo.
The only items I would love to retreive would be the crius and the gopro. The rest can burn for all I care.
I have the perfect way to get it down since it is in the middle of the woods... the paintball gun!!!
The trip was .5 KM. I am not sure why this, which was perfect 4 out of 4, went great and the fifth one landed in a tree... Oh well.
Here is the parts. Remember, this was designed as a prototype and disposable model for my Dreadnaught 650.
DJI 450 clone frame
4x DT700 motors
Crius V2 Board running Megapirate.
Ublox GPS
Hobbyking 20amp ESCs
Gopro2.
Damaged balancer plug 4000mah 3c 40c lipo.
The only items I would love to retreive would be the crius and the gopro. The rest can burn for all I care.
I have the perfect way to get it down since it is in the middle of the woods... the paintball gun!!!
Looks like the gains are a little high. That's where the oscillation comes in. Sometimes those need to drop just a little in windy conditions to prevent that. I doubt it had anything to do with the errant 2nd flight though, unless it played havoc with the accelerometers or gyros. That shouldn't have mattered since it should have been using the GPS for navigation. The GPS could have gone bonkers or it loaded the waypoints funky. I hope you can retrieve it. I hate to hear about lost multi's...
It is way in the forest behind a deserted house, worst case scenario I cut the tree down. I dont think that will be an issue. I have plenty of options.
1) paintball gun
2) 30 foot ladder and 30 foot jack kite pole
3) tree climbing spikes (yes I know someone who I can barrow them from)
4) compound bow with fishing line
5) suppressed 22lr to cut the tree limb down (yes I have used this before too since at 90 deg a 22cal subsonic slug will not hit a dangerous velocity on the way down... plus it is in the middle of nowhere.)
Either way winter is coming and the thing will fall eventually. Since gopros have lasted for years at the bottom of the ocian I dont think it will be a problem. With my crashes and learning curve the ESCs and motors have done their duty with honor. I think the crius board and ublox will probably be ok too.
1) paintball gun
2) 30 foot ladder and 30 foot jack kite pole
3) tree climbing spikes (yes I know someone who I can barrow them from)
4) compound bow with fishing line
5) suppressed 22lr to cut the tree limb down (yes I have used this before too since at 90 deg a 22cal subsonic slug will not hit a dangerous velocity on the way down... plus it is in the middle of nowhere.)
Either way winter is coming and the thing will fall eventually. Since gopros have lasted for years at the bottom of the ocian I dont think it will be a problem. With my crashes and learning curve the ESCs and motors have done their duty with honor. I think the crius board and ublox will probably be ok too.
Cyberdactyl
Misfit Multirotor Monkey
Any flight out of line of sight, and back. . .without losing or breaking it, is a great one.
Nice flight.
I agree with xuzme your gains are probably a tad too high, but also those low KV motors on a relatively light craft just exasperate the problem. I had very much the same setup. I use the 750s, and they are awesome for lifting, just as I image those 700s are, but they just don't seem to have that response needed to stay steady when the FC isn't tuned perfect.
Nice flight.
I agree with xuzme your gains are probably a tad too high, but also those low KV motors on a relatively light craft just exasperate the problem. I had very much the same setup. I use the 750s, and they are awesome for lifting, just as I image those 700s are, but they just don't seem to have that response needed to stay steady when the FC isn't tuned perfect.
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PIDs are down to 1.6 and I dont dare to go lower. I have a dead cat frame waiting to invest in some motors for it and ESCs. I put this quad together out of spare parts I purchased for the bigger one. The fact that if flies is amazing. The fact that it follows the course out of my line of sight is even better.
The best I can figure is that I was in a hurry, before it got dark, and it only got the minimum number of satellites to give me the solid green. The course was set for my father's house and he was standing outside waiting for it to arrive... hints I hurried. The initial launch I aborted and hit the ground a little hard. Instead of doing my preflight checks and reprogramming the board, I replaced a broken zip and launched it. I had changed my flight modes from stabilize - auto - RTL to stabilize - loiter - auto. Thus allowing failsafe to switch into auto mode. I should have left RTL as the second mode and it might have come back. Anyway, we live and we learn. Nothing ventured nothing gained. You can bet that when I get it down I will be taking advantage of the new option to use another channel as another mode.
The best I can figure is that I was in a hurry, before it got dark, and it only got the minimum number of satellites to give me the solid green. The course was set for my father's house and he was standing outside waiting for it to arrive... hints I hurried. The initial launch I aborted and hit the ground a little hard. Instead of doing my preflight checks and reprogramming the board, I replaced a broken zip and launched it. I had changed my flight modes from stabilize - auto - RTL to stabilize - loiter - auto. Thus allowing failsafe to switch into auto mode. I should have left RTL as the second mode and it might have come back. Anyway, we live and we learn. Nothing ventured nothing gained. You can bet that when I get it down I will be taking advantage of the new option to use another channel as another mode.
Cyberdactyl
Misfit Multirotor Monkey
Awesome.
I feel like I'm getting left behind technologically by still using the KK2!
I feel like I'm getting left behind technologically by still using the KK2!
Awesome.
I feel like I'm getting left behind technologically by still using the KK2!
The crius board has a bit of learning curve but you can't beat the features for the price. Hopefully V3 will be ARM based.
Quick update, I got to go out for a couple of minutes this morning and spot the craft. It is stuck near the top but worst come to worst I can use a tall ladder to go about 30 feet up and cut just that section of the tree branches.
I stopped at Walmart today and got a sling shot, some fishing weights, and a fishing reel. I taped the reel to the slingshot and got damn close a number of times with the shot. I need a heavier weight because it doesnt fall to the ground after hooking the branches. When it was starting to get dark I took an airsoft gun and peppered the thing. I succeeded in clearing a lot of the leaves that were obstucting my view. It also appears the craft tilted. I ran out of light and the sight on my 22lf wasnt that great so I couldnt see too well. Tomorrow I should be home from work much earlier and should have plenty of light. I think my paintball gun would knock it out but I dont have but a few paintballs. That will be one of my last options if I opt to not grab some more balls.
Will keep everyone updated.
I stopped at Walmart today and got a sling shot, some fishing weights, and a fishing reel. I taped the reel to the slingshot and got damn close a number of times with the shot. I need a heavier weight because it doesnt fall to the ground after hooking the branches. When it was starting to get dark I took an airsoft gun and peppered the thing. I succeeded in clearing a lot of the leaves that were obstucting my view. It also appears the craft tilted. I ran out of light and the sight on my 22lf wasnt that great so I couldnt see too well. Tomorrow I should be home from work much earlier and should have plenty of light. I think my paintball gun would knock it out but I dont have but a few paintballs. That will be one of my last options if I opt to not grab some more balls.
Will keep everyone updated.
Cyberdactyl
Misfit Multirotor Monkey
Yea, I got my quad stuck in a tree early on and used a bolo-type thin cord and three large nuts. I swung the nuts under-handed and snagged the quad on about the sixth try. One of the props got hung up and I broke a wood boom. Mine though, was only about 35 feet up.
You were lucky to spot it!
You were lucky to spot it!
I think this is the nice part about the Crius... if it fails it will fail close to launch.
Got it back today. On thursday I went out and applied my paintball gun to the tree. When I left it to go to work it was hanging by one boom. So I go back out today and for the life of me couldnt find it. I then finally noticed that it had falled to a much lower holly tree. I then got the jack kite pole and knocked it out.
The only damage is the LCD screen on the gopro and it displays only black. It was probably hit by a paintball and my luck one when I tried to knock it out the lower tree. The zips holding one of the rear motors was broke. And the LIPO reads 1.4 volts and will not charge. The lipo already had a broken balancer port and was on barrowed time. All it all good ending. The board boots up and connects to the PC. I should have some more flights later today. I will also post the video.
Lessons learned. Do not remove RTL from your controller. Also, if you are going from 20 feet to 150 feet do so in more than one waypoint if you dont want it to drift. Know which waypoint your drone is on because if the wind gets it between long ones it will correct on it's own!
The only damage is the LCD screen on the gopro and it displays only black. It was probably hit by a paintball and my luck one when I tried to knock it out the lower tree. The zips holding one of the rear motors was broke. And the LIPO reads 1.4 volts and will not charge. The lipo already had a broken balancer port and was on barrowed time. All it all good ending. The board boots up and connects to the PC. I should have some more flights later today. I will also post the video.
Lessons learned. Do not remove RTL from your controller. Also, if you are going from 20 feet to 150 feet do so in more than one waypoint if you dont want it to drift. Know which waypoint your drone is on because if the wind gets it between long ones it will correct on it's own!
