Home Forums Everything about the Mini Tricopter Debugging the tricopter mini racer

Viewing 15 posts - 556 through 570 (of 940 total)
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  • #22841
    lauka
    Participant

    @Gantonjo is correct regarding the bootloader.

    What is interesting is that I also managed to soft brick _all_ 3 ESCs with BLHeli bootloader while trying to flash new BLHeli through the suite. I can connect to the ESCs and read the Flash, but I can’t write anything to them. I asked around in RCGroups BLHeli thread, they had no idea what happened.

    I haven’t yet tried to SPI them yet, I will live with 14.0 for now as I want to prioritize the little copter time I’m getting currently :). Do you @Gantonjo have some more insight what causes this? What are your symptoms? Could you send a log from BLHeliSuite when you are trying to communicate with the ECSs, I could check if it’s the same issue I’m having.

    Please also tell if the SPI helps if you try it. Could also write short tutorial how to do it with Arduino or USBasp while at it :).

    #22845
    GAntonjo
    Moderator

    @lkaino: I will see what I manage to do between family duties;-) First I will have to unbrick my Naze Frame, because I managed to “soft brick” that as well when I tried to flash BaseFlight to my FC:-( Shorting boot and 3.3v does not work, so far:-(

    #22855
    GAntonjo
    Moderator

    @lkaino et al: Today I managed to flash a SN20A ESC with BLHeli 14.2 and BLHeli Bootloader using my USBasp AVR Programmer (link has instructions on how to install driver). The pin out of the programming pins seen in this post by @brighton-till-i-fly luckily was the same as I for the HobbyKing F-20A, so I could use my “programming clip” I made like this. Then, using following settings, I managed to flash the ESC with latest BLHeli and BLHeli Bootloader. Only problem was that I had to try it like 50 times before I managed to connect all 6 leads from the clip to the points on the ESC.

    Next up will be to “unbrick” the NAZE Frame;-)

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    #22862
    David
    Participant

    Why all the fuss – I use my Arduino Uno to flash both my DYS SN20A and FVT Littlebee 20A ESCs to 14.1 and 14.2.

    All 6x ECSs took me less than 10 minutes to flash them to the latest firmware.

    The instructions to flash both SiLabs ESC loaded with either SK or BLHeli BootLoaders are provided in the BLHeliSuites documentation.

    Here are the 2 screen shots of DYS and Littlebee updated to the latest firmware.

    #22866
    GAntonjo
    Moderator

    @david-chong: All this fuzz is that we are not all equal. Some don’t have Arduino Uno or similar units, so alternative solution must be applied. Good for you that you have the Uno, I don’t. Good for the rest of the community here to know that there are many ways to solve one’s problems.

    #22867
    Terje
    Moderator

    The main reason for changing boot loader and flashing the ESCs through the flight controller is that you can solder the ESCs directly to the flight controller allowing for a cleaner and lighter setup. It also omits the need for an Arduino or stand alone USB programmer. It also allows for faster configuration change on the ESCs.

    #22869
    biggestRCEfan
    Participant

    Thanks @GAntonio! Life is hard when you have only mac … I run Win just for USB Linker/BLHeli … Anyway, I succeeded in bricking my single 2015.10 ESC I have installed by trying to update it to 14.2 using BetaFlight on the Naze32. After that attempt it does not read the ESC anymore. But it still runs. So I proceeded to update the other two with USB Linker to the same settings and with appropriate sense of rotation. Will see what gives.

    I have triflight 0.3 no on the Naze32 but will not attempt to use it to program/flash the escs as per your other post.

    Now I will have to figure out how to recover the bootloader via the process described by many but which would require some more stuff to be learnt and bought … As they say, building is most of the fun!

    #22873
    David
    Participant

    Sorry @GAntonio for being rude. Please forgive me.

    @Terje, the method you described using FC to update ESC firmware, can this be done on the current 1.0.0 Cleanfight configurator? Can you share a link on how this is done.

    Thank you

    #22874
    Terje
    Moderator

    The one-wire programming through the flight controller is described in the Cleanflight documentation. For now you still need the BLHeli suite (windows) to make it work. Hopefully future versions of cleanflight will support in-app configuration of the ESCs (ESC flashing through Chrome Apps are already supported for SimonK in apps like Rapid Flash)

    #22875
    GAntonjo
    Moderator

    @david-chong: Apology accepted;-) As @dkdarkness explained, you still need BLHeli Suite to flash the ESCs through the Naze32, given that the ESCs have BLHeli Bootloader and the Naze32 is running pretty new FW (latest BetaFlight and TriFlight should work, CleanFlight 1.10 did not work).

    HOWEVER, and this is a big WARNING: We have seen that the Bootloader of the SN20A ESCs gets corrupted when trying to do this (at least) through TriFlight 0.3, causing problems to contact the ESCs afterwords. So, in case you are not in for some adventure, please don’t try this till you see success stories posted;-)

    #22956
    lauka
    Participant

    Development continues, today was first flyable day since weeks.

    I worked on a feature that automatically tunes the thrust to torque factor in flight. It requires user to hover the copter for around 30 secs.

    I also made a fix to the luxfloat PID controller that should prevent the yaw drifting that some of us are experiencing. It was caused by the I term winding up. The I term winds up more the slower the servo is, also multiple yaw movements in same direction makes the drifting worse. I used probably the simplest anti-windup method; disable the integrator when rate error grows beyond a certain limit. Let’s see how this works for everyone. For my V3 it makes the yaw very precise :).

    I will have to work on the yaw tuning still, hope to release a beta version with above fixes + a default tune for V3 in next week(s) :).

    #23071
    lauka
    Participant

    Have been testing the new features today. I’m happy how the mini flies in LOS, need to have a FPV test flight before release. My V3.5 is missing one ESC so it might take a while before I get to test and finalize the tune.

    I tested also the BMS-22HV servo running at 8V on the mini. Makes the tail even more faster and precise, loving it :). Quick comparison shows 50% improvement in the yaw braking speed, when servo needs to travel to the other side to stop the movement).

    #23073
    Terje
    Moderator

    Hi @lauka, looks really locked in! Looking forward to the 0.4Beta 🙂

    I am currently building a mini with the BMS-22HV and a X4R (just need to figure out the MinimOSD and assemble it). I’d like to test the 0.4Beta on a SPR F3 Pro on a cut down version of the V3.5, would it be possible to conpile the 0.4Beta for the F3 target?

    #23076
    Rustypaint
    Participant

    @dkdarkness I’m using a mini MinimOSD on my mini tri. I ended up using zip ties to fassen it to the back side of the mobius plate with some thermal paste on the max ic to transfer the heat to the plate. The desert heat has a tendency to make them over heat.

    #23078
    lauka
    Participant

    Triflight 0.4 Beta 1: https://github.com/lkaino/Triflight/releases/tag/0.4-beta1

    Changes compared to 0.3:
    – Luxfloat yaw integrator is attenuated proportional to yaw stick position. Full stick deflection = 100% I attenuation.
    – Luxfloat integrator is disabled when rate error is greater than 30 degrees per second.
    – New mode: TAILTUNE.

    Instructions for using TAILTUNE.
    Tail tune mode automatically tunes the tail motor thrust to torque factor. It requires you to hover the copter for ~30 seconds. Buzzer and angle/horizon mode are preferred.

    1. Assign TAILTUNE to a switch in Modes tab in configurator.
    2. Prepare to hover your copter.
    3. Switch angle/horizon mode on. Can be done in rate mode also if you’re able to hover in that mode.
    4. Arm the copter.
    5. Put the copter into a hover.
    6. Switch to TAILTUNE mode. You will hear a beeping battern from buzzer as a confirmation.
    7. Keep the copter in hover. The tuning process is only active when you don’t touch the pitch & roll & yaw sticks. You can of course use the sticks to keep the copter in place, the tuning process will continue when you release the sticks. FW will do beeps during the tuning (1 beep = decrease the ratio, 2 beeps = increase). Once tuning is done, you will hear same beeping pattern as in step 6, repeating every 2 seconds.
    8. Once tuning is done, land and disarm. Save the new settings either using stick command (left stick bottom left, right stick bottom right in mode 2 radios) or in while connected to configurator.
    9. Post you results in http://rcexplorer.se/forums/topic/tail-tune-results/.

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