Testing – Triflight rebased on 3.2.2 Betaflight

[krkljan]

@jhlein
If you wish I can provide you team viewr connection if you wish to take a look!

[ME-tan]

Confirmed, MY integrated F3FC is also apparently stuck in a boot loop after flashing dRonin for f3fc

[jihlein]

I think at this point we’ve proven that the dRonin port, for some reason, does not like to boot on the RCExplorer Integrated F3 board, while it boots just fine on the RCExplorer Racing F3 board.

If someone wants to loan me a board to look at this, you can contact me at jihlein at hotmail.com.

In the mean time, I’m going to compare the gyro initialization code in dRonin and BetaFlight and see if there is anything to be learned there.

[krkljan]

FWIW I have tried to connect F3FC to Taulabs and somehow I managed to connect to FC. But I couldn’t do nothing. I would say that this have to be some issues with bootloader.

[Kevin_Erik]

The real question…

Is it really worth supporting the F3FC? Maybe its time the Tri-Mini and V4 supported 3rd party FC’s instead of an intergrated controller.

Anyways, i could send you my Mini but would need to remove everything to do so. The other option would be to just send you a new F3FC. However there is no telling if this problem is for the entire line of FC’s or just a specific batch.

@David Your input here would be welcome as dRonin could extend to viability of the F3FC, at least until another option is avalible.

Kevin

[ME-tan]

I’m happy to send you my extra one if you don’t mind putting up with the dodgy USB port. I’m UK based if that helps

[jihlein]

I found an integrated F3Fc board locally, should have it in my hands Wednesday. We’ll see what I can come up with for a fix.

[krkljan]

@jihlein
Thank you for your efforts. I am available for testing your findings about integrated F3FC.

[jihlein]

I was able to borrow an integrated F3Fc board, and have it running with som test code, which is attached below. I need to do some more investigation because I don’t 100% understand why the change I made fixes it, but it would be useful to know if it solves the boot loop issues for others too.

Just unzip the fw_f3fc.tlfw file on your desktop. Open the GCS, goto the firmware pane, hit rescue, and plug in the board. Navigate to the unzipped firmware and flash it. Boot the board, and see if it comes up.

Attachments:

1. fw_f3fc.zip

[krkljan]

What changes did you made? Is it safe to test flight it?
I will test it this weekend because I am on business trip until tomorrow.

[jihlein]

To flight test it, you will need to use the installer package from post #60582, replacing the fw_f3fc file as mentioned above.

In this version, all I changed was the SPI bus frequency for the MPU6000 setup. For some reason I still don’t, and may never, understand why this fix is necessary on the integrated board, but not on the racing board.

After getting the board to work, I was able to get a logic analyzer probe on the SPI clock. I can’t measure the high speed data clock with my equipment, but can read the low speed clock used for setting up the MPU600. The clock rate was off by a factor of 2 from it should have been. I found what was causing that and fixed it, but have not posted that code yet. The net effect is the gyro was being read at 9.5 MHz instead of 18 MHz. Either clock rate would fly fine.

I won’t go into the details, but it appears there may be some setup errors on the F4 boards too. I’m going to try and get a logic analyzer on an F4 SPI clock later today.

[ME-tan]

Still stuck in a boot loop after flashing that, assuming i did it right. I’ll try it another couple of times.

[Kevin_Erik]

@jihlein

Tomorrow, i plan on DL’n and installing your update to an old Laptop so i can use my Active copy on my PC for the Bicopter. After that, I’ll load the new Hex to the Tri-Mini’s FCF3 to see if it sticks or not.

Side note: I haven’t had chance to fly the re-tuned (manually lowered PID’s) Bicopter due to a combination of bad weather and holiday drama. Anyways, I’ve concerns that the problems i encountered earlier with Bi-dRonin is whats causing the instability now. If you recall, my first Bi-Ronin attempt had some serious oscillation issues and had to be massively de-tuned to get it airborn. (which is why i reloaded Betaflight) Since then, I’m using different Servos, Mounts, Motors and Props. Makes me wonder if there’s something in my setup (mix) or FC? I mean, i shouldn’t be seeing this again unless it was something essential like that.

Question, have you been able to nail down a standard mixer config or is this something more or less specific to each FC?

/R

Kevin

[jihlein]

@ME-tan – very strange. Could you try going to the firmware tab, hit rescue, and connect the board. Then right click on settings, and clear the settings partition? See if that gets your board running now. With the change I’ve made, mine now boots every time.

@Kevin_Erik – the values in the mixer pretty much set, but the column order will change based on the board and how the user defines what outputs are motors vs servos. Make sense?

I put a logic analyzer on the Matek405Std and verified the SPI clock is setting up correctly. I tested the updated firmware on a number of different F3 boards and different F4 boards, with the MPU6000 gyro and various versions if the ICM206XX gyro. All boot correctly. I am, however, somewhat reluctant to include this change if we still have a sample of RCE F3Fc integrated boards that fail to work properly. Let’s see what results others get here.

Since I made other minor changes, I’ve included the new updated firmware here.

Attachments:

1. fw_f3fc_20181220.zip

[Kevin_Erik]

Using your Zip, i was able to flash the Tri-Mini’s integrated F3FC and enter the configuration screen!
Will await further instructions before doing anything further as i understand that this is just a test file.

Side Note: Took a look and didnt see the Mixer type for Bicopters on the Vehicle Tab.

[Author]

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