Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 96 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63830
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @jhendrix; Servotune (previously tailtune) info starts at 9:09 in this video: https://youtu.be/uZQvEJu7vG4

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63803
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @slashfoo

    Doubled up arms means I got another set of arms from David and stacked them on the frame for twice the thickness. This was all in an effort to reduce the jitters/vibrations my flying buddy and I were having with out Tri LR frames using David’s recommended setup. The thicker arms helped, but didn’t solve the issues. Neither of use could get rid of the jitters/video jello until we went to 3-blade props. The 4S was to help make up for smaller diameter props (8″ vs 7″). For use, this change is what worked.

    I’m mostly using 4S 2700mAh packs and get ~10+ minutes of leisurely flying. Larger battery packs seem to result in a nose heavy frame…and there just isn’t much/any room to move the battery pack back far enough to balance. The amp draw between the 3S with 8″ props and 4S with 7″ props is about equal…so I’d call that a wash.

    Try your setup with the stock power recommendation. If it works for you then GREAT. If you aren’t getting the smooth video you want you can consider trying 3-blade props…and maybe a 4S pack if desired.

    I totally agree with Peter. 2 blade props are more efficient and responsive than 3-blade. In fixed wing the difference between the two is noticeable. For multirotor video platforms I found the 3-blade provided smoother video because they don’t respond as quickly, so instead of herky-jerky movements your get slower, smoother movements. In the end, whatever setup gives you the performance you like is the right setup for you.

    As for David’s videos…we bought our Tri LR frames based on the long duration claims and LOS videos. What was missing was FPV videos to truly show how the frame is doing. I have seen one or two good vids from some members here, but most seem to report some amount of jitters/jello. I’ve posted my flight comparisons to show what kind of results I was having…bad to good. We tried various brands/sizes of props, balanced/rebalanced/verified balance of props, motors etc with no significant change until going with the 3-blade props. I’ve not seen anyone verify the flight times David mentioned (40+ minutes in hover with a 3S 5200mAh pack). I call it over-hype. I was on the verge of shelving my Tri LR until I found a setup that now provides me the performance I was hoping for in the beginning. dRonin firmware has flown it the best…though I’m still hoping for or figure out how to get reliable RTL with it. Until then, I’ll record my flights so if it does go down I can use the last good GPS location to try and locate it should it go down.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63796
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @slashfoo…if you’re using the recommended 1600kv motors then 4S with 7x4x3 props should do fine. I could NEVER get smooth flight with 3S and 8″ 2-blade props…jitters/jello from hell.

    I doubled up my Tri LR frame arms in an effort to get rid of the jitters/jello. It helped, but not eliminate it. Once I tried 4S and 7″ 3-blades it became a smooth flier. See the comparison here and make your own judgement: https://youtu.be/7McPu5zz69U

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63792
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @Peter, Try reducing the Yaw I for the tail wag. Did you do the autotune to it? If so, reduce I by 10% and that should put you in the ball park. For example, if autotune Yaw I came out as .0750 change it to .00750. I forget what my is now, but I stumbled across this fix while troubleshooting my tail wags after autotuning.

    As mentioned, without a mag sensor you can not use the path planners, distance/direction to home features. You can display the Lat and Lon in the OSD off GPS alone though.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63784
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Along with dRonin, tricopter setup is supported in Betaflight and Arducopter at least. I have tried all three and it seems dRonin for tricopters has provided the best flight performance. Position hold and RTL has been a challenge for me to get working…if that’s not a big deal for you then it shouldn’t be a huge issue.

    As for the Tricopter LR setup. My buddy and I have fought since day one in trying to get smooth flight/video results from the frame. My solution finally came to running the recommended power setup on 4S and use 7″ triblade props. Once I did/tested that it flew great…3S and 2-blade props just never worked out for me.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63774
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Haven’t posted for a while because I haven’t flown for a while. Back to it today though and took out the Tri LR. I had previous issues with direction home arrow, postition hold, and RTL not working right.

    I played with and (think) the right orientation for my GPS/mag sensor unit. My distance and direction home still wasn’t wokring right…like way off. It hit me that I didn’t go into the menu and ‘set current position as home’. I did so and, wow, distance and direction home was working right. When I enabled position hold and RTL the frame would pitch up some and start drifting backwards. I’m not sure if that’s because my mag orientation offset is not quite correct or not (need to play with right side up or up side down orientation still).

    It would be nice if dRonin set actual arm position as the current home vs having to manually do it each flight. Not a huge problem. From my testing of different firmwares dRonin seems to be the one that flies the tricopter the best.

    Thanks for your continued work on this @jihlein. I hope you can iron out a few more things before dRonin goes stale. Like I mentioned, dRonin for Tricopters flies my Tricopter LR the best.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63332
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    I found an mag sensor orientation that showed properly for compass heading. It’s not what other said is the proper orientation for the BN-880 but it’s what works. I ran another 6-point calibration for compass and accel and enabled Path Planner. I’m hoping this will fix my direction home issues and (hopefully) get RTH to work more correctly. It’ll just be another couple of weeks to try.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63330
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Thanks Billyd. I’ll give it a go. I won’t be able to fly for the next several weeks (getting some eye surgery, one eye at a time). I’ll be back at it after that though.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63324
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Thanks, maybe it’s Path Planner that I’m thinking of. I thing there were three items to choose from, VTOL Follower, Path Follower, and Path Planner…I think, I think. Anyway, I only the VTOL one active. Not sure if I need anything else activated.

    I don’t think my compass was showing N/S/E/W correctly in the dRonin GUI. I thought maybe I needed to test it via the OSD. If the GUI is supposed to show correctly then that’s probably my problem. I’ll have to try different mag sensor orientations to find the one that works. Do I need to recalibrate the mag sensor each time I change the mag sensor orientation? I’m hopeing I can just change and test, change and test, until I find what indicates correctly (and more quickly).

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63320
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @billyd. LOL, yeah, I stumbled across the same thing. I’m guessing a new addition to the latest firmware. Setting home and adjust yaw PIDs via the OSD works great too.

    On a side note, I tried using the ‘Flight Summary’ in the OSD menu. I get a ‘Flight Summary not Activated’ (or something lke that) message. I’ve enabled Flight Summary in the Modules tab in dRonin. Not sure if that/something else is needed to get the fligt summary display.

    On another side note regarding RTH, I did a 6-point mag and compass calibration. My direction home arrow still isn’t indicating correctly. I’ll play with the mag sensor orientation to see if I can get working right. I’ve got it set by what it should be (bottom/270CW for BN-880). I need to activate the OSD heading direction and check if it’s indicated N/S/E/W properly or not.

    And a third side note. Is Path Following required for RTH? I’ve only got VTOL Path activated right now. When I engage RTH the copter tilts and just flies sideways. I’m not sure if I’ve got everything set right to get RTH to work semi-properly (mag orientation, proper modules active, etc.)

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63308
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Thank you Jihlein, I did a 6-point mag and accel calibration. I’ll test fly tomorrow and test again.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63302
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @jhlein, yes and no on the 6-point calibration. Let me explain.

    First, I’m using a BN-880 GPS with the wire connection towards the rear. I set the Mag Sensor orientation to ‘Bottom, 270CW’ orientation.

    Second, I did a ‘normal’ accel calibration with the frame sitting on a level surface (not the 6-point).

    Third, I did do a 6-point calibration on the mag sensor, but unchecked the ‘Accel Cal’ box for the 6-point calibration…so did mag sensor only.

    Could this be the issue? Do I need to do both the mag and accel 6-point calibration to make the direction home arrow work properly? I can certainly give that a try for my next flying session (on Saturday).

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63299
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Direction home error video. Run at 4x speed to keep from being too long and boring. Home was the long black (carpet) runway. Also showed a short RTH engagement that ran the copter sideways vs back towards home.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63298
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    Did my first flight with the new (fixed direction home arrow) firmware today. Didn’t work for my Matek F405 board. Sometimes the direction home pointed correctly, most time it didn’t, like 180 out. Distance home seemed to work fine though. I also just set the ‘home location’ via the dRonin OSD menu before takeoff. The manual home setting seemed to work fine. I’ll post a vid a little later.

    FWIW, I know these need work, but I tried Position Hold and RTH modes today. Both did the same thing…tilt to the left and start flying sideways.

    in reply to: dRonin for Tricopters! (TriRonin) #63275
    Vantasstic
    Participant

    @billyd. I just checked in Google Earth. The distance from my house to the park I was flying is ~1.8 miles….which matches what the OSD Distance Home was showing. The arrow was not pointing to home though. I’ll have to play with the home settings I guess. It should lock ‘home’ as the position it was armed, not some place where it first ever acquired satellite lock.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 96 total)