Video of stable UAV platform

[icebear]

When doing the 'Lighthouse mission' I found that the failsafe of the rx caused an unwanted oscillation in pitch at the end of radio range. This was due to the fact tat I had used 'last good frame hold' on elevator rather than a fixed failsafe position as for all other channels which seems to work better with the FS-8 rx.

I did some more tests with the rx turned completely off and shot some video at the same time under autopilot control (Picopilot NAV2A/ALT3T).

I was surprised to find how smooth the Supermiss flies under autopilot. The camera is mounted sideways which is the worst possible situation for movies in flight. Even so, the video came out very smooth. Only small corrections from the autopilot while navigating is visible.

I don't think I need to fine tune this setup more and I made a short video of the test just for the fun of it.

The video is posted in the electric video forum:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=695952#post7580734


Enjoy!

/Icebear

[tritan]

Björn,
always very interesting reading your posts!

Am I correct when saying that the PICO uses rudder only for autopilot?
And you use ZLOG for altitude holding? Is the ZLOG connected to the PICO?


tritan

[icebear]

Thankyou Tritan!

The Picopilot uses rudder for navigation AND stabilization (works on ailerons too but then with ailerons coupled with rudder).

The Picopilot also manages altitude hold via throttle (it has a barometric sensor and maintains any given altitude when activated).

I had the Zlog onboard to measure altitude only, but forgot to turn it on :(! There is also an altitude hold device from Eladio in Spain which has been discussed here.

/Bjorn

[tritan]

The reason I am asking is beacuse I am not able to use the FMA as I have BIG problems here with interference on the FM-band. For now , I am flying with my PCM Rx but want to have some sort of autopilot for AP.

I could use the Spartan AP2000 with the IR FMA also but before I buy anything I must get more info. So, I can use the PICO for autopilot, must the plane fly by GPS or can I be in command of the plane ?

Tritan

[icebear]

The plane can either be in navigation mode where you follow a route of waypoints OR you are in manual mode as usual. You can use just the waypoint that gets loaded on startup (wherever you turn on the system) and use the Picopilot as a "return home" device. I believe this would be the most useful for general AP. Whenever you enable the autopilot (or by failsafe) - it starts navigating home.

You cannot use the picopilot just for stabilization generally - it needs to navigate waypoints to do that.

Hope this helps - let me know if I was unclear on anything!

/Bjorn