Originally Posted by Zaitsevsky

few short samples
http://youtu.be/OrdJfcjEJyY

Great video, looks like you all had loads of FUN!!

Cool video Zaitsevsky! It's kind of cool to see a group of guys that don't even speak my language get together and fly the same way we do over here that's exactly what it's like flying at our field.

Originally Posted by Zaitsevsky

few short samples
http://youtu.be/OrdJfcjEJyY

Seems like you guys are having a great time. Don't understand a word you are saying but know exactly what you're talking about. I love the mini heli taking out the lights, so much easier than turning off the switch.

I'm having a bit of trouble getting my gyros to behave correctly. I can control the pitch of the balance beam using the ch6 pot on my control as expected, and the stabilisation signals from the APM are moving the balance beam in the correct direction when I pick the quad up and move it around, but the beam swings if I make fast movements, and if I push the camera it swings and eventually stops after 7 or 8 oscillations. The servos aren't actually making any movements at all in response to the swing. Changing the gain of the gyros which I have connected to my Ch7 pot doesn't seem to have any effect.

I'm using the recommended Turnigy MEMS gyros, and MKS 9670A servos, and have it connected to an APM2.5 flight controller. Settings are default on the gyros.

I have the gyros and servos connected to a standalone BEC, and the APM is powered by one of the ESCs. My receiver is powered by the APM. The way I have connected it is to have the blue wires from both gyros connected through a Y-connector to the signal pin on ch7 which is a pot on my receiver. There is no ground connected between the gyros and receiver. The white wires from the gyro are connected to outputs 6 and 7 on the APM2, and also no ground wires are connected here.

Has anyone come across this issue? Is this the correct way for connecting everything using BEC? It's like the gyros aren't doing their thing, and the gain isn't working.

Just tried connecting them as in the diagram here, directly powered by the APM without using a BEC, and it seems they dont initialise and there's nothing from the servos.



I am pretty much stumped.

@wreck_NZ - where in New Zealand are you? If you are in Auckland I can probably help. Give me a PM some time and I can come and go over your machine. I have done a few of these now so starting to understand how to set them up fairly quickly now (having been through 99% of the dead ends everyone here is finding).

Thanks for the offer. I'm currently in Wellington, Will be driving back up north through Auckland in a week and a half though with this kit, so if I don't have it sorted by then I'll give you a yell.

I think this problem is caused bythe grounding arrangement of the gyro, since it's being powered by a separate BEC to the flight controller, and it looks like each of the gyro plugs needs to be powered and grounded rather than just one. I'm going to connect all four power and gnd lines from the two gyros to the BEC, and connect just the blue wires to the RX through a Y-connector for the gains, and the white wires to my roll and pitch gimbal output. The diagrams suggest that the blue wires should be connected to the gimbal outputs, but when I connect it that way, whenever I adjust the gain, it just moves both servos manually in a diagonal. I'll keep playing around with it...

What I'm still not sure about though, is if the signal pins to the RX for the gains, and the signal roll and tilt outputs from the flight controller should each be grounded to the RX and APM respectively.

do you have your gyros reversed?

Alright, so I have connected it with the blue wires to the APM gimbal outputs and whites to the rx for the gain. Gain is turned 4/5 of the way to full. Powering all four of those gyro plugs with the BEC gives me a blue light on the gyros now, and the gyros will fight any movement if I push the camera, so this tells me the gyro direction is correct. The pitch and roll compensation is way off though. First of all it moves much more than it should for any movement, and if the quad is tilted, even slightly, it just keeps moving until it goes to its limit

Same goes for if I adjust the tilt manually using my pot, I can get it to stay still at centre, but any movement of the pot either way will cause the balance beam to just keep moving until it hits its limit. I'm sure these things are gyro related... will have to get into the settings of them tomorrow and have a look.

Originally Posted by Wreck_nz

Alright, so I have connected it with the blue wires to the APM gimbal outputs and whites to the rx for the gain. Gain is turned 4/5 of the way to full. Powering all four of those gyro plugs with the BEC gives me a blue light on the gyros now, and the gyros will fight any movement if I push the camera, so this tells me the gyro direction is correct. The pitch and roll compensation is way off though. First of all it moves much more than it should for any movement, and if the quad is tilted, even slightly, it just keeps moving until it goes to its limit

Same goes for if I adjust the tilt manually using my pot, I can get it to stay still at centre, but any movement of the pot either way will cause the balance beam to just keep moving until it hits its limit. I'm sure these things are gyro related... will have to get into the settings of them tomorrow and have a look.

Your getting there..
Sounds like you have the gyro in heading hold mode, needs to be in rate mode.

OK looks like i have it in rate mode now by having the gain set to about 1/3. The blue LED on the gyro has turned off indicating it's in normal (non-AVCS) mode.

I'm guessing it's probably the RUD-GAIN parameter that needs to be reduced on the gyro. Maybe this thing will finally get in the air tomorrow after all!

Your welcome!

My replacement Naza has turned up A long with my new flight batteries..

Going to be the 1st time I have ever used LiFe...

whats the different with liFe batts?

Originally Posted by AliB

whats the different with liFe batts?

Less voltage per cell and heavier and max of 30c discharge (more then ample for our needs), Need a charger that also charges LiFe

Much better liner voltage discharge, stays at rated voltage for 80% of the discharge, Fully usable capacity, lipo you have the 80% rule so a 4200mah pack you should stop flying at around 3300mah, with these you can pretty well use the full amount.. Which should give another 3+ mins flying time, per pack.
Can leave them fully charged and have a battery cycle life of around a 1000, much less fussy about being over discharged.