Discussion New source for UAVP components- UAVP Info thread

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

The service at the new shop is good. Half way round the world in less than a week inclusive of Chinese New Year celebration in this part of the world. I got the package from them today.

Anyway, time for some silly questions. I am using ppm esc. Can I just plug them all in to the board without removing the red positive 5V wire from the esc. I.e. will the bec in each esc burn up one another & the board ?

Do I really need to program the board b4 I attempt to fly ?

Regards,
Joe Ling

[13brv3]

Hi Joe,

Good to hear the new shop is working out so well. I'll try them out when they get the barometric pressure boards in stock.

Originally Posted by joeling

I am using ppm esc. Can I just plug them all in to the board without removing the red positive 5V wire from the esc. I.e. will the bec in each esc burn up one another & the board ?

Leave all the wires connected. The front ESC is the only one that actually connects to the main board, but a couple of the others are used to power aux servos if used.

Originally Posted by joeling

Do I really need to program the board b4 I attempt to fly ?

If you don't program the flight parameters, you will only "attempt" to fly it

The default parameter set is essentially all zeros, and you don't want that. The UAVPSet utility makes it easy to program, and I can give you some initial settings that should get you in the ballpark. You need to build the interface cable as shown in the operators manual below, unless the new shop included one. That would be a really nice touch if they do.

The parameter files can be saved and opened, so I can email one to you that you will simply open, and write to the UAVP. Send the following info to my email ( 13brv3 at bellsouth dot net ) and I'll try to get you started.

I'll need to know:
-Version of software you're running (3.14 I presume)
-Is your throttle on channel 3 (Futaba) or channel 1 (Graupner)?
-What direction your front/rear motors turn (can be CW or CCW)
-Do you have a linear sensor?
-Do you have a compass?
-How far apart are your motors (from shaft to shaft)



Cheers,
Rusty

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

Wow, information overload here. Thanks for the detailed reply. I will certainly study every line & try to get the thing working hopefully by this weekend.

Anyway, one more question - which is the front of the board. I can't seem to figure that out.

Thank you.

Regards,
Joe Ling

[13brv3]

Originally Posted by joeling

Hi Rusty,

Wow, information overload here. Thanks for the detailed reply. I will certainly study every line & try to get the thing working hopefully by this weekend.

Anyway, one more question - which is the front of the board. I can't seem to figure that out.

Thank you.

Regards,
Joe Ling

No problem Joe. I've been meaning to put together a "getting started" guide for the UAVP, so I was overdue to post this anyway.

As for the front, I bet Old Dude Mike could answer this He's still telling people I know German just because I looked up the word "Vorne" on Babel Fish. BTW, it's written on the board, and means front

Cheers,
Rusty

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

Thanks for the quick response. I will go back & check some details before i send u the mail. Thanks again.

It's good to have someone hold hands while going through the build. Appreciate.

Regards,
Joe Ling

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

I have made some progress tonight.

1) Soldered all the power cables
2) made the connectors for the receivers
3) made the programming cable
4) managed to get connected to the UAVP set but cannot igure out how to do the hyperterminal thing

My setup details :

Version of software - 3.14
Throttle channel - channel 3 (Futaba)
Direction of front/rear motors - ccw
Linear sensor - yes
Compass - yes
How far apart for motors - 540mm (~21.34in)






I guess the nect step is to hook everything up into the frame & do some setting ya ?

Regards,
Joe Ling

[13brv3]

Originally Posted by joeling

4) managed to get connected to the UAVP set but cannot igure out how to do the hyperterminal thing

Hi Joe,

Looks good. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the above quote. If you can connect to the UAVP via UAVPSet, you should be able to connect with hyperterminal too, though you don't need to. UAVPSet does everything hyperterminal does, but in an easier to use form.

The real challenge is usually getting a green LED, which means all your receiver channels are within the UAVP allowable range. BTW, what receiver is that?

I'll send the parameters via the email you sent.

Rusty

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

Ok I managed to load the file u gave me to the board (thanks !). In addition, I hooked everything up. I got the red & amber LED but no green as u predicted. Which EPA do I need to play with to get the green LED? Don't tell me I have to try every channel. Help !

My receiver is a YEAH Racing 6 channel 36mhz thing. It's ppm Futaba compatible I guess.

Regards,
Joe Ling

[13brv3]

Originally Posted by joeling

Ok I managed to load the file u gave me to the board (thanks !). In addition, I hooked everything up. I got the red & amber LED but no green as u predicted. Which EPA do I need to play with to get the green LED? Don't tell me I have to try every channel. Help !

Good news, you don't have to try every channel, just the ones that are out of range

Seriously, that's a lie, you DO need to try every channel

It won't be as bad as it sounds though. First, the green LED will not come on if the switch is not "on". Note that "on" means open, or not connected.

Channels 1-5 have to be between 1ms and 2ms. Channel 6 and 7 are not required to be in range for the green LED. The throttle has to be very near idle to initially go green. I've never noticed which end of the scale that is (1ms or 2ms).

FWIW, my Futaba FASST systems require channel 3 and 4 to be "reversed". 1, 2, and 5 are "normal". I'm guessing yours will be the same as well, so I'd start with that, but no guarantee.

Looking at this logically, forget the right stick (ch1 & ch2), and yaw channel (ch4) for now, because they're centered, and will certainly be in range initially. Channel 5 is usually a switch, and will likely be over-range. Start by setting it to about +-70% rather than 100%. If that doesn't get you a green LED, then it's almost certainly the throttle.

The UAVP will not go green initially if the throttle is not in a small range near idle. Pin down the UAVP, or remove the props, then set your throttle stick to the middle position. Power up the UAVP, and you should see a flashing red LED. If it's solid red, then try lowering the channel 5 EPA some more.

Now start slowly moving the throttle stick down towards idle. At some point, you should get a solid green LED. If you keep moving down, and the red LED comes back on, then you have too much EPA travel in that direction, and will need to reduce it.

If you never see a green LED when moving the stick down, try moving it up.

If you still have a flashing red after trying both directions, then increase your EPA in both directions for channels 3, and repeat.

Once you find the idle setting, you will have to fiddle (technical term) with the EPA settings on the low end of the throttle to find the point where it's within it's initial arming window when the stick is at idle.

Once you get this sorted out, check all stick directions, with full trim in that direction. If you move a stick and see the red LED come on, then you have too much EPA in that direction. Adjust the EPA until you can not make the red LED come on with any stick + full trim. This is important, because you don't want to test this in-flight

With any luck, this will get you a green LED, or at least more info for us to work with. Some receivers do funny things with timing, so we're hoping at this point that yours plays nice. Good luck.

Rusty

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

Originally Posted by 13brv3

Good news, you don't have to try every channel, just the ones that are out of range

Seriously, that's a lie, you DO need to try every channel

It won't be as bad as it sounds though. First, the green LED will not come on if the switch is not "on". Note that "on" means open, or not connected.

Rusty

This is good info. By the "on" switch, u mean k8 ya? I just leave it unconnected right ? This is counter intuitive as the "on" switch is not used to switch on the UVAP.

Thanks. I'll get right on it tonight.

Regards,
Joe Ling

[13brv3]

Originally Posted by joeling

By the "on" switch, u mean k8 ya? I just leave it unconnected right ? This is counter intuitive as the "on" switch is not used to switch on the UVAP.

You're welcome Joe. You're correct about the switch. If you have no connection between the pins on k8, the UAVP is "on". I presume they did this because it was more fail safe. If wire breaks, or the connector came loose, it would not shut the copter down.

Also make sure your main battery voltage is above the threshold set on UAVPSet. The file I sent was set to about 9.3V, which works OK for a 3S lipo. If you happen to be testing with another type battery that's below that level, it will create another alarm that might confuse your set-up attempts.

Past my bedtime. Good luck.
Rusty

[Old Man Mike]

Originally Posted by 13brv3

.... As for the front, I bet Old Dude Mike could answer this He's still telling people I know German just because I looked up the word "Vorne" on Babel Fish. BTW, it's written on the board, and means front

Cheers,
Rusty

Makes me feel better that someone else had to ask.

Looks like Rusty is going to have a nice thread going here for the English based UAVP folks. I probably would have never got mine flying without Rusty's help. Lots of things to frustrate the first time builder but I will say that it flys well once you have all the parameters tuned for your particular platform.

Old (Dude) Man Mike

[13brv3]

Originally Posted by Old Man Mike

Looks like Rusty is going to have a nice thread going here for the English based UAVP folks. I probably would have never got mine flying without Rusty's help. Lots of things to frustrate the first time builder but I will say that it flys well once you have all the parameters tuned for your particular platform.

Old (Dude) Man Mike

Thanks Mike, but you're being way too modest of course. As for the thread, I'm hoping that if I type enough info here, I won't have to type it too many times

Rusty

[joeling]

Hi Rusty,

I got the green light ! With your info above, it was relatively painless.

However, I think minor adjustment is going to be major . I am sensing that the front rear motors are not very responsive to the stick inputs (although I can't really be sure without props) but the left right seems ok. Also, there is intermittent throttling of the 4 motors without stick input at lower throttle levels (not to be confused with throttling up a little when stick returns to zero). Not sure what's happening there. The worst thing is that I managed to let out the smoke on the right esc for reasons that escapes me . So, I'm one esc short. Gonna use my 18A spare to see if it fits. Or else, have to use the spare 4pcs of CC Phoenix 25s that I have lying around.

Anyway, I'm surprised I got this far already. Thanks for your valuable help.

Regards,
Joe Ling

[13brv3]

HI Joe,

Congrats on getting past the green light hurdle. Sounds like pretty good progress.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the other issues, but at this point, I'd put some props on it. I've read that it's not good for the ESC to run the motors unloaded, so maybe that's how the smoke got out.

Best I understand, the UAVP bases it's control authority on the power level of the motors. If you're running the motors slowly, there just won't seem to be any change when you move the stick. At very low settings, the throttle idle setting can kick in as well.

My suggestion would be to put some props on it, and pin it down so you can run it up to maybe half throttle. You might have to balance the front/rear and left/right motor speeds with the yaw trim. Once they're all running about the same speed, you should see a change when you move the stick. Of course you'll also be checking for proper direction of control at this point. If all is well, fly it

One other note about hand testing. The UAVP takes a baseline reading of the gyros just at the point you increase the throttle. If you're holding the UAVP in your hand, and happen to move it as you throttle up, it will sense that movement direction and rate, and try to maintain it. For example, if you throttle up while rolling the UAVP to the left at 10 degrees per second, it will try to continue rolling at 10 degrees per second. I spent a day or two trying to figure out my "intermittent gyro problem", when it fact it was my "random technique problem"

Keep at it. You're almost there

Rusty