Originally Posted by King Haggis

Hi all! Noob question.

I'm looking for a good autopilot with RTH to bring my plane back in case of a failed RC link. I think Crius All in One is the way to go. It seems I have a whole lot of reading and research to do. So far I stopped at page 10 of this thread but will get back to it ASAP. In the meantime I would love to know a few things.

1. I already have a Telefly OSD for my Myflydream antenna tracker (AAT). Is a OSD required for the Crius to work? If you don't use a OSD, will the Crius system still enable RTH as soon as RC link is gone? I have to be able to keep the Telefly OSD in order for my AAT to work.

If you program your failsafe on your receiver to RTH it will. The OSD has nothing to do with it and does not matter at all.

2. I already have a GPS installed for Telefly OSD/AAT. Can I use a second GPS for this Crius system? Will the 2 interfere if I put enough distance between them? Or is it better to share the GPS if that's possible at all?

You can have two GPS's without a problem.

3. Will Crius work with EzUHF receiver?

Yes

4. Is the Crius board + GPS all I need if I'm only interested in RTH when RC link is lost? Waypoint stuff not important to me. Just RTH.

Yes

5. In short: why is the Ublox GPS "better" than a cheaper GPS?

It will get a fix faster and has a higher update rate. For you that would not matter.

Thanks! I'm back to reading. I hope I get answers so I can skip ahead and buy a Crius board

I hope this helps.

Willie

Originally Posted by mochaboy

yes in a sense. Configure the right gps and it should just work. And yes, no trims.

+1

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

>>I'm looking for a good autopilot with RTH to bring my plane back in case of a failed RC link. I think Crius All in One is the way to go. It seems I have a whole lot of reading and research to do. So far I stopped at page 10 of this thread but will get back to it ASAP. In the meantime I would love to know a few things.
* Stop - save it for another day - Look for Jumpy07's Crius' setup guide, and spend your time reading the Arducopter wiki. There's good info in this thread but you have to sift through dozens of pages to uncover the nuggets. Save it for recreational reading (I actually read every thread)

>>1. I already have a Telefly OSD for my Myflydream antenna tracker (AAT). Is a OSD required for the Crius to work?
* No but it's damn helpful

>> If you don't use a OSD, will the Crius system still enable RTH as soon as RC link is gone?
* Yes but you can do this 1 of 3 ways.
#1 - From your Transmitter - you can set failsafe options...but for the life of me I can't work out the logic of setting failsafes from your tx being useful when you lose your radio link
#2 - From your Rx - Frsky receivers for example have a bind/failsafe button. You set your Tx to the settings you want it to failsafe to, then hit the F/S button your Rx to record the positions..more on this in a sec
#3 - From within Mission Planner. Mission Planner has up to 6 flight modes, one of which is RTL (Return to Launch). Flight modes are triggered by sending a specific pulse width on channel 5. The pulse widths are ranges like 0-200, 201-400 etc...You send those pulse widths by configuring a combination of 3 and 2 position switches on your transmitter to send those exact pulse widths. If you read back a few pages, I detailed my setup for a Futaba 10CHG. Arducopter wiki has a great page listing user submitted tutorials on how to set up a range of transmitters to output these pulse widths.

>> I have to be able to keep the Telefly OSD in order for my AAT to work.
* I can't gauge how much setup experience you have but AAT's are what I would consider a Graduate level course for FPV. That's fine if you have the time and temperment to invest in setting it up and maintaining it, but you'll quickly find that there's a law of diminishing returns when it comes to extra gear. You can fly just as far with just a properly tuned helical and making a conscious effort to fly within your beam width, or invest in building a pepperbox and never have to worry.

If you plan on doing a lot of flying around yourself, you can do very well with a simple cloverleaf.

Anyway my 2 cents on AAT's...I won't tell you not to do it, but I will tell you that it's important to get up in the air as quickly as possible. More time in the air and less time on the bench is my motto

>> 2. I already have a GPS installed for Telefly OSD/AAT. Can I use a second GPS for this Crius system? Will the 2 interfere if I put enough distance between them? Or is it better to share the GPS if that's possible at all?
* The crius needs a transmit and receive port in addition to power, so I *think, but I'm not sure, that you may need 2 GPSs since you can't send and receive from 2 subscribers. The Crius needs GPS coordinates to operate location aware flight modes like Return to Launch, Position Hold and Guided Waypoints. My guess is Telefly uses GPS strictly for antenna positioning

>>3. Will Crius work with EzUHF receiver?
* Yes


>> 4. Is the Crius board + GPS all I need if I'm only interested in RTH when RC link is lost? Waypoint stuff not important to me. Just RTH.
* Yes

>> 5. In short: why is the Ublox GPS "better" than a cheaper GPS?
* better refresh rate, backup battery, "good enough"

>> Thanks! I'm back to reading. I hope I get answers so I can skip ahead and buy a Crius board
* I have 2. I bought them before RCTimer came out with the APM clone (Arduflyer). I don't regret the purchases one bit, but if I were coming in new, I'd take a serious look at the Arduflyer.

Originally Posted by Mochaboy

>>I'm looking for a good autopilot with RTH to bring my plane back in case of a failed RC link. I think Crius All in One is the way to go. It seems I have a whole lot of reading and research to do. So far I stopped at page 10 of this thread but will get back to it ASAP. In the meantime I would love to know a few things.
* Stop - save it for another day - Look for Jumpy07's Crius' setup guide, and spend your time reading the Arducopter wiki. There's good info in this thread but you have to sift through dozens of pages to uncover the nuggets. Save it for recreational reading (I actually read every thread)

>>1. I already have a Telefly OSD for my Myflydream antenna tracker (AAT). Is a OSD required for the Crius to work?
* No but it's damn helpful

>> If you don't use a OSD, will the Crius system still enable RTH as soon as RC link is gone?
* Yes but you can do this 1 of 3 ways.
#1 - From your Transmitter - you can set failsafe options...but for the life of me I can't work out the logic of setting failsafes from your tx being useful when you lose your radio link
#2 - From your Rx - Frsky receivers for example have a bind/failsafe button. You set your Tx to the settings you want it to failsafe to, then hit the F/S button your Rx to record the positions..more on this in a sec
#3 - From within Mission Planner. Mission Planner has up to 6 flight modes, one of which is RTL (Return to Launch). Flight modes are triggered by sending a specific pulse width on channel 5. The pulse widths are ranges like 0-200, 201-400 etc...You send those pulse widths by configuring a combination of 3 and 2 position switches on your transmitter to send those exact pulse widths. If you read back a few pages, I detailed my setup for a Futaba 10CHG. Arducopter wiki has a great page listing user submitted tutorials on how to set up a range of transmitters to output these pulse widths.

>> I have to be able to keep the Telefly OSD in order for my AAT to work.
* I can't gauge how much setup experience you have but AAT's are what I would consider a Graduate level course for FPV. That's fine if you have the time and temperment to invest in setting it up and maintaining it, but you'll quickly find that there's a law of diminishing returns when it comes to extra gear. You can fly just as far with just a properly tuned helical and making a conscious effort to fly within your beam width, or invest in building a pepperbox and never have to worry.

If you plan on doing a lot of flying around yourself, you can do very well with a simple cloverleaf.

Anyway my 2 cents on AAT's...I won't tell you not to do it, but I will tell you that it's important to get up in the air as quickly as possible. More time in the air and less time on the bench is my motto

>> 2. I already have a GPS installed for Telefly OSD/AAT. Can I use a second GPS for this Crius system? Will the 2 interfere if I put enough distance between them? Or is it better to share the GPS if that's possible at all?
* The crius needs a transmit and receive port in addition to power, so I *think, but I'm not sure, that you may need 2 GPSs since you can't send and receive from 2 subscribers. The Crius needs GPS coordinates to operate location aware flight modes like Return to Launch, Position Hold and Guided Waypoints. My guess is Telefly uses GPS strictly for antenna positioning

>>3. Will Crius work with EzUHF receiver?
* Yes


>> 4. Is the Crius board + GPS all I need if I'm only interested in RTH when RC link is lost? Waypoint stuff not important to me. Just RTH.
* Yes

>> 5. In short: why is the Ublox GPS "better" than a cheaper GPS?
* better refresh rate, backup battery, "good enough"

>> Thanks! I'm back to reading. I hope I get answers so I can skip ahead and buy a Crius board
* I have 2. I bought them before RCTimer came out with the APM clone (Arduflyer). I don't regret the purchases one bit, but if I were coming in new, I'd take a serious look at the Arduflyer.

I agree. the Arduflyer is much easier to setup for newbies (and old hands ) , and these days there are no big pricedifference anymore.

Good morning CRIUS fans :-)

What is the consensus for placement of the GPS, in particular the UBLOX CN06-V2?

I am going to redo my FR4 quad which is very similar to the ICONIC-X frame. There is an 8" long FR4 plate that runs the length of the quad that covers the flight controller and cables.

Should I place the GPS directly above the CRIUS AIOP on the stand-offs or mount it elsewhere along the frame? Should the GPS be covered? I don't want it to get damaged in case of a flip :-)

I am aware that I should use breathable foam on the barometer as it's sensitive to prop wash.

>> What is the consensus for placement of the GPS, in particular the UBLOX CN06-V2?
* Wherever it looks sexiest provided it has an unobstructed view of the sky. As an example, I placed it on a lower plate just below but in front of my fpv camera. It had, say, a forward view of the sky. That was enough to completely occlude a signal.

Place it on top, or on an arm, preferably someplace so that when you crash it won't take the entire brunt of the fall. I wouldn't worry about hard mounting it, but one innovative thing to do is to mount it next to standoffs so the standoffs provide some protection for the inevitable crash.


>> Should I place the GPS directly above the CRIUS AIOP on the stand-offs or mount it elsewhere along the frame? Should the GPS be covered? I don't want it to get damaged in case of a flip :-)
* unobstructed view of the sky, mine's literally on top of my aiop. If you have a friend with a 3D printer, have them rig up a box for you with raised edges. Or as a last resort, grab some epo foam and cut a square box for it.

I get the whole tupperware thing it's just a shade too goofy looking for me. If I'm putting the time and money into this project I want something that looks sexy

>> I am aware that I should use breathable foam on the barometer as it's sensitive to prop wash.
* and light so good job on picking that up.

Originally Posted by Mochaboy

>> What is the consensus for placement of the GPS, in particular the UBLOX CN06-V2?
* Wherever it looks sexiest provided it has an unobstructed view of the sky. As an example, I placed it on a lower plate just below but in front of my fpv camera. It had, say, a forward view of the sky. That was enough to completely occlude a signal.

Place it on top, or on an arm, preferably someplace so that when you crash it won't take the entire brunt of the fall. I wouldn't worry about hard mounting it, but one innovative thing to do is to mount it next to standoffs so the standoffs provide some protection for the inevitable crash.

>> Should I place the GPS directly above the CRIUS AIOP on the stand-offs or mount it elsewhere along the frame? Should the GPS be covered? I don't want it to get damaged in case of a flip :-)
* unobstructed view of the sky, mine's literally on top of my aiop. If you have a friend with a 3 printer, have them rig up a box for you with raised edges. Or as a last resort, grab some epo foam and cut a square box for it.

I get the whole tupperware thing it's just a shade too goofy looking for me. If I'm putting the time and money into this project I want something that looks sexy

>> I am aware that I should use breathable foam on the barometer as it's sensitive to prop wash.
* and light so good job on picking that up.

Thanks, I have some "sexy" ideas for my FR4, not that it doesn't look sexy already.

Originally Posted by Mochaboy

>>

>> I am aware that I should use breathable foam on the barometer as it's sensitive to prop wash.
* and light so good job on picking that up.

mine doesnt have foam, rather a 1mm thick piece of 'foamy' cloth, it is completely covered but seems a lot less than the methods ive seen before,

havent flown the quad enough to see if its working well or not

Thanks Mochaboy for the additional info. If I read your reply sooner I would have bought a Arduflyer instead but I already bought me a Crius now .

I'll start reading the websites you suggest. Hopefully I'll be able to get the Crius to work when it arrives.

The reason I have an AAT is I fly in a region with lots of trees that are interfering with my videolink. I'm on 5.8Ghz. video because my friend flies a lot with me and he uses 2.4GHz. radio. With 5.8 I have to keep a LOS all the time. If I dip behind a tree, the video is gone. A cloverleaf on the RX performs well for me, but only on higher altitudes, within 1km and only within a direct LOS. Any further than 1.3km and video gets very grainy and weak. I use a helix with my AAT and get a bit more freedom of movement now and my video isn't gone when there's a tree blocking the LOS. But I agree, if I could, I would rather do without it as setting it up always takes a few minutes extra and I have to trim it almost everytime I use it. Sometimes I take my plane to a big wide patch of land without any trees and leave the AAT at home. It's nice to have the AAT when I'm at my usual flyingfield, though.

Here are some photos of the PID setup. My quad weighs 2lb 8 oz has 3s 3300mah battery 10x95 props and emax 2215/20 motors.

Here is a video of the last test flight with the settings in the picture. The picture shows a before and after of the tuning graph. The first part of the video is in stable mode and the last part in Acro mode. I also want to try loiter mode with the gps which is working I need to know what to setup so it will stay at altitude etc.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...7#post23739950

Thanks

Originally Posted by Mochaboy

Mission Planner has a mode on the Flight Data panel called "Tuning". If you click that on - you'll see a graph with a red, green, and blue line. Red and Blue represent pitch and roll, and green is your midpoint. If you see either red or blue not tracking to green when the rig is stationary, you need to relevel the rig.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY RELEVEL THE RIG. WHAT STEPS DO YOU TAKE IN MISSION PLANNER TO DO THIS.

As I mentioned earlier - check your magnetic declination offset, and tune out vibes as much as is practical. I HAVE BEEN STUDYING MORE INFO ON THIS BUT STILL VERY CONFUSED BY ALL THE OPTIONS IN THE ADVANCED MENU LIKE X ,Y,Z COMPASS OFFSETS AND OTHER OPTIONS. I WILL TRY TO FIND MORE INFO ON THIS. IT ALSO TALKS ABOUT LETTING THIS HAPPEN AUTOMATICALLY .

Now for tuning - Post a screenshot of your PIDs so we can review. Also - what's critical to know is:
* what is the all up weight of your rig
* what motors are you running
* what size props are you running

The idea there is that the highe power to weight ratio you're running the smaller the numbers are.

As for Stabilize PIDs and Rate PIDs, they've been detailed a hundred times in different ways, but let me distill the parts that I think are relevant.

You'll hear references to Inner and Outer loops when it comes to the stabilization algorithms. The Outer Loop is your Stabilize Mode, Rate Mode is your inner loop. Both depend on each other to an extent, but to get the rig in the air, you first tune up the outer loop (stab P).

Stabilize mode's most important config is Stab_P, or the proportional # for Stabilize mode. Proportional, in this use of the PID loop means, "when I encounter an outside force that shifts my angle from A to B, calculate the rate of speed at which that interial shift happens, then calculate the amount of force it takes to compensate for that shift. The higher the P the faster it will react. Too high and it oscillate as it overshoots, too low and it wobble because it doesn't have enough force to counteract the shift in angles.

Stabilize mode has another feature in that in addition to the rates calculated by the gyros, you also get rates calculated from the accelerometers. The net effect of this is that you get the inertial vector from the accelerometers then you get the rate of angular momentum from a gyro. Together, these numbers paint a picture of what direction it's moving in and what rate it's rotating towards that direction. Using both of those inputs, it calculates a compensation rate which tells the motor how much force it needs to apply to return to a level state.

Long story short, Stab_P for a rig with a high power to weight ratio can be anywhere from 2-4.5

Rate mode is a little tricky in that it depends on P, I AND D, in rate mode, you lose the accelerometers, and you depend on the rate gyros alone. The net effect there being you lose the inertial vector, and you measure rotation rates only. This mode will feel a little snappier as it moves to your inputs faster rather than have to fight through compensating forces. At least that's my basic understanding of it.

As for P, I and D
P is going to be some number from 0 to .150
I is going to be a number that's +/- 50% of P
D is going to be from 0 to .008 (for a high power weight to ratio rig)

Rate P's effects are the same as Stab P
Rate D is a shock absorber for stick deflections
Rate I is the rate or speed at which angular changes are measured.

High Rate P - you'll see oscillations in a hover eventually turning into uncontrolled vibes
Low Rate P - you'll see it wobble and will respond very sluggishly to stick inputs
High Rate D - again you will see oscillations, but these could be so bad they can flip your rig. Start at .001 and sneak your way carefully to .008
High Rate I - As you move into forward flight, you will find the rig difficult to respond to stick inputs, plus it will oscillate around the angle of attack.
Low Rate I - again, sluggish stick inputs and wobbles

The trick with Rate mode is tuning rate P first, then tuning rate D as high as it will go, going to back to Rate P and pushing that another 20% or 30%, then finishing with tuning Rate I.

Tuning Rate I you should do in the air if possible. What you're looking for is a snappy response from stick inputs not sluggish or delayed. Tuning Rate I is easiest if you can bind a dial on your tx to channel 6, then use mission planner to set the tune ranges for Rate I while in flight...just remember to choose sensible ranges.

So just to recap.
Tune stabilize P first to get it into a hover - your value will end up somewhere south of 4.5
- hover around and have some fun
- flip to acro mode and tune Rate P (some value from 0 to .150 or even a little higher)
- tune rate D until you see oscillations on sticky recovery (max stick deflection then let go - should see no bounces)
- go back and now sneak Rate P up again
- when all is done go and tune Rate I

Once you know what you're doing, you do these steps out of order especially if you have a tuning jig which speeds things up dramatically. But there you do the order like this:

Tune Rate D
Tune Rate P
Tune Rate I
then finally Tune Stabilize P

Leave all the yaw settings to their defaults. In mission planner there are Pitch and Roll settings for both stab_p and rate_p...make sure those settings are the same (for now).

Anyway - have a go at it and good luck. Let us know how you fair.

OVERALL MY COPTER ISN'T FLYING BAD THE MAIN THING IS I NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THE LEFT BANKING OUT OF IT IN STABILIZE MODE.

http://www.mediafire.com/?pdx1x4xmcj73h2h

any one able to id this gps and have an idea what id need to enter into the config_h to enable it. its not responding using the standard parameters.

will the green led indicator work automatically or do you have to assign it to gps? i ask as theres an led option in APM

A question about using MegaPirate NG on this board - is it possible to set RTL mode to take efect as failsafe incase multicopter goes out of range?

Originally Posted by Skewp

A question about using MegaPirate NG on this board - is it possible to set RTL mode to take efect as failsafe incase multicopter goes out of range?

Yes you can if your Receiver can be set for Failsafe.

Regards

Willie

So my previous attempt to use the Crius AIO Pro as an UAV type of board failed because of compass interference. This seems like the perfect way to get the compass out of the way, but does anyone know how to use an external compass instead of the built-in one?

Also, are there any alternatives to this one out there? This price is fantastic but it's out of stock.

https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._HMC5883L.html