[mak24]

I have been successfully flying using GPS in Position Hold and Velocity Roam.

Waypoint Flying is not working.

I used the Wiki post below to configure path planner
http://web.archive.org/web/20150129023159/http://wiki.openpilot.org/display/WIKI/Revo+-+GPS+Waypoint+Navigation

I used the Waypoint editor to upload the path to my quad using OPLink.  I did not get a "Plan Upload Was Successful" message upon uploading the path.

There are 2 Alarms, namely Config and Path.  See the screenshot please.  PATH is black.  Config is Red.  I have setup GPS Navigation mode as INS13.

I noticed that as soon as I add Pathplanner for of of my flight mode switches, I get Config Error.  I do not get such config error if I assign Velocity Roam and/or Position Hold to the flight switches.

Also, I noticed that I could not change the parameters for any of of the waypoints. As soon as I change they change back to the default values.  I would like to change them to safe values that TheOtherCliff mentioned in one of the posts (speed to 4 m/s and height to 3 m, I think)

I am also attaching my UAV Settings file.

Please assist.

Thanks in advance

[TheOtherCliff]

I assume you are flying a multicopter, not a fixed wing.

First of all, don't put "GPS Assist" on any GPS mode.

Second, if Velocity Roam works well, and you have working telemetry (baud rate at least 57600, not 38400), then it really is a simple matter of making a small set of waypoints.  I am pretty sure that I even successfully used a USB cable to upload waypoints.

Does your Google map (OpMap) in the GCS work?  Do you have Home Location set near by at a place where the ground is the same elevation (say +- 1m)?  Click a place on the OpMap and then press <Control>A then click another place on the mag and press <Control>A again.  Do this for maybe a total of 4 waypoints in a square in a place with no trees.  Maybe make a square with about 50m per side.

All you need to do is change the altitude and speed for it to work well.  Speed needs to be less than your max speed.

Now bring up the Waypoint Editor.  Set the Altitude to say 4m for each of 4 waypoints and set the speed to say 3m/s for each waypoint also.  The default is for altitudes to be relative to HomeLocation, so HomeLocation needs to be the same altitude as the ground at the waypoints.  Distances are always in meters and speeds are in meters per second.  3 meters per second is a human medium running speed.  There is a bug in that it tries to change the value back while you are typing it in.  Right after it changes it, you will have maybe 2 seconds to enter the new value and click outside the field.  If you can double click the old value to highlight it all, enter the new value (just press the 3 or 4 key), and click outside the field all in that time, the value will stay set.

Then you must press the correct button at the top of the waypoint editor to send it to the aircraft.

I think that if you power off the model while you are making the waypoint flight plan, maybe it doesn't have this problem.

Be aware that powering off the aircraft erases the waypoints in the aircraft and the waypoints will have to be uploaded each time you want to use them with a new battery.

You can save the waypoints to a disk file and use it later too.

[mak24]

Hi TheOtherCliff, Your advice came through again!  Thanks so much!!

Yes I am flying a quad, specs in the footer.

I had my first Autonomous Flight!  Not very accurate, and would require a bit of tweaking, but that is the fun part

I did remove GPS Assist from GPS Mode in the Flight Mode Switch setting which took cars of the "Configure Error" issue for PathPlanner mode.
          Follow Up Question:  What is GPS Assist for.  I thought I had to pick this option in order to invoke GPS/INS13 navigation). 

"PATH" alarm stayed black in the Status Widget.  I had assumed that per the post below PATH should be Green in order for Path Planner to work. 
           Follow Up Question: Does "PATH" need to be green for Pathplanner to work properly?  What conditions would make it go green?
http://opwiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_manual/alarms.html

Yes the GoogleMap works in the GCS.  Sometimes there is only a square gray on the top left, and sometimes not.  Read in a post that it is Google Maps idiosyncrasy, and that BingMap should take care of this issue or changing the environment variable for Google Map.
           Follow Up Question: Is there a new env't variable for GoogleMaps.  Is there a way I could find it myself for the future?.

I clear the Home Location everytime to get the current location as Home Location.

Thanks so much for the parameter changing bug.  I finally managed to change the speed to 3 m/s and height to 4 m.  However, this did not seem to affect the speed or relative altitude.  The quad rose to at least 20 ft and the speed was significantly faster than 3 m/s. So the quad completed may 2 waypoints, but kept me on the edge as it do so much faster andat higher altitude than expected.
           Follow Up question:  Why would the speed and altitude not change even thought they are reflected n the parameters of the waypoints?

Thanks in advance.


 

[TheOtherCliff]

          Follow Up Question:  What is GPS Assist for.  I thought I had to pick this option in order to invoke GPS/INS13 navigation). 

To add to non-GPS modes so that when you release the sticks it goes into GPS position hold.

           Follow Up Question: Does "PATH" need to be green for Pathplanner to work properly?  What conditions would make it go green?

I don't pay much attention to it, but I think it may be black until you switch to a GPS mode?
PLAN may be black until you switch to PathPlanner mode, then orange until you upload a correct plan or it may be orange if there is a PathPlanner mode anywhere on the FMS.
I would have to test it...

           Follow Up Question: Is there a new env't variable for GoogleMaps.  Is there a way I could find it myself for the future?.

This is the current number.
GCS_GOOGLE_SAT_VERSION=726

I clear the Home Location everytime to get the current location as Home Location.

Not necessary or desirable, but not a real problem either.
HomeLocation is not something the user should have to worry about as long as it is close enough that the curvature of the earth isn't much.  If it is a long way away, your OpMap (Google map) will be off some meters and flight plans will be off, but everything else (e.g. VelocityRoam) will continue to work.  If I forget to change my HomeLocation when flying at home (flying field is 50km=30miles away) my OpMap coordinates that are displayed are a couple hundred meters off, but VR works fine.  OTOH I would not even try VelocityRoam if my HomeLocation were on the other side of the earth so that up there is left here.  Well I might try it to see what it does. 
There is a UAVO called TakeOffLocation which by default gets set each time you arm.  That is where RTB returns to.
If you fly in the same location with the exact same waypoints (plan stored on disk), you probably want to leave the HomeLocation set to the exact same place.
The default is that the waypoints are relative to HomeLocation, so moving HL a meter or two will move the flightplan too (I think).

Thanks so much for the parameter changing bug.  I finally managed to change the speed to 3 m/s and height to 4 m.  However, this did not seem to affect the speed or relative altitude.  The quad rose to at least 20 ft and the speed was significantly faster than 3 m/s. So the quad completed may 2 waypoints, but kept me on the edge as it do so much faster and at higher altitude than expected.
           Follow Up question:  Why would the speed and altitude not change even though they are reflected in the parameters of the waypoints?

GPS altitude has a lot more error than horizontal.  The difference between 4m and 20 feet is to be expected.  That is why I recommend 4m, so that it doesn't touch the ground!  I don't know about the speed.  You could record a log and play it back and examine the speed to see if it at least thought it was going 3m/s (about 10 feet per second).  That should be about a human medium running speed.
To make sure this isn't a baro issue, test fly a couple flights with a non-gps mode (e.g. Stab1=Attitude) that has thrust mode set to AltitudeVario or AltitudeHold.  AV has a deadband in the middle of the throttle stick, so if it is close to center stick it should not change altitude at all.  If you see it drifting up or down in the first several minutes of a flight you need to do thermal calibration.  Also test in hover vs. forward/left/right/backwards flight at the fastest you expect to fly it.
Maybe?  Leaving the model powered off while you click up the waypoints and edit speed and altitude will stop the refreshing.  Then power up the model and send the waypoints to it.

[mak24]

Thanks so much for the elaborate response, TheOtherCliff!

I will test further to see when PATH turns green.  Also will change the GCS_Google_Sat_Version per your instruction.

Good to know that UAVO called TakeOffLocation exists to bring back the the copter with RTB (Which I have yet to try).

I will test the Baro per your instruction and report back.  FYI, I did successfully complete thermal calibration earlier.

Did not know that we could set up the waypoints with the copter turned off.  I will try that also and report back.

Still tons to learn  (I think I am not a noob anymore

 Thanks for all your support TheOtherCliff!

[TheOtherCliff]

GCS_GOOGLE_SAT_VERSION

should be all caps.