Revolution and LibrePilot
« on: March 19, 2016, 01:58:10 pm »
I am flying the Eachine 250 Racer.  I would like to add altitude hold and was told that the Revolution board would do this.   First I am curious if this is correct.  and mostly can I continue to use LibrePilot as I have all my setting just where I like them.    Any help would be very much appreciated. 

Thank you
Grandpa Jake

Mateusz

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Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2016, 02:15:46 pm »
CC3D or Revolution  board ? (Revolution does not exist).
Revolution board does have barometer, so it is possible to hold height with certain accuracy. What you need to do, is to protect board from wind blowing from props, so case might be become handy, and cover baro with thin layer of foam that has pores in it such that air can freely pass through it. Then you need to have pretty much stable flight in Complementary mode, and maybe tune a bit vertical PIDs (only if it oscillates up and down too much) which is a feedback loop controlling thrust to maintain height. Then you can use it with Altitude Vario or Altitude Hold modes on Thrust (see attached screenshot).

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2016, 02:27:33 pm »
So what you are saying is there is the CC3D and then the Revolution which is a type of upgraded option board?   I am just trying to understand this before deciding on buying.    My Eachine with the CC3D is flying great and very stable,  only thing I would like is the alt hold.   I see how you have things setup and if you feel the Revolution is the best option I will give it a try.

It took me some time to understand all the settings and how to tune my craft so I would like to stay with Librepilot.   I have seen people adding a barometer to the CC3D but they use another software.  so I thought just changing the board to the Revolution would be the best choice without having to learn something new?

Thanks for the help

hwh

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Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2016, 03:29:12 pm »
The ones they call Revolution are usually revolution boards, they just call them "Revolution" so people searching online for cc3ds will find them as well.  Post a link to the page you're looking at them on and we can tell you for sure.

If you have a stock Eachine racer 250 running well on LibrePilot it would help others who come here if you posted a copy of your uav config that they can use as a starting point.  I ordered one to experiment with and make up a sample uav file but it won't be here until mid-week.  To do it you connect the board to the computer and do file->export uav settings in the gcs.  It's also a good way for you to save a copy of the working settings before you make changes.

If you're not in a big hurry I was planning on flying the one I ordered with it's cc3d for a few days and then upgrade it to a revo and gps.  When I do I'll post the wiring changes necessary for the swap.  It'll probably be about 2 weeks until it's all done.

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2016, 05:55:06 pm »
Sounds good to me,   I am going to try and upload what I am using.   If you want to see a video of it flying I will post the link at the end.   it was the first time my Granddaughter ever used a video camera :-)   but you can see it is flying very stable.    And I will wait till you get a chance to get things setup with the Revo board.   If you have the link to where you are ordering it,  I would also order then I will be ready when you get things figured out.   

Thanks again

  
« Last Edit: April 06, 2016, 03:06:40 pm by hwh »

hwh

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Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2016, 06:58:40 pm »
I already have a revo on hand that was in another 250 quad.  I think I ordered it from Banggood, http://www.banggood.com/OpenPilot-CC3D-Revolution-Revo-10DOF-STM32F4-Flight-Controller-Staight-Pin-p-1000068.html
Banggood has good delivery times if you specify the US warehouse, it's in Compton, CA.  When you get a revo follow the instructions in https://forum.librepilot.org/index.php?topic=311.0 to check if it has problems with the barometer.  It's an easy fix (it's in the thread somewhere) or you can contact the seller if you get a bad one.

The video and flying look good.  You could never tell it was your Granddaughter's first video  :)

I'll try your settings when my eachine arrives, from the tracking that should be Wednesday.

The revo has a lot of advantages over the older cc3d.  If you get an oplink mini (around $20) it will send telemetry back to your laptop, assuming you take it to the field of course.  If you add the right gps it also runs all the new gps assisted modes including autonomous flight where you plot a path on the laptop, upload it to the quad, and it flies that path automatically.  The cc3d is pretty much limited to just what you were doing in the video, racing around with you controlling it all the time.

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2016, 07:19:20 pm »
Sounds great,   I am not sure I would install the GPS but good to know it can be done.  I have others for Autonomous flying, though it is nice to know it can be done.  Do you know what groundstation software it would use?   For most of mine I use Mission Planner.   But I am anxious about the Alt hold,  hoping it will stabilize me just a bit more for those fast and low passes?   Let me know if my setting work for you.    I also have a lost alarm on it from Banggood which works really nice.  It will signal when the voltage get low,  but the best part is if it should crash or become lost somewhere it will go off even if the LiPo is disconnected in 1 minute.  Works great,  but it will only work on a Pwm receiver from what I was told.   and should all else fail I have the Marco Polo tracker which is also cool.  I fly a lot over cornfields and wheat crops so if it goes down it is sometimes hard to find.   

Talk soon

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2016, 11:05:27 pm »
I already have a revo on hand that was in another 250 quad.  I think I ordered it from Banggood, http://www.banggood.com/OpenPilot-CC3D-Revolution-Revo-10DOF-STM32F4-Flight-Controller-Staight-Pin-p-1000068.html
Banggood has good delivery times if you specify the US warehouse, it's in Compton, CA.  When you get a revo follow the instructions in https://forum.librepilot.org/index.php?topic=311.0 to check if it has problems with the barometer.  It's an easy fix (it's in the thread somewhere) or you can contact the seller if you get a bad one.

The video and flying look good.  You could never tell it was your Granddaughter's first video  :)

I'll try your settings when my eachine arrives, from the tracking that should be Wednesday.

The revo has a lot of advantages over the older cc3d.  If you get an oplink mini (around $20) it will send telemetry back to your laptop, assuming you take it to the field of course.  If you add the right gps it also runs all the new gps assisted modes including autonomous flight where you plot a path on the laptop, upload it to the quad, and it flies that path automatically.  The cc3d is pretty much limited to just what you were doing in the video, racing around with you controlling it all the time.
     My Revo board came today and was looking at the difference between what is in the Eachine Racer and this board.   I have some of it figured out but a little confused on the ESC side.   The CC3d in the Eachine has an 8 pin connector I am guess the first two pins are + and -  the next 4 I am thinking the ESC and the last two I am not sure?   any suggestions?   

hwh

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Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2016, 11:29:28 pm »
The pins are ground, +5v, and channels 1 through 6.  The board routes channels 1 - 4 to the ESCs, 5 and 6 don't seem to be connected to anything.

On the one I received a couple of days ago they're labeled next to the connector on the power distribution board end of the cable.  I've also attached a picture of the pinout on the cc3d board itself.  I'm not sure what they meant by "CHD" on some of the pins, they're the ground ones.

I ended up installing a "Revolution Mini" in mine when the receiver connector came off the original cc3d the first time I plugged the cable in.  It uses the same connector but the pins needed to be swapped around in the cable.  Between the rain and now high winds I haven't had a chance to try flying it yet.

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2016, 11:39:40 pm »
My Revo is a bit different.   I think I have the pins figured out but not sure what wires 5 & 6 are on the Eachine Plug

hwh

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Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2016, 11:57:58 pm »
The last two are channels 5 and 6 but the eachine main board doesn't use them so you don't need to hook them up.

Just hook up the revo's yellow 1 to 4 pins, a red pin, and a black pin.  The yellow 5 and 6 pins and the rest of the red/black pins don't need to be connected.

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2016, 12:31:19 am »
Sounds Good,  thanks,    I am going to finish it up tomorrow and see how things work.   I am not using GPS or the wireless,  mostly just wanted Alt hold,   now I have to figure out how to get that setup.   I am going to copy my parameters over from my old CC3D but know something will need to be changed for Alt hold to work? 

hwh

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Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2016, 12:38:18 am »
The info on Altitude hold and altitude vario is at https://librepilot.atlassian.net/wiki/display/LPDOC/Altitude+Hold

Re: Revolution and LibrePilot
« Reply #13 on: March 29, 2016, 05:32:48 pm »
Ok,  I have my new board in and everything is working well.  I had some issues with figuring out how to get alt hold to work, but this is what did it.  First you can not power up in the flight mode that has Altitude setup.  So take off in other than that mode and get to a hover,  then flip to your Altitude Hold mode and things seem to work out good.   I am going to take it over later to where I fly and see how it works real time :-)     
« Last Edit: March 29, 2016, 07:23:06 pm by funtimegrandpa »