[TheOtherCliff]

As far as I know, the accel cal has never used a home location, but your point that it could use one for best accuracy is true...

I think this is because CC3D and Basic don't need it (no home location) and INS13 allows calibration with home location values farther up the stack and that could take it into account.

It does matter what orientation the board has.  That is what it asks you for.  If you do it with it still mounted in the vehicle, just hold the vehicle so the board is in the desired orientation.

I would not rip it out just to put in in the freezer.  Most people just do it from cool room temperature to full warm temperature.  a 10C difference is all that is required IIRC.  If above the equator, maybe just put it outside in the winter for a few minutes...

[karla]

Ah.
It would save me a lot of trouble and time if I can leave it mounted inside heli while doing these calibrations (thermo and accelerometer).
Its minus 5 C outside today so I will try that.
Also will try just keep the virtual orientation setting but placing the board in the positions GCS asks me.

In the previous accelerometer calibration i have been flying with, I did it with the virtual orientation set, but placing the whole heli in the positions GCS asked me.
This should make a difference... maybe this is one reason why Attitude is confused...

[TheOtherCliff]

for accel calibration:
-------------------------
Make sure the board orientation is as requested, as exactly as possible and as motionless as possible.

Heli landing gear on floor, on wall (joint with floor for completely locked in orientation), ceiling upside down...  The motionless part is probably the hardest issue.  Good luck.

for thermal calibration:
----------------------------
The main issue is that it needs to be completely motionless for the whole time.  Afterward, you may want to look at gyro scope and notice there is a slight bias now.  The gyro noise is not centered exactly on zero.  To fix this, just make sure to run the gyro calibration again, after the thermal calibration.  The scope will show you that it is fixed now.

[karla]

Ah thats a great idea to do floor, wall, ceiling for support.
I might need to redo it later, but I think I got the thermo calibration okay.
It was tied down heavily and I applied a hair dryer gently blowing hot air over the frame.
It said the range was some 60 degrees range from 3-4 C up to over 60.
I am still waiting for the delivery of my main shaft before I can do any flying.

[karla]

Hehe, very happy now the main shaft arrived.

So, i have already repaired/completed the following:
. Both main rotor blades now balanced with each other
. Rotor blade tracking now okay
. Swashplate levelling, smooth and horizontal all from Max down to Min position
. Collective pitch angles of blades now set okay for Hover, Max and Min (stock Align angles)
. Throttle curves for recommended Head speed now set okay

This time I want to go about the 'Hover without drift' differently than from before, that was by settings of the virtual rotation of the board.
(Helis need compensate the tail rotor thrust giving a roll angel to the whole craft)
Now, I want to adjust the swash plate angle instead to accomplish the same end.
Reason is to easier pilot take off and landings in Attitude mode (especially when flying fpv) and a more consistent behavior of craft when flying in rate and attitude modes.

So, to adjust the swash tilt angle, there are some 3 ways of doing it (personally I prefer option 3).
1. Using GCS Vehicle, Helicopter, Swashplate levelling:


 
Maybe most user friendly, but has many process steps we don't need just for tilting swash to stable hover.

2. Using the Output tab


 
This is very clear and good overview and don't have unnecessary process steps for our purposes, but it involves the scary part of motor also be active. You can unplugg at least 2 wires to the motor to avoid this though.

3. Using Settings Actuator ChannelMax Neutral and Min
 


This is not a user friendly interface but it does the job - smack on.
Just enter a new number and press the red upward looking arrow button to save to the board.

One useful thing to know is which servo to adjust when using your selected option.
For most trex450 size helis the servo swash plate setup will be:

                   West servo | East servo | South servo
                   Left servo  | Right servo | Aft servo

Option1:   1                3                2
Option2:   Roll1         Elevator   Roll2
Option3:  [ 0]           [ 1]             [ 2]

Now, you only need to fly the heli (in Rate stabilization and Basic AttEstAlg)
and adjust the 3 servos so you get a hover without drifting.
Just adjust the Min, Max and Neutral values equally much. For example drifting to the right - then increase (if not channel reversed, if so then decrease it) the East servo by 25 units increments for each Min, Max and Neutral value. Then fly it and see the result. Adjust again.

When successfully completed, the swash plate will be tilted in such a way that the heli is hovering without drift. Furthermore, it will keep this tilt all through to travel of collective pitch from min to max.

That's what I'm going to do now.

[karla]

Wow, this was fun.
Completed the swash level hover bit okay. It flies fine in rate mode in basic.

Then moved on and set my Heli Align ESC to governor mode (never tried that before) and the GCS to System | System setting | ThrustControl to  Collective (from throttle).
And it works!
The fc is using the collective only, to control altitude in altitudeHold mode, no throttle.
The ESC is trying its best to keep the head spead rpm constant as the load increased with more collective.

I am using Basic as AttEstAlg, since I do have problems with vibrations after having to replace a lot of parts on the heli.
I need to work more on these vibrations and having heli experience, i know what i am up against. can not move to EST13 until its resolved.

However, I have more crucial problem.
I am getting these failsafe disconnects often, every 30 sec or so, and just for some half second than it connects again. But as you can imagine it disrupts everything.



I have a OPLM on the heli feeding in to a Revo board (that particular revo has a non functional radio) and I have a transmitter OPLM feeding PPMs from my tx training port.

If anyone of the gurus here can take a look at the log file from today and maybe spot something pointing to where i should look, i would be very appretiative.

especially the
OPLinkStatus.LinkState (function)
OPLinkStatus.RSSI (dBm)
Why does it disconnect when the dB is so good?

Added the log file and configuration file.

Really don't understand why this flip out now, it worked fine before, only thing change is maybe vibrations ...

[f5soh]

You can remove the PPM wire and get channels using the OPLinkReceiver object so the only wiring between board and OPLink (in heli) is the telemetry connection. You may need to just remove the PPM port configured in OPLink receiver.
Using this method you will be able to monitor the remote OPLink, at least when connected and see if the RSSI levels are ok in both sides.

[karla]

Thank you Laurent,

It sounds interesting, and I am really willing to try it,
but I just dont understand how that will work.
Please take this very slow and step by step please 

Here is the current OPLM configuration on the transmitter side:



Here is the OPLM on the receiver side on the Heli:



What should I change?
And how will it work without ppm? Remember the Revo board in the heli do not have a working oplink radio (it will hang if i put transmitting watt higher than 0).

To be as clear as I can, here is also the Remote Control set up with PPM:


 

[f5soh]

Just remove the PPM/FlexiPort set in OPLink Receiver. Save

Reboot all and try moving stick, you will see "OPLinkReceiver" or just "OPLink" activity, don't remember.
Later channel input configuration uses "OPlink" type instead of "PPM" type

[karla]

I did disable the PPM/FlexiPort setting in OPLink Receiver.
Did save it, and reboot.

Next, I changed all PPM to OPlink for each of the 7 radio channels in the Remote Control Input tab.
Saved. rebooted.

Now the telemetry works fine.
But I have a big red alarm for INPUT in the system health gadget.

I then even tried to change the Receiver Port settings from PPM+Telemetry to just Telemetry and saved and rebooted.

Still red on INPUT.

Maybe something else is needed?

 

[f5soh]

Red input means there is a channel not set or something bad in Input configuration.

Just done a test with a Revo Nano and RC control over telemetry works fine.

[karla]

Good to hear it works there.
Yes Input show red and when I move the sticks around the Receiver Activity field is dead and show a steady green No activity.

The only thing I changed (from before with the working PPM setup) was
. to disable the PPM/FlexiPort setting in OPLink Receiver and
. change the channel Type from PPM to OPlink for each of the 7 radio channels in the Remote Control Input tab. All the channel numbers, min max neutral etc are kept the same.

Any other setting needed to accomplish RC control over telemetry?

[f5soh]

Any other setting needed to accomplish RC control over telemetry?

No
Post your config file.

** Edit I think the PPM over telemetry cannot work since the Revo should already work using his internal modem...

[karla]

Yes, you may have a point there.
I will try another Revo with a functional radio.

[karla]

Yes, confirmed. With another revo board where the radio is working, the transmitter show activity, OPLink input... when I move the sticks. That even the Type is set to PPM and not OPLink.
Thank you.
Now I need take a step back and consider how to set this up