Revo Help
« on: July 12, 2018, 08:15:11 am »
Dear All,

Two weeks ago I bought a Revo Mini board. Intending to place it in a Bixler2 that I've been flying fully manual so far.

While I was testing it with the computer every thing was going fine. I could see the dials changing and the graphs! awesome!
Then one day I tried to connect a blue toothdevice, and 'lost' connection to Revo. I've done many tries and lost alot of hours with this...
I was trying to use the Revo as a ComBridge to set things up.
Because I couldnt, I installed the FTDI drivers, imagining that one needed them.

Right now i can Rescue and upload a new boot loader.
and I can also update the firmware.
after this, when the GCS tries to reboot the Revo, GCS complains it can't. (Red letters saying i should do it manually, which i did...several times)
I've uninstalled the FTDI drivers, and still no success.
After the red letters warning, the Revo flashes Green and Blue kind of slow. Sometimes both green and blue go flashing on and off really fast. The GCS comunication status "leds", show one on on TX and all off in RX. (During the BL and Firmware update, all status leds are on)
I believe I have a connection to it, but it looks like Revo and GCS have different baud rates after the firm aware update.. (not sure).

Does anyone know what this flashing means? In the manual I cant find any blue and green flashing combination.

Thanks in advance,
Rui

Soon i will crash it under my foot if it goes on like this... I've lost some hours with this..


utoedter

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Re: Revo Help
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2018, 08:29:04 am »
Dear All,

Two weeks ago I bought a Revo Mini board. Intending to place it in a Bixler2 that I've been flying fully manual so far.

While I was testing it with the computer every thing was going fine. I could see the dials changing and the graphs! awesome!
Then one day I tried to connect a blue toothdevice, and 'lost' connection to Revo. I've done many tries and lost alot of hours with this...
I was trying to use the Revo as a ComBridge to set things up.
Because I couldnt, I installed the FTDI drivers, imagining that one needed them.

Right now i can Rescue and upload a new boot loader.
and I can also update the firmware.
after this, when the GCS tries to reboot the Revo, GCS complains it can't. (Red letters saying i should do it manually, which i did...several times)
I've uninstalled the FTDI drivers, and still no success.
After the red letters warning, the Revo flashes Green and Blue kind of slow. Sometimes both green and blue go flashing on and off really fast. The GCS comunication status "leds", show one on on TX and all off in RX. (During the BL and Firmware update, all status leds are on)
I believe I have a connection to it, but it looks like Revo and GCS have different baud rates after the firm aware update.. (not sure).

Does anyone know what this flashing means? In the manual I cant find any blue and green flashing combination.

Thanks in advance,
Rui

Soon i will crash it under my foot if it goes on like this... I've lost some hours with this..

the flashing shows, the board is running... so far so good.   it flashes fast after arming, slow  if not armed.  does your computer shows the board as USB device ? did you tried to bring the board to save mode and erased all settings to default ?

Udo

Re: Revo Help
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2018, 08:46:33 am »

Hi Udo,

"does your computer shows the board as USB device ? "
yes it does. As Revo Game Controller. Seems good.

"did you tried to bring the board to save mode and erased all settings to default ?"
I havent seen anything about save mode. can you give me some link to read about it?
I tried the erasing. Cant really tell now. I tried so many things already.

Thanks for the quick answer!
Rui



Re: Revo Help
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2018, 01:48:02 pm »
What does flashing green means?
I can find a lot of info for the blue. even warnings and error codes in red and oranje pink.
but nothing on a flashing green..

In attachment you can find how my comunication status lights looks like.

Cheers,
Rui

Re: Revo Help
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2018, 01:57:12 pm »
Just found a nice troubleshoting page
this may be it. looks just the same. will try this at home, and post if this was the fix. ;)

https://librepilot.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/LPDOC/pages/12812343/Troubleshooting

utoedter

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Re: Revo Help
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2018, 01:59:50 pm »

Hi Udo,

"does your computer shows the board as USB device ? "
yes it does. As Revo Game Controller. Seems good.

"did you tried to bring the board to save mode and erased all settings to default ?"
I havent seen anything about save mode. can you give me some link to read about it?
I tried the erasing. Cant really tell now. I tried so many things already.

Thanks for the quick answer!
Rui

Because my revo is at home and me not there, as far as i remember, the procedure is to:

1. halt the board
2. boot it into save mode and erase the setting.

Keep in mind after flashing the boat loader you have also to flash the firmware. But the problem you describe is a general (firmware/gcs) problem, not a fixed wing problem even if its placed into a plane.  If you post your question there much more people will read you.

Udo

Re: Revo Help
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2018, 02:34:02 pm »
Yes you are right. I should post it at general. slipped my mind.
I will first try the Windows driver thing, and if doesnt work post in general.

As for advice,
I really don't know what save mode is.
If you refer to rescue mode. I've done it already. New BL new Firmware...
I did it several times. I wasnt sure which Bootloader to use. So I did all that mentioned Revo (4,5,6..)
Nothing helped.

I'll keep you posted. I dont have my Revo here either... office.

Rui

Re: Revo Help
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2018, 05:37:10 pm »
Installing a bootloader wipes out the firmware, so you must install firmware (use Rescue method) after installing a bootloader.

I hope you saved your settings (File->ExportUAV...) or you may be starting over...  Remember and do this when you get it working.

Do not do anything that mentions Erase (Settings).  Installing bootloader or firmware does not have to erase settings.  It could be that your settings are still there after installing these, so being careful to not erase can mean that you don't have to start over.

Be aware that the Firmware page has a Rescue button.  If you mess up your settings so the GCS does not connect any more, unplug board, go to firmware page and press Rescue, then plug board in.  After that you can press SafeBoot to boot with default settings.  Go and set the thing you messed up back to the way you want it, and the board will then boot normally.

Also, there is an Upgrade button that should put the firmware back on (like after you install a bootloader).  Or after starting Rescue procedure there is a Flash button that will appear that will also flash the matching firmware like Upgrade.

I actually have a Bixler2 with a Revo in it too.  Here are the exported settings with the board calibrations and such removed so you can just import on top of your working setup.  You don't want to be using my board calibrations.  You must have your own board calibrations, transmitter setup, etc. working correctly.  I usually fly with FixedWingPathFollowerSettings->HorizontalVelMax/Min set to 12/12 for a constant speed, but I have set it to 10/14 for you (untested).  I can tell you that 12/12 works fine for RTB and waypoint flying.  But...

Be aware that there are many airspeed warnings/errors that happen in flight (at least partially due to my 12/12 speed) and that waypoint flight will by default jump back to waypoint #1 when this happens.  To avoid that, set ErrorWaypoint (I forget exact name to -1 for each waypoint and it will work OK.

Beware that there is a bug when flying Manual mode and switching to Attitude mode.  While flying Manual, the stabilization winds up (it shouldn't) so that when you switch to Attitude, it goes crazy for several seconds (like full aileron and full elevator and you must correct OR you should avoid it by reducing throttle to zero (that zeros the windup) before you switch from Manual to Attitude OR you should avoid Manual altogether (instead use Rate once you have it flying in Manual and tested in Rate).

The magnets in the canopy cause the Revo mag sensor to go crazy.  I put a DJI GPS/mag on top of the rudder which makes it more tail heavy.  I have a big battery and heavy camera in the nose to compensate.

I had issues during RTB where the motor would jump back and forth between 0% and 100%.  I hacked a work around by setting the ThrustLimits to more reasonable values.

I tweaked the PIDs in bank #1 so if you want to use them, set up your Flight Mode Switch to use bank #1.

There are many settings that I should further tweak (e.g. ScaleToAirspeed*), but this works for fixed speed RTB with the speed set to 12/12.

Test test test, and try to understand all the settings when carefully tweaking.

Re: Revo Help
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2018, 09:47:23 pm »
Man!
Thanks for the answer!
I will need some time to fully understand it though.
The good news is, after removing the driver and reinstall it Revo came alive again!
So now I start to pick up where i was before. Setting up the stabilization and later on moving to gps flying.

Definaltely want to try the RTB and waypoint mission. That is the whole point of getting this board.

Thanks, I will read and study the info!

Cheers,
Rui

Re: Revo Help
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2018, 11:13:55 am »
Hey!!

Today will be the Bix/Revo mainden flight!
If all goes well i will still have it in one piece by the end of the day.

Next step, the GPS and RTB.
I found the tutorials on how to configure GPS and Revo hardware to communicate, but i cant seem to find how to configure extra channels for RTB or other functions (waypoint flights..)

Does anyone know a link for this configurations?

Thanks in advance!
Rui


Re: Revo Help
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2018, 01:58:00 pm »