MHV Quadcopter Workshop Manual

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Stephen Dade

MHV Quadcopter

Workshop Manual 2

July/August 2013

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Page 1 Stephen Dade MHV Quadcopter Workshop Manual 2 July/August 2013...
Page 2: Table Of Contents
Radio binding (and servo test) and Failsafe ..................19 Evening 3 ............................... 20 Safety ..............................20 Current Australian Law and Regulations ..................20 LIPO Batteries ..........................21 Propellers ............................21 Radio Interference ........................22 V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 1 of 36...
Page 3 Test Flights ............................33 Evening 4 ............................... 34 Safety ..............................34 Startup .............................. 34 Longer flights............................. 34 LOITER ............................... 34 RTL ..............................34 ALT_HOLD ............................34 AUTO ..............................34 References ............................35 V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 2 of 36...
Page 4: Objective
Objective To design and build a quadcopter for a workshop to be held at the Make Hack Void Hackerspace (Canberra). It is designed to be:  (Relatively) Cheap  Commonly available spare parts  Open source or hackable hardware/software where available ...
Page 5: Autopilot
For the purposes of this workshop, I will refer to the Pixhawk when referring to the board and APM when referring to the software. ESC’s The SimonK firmware is compatible with the ESC’s used in this project. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 4 of 36...
Page 6: Transmitter
Afternoon 1/2 – Outdoors flight at a local oval. Training of advanced flight modes Evening 1 Introduction to Quadcopters A quadcopter is a flying vehicle possessing 4 identical rotors, evenly spaced around the central fuselage (hub). First, quadrotors do not require mechanical linkages to vary the rotor blade pitch angle as they spin.
Page 7: Components
Provides current status to the ground station and accepts flight commands to the quadcopter. RC Transmitter: A (usually 2.4 GHz) RC radio transmitter used by the pilot to direct the quadcopter’s direction and position. Hub: The central fuselage of the quadcopter. Contains the flight electronics and battery Arm: The beam that each of the motors sit on.
Page 8: Basic Stats
 RTL – It will return to its takeoff (where the quadcopter was armed) point. Depending on the mode settings, it will either hover at a 5-10m altitude and wait for the pilot to land it or gradually descend until it lands.
Page 9: Initial Charging Of The Battery
ACRO – Advanced Mode. The RC sticks act as rate controllers rather than position controllers. There is no automatic stabilisation  LAND – lands the quadcopter on the ground at its current point More modes may become available as new versions of the APM software are released. Initial charging of the battery The2 batteries come shipped with a nominal 60% charge.
Page 10 5. Assemble the top of the hub plate. Note there are 3 plates here: 6. Along with the bottom plate, start attaching the legs: V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 9 of 36...
Page 11: Evening 2
2.html. Download these files and use then as needed in the following section. The firmware can be found at http://code.google.com/p/er9x/source/browse/trunk/er-128.hex Use the AVR programmer to connect the Transmitter’s 6-pin connector to the laptop’s USB port: 1 - The RC Transmitter connected to the AVR Programmer V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 10 of 36...
Page 12 Wait for the program to complete and confirm that there were no errors during the flashing process. To upload the settings file, go to File -> Open and select the settings file. Under General Settings, change the owner name to something unique (like your name). V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 11 of 36...
Page 13: Transmitter Setup
Throttle Warning = OFF  Switch Warning = OFF  Mode = 1 Go to the calibration page: And calibrate the sticks. Press exit to get back to the main screen. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 12 of 36...
Page 14 Press RIGHT to get to the model profiles. A number of different profiles (with their own settings) can be set up here. We need to create a profile for the quadcopter. Press RIGHT again to get into the settings for MODEL01.
Page 15: Esc Firmware Flashing
For the purposes of this workshop we are using a dedicated firmware programmer device. Using this device, line it up over the microcontroller on the ESC (taking note of the correct orientation). Hook the programmer to a laptop and load the SimonK firmware. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 14 of 36...
Page 16 The black corner of the firmware flasher aligns to the pin 1 corner (the corner on the IC with the dot). Use the “Keda (kda)” firmware variant with the “atmega 8-based brushless ESC + enable Bootloader” 8 - kkMulticopter Flash Tool setup for ESC flashing V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 15 of 36...
Page 17: Simulation
Input Method and enable the RC Controller: 9 - CRRCSim Input Selection Then go to Options -> Controls -> Configure. Select the correct channels for the sticks and calibrate the controller. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 16 of 36...
Page 18: Wiring Up The System -Power Train
10 - CRRCSim calibration page Go to Options-> Aircraft and ensure the x-config quadcopter (attitude controlled) is selected: 11 - CRRCSim model selection Return to the simulation and test that the RC Transmitter controls the simulator correctly. Use this simulation to get a feel for the quadcopter’s controls and movement.
Page 19: Propeller Balancing
Propeller Balancing Given how fast the propellers on the quadcopter spin, it is important that the propellers are balanced (equal mass on both sides). If they are not, the quadcopter may have a slight spin or drift when it is flying.
Page 20: Radio Binding (And Servo Test) And Failsafe
4. Power up the RC receiver by connecting the flight battery to the main plug on the quadcopter. The RC Receiver should be flashing at a fast rate 5. Whilst holding the bind button on the underside of the RC transmitter, switch it on.
Page 21: Evening 3
Maintain a line of sight to the quadcopter.  Watch out for trees!  Windy conditions can really toss a quadcopter around. Take this into consideration when flying.  If flying with a camera, be mindful of people’s privacy. ...
Page 22: Lipo Batteries
Keep a bucket of sand handy to put out a LiPo fire (do NOT use water to put out a LiPo fire). 14 - Results of a LiPo fire (from www.rctech.net) Propellers The propellers on a quadcopter spin at many 1000’s RPM. They can cause serious injury if they were to hit a person. V 3.1...
Page 23: Radio Interference
It is thus very important that all people near an active quadcopter are aware of the quadcopters position at all times and a prepared to run/duck as needed to avoid getting hit by it. The APM features an arm/disarm switch. When disarmed, the motors will not spin under any circumstances (barring a major software error in the APM).
Page 24 GPS/Compass module should be placed as far as practical from any high-power cables and ESC’s. Note the forward arrows on the Pixhawk and GPS/Compass modules. In both cases they should be lined up to point towards the front of the quadcopter. An example layout of the parts on the quadcopter: V 3.1...
Page 25: Connecting The Ground Station
The instructions for this section will show the setup via the 3 major ground station software programs – Mission Planner, MAVProxy and APM Planner 2. The Android apps are limited in the amount of setup they can perform on the quadcopter, so they will not be covered in this section.
Page 26: Firmware Loading
Stable button. upper right of the window. The “ArduCopter-v2.px4” firmware is the one Click the image of the quadcopter to begin the Select the Stable button to use the stable used on the Pixhawk. upload process.
Page 27: Telemetry Radio Setup
Make sure the local and remote radios are both changed before pressing the “Save settings” button. The radios will need to be rebooted before the new settings take effect. Connect to the APM via the radios and confirm that you’re getting the telemetry. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 26 of 36...
Page 28: Telemetry Radio Connection
115200 for USB cable, 57600 roll/pitch changes USB cable, 57600 through radio through radio Rotate the quadcopter and check the roll/pitch values look sensible. Go outside and confirm a solid GPS lock. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 27 of 36...
Page 29: Rc Radio Calibration
Press the Calibrate Radio button and follow the prompts. Waggle the RC sticks and buttons to confirm they all work. Go through the above process so the Pixhawk knows the min/max extents of your RC controller. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 28 of 36...
Page 30: Accelerometer Calibration
Calibrate Accel button and follow the prompts. follow the prompts. This calibration enables the Pixhawk to account for not being perfectly flat mounted on the quadcopter and for any individual variations in the accelerometer measurements. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop...
Page 31: Compass Calibration
This calibration enables the compass to account for magnetic declination in Canberra (the 12.19), the orientation of the compass on the quadcopter (it’s upside- down on the GPS/Compass module) and any local metal sources on the quadcopter (calibration/compassmot).
Page 32: Loading Parameters
Press Load to open the open the parameters file. Click on the Load file and then Press Write to write the parameters to the Download to load the parameters onto the Pixhawk. quadcopter. V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 31 of 36...
Page 33: Motor And Esc Tests And Calibration
Next, the motor spin direction needs to be checked. Hook up the battery to the APM and power up the quadcopter. Push rudder (left stick) right for 4 seconds to ARM the quadcopter. Increase the throttle to 1/5 and confirm that all the motors spin.
Page 34: Build Checklist
DISARM the quadcopter via the reverse process. For safety reasons, the quadcopter will not ARM if the throttle is not at zero of if it does not have an accurate (<2m HDOP) GPS lock.
Page 35: Evening 4
Fly the quadcopter around for a bit and switch the Channel 7 (which is mapped to RTL in the provided params file) to on. The quadcopter will then fly to 5m altitude, fly to the point at which the quadcopter was ARMed and land. This mode is very useful if you ever lose control of your quadcopter.
Page 36: References
In this case the quadcopter will fly to waypoints 1, 2 and then 3. The DO_JUMP waypoint at the end tells the Pixhawk to go to waypoint 1. Thus it will repeat the set of waypoints until told otherwise. Despite what the above image indicates, it will NOT go to the home point.
Page 37 DIYDrones community site www.diydrones.com MHV Quadcopter repository https://canberrauav.readthedocs.org/en/latest/quadcopter-workshops/quadcopter-workshop- 2.html ER9X firmware: http://code.google.com/p/er9x/ ESC Firmware: https://github.com/sim-/tgy V 3.1 MHV Quadcopter Workshop Page 36 of 36...