Part 2

autolander notes:




accelerometer to detect "contact"

Ultrasonics for detecting height



Use steering that is proportional to speed (air)

use speed that is proportional to distance from WP?? (Not for landing)





Try 2.6.2 - worked

Try waypoint writer - did not work

fix groundstation to work with last 3 waypoints

check prox program - why does it not send "init"? Perhaps the XBEE protection or waiting for lock

set up D/R on 6i or use futaba or hitec



prox 10-200 max at 6m - must be near surface at startup

optical 475-0 max at 4 inches



Try 2.6.2 RC

Try 2.6.2 prox

Try 2.3 or 2.5.1



Change ASP to PRX



Use Ch5 and Ch6 to trigger the 3 modes of Ardupilot

see "mode fix" program

used Spektrum DX6i and set the flap switch for full travel

Ch5 0 = 540, 1 = 954

Ch6 0 = 954, 1 = 540



Does not work with 3.3V Arduino

Will work with stamp



Da plan for Sunday

1. Easystar with battery mounted below (add wheels) and EM406 with IMU - Stabilize and Auto (pin 13, no ASP)

2. Test Apprentice with Stabilize then Auto (pin 11)



NOTE: on IMU, OUT = TX, IN = RX - I hooked OUT from GPS to IN of IMU

on Ardupilot TX = TX, RX = RX





TODO:

Change servo for rudder (chewed)

Check mounting and output for airspeed sensor

Look at output for HOME settings



Re-arrange Apprentice with FMA co-pilot + Ardupilot



Check ALH = next waypoint altitude

See Jason's comments - ALH should have been 50 + the home altitude, not just 50.

That means your home was 0 when the first waypoint was read in. Not good.

I've added some verification to make sure this doesn't happen



Check prox sensor to see if it is affected by wind blowing. If not, then we may need to filter the

noise with a lowpass or Kalman



Test results: Prox reading not affected by wind. Capacitor across GND and AN worked to filter noise.

100 uF





July 15

Need larger cap on prox for stability. or maybe more math to filter out the noise

Here's a link

http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14391



Try with same motor. May need to change out the 400



Also, add the cap to the uP power supply - makes no difference



Changed 400 to brushless - great thrust but confuses the IMU





Try FPV with standard 4800 bps link on audio channel, scal back accordingly.



For now, take out the ground detect routine since the EZ1 is noisy. Otherwise you will alternate between takeoff

and waypoint routines.



Perhaps use the optical sensor for height until EZ1 issues are resolved. See sensor_noise code in Arduino



Experiment with the 1/0 digital control based on ArduIMU output and Arduino increase/decrease input.



Remove tail wag routine for ground start.



Consider http://www.graysonhobby.com/catalog/dynam-brushless-hawksky-p-865.html?osCsid=bdf82d07086ae02d3943f8992174a5dc



Build easyglider pro with innerds from Easystar - Attach IMU+ telemetry (no control just yet) and log performance

for calibration against GPS and attitude e.g. rates for turn, climb, glide - speeds for level flight -

glide with no power



later, add camera and groundstation software



Ardupilot = servo controller - 3 bit input @ 50Hz

Arduino SB = logic, receive from IMU and send to Ardupilot

ArduIMU = AHRS



7 July 2010

Had a great test flight with the Radian and Co-pilot yesterday. Ready for GPS logging.

Connected EM406 to Sirfdemo using Jordi's adapter board.

Out (blue) > Tx

In (Yellow) > Rx

Factory reset to NMEA @4800



Great flights

GPS update for google earth is ok but not good enough for navigation (update rate too long)

Also recorded raw NMEA strings:

Data for turn rate, climb rate and descent

Can use for navigation, takeoff and landings.

Descent rate approx 0.5m/s, gradient approx 1/10 or 6 degrees

Need to adjust gain on Co-pilot



Now to work on ground station using GPS data only.





2 August 2010

Got the ground station working for GPS data. Finished the monitors for climb and turn rates.

Recorded some nice screen captures for the flights (See My Documents > Processing > GPS



Works great for navigation and plane path. Tested range up to 700m and GPS data is OK. Plane just barely

visible. Nice for glider owners.



Also compared: Google Earth, Microsoft Streets and Trips. Google earth is nice for real satellite pictures

of the area but does not update fast enough for navigation. MS Streets and Trips can give you nav data but

altitude is difficult to read (small font)





Next up:

build an easyglider > try new 2.7 AP software

Write a groundstation for IMU. Incorporate COG ILS and other indicators (fly it)

Write software for AP using IMU, Arduino Pro, Ardupilot (as a servo controller)

mount camera on easystar for FPV

use AP 2.3 with Radian for simple AP (AP controls Rudder and Throttle)

easystar with edf

cheap glider with 2 edfs



Prototype circuits:

APC

Sparkfun cheap runs



My autopilot > ardupilot w. Co-pilot in Radian

use 2 channels 9,10

servo routine

new data flag for 50Hz loop



Ardupilot 2.3

Elevator, Rudder (Check with scope)

Throttle fed from D8 (no reading in this version)



Fri Aug 06, 2010

Servo_ardu works! Yay. Conditions - millis only works with 0017 and up



This means that the servo library will send a continuous stream of pulses. i.e. Ardupilot can feed Co-Pilot



Now I need to get a nice NMEA parser. Try to rip it from Ardupilot but stay with 4800

Worst case use the Parallax GPS



Perhaps write a program for EasyArdupilot using gyros instead of thermos

Radian Waypoints

51.128388 -114.251375

51.128711 -114.248586

51.125964 -114.249015

51.127095 -114.252062



SUnday Aug 08

Got Stoopudpilot (Planetest03) working with Groundstation16

Tested ok with signals feeding into Co-pilot.



Need to tune gains and Throttle settings



11:59 AM 8/15/2010

Included routines to record extra data when mode switch is in middle position



Flight test: Seemed to find WP1 and WP2

TODO: Add more info to groundstation> Mode, WP#, errors, TOW (to correlate log from video)

Fix wp and landing display. [done]



//try to modify AP2.7 with my h calculations