Need help triggering a standard servo.

[First sight]

I need help triggering a Servo to release cargo on Mission planner. Not using a gimbal at all so I can use Channel 6 if I want and I'm very skilled at soldering just am having a little bit of issues figuring out the programming can someone please help me I'm custom building two of these drones for someone whether or not he gets permission to use them is irrelevant he's paying me to build them so I need to learn how to do it. Help..! Need the Drone to fly to the destination descend set on the ground release the cargo take off and return to the home location I know the Drone will land take off and return home so I just need to put the servo command after the land command but also need help in programming the servo to work I'm using the standard fishing release servos to hold up a small container that the man plans to deliver food in. As I said all the part 107 permission is his responsibility I am just responsible for building the Drone that does the job I thought the solo would be perfect since it was open source but this is a lot different than ardupilot which is where my familiarity lies so I'm having a little bit of trouble. Can someone please help me?

 

[First sight]

By the way I have roughly a month to get this figured out and completed and I have most of what I believe I will need

 

[pyrate]

When did they approve delivery under 107, I thought that was still a no no

 

[andrew.baker.142]

There are a few threads on this forum that should get you started. Try a quick search.
I have not done this myself yet.

 

[just_bruce]

When did they approve delivery under 107, I thought that was still a no no

According to this: Fact Sheet – Small Unmanned Aircraft Regulations (Part 107)

You can.

 

[First sight]

ok; as of now, per my relentless, Ahab like pursuit of this thing, all I really need to know is how to make the gimbal tilt through mission planner. If I can do that the rest is a cake walk. any help?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I would not use the gimbal tilt control to grab/release a payload. That's asking for problems. Your cargo delivery may end up being more of a bomb drop. Servo outputs 6, 7, & 8 are available on the accessory bay of the Solo. You can set the function of these outputs with the RCx_FUNCTION parameter. Based on the function you select, you can do various things with it from auto missions, controller buttons, and GCS/App functions. RC6_FUNCTION is already set to follow the gimbal pitch, and that's pretty much ArduCopter standard configuration. So I would use 7 or 8 for this. You can easily drive a servo with this.

That being said, there is no means to automatically rearm and takeoff once the copter has landed. Once it lands and disarms, there is no adding additional mission waypoints or commands, which means no rearming and taking off to RTL. You will need a telemetry or controller connection for that. So if this thing is going to be flying BVLOS and out of range, this plan will not work no matter what you do with the servos.

 

[First sight]

I would not use the gimbal tilt control to grab/release a payload. That's asking for problems. Your cargo delivery may end up being more of a bomb drop. Servo outputs 6, 7, & 8 are available on the accessory bay of the Solo. You can set the function of these outputs with the RCx_FUNCTION parameter. Based on the function you select, you can do various things with it from auto missions, controller buttons, and GCS/App functions. RC6_FUNCTION is already set to follow the gimbal pitch, and that's pretty much ArduCopter standard configuration. So I would use 7 or 8 for this. You can easily drive a servo with this.

That being said, there is no means to automatically rearm and takeoff once the copter has landed. Once it lands and disarms, there is no adding additional mission waypoints or commands, which means no rearming and taking off to RTL. You will need a telemetry or controller connection for that. So if this thing is going to be flying BVLOS and out of range, this plan will not work no matter what you do with the servos.

Hey thanks for the reply. I have actually successfully, several times, programmed a mission through apm planner with commands after landing. So far though, only so many have worked, for instance, I have programmed solo to go to waypoint one, land, takeoff, and rtl, and it comes back to the original arming point. this is of course still within range of the controller. if a command is added after the land command, the copter does not disarm. It slows the props for a few seconds, speeds them back up, and takes off and returns home, without ever disarming. I cannot remember all the other commands I added after the landing except that I can add waypoints, points of interest, and rtl after the land command and it works, that being said, I am not using a gimbal, so there will be no gyros telling the servo what to do. I will merely be using channel 6 as a standard servo, with the ability to use the paddles to control it as well as apm planner. if I cannot get this to work, I will use channel 7 or 8, but so far I have been able to get a servo to respond on my own solo while the gimbal is attached using 5v to the servo and the pwm signal on channel 6. Have to do more experimentation on channel 7 and 8. Again, the copter will always be line of sight and within controller range. the delivery will be across the street. It is up to the customer to get all the kinks with the FAA out over crossing the street, my job is to simply build and deliver a pair of drones that will do the job.

 

[XevetS]

I need help triggering a Servo to release cargo on Mission planner. Not using a gimbal at all so I can use Channel 6 if I want and I'm very skilled at soldering just am having a little bit of issues figuring out the programming can someone please help me I'm custom building two of these drones for someone whether or not he gets permission to use them is irrelevant he's paying me to build them so I need to learn how to do it. Help..! Need the Drone to fly to the destination descend set on the ground release the cargo take off and return to the home location I know the Drone will land take off and return home so I just need to put the servo command after the land command but also need help in programming the servo to work I'm using the standard fishing release servos to hold up a small container that the man plans to deliver food in. As I said all the part 107 permission is his responsibility I am just responsible for building the Drone that does the job I thought the solo would be perfect since it was open source but this is a lot different than ardupilot which is where my familiarity lies so I'm having a little bit of trouble. Can someone please help me?

Channel 7 is the pause/brake button on your transmitter you can grab a pwm signal from the accessory port header on the mainboard.. this will give you the control you need to swing a servo. Long press on the pause/brake button will activate the servo one way and a short press will activate the servo in the opposite direction. here is a link to the hack>> Extend 3DR Solo Accessory Bay - Hackster.io

 

[John Githens]

Channel 7 is the pause/brake button on your transmitter you can grab a pwm signal from the accessory port header on the mainboard.. this will give you the control you need to swing a servo. Long press on the pause/brake button will activate the servo one way and a short press will activate the servo in the opposite direction. here is a link to the hack>> Extend 3DR Solo Accessory Bay - Hackster.io

I have upgraded all of my Solo systems to 3.0.0 (but not yet to use the Green Cube).
I have connected a servo to pin 19, and a nearby pad with +5VDC, and a ground pad.
I also used Tower to change the RC7 parameter on a Solo from zero to 1.
Unfortunately I am seeing intermittent behavior, including both haptic bumps and Controller displays. Sometimes "On/High", sometimes "Off/Low" in the lower part of the display. Power is getting to the servo. The servo does change state, just not when expected. Most often, the output at pin 19 appears to get hung up in the "On/High" state. Occasionally but not predictably the state will shift to "Off/Low" after seemingly random taps or hold-downs of the Pause button.

I've tried swapping Controllers (no change, although I did discover a sticky Pause button, now fixed).
I've re-soldered all connections (no change).
I've rerouted cabling to the servo (no change).
I am beginning to think that upgrading to v3.0.0 has resulted in different-from-stock-Solo behavior with pin 19.
In searching for an answer, I discovered this comment: "my pwm range was too high, shortening the range fixed it."
If that "fix" works, does anyone have a suggestion for how to change the PWM range in OpenSolo v3.0.0, and how to set the parameter values that are likely to work?

On the other hand, my assumptions could be wrong!

 

[XevetS]

I have upgraded all of my Solo systems to 3.0.0 (but not yet to use the Green Cube).
I have connected a servo to pin 19, and a nearby pad with +5VDC, and a ground pad.
I also used Tower to change the RC7 parameter on a Solo from zero to 1.
Unfortunately I am seeing intermittent behavior, including both haptic bumps and Controller displays. Sometimes "On/High", sometimes "Off/Low" in the lower part of the display. Power is getting to the servo. The servo does change state, just not when expected. Most often, the output at pin 19 appears to get hung up in the "On/High" state. Occasionally but not predictably the state will shift to "Off/Low" after seemingly random taps or hold-downs of the Pause button.

I've tried swapping Controllers (no change, although I did discover a sticky Pause button, now fixed).
I've re-soldered all connections (no change).
I've rerouted cabling to the servo (no change).
I am beginning to think that upgrading to v3.0.0 has resulted in different-from-stock-Solo behavior with pin 19.
In searching for an answer, I discovered this comment: "my pwm range was too high, shortening the range fixed it."
If that "fix" works, does anyone have a suggestion for how to change the PWM range in OpenSolo v3.0.0, and how to set the parameter values that are likely to work?

On the other hand, my assumptions could be wrong!

Its a long press/short press of the pause button that changes the PWM signal hi/low on the solo..

 

[John Githens]

Its a long press/short press of the pause button that changes the PWM signal hi/low on the solo..

Yes, I just read up on background in github.
Found a "private" note here. Seems to imply that the constant for DSMLowValue should be 1000, and the value for DSMHighVal should be 1500.
My current values are:
Low = 1100
High = 1900.

 

[XevetS]

So is it working as intented?

 

[John Githens]

So is it working as intented?

No it is not. That's what I wrote about in post #10. I have not attempted to change those values.

 

[XevetS]

I used the pause button on a custom build to activate the landing gear it too was a little wonky, until I switched over to AP master it was easier to configure also. You could try to shoot Paddles a conversation and see if he has any input as far as OpenSolo 3.0.

 

[John Githens]

I used the pause button on a custom build to activate the landing gear it too was a little wonky, until I switched over to AP master it was easier to configure also. You could try to shoot Paddles a conversation and see if he has any input as far as OpenSolo 3.0.

I just used Mission Planner to change the two values to 1000 and 1500 respectively. Still seeing the same problem. I need this to work flawlessly. I'll try a few more values, then contact P2P.

 

[XevetS]

I just used Mission Planner to change the two values to 1000 and 1500 respectively. Still seeing the same problem. I need this to work flawlessly. I'll try a few more values, then contact P2P.

Try to set the PWM values 1 increment at a time, I had a problem arming my Solo-Rover until I set the PWM values just right sometimes that's all it takes...

 

[John Githens]

I just used Mission Planner to change the two values to 1000 and 1500 respectively. Still seeing the same problem. I need this to work flawlessly. I'll try a few more values, then contact P2P.

Oops, just realized that changing those two parameters with Mission Planner probably has no affect on the values on Artoo (Solo Controller firmware with v3.0.0).

 

[John Githens]

Oops, just realized that changing those two parameters with Mission Planner probably has no affect on the values on Artoo (Solo Controller firmware with v3.0.0).

Guess I was wrong.
Anyway, maybe P2P has had time to explore this issue, and has some suggested values. Or some other resolution. Thanks for your input.

 

[XevetS]

Guess I was wrong.
Anyway, maybe P2P has had time to explore this issue, and has some suggested values. Or some other resolution. Thanks for your input.

No problem I'm sure you will solve it good luck,