Problem with parameters changing on restart

[jonbrotherton]

I am trying to set up a simple 1 axis tilt for a camera or flashlight using a 9G servo on CH6 and I want it to stabilize using the flight controller. (Stock Cube, Open Solo 3.0, no gimbal installed)

It works great when I set it up as a servo gimbal in mission planner but when I reboot the Solo it changes a few of the parameters.

I set Type to Servo, Tilt to RC6, check mark the Stabilise Tilt box, Input CH RC6.
I set Roll and Pan to Disable and uncheck the Roll and Pan Stabilise check boxes.
Works great. I have control of the camera tilt using the controller paddle and it stabilizes in the tilt axis only.

Turn Solo off and back on and when I roll the Solo side to side the servo tilts up and down.

Went back to Mission Planner and the gimbal page to find Roll and Pan Stabilise check boxes are now checked. (possibly same with the Reverse checkbox in the Tilt section.) Changing them back and rebooting yields the same results. The always change back.

I have tried changing the parameters in the Full Parameters and uploading them with the same results.
I have tried it using Tower to change the parameters.
I have tried it on 3 different Solos all of which are Stock Cube and Open Solo 3.0.

The specific parameters that change are:

MNT_STAB_PAN =1
MNT_STAB_ROLL=1
RC6_REV=0 (not sure about this one)

I have also tried turning ON the Roll and Pan axis settings and giving them other channels (RC9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) with Input CH set to various settings but they still affect the servo on CH6.

Maybe there are other parameters that are affecting it or another way of doing this that I don't know about.

I am hoping there is a fix or a work around for it. Any ideas?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

This was reported last year too, with no real reason why then either. Looking at it again with my stock cube solo running Open Solo. I configured it for a servo gimbal like you did. Same results.

But if I hooked up to the cube by USB and had the rest of the Solo powered off, it stopped happening. So it's something else on the Solo doing it. There is nothing in the IMX doing it. And there is nothing in the ArduCopter code doing it. I checked. That leaves the gimbal... So I unplugged the gimbal and tried again. No more magic parameter changes.

The gimbal is apparently setting this over mavlink. Even if it is not enabled. And other than unplugging it, there is no way to stop it from happening. So if you need the gimbal still, you'll need to put some python code in the shotmanager that sets the parameters on boot every time. Annoying.

 

[XevetS]

Just to make sure you are hitting the write parameters button yes?
Nevermind....

 

[jonbrotherton]

Just to make sure you are hitting the write parameters button yes?
Nevermind....

Yes. In the gimbal settings page it seems to save when you change it but I tried hitting write parameters over and over and over. Lol I have started over and reset everything over and over. It seems like with Servo as the Type the Stabilise parameters are linked to each other. If they are all off it seems they all stay off. If Tilt is on they all come on at startup.

 

[jonbrotherton]

This was reported last year too, with no real reason why then either. Looking at it again with my stock cube solo running Open Solo. I configured it for a servo gimbal like you did. Same results.

But if I hooked up to the cube by USB and had the rest of the Solo powered off, it stopped happening. So it's something else on the Solo doing it. There is nothing in the IMX doing it. And there is nothing in the ArduCopter code doing it. I checked. That leaves the gimbal... So I unplugged the gimbal and tried again. No more magic parameter changes.

The gimbal is apparently setting this over mavlink. Even if it is not enabled. And other than unplugging it, there is no way to stop it from happening. So if you need the gimbal still, you'll need to put some python code in the shotmanager that sets the parameters on boot every time. Annoying.

Thanks for helping me. These are Solos with no gimbal installed.

I printed a mount that goes in the gimbal bay and it's 1 servo soldered to ch6 (pin 14).

The only other common mod is Here and mast on all of them.

Yours has stopped changing back? These 3 still do it without a gimbal. 2 of them never had a gimbal and 1 had one and it is removed.

If I'm doing something wrong I can't figure out how. Tried it all different ways and searched before posting. Saw the question from before and no resolution.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Damn it. Just rebooted again and they're checked off again. IDK what's causing it now.

 

[jonbrotherton]

Damn it. Just rebooted again and they're checked off again. IDK what's causing it now.

I can't think of anyone that could figure it out but you Matt. I have already done everything I can think of so I will have to live with it.

 

[jonbrotherton]

I haven't tested if it would do the same thing if was trying to use the Roll Stabilise by itself instead of only Tilt.

 

[mike_kelly]

I always try and simplify a problem to it's basic terms. I would ignore the Gimbal setup page. It is simply reading the parameters and there could be a bug in Mission Planner. So only deal with the Advanced parameter page to set and view parameters. Next when things get really weird I have found that parameter memory appears to get corrupted sometimes and if I do a parameter reset and set the needed parameters again manual sometimes things return to normal.

Bugs get accidentally added during changes in Ardupilot so it is also useful to change firmware versions to see if the problem got introduced at some point. I found some gimbal problems that were introduced after 3.3 that were resolved in 3.5. You could check newer firmware on your stock cube to test this possibility without flying with it for troubleshooting sake.

Just some ideas, good luck.

 

[jonbrotherton]

Thanks for the ideas. I will post more info if I make progress.

 

[mike_kelly]

Since you have tried multiple FC's it is unlikely to be corrupted memory unless you are using a common parameter file with a bad value or two.

But trying different firmware is a good test and you can go all the way up to the current version even with a stock cube for troubleshooting. It would tell you a lot.