solo stability problems

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Hi all.
I've been flying a solo for about a year, climbing the usual steep learning curve and pretty much overcoming problems as I go along. I really enjoy flying it.
I upgraded to the mro gps last year and it has worked well.
Over this past winter I loaded open solo and purchased solex to fly.
But recently the solo has been having some stability problems, and had several landing flipovers.
A recent short log is attached.
The automatic log analyzer in mp indicates a large offset on the compass and the solo constantly asks for the compass calibration.
There's also a gps failsafe error and a radio error beng reported. Not sure how to dal with those
The main sympton is that the machine won't stay level even when in stabilize mode, so am I right in assuming it doesn't actually need the compass or GPS for that?
I looked at the des pitch roll and yaw in comparison the actual. And this seems to describe what I'm seeing.
The roll and yaw are pretty stable with the actual following the desired quite closely.
But for the pitch, the desired pitch is pretty smooth, but the actual is bouncing around a lot, and this is what i see in flight.
It repeatedly jerks, as if trying to correct the pitch.
Any advice would be greaty appreciated.
Also, I just bought a green cube and also a here gps. I'd like to resolve this problem before installing them.
But then again, maybe those upgrades would also be the solution ?
Thanks to everyone for their hard work on this project.
 

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Did you purchase a “ new “ HERE manufactured in 2018? Because if you did, you may want to wait before you upgrade. Hex, used a different chip and Solex will not detect the GPS. They are working on these issues so maybe wait till you are sure the issues are worked out. If you install a new HERE, it will not work.
 
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I think that the green cube WILL solve your pitch problem it is probably a IMU hanging up. Try a good smack on the bottom, it will SOMETIMES loosen them up.
 
Thanks for those thoughts.

I tried giving her a little swat.. Not too hard..

No change in behaviour.

Thanks for the feedback on the here gps, I've been reading alot about it and wondered if I should hold off. The mro has worked fine (when everything else works), so I'll plan to stick with it for now.

One other odd thing, solex often gives a very brief audio message 'searching for gps' immediately after disarming, even though it displays 17 satellites on the display.It does this most times I and/disarm, and within 1 or 2 seconds, it appears 'ready to fly'.

Thanks again
 
Hi all.
I've been flying a solo for about a year, climbing the usual steep learning curve and pretty much overcoming problems as I go along. I really enjoy flying it.
I upgraded to the mro gps last year and it has worked well.
Over this past winter I loaded open solo and purchased solex to fly.
But recently the solo has been having some stability problems, and had several landing flipovers.
A recent short log is attached.
The automatic log analyzer in mp indicates a large offset on the compass and the solo constantly asks for the compass calibration.
There's also a gps failsafe error and a radio error beng reported. Not sure how to dal with those
The main sympton is that the machine won't stay level even when in stabilize mode, so am I right in assuming it doesn't actually need the compass or GPS for that?
I looked at the des pitch roll and yaw in comparison the actual. And this seems to describe what I'm seeing.
The roll and yaw are pretty stable with the actual following the desired quite closely.
But for the pitch, the desired pitch is pretty smooth, but the actual is bouncing around a lot, and this is what i see in flight.
It repeatedly jerks, as if trying to correct the pitch.
Any advice would be greaty appreciated.
Also, I just bought a green cube and also a here gps. I'd like to resolve this problem before installing them.
But then again, maybe those upgrades would also be the solution ?
Thanks to everyone for their hard work on this project.
Looking at the log and parameters, it is not using the external compass (COMPASS_EXTERNAL is set to 0). It should be set to 1 to use the compass in the leg (assuming you have a compass in the leg).
 
Hi carpy thanks for noticing that.

Yes for sure the stock compass is in the leg.

I've got mission planner open with advanced parameters enabled. I connected and it looks like compass external is actually already set to 1 just sitting here connected to solo in the house. extern2 and 3 are set to 0.

Not sure what this means.
 
Hi carpy thanks for noticing that.

Yes for sure the stock compass is in the leg.

I've got mission planner open with advanced parameters enabled. I connected and it looks like compass external is actually already set to 1 just sitting here connected to solo in the house. extern2 and 3 are set to 0.

Not sure what this means.
Go to Mission Planner, DataFlash Logs tab and select Create KML + gpx, open your log. After complete, you should see a file in the same directory as your dataflash log with a .param extension. In that text file, look for COMPASS_EXTERNAL.
 
Right you are. COMPASS_EXTERNAL was noted as 0 in the log file, even though it was recorded as 1 when mission planner connected to the solo. I also noticed that compass orient was set to 0 in parameters the mission planner receives from the solo, but it was reading 38 in the log. I'm just getting used to looking at logs, so I'm probably muddling up those descriptions.

Anyways, after watching one of the videos from Jesters drones I realized that the compass orient parameter for the stock solo compass should be 38. So mission planner had it (half) wrong).

I changed the orient to 38 in mp when connected to the solo, did a write of the parameters, re-calibrated the imu and compass and rebooted after each one.

She flys straight and true.!!!!

I don't have a great feeling that I completely understand what went wrong (I don't recall changing any parameters at any time) or that I could fix it again,, but what the heck. It worked..

Thanks very much carpy for spotting that compass problem in the log... and to usmc86 and DaveB thanks to you as well for your thoughts and advice.

I'm back in the air.

Chuck
 
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Maybe the Here parameter package got loaded in Solex. That would change compass orient.
 
So, this was P2P last update from Feb on the HERE Compass:

"If you're using the stock cube, the old version of ArduCopter does not have the driver for the new version of the HERE, and it never will. So for the time being, stock cubes will require the older version of the HERE. If you're running Open Solo on the green cube, you have ArduCopter 3.5.4, and it has the driver for the new version of the HERE already. But, you would need to manually change the COMPASS_ORIENT parameter to something else since it is not 0 anymore. ArduCopter 3.5.5 has recently been released, and has that orientation fix baked into it, meaning the COMPASS_ORIENT parameter should be 0 again. This is **not** baked into Open Solo, and I haven't put 3.5.5 up on Solex or SidePilot yet"

"That said, the required slew rate protection will *probably* be added to ArduCopter master in the near future. That would allow everyone, stock or green, to run ArduCopter master and solve all our worldly problems. There is no date, but it's been discussed and likely to happen.
"

Of course P2P has been pretty busy lately so it may be a while before we see the 3.5.5 update, but still, looks like a fix for the new HERE will be coming, so as they say, patience is a virtue!
 
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A brief update..

Well not so fast, the setting reverted to the 'old ways' next time \i booted solo and headed out for a bunch of flying.

Then I was never able to get it to 'hold' the changes I tried to make through mission planner. I've got a lot to learn about those settings...

So today I installed the green cube and that seems more promising.. Two batteries later she is still flying stable. I'll report back if it goes bad again in case anyone else is struggling with a similar problem.

Thanks for the update on the here gps, I had seen most of that on another thread. But when I read that message from pedals closely it seems that my current setup (green cube plus open solo / arducopter 3.5.4 should support the new here. It just needs to adjust compass_orient. Does any one know what that setting should be (as noted in pedals message it isn't 0) ??

Thanks again for all the help.
 
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You may have to ask Paul @ Jester’s Drones.
He told me that they were working on a solution but I haven’t heard it’s been resolved yet-
Reach out to him- because if the system is not allowing Solex to detect your gps- maybe your solo will take off never to be seen again.
I don’t know.
 
I’m waiting to set up two new Solos like my primary flyer- I was told to wait until the issues have been resolved
 
I’m waiting to set up two new Solos like my primary flyer- I was told to wait until the issues have been resolved
I would try different orients of the compass using mission planner until I was able to calibrate it properly with no EKF errors real easy. I don't see how this is a problem or issue? The compass can be mounted in any position and can be compensated for by setting compass_orient in 45 degree increments...once the proper value is set it should work.... I dont have the newer HERE or I would give it a go..

UPDATE
: Here are the values for the newer HERE as long as its facing upright and forward,
Compass_Orient value from 0 to 26
or ROTATION_PITCH_180_YAW_90
 
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