Problems with First Quad Build, Can't Take Off Without Full Throttle

[alm865]

Nice, you'll have to let me know how yours goes!

I took my Quad up for it's maiden flight, works awesome!! Had my first crash too, had the quad up-side-down and didn't correct in time before the ground rudely interrupted my fun. Luckily only an arm broke and I've got spares.

Still needs tuning but it is flying really well. I will post videos probably after this weekend when I can fly it next.

A little bit off topic but are there any easy add-ons for the KK2.1? I.e. compass to hold heading or a gps addon? I'm aware the standard firmware cannot do it but while I have a programmer and a will I am keen to experiment. I think the answer is probably no and I'll need another flight controller, I'm open to suggestions though.

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate you need steveis1.8s1pro on the KK2.1.5 , steveis1.9 pro is for the acro mini ,so it may play up from time to time , steveis1.8s1pro is super stable and flies mega well on the default settings it was made for the KK 2.1.5

 

[GJH105775]

I really agree with Neil. I recently installed Steveis and found it is exponentially better. Not only is the throttle smoother and it more stable. You have a lot more functions and controls.

 

[alm865]

Thanks for the advice Holtneil, I have just re-flashed with steveis1.8s1pro. Just gotta wait a few days until I'm home in daylight to test it again =-D

On a side note. Turns out my crash totalled a motor too, shaft was bent a bit causing some vibration so I replaced it.

Also some advice for any newbies that may come across this thread in the future, never fly with low batteries in your controller! I was testing the turning directions of my motors this morning and the controller went dead and my quad went off on it's own. Luckily it was in manual mode and flipped, and I was able to turn it off. It was not coming back though, the throttle went to full and it was talking off quick!!

 

[GJH105775]

Hmmm, no sailsafe? What Tx/Rx do you have?

 

[alm865]

I have a cheap FlySky FS-CT6B Transmitter and a FlySky FS-R6B receiver. Similar to this one.

I would have thought it would have a fail safe too... I do notice that if you turn the Transmitter on and off I get errors on the KK2.1, I would have thought that it would be okay.

 

[GJH105775]

I believe that is an issue with the KK, because mine does that. I am using a cheap HKTR6a (Hobby King Tx) and it does the same thing. You may want to invest into something like a Turnigy 9X or Orange transmitter and receiver. If you fly this much it will be a most likely be a matter of when it becomes a fly-away, nos so much if.

 

[alm865]

Fair enough, I've heard of fly-aways and it sounds pretty frustrating, can't really do much when it happens except for watch...

I wonder if I can wire in some sort of kill switch? The receiver does have an led to say whether it can see the Transmitter. I might be able to dodgy up a relay that kills power to the KK2.1 if it loses the Transmitter. A crash is better than a fly away!

 

[GJH105775]

That is what my cheap one does, you can do this with an Arduino. You could have it come right off from the LED, or monitor the PWM signals. It would not be much (if any) harder to have it cut you to lets say 20% throttle.

 

[alm865]

Thanks for the idea, I'll have to ponder for a while... I have a few spare nano's lying about, it wouldn't be hard to add it into the circuit to monitor things.

 

[GJH105775]

Probably only need to monitor the LED or throttle.

 

[alm865]

Hmm just looking through the Steveis code. It would be pretty easy to add a "jmp reset" in if armed and has lost the throttle input...

I'll think about it some more, I'm thinking modding the Steveis code might be better than a hardware hack.

 

[GJH105775]

Less latency, and not too hard

 

[glowingturnip]

my txrx supports fail-safes - was wondering what the best settings would be - I was thinking centered sticks for roll, pitch and yaw, and self-level on on the aux, but what to put on the throttle - either 0 or a small number, meaning it would crash/land if there was a transmitter blip, or no failsafe meaning it carries on (hopefully hovering) at the last throttle you gave it, until you regain connection - what do people think ?

 

[GJH105775]

If you go to high and it continues at the same throttle it could end up anywhere and your chances of finding it are sadly small. You could have it set the throttle to a smaller number to cause it to have a controlled decent, if you regain connection before that then great.


Also out of range is not the only cause, your Tx could fail.

 

[alm865]

my txrx supports fail-safes - was wondering what the best settings would be - I was thinking centered sticks for roll, pitch and yaw, and self-level on on the aux, but what to put on the throttle - either 0 or a small number, meaning it would crash/land if there was a transmitter blip, or no failsafe meaning it carries on (hopefully hovering) at the last throttle you gave it, until you regain connection - what do people think ?

Out of curiosity, what Transmitter / Receiver do you have?

On a side note, I'm slowly getting the Dev Environment ready to compile the Steveis Firmware. You need VS2010 (check) but then you also need some extra SP1 patches, and you need the latest AVR Studio...

 

[alm865]

Okay, getting somewhere now!!! Got VS2010 to compile a .hex file and it matches the one provided in the .zip file, first milestone!!!

For anyone else interested in compiling the Steveis Pro firmware, in particular KK2V1_1V18S1Pro :

1. Install VS2010 and install VS2010 SP1
2. Download and install Atmel Studio 6.2 (it may ask to update VS2010 again, just do it)
3. Start a new Assembler project, make up a name
   
4. Select ATmega644p as the processor
5. Under Solution Explorer tab: Remove the .asm file from the project that was automatically generated (don't delete it because you will need to see where to add the steveis files later on..)
   
6. Copy all the Steveis source files to your project directory in the same directory as the automatically generated, blank .asm file
   
7. Under Solution Explorer tab: right click on your project and select add -> existing item (shortcut shift+ctrl+a) and select the KK2V1_1V18S1Pro.asm file
8. Under Solution Explorer tab: right click on the KK2V1_1V18S1Pro.asm file and select 'set as entry file'
9. Select release mode instead of debug
   
10. Under build select build solution (F7)
11. Under the output window you should see "Build succeeded.
    ========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped =========="
12. Done!!!

I haven't got enough time to put up a more detailed version yet, but I will eventually...

Update: added my project files with the steveis firmware and a screenshot

 

[GJH105775]

Thanks for the guide. You should do a thread under coustom programming.

 

[alm865]

Will do, I'll put some sort of tutorial there in the next few days.

I think I've finally nutted out my mod, I've attached what I've added.

Now to test and see if it resets while armed and I turn off my cheap receiver. It should just reset the flight controller and go back into the main menu disarmed.

I hate assembly, my head is about to explode, I much prefer C code, why are If's so complicated in assembly ;-)

I won't put too many more posts in this thread, I'll create another one with more detail soon.

 

[GJH105775]

Can C be compiled to assembly like an arduino? They have thesameprocessors?