Typhoon ARF kit with Aeroquad 32 + missing parts

[MartinL]

Thanks again for all the excellent information! I checked and the heading hold config is enabled.

If I upload new firmware/flight software do I have to redo the gyroscope/accelerometer/magentometer calibration? Or is that stored in the eeprom? I want to try to disable the magnetometer to see if that will fix my yaw issue (it was off on my first two flights, and then on during my second two flights).

I also was unaware that the battery monitor worked so I want to turn that on and see how the automatic descent on low battery works.

To answer my own question, it does not look like I need to redo the calibration.

Next issue... I used the following compiler configuration to see if it would fix the yaw issue and to enable the battery monitoring. The result was that I could arm the motors but the throttle did absolutely nothing and the motors just kept spinning at the idle/arm speed.

- dev head
- quadx
- user 400Hz PWM
- enable barometric alt hold
- enable battery monitor
- enable automatic descent on low battery

Any ideas? I'll try out some other configurations. I'll also get my own compiling setup soon.

[wooden]

As you found out, the sensor calibrations are stored in EEPROM. However, the use of the EEPROM has gone through some minor changes recently (a couple values were removed at the very least), so if you were flying 3.1 before and are now using the dev branch, you should go through a full EEPROM init and recalibration to make sure the EEPROM is up to date.

That could be the problem with your throttle, but it's tough to tell without more information. I'd recommend getting a LiPo alarm instead of using the built-in auto descent - first of all, it may begin autodescending on you when you really don't want it to. Secondly, the default battery monitor settings trigger auto-descent rather early IMO. I fly my mini without auto descent or a lipo alarm and just land after a certain amount of time (8-10 minutes depending on the battery I'm using), and use a lipo alarm on my hexa.

My guess is the throttle was just going through a problem we've seen pretty often - sometimes it clamps to minArmedThrottle and won't budge. Usually cycling the power will fix this, and when that doesn't, reuploading code generally does. If neither of those work, we'll need more information to help ya out.

@Airwolf - that's precisely what I meant =) thanks for the correction, I had actually forgotten we can turn it on and off (not sure why you'd want it off but the ability is there!)

[MartinL]

I started with the dev branch and did an EEPROM re-init then so no need to clean out the EEPROM.

I recomplied a new image with the same settings minus the auto landing and it all works now.

Also removing the magnetometer seems to have fixed my yaw issues... but it is heard to tell.

The dx8 came with a telemetry unit which reports voltage so I hooked it up to the main power distribution. I can set the transmitter to warn me when the voltage hits a certain level. 10.4V or 10.2V seems reasonable?

I by accidentally took the battery to all the way dead. I had the dx8 counting throttle up time (it would run the counter after 10% throttle) and it ended up being about 14:30 for a 3.2Amp battery. I was too busy to look at the display to see what the voltage was around 10 mins.

[wooden]

That depends on when you started using the dev branch. The EEPROM usage changed in the middle of December when I pointed out to Kenny9999 that the gyro calibration was stored in EEPROM but was done on startup no matter what anyway. If you started working on stuff before the middle of December the EEPROM usage will have been different.

10.4 or 10.2 work just fine, it depends on what kind of craft you're flying, what kind of flying you're doing, how comfortable you are draining your batteries down far, etc. My lipo alarms go off at 10V, which on my hexa gives me about 30 seconds to land before the power drops so low it can't lift itself well anymore, but on my mini that gives me about another minute of flying before it starts descending from losing power, too. Experiment to find the level you like/are comfortable with.

How dead is "all the way dead?" If you're getting any individual cell below 3.0V, you're hurting the battery and reducing the amount of charge cycles you'll be able to do on that battery. I've gone low on my mini batteries several times with little issue but I don't recommend it. As long as you can use your balance charger to rebalance the cells and charge them back to full it's fine, but it's something that should be avoided.

[MartinL]

After a crash and then some help straightening things out everything is back together and it is still nice and stable flying.

There is one potential problem. After about 20 seconds of hovering one of my ESC's was really really burning ouch hot. The other ESC's were just warm to the touch. So I shut everything off.

I let things cool off and then tested with just the battery plugged in an no motors running... this ESC got burn ouch hot without the motors on in just a couple seconds.

Problem with the motor? I have a spare motor.

Problem with the ESC? I do not have a spare ESC.

How do I diagnose this? I will try disconnecting the motor first and powering the ESC to see what happens.

One extra bit of information... my receiver is mounted on the other side of the dibond of this ESC (so on the top of the arm). As I was reassembling I tried to zip-tie the telemetry module on top of this (underneath the arm). It was not working out so I moved it else where. Could I have mashed/broken something in the ESC by having the zip-tie band or the telemetry module itself squishing against the ESC? I would feel really dumb if thats the case.


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Update:

Took it apart and connected the receiver directly to the ESC and the same motor. Nothing heated up. I put the AQ32 back in the loop and nothing heated up.

I then just replaced the motor anyways (this was one that got hit hard in the crash) and everything seems fine now. Odd. We'll see how it works in the park in the morning.

[MartinL]

While you all were freezing over a few weeks ago we had some nice weather (I still had to use my mittens though)... this is from my 'secret spot' (when I finally get an FPV setup, it will be awesome here!).

Even with some crashes, it is still flying like a champ enough to land it on a rocky pillar (a second attempt later broke a prop ):


Typhoon with a faint little rainbow:


And this last weekend managed to get down to the secret spot again... and I did the Typhoon 'throw'... I have an animated GIF of it to post but the forum seems to convert it to a jpg .

[Mikro]

HEY! I want to fly with you! Let me know the next time you plan on flying here (if you're willing to share your secret spot). I can also give you a tour of the AQ shop!

[MartinL]

I put the APC props back on today and got a little aggressive. I can confirm that its possible to unintentionally mostly flip a Typhoon while in attitude mode. It recovers nicely by itself when you reapply the throttle... so no crash!

I had two mild crashes. I'm on the top of a hill and fortunately the sides of the hill are really soft dirt (gopher mound soft) and tall grass... classic so-cal.

The first crash: while hovering out at my 3 o’clock, I wanted to start bringing it back to me quickly... so I thought 'pull back and left hard with right hand'... and instead of doing this on the right stick, it happened on the left stick and... well... that made the motors disarm. I was not too high so no damage, not even props.

The second crash: something is going on with my #4 motor. I was doing a wide left turn and the motor started pulsing. It was not why I crashed... but I don't think it helped. I crashed because I lost orientation and was loosing altitude and the old habit of cutting the throttle kicked in (first time in a while that this happened... lately I've been able to get out of binds by increasing the throttle and letting the quad level itself). Two arms are bent down again, not too bad but noticeable. Things are still stable with them bent. No props broken.

Then later when the quad was just floating about 30 feet up right near where I was standing. It was pretty windy. The #4 motor cut once for about 0.25 to 0.5 seconds, then a few seconds later did the exact same thing. After both times it recovered and levelled out. I don't think it was the wind, since it was just one motor...
so... ESC? Motor? Wiring jiggled after crashes? I will check all. I think I got an audio recording of this.

[xtrmtrk]

Is motor #4 attached to the ESC that was getting too hot?

[MartinL]

Is motor #4 attached to the ESC that was getting too hot?

I'm pretty sure this is not the ESC. It was a while ago but I think the ESC that got hot was under the RX which is motor/arm #1. I also did replace the motor connected to that ESC.

If I remember incorrectly though, what would it mean? That this motor is going bad? Or the ESC is having issues? I just reflashed the ESC's to BLHeli the other week...

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I've just finished implementing and testing a feature which I think we can merge into the code soon. Unfortunately it requires reversible ESCs.

Like some of the commercial quads out there that have a 'flip button', the Typhoon with AQ32 will now have a 'death blossom' manoeuvre assignable to any toggle on your TX.

To give you an idea of how this looks, here are some clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlAsSyDAWR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLNvUsTBGyE

... but because we have gravity, the quad drifts down during the manoeuvre... but not too much.

Up next, AQ space lasers!



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Stupid double post preventer ...

... and I just actually watched the clips... and that movie does not age well for me.