my drone does not fly

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paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this forum and I have my first issue.

In the last months, with a lot of patience and great satisfaction, I was able to build my first drone. It misses some parts ( like the camera etc. ), but the important stuff are there.
I even did not have much difficulties to understand how to configure the multiwii board, but i'm having a lot of problems in identifying the PID values. I know it is not easy for a newbie, but I think I need some hints/suggestions at this point.

I created a video in which u can see what happens. I calibrated everything and the battery was in the middle. What happens is that I start the throttle and at the beginning everything seems fine. After a while, the drone does a kind of jump and turn on itself as shown below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgSLR6xApZo

I found a guy that had a similar issue, but then he solved it. I tried to contact him, but I think he is not using the youtube account. Below, his two videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rf61M6y2zM (video with his issue)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiV7UphLGc (solved)

Any suggestion will be much appriciated!

Thank you!

Cheers

Ciki
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:59 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Ciki »

Hi. I saw the video and i think that it can be an esc's calibration problem but you have to give us more information of your quad.
Which are your pids values?
Which is the flight mode in the video (acro,horizon/angle)?
Which is the multiwii version?
Which is your flight controller,motor and escs?
More details on your quad give us the possibility to understand if there is a configuration problem.

If you cannot fly, first thing is to calibrate escs from multiwii code uncommented at the end of config.h the line #define calibration esc cannot fly (i don't remember the exact name because i don't have the code behind me in this moment). After that upload the firmware and when it is done connect the battery (please remove your props before doing that!!!!!!). Escs start to make some beeps and when they stop wait 30s (radio trasmitter must be off). Now disconnect the battery and connect your fc to the pc and commented the previous line i indicated. Upload again the firmware and when it is done open the multiwii gui in order to see if the quad sensor works. After that calibrate acc and mag as described in many tutorials. Leave pids as default.Mount props and try. If were you i would use angle/hotizon mode which is very sple for first flight. Let me know!!!

Ps Can you post also the config.h code in order to see if all is ok?

Thx.

Kbev5709
Posts: 451
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:56 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Kbev5709 »

Make sure your C.O.G. is correct then Re-Re-Re check all of your wiring and rotation as well as prop orientation. This is not typical PID out of tune behavior. It really could be an ESC issue but it looks like the motors all spin up. The question with the ESCs is are they all calibrated? You should be able to get off the ground with the default PID values. Others do. Your problem more closely resembles wires hooked up incorrectly or quad really WAY out of balance. Most folks don't realize that you can have all of your motors spinning in the correct direction and still have the wires hooked up wrong. I would check all of your ESC to FC wires and make sure that the correct motor leads go to the correct motors from the correct ESC. Lots of folks worry more about rotation and forget that you can make a motor reverse rotation by simply switching any two out of the three wires. Do that until all the motors spin the right direction without making sure the wires are going where they actually belong can lead to a flip on throttle up like you get.

paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

hi guys!

thank you very much for your fast replies.
in these days I'm out for work but this weekend I will do my best to answer your questions!

By the way the motors spin in the right direction and I have calibrated the ESC in different ways, but I did not know that I have to be careful on where I hooked the wires... I have to recheck that again!
Also I had a problem with a wire of an ESC and now the result is that one of the four ESC is closer to the motors compared to the others (the other three are im the middle of the arms)... Do you think this could be also a problem?

Ciki
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:59 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Ciki »

If you fly in horizon mode where fc uses gyro and acc you shouldn't have problems because it gives more speed to that motor with closer esc (the torque due to the weighting force is a little bit higher because the distance from the center of quad between esc weight +motor weight is higher than others but we are talking of few grams!!!). Maybe only in take off but after it will be stabilized. If you are in acro mode where fc uses only gyro you can have a little unbalanced trend. Positioning of components in the same locations is important for a stable trend of quad.

PatrikE
Posts: 1976
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:35 pm
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by PatrikE »

Make sure motors is plugged to correct outputs.
Check that board orientation is correct.
That is the issues in 99% of the cases with this behaviour.

paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

Thank you.

ok this weekend i will post some pictures to show the connections i made!

Thank you all!

linda00145
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:49 am

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by linda00145 »

paco76 wrote:Thank you.

ok this weekend i will post some pictures to show the connections i made!

Thank you all!


You have not shared the pictures yet? What is the reason?

Kbev5709
Posts: 451
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:56 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Kbev5709 »

Either he finally got it to work and now he no longer needs us, or we really messed up his quad and he went elsewhere :mrgreen: :shock: :D

paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

Hi guys, sorry.

No no I'm still here, but sometimes I have to work abroad.

This night ( here it is 3.41 am ) I finally found a little hour to review the configuration and you were right! Since from the first build, although my motors were spinning correctly, I wasn't connecting the motors in the right way.

I just noticed that:
motor "top left" was connected to D3
motor "top right" was connected to D9
motor "bottom right" was connected to D10
motor "bottom left" was connected to D11

According the the guide (http://www.headsuphobby.com/media/HURC% ... 8.5.13.pdf), I should instead connect the motors in this way (image below):
motor "top left" was connected to D3
motor "top right" was connected do D10
motor "bottom right" was connected to D9
motor "bottom left" was connected to D11

I can't try now because it is late and I don't want to break something, but is the last "configuration" right?
If so, tomorrow I will hopefully try it and will let you know...

new configuration
new configuration

paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

Wow it works!

thank you to have pointed me to the right direction. Now I just have to tune a bit the PID values, but at least it is alive!!!

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Leo
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Location: Germany
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Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Leo »

Have fun! :)

Kbev5709
Posts: 451
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:56 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Kbev5709 »

I'm glad to hear everything worked out OK. I hooked up my wires wrong on my first build too. I knew that's what it was.

paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

Yes,

I will never forget this lesson.
Today hopefully I will be able to set the right PID values at the park. The drone is flying (at the end I tried indoor) and although there is still a yoyo effects, it is not that bad. As soon as I will have a stable drone, I will post a new video.

Cheers,
P

paco76
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by paco76 »

And here is my first flight and happy crash as I promised:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn8SPrAGSJc

I'm a noob, but I enjoyed a lot! Great satisfaction.

Kbev5709
Posts: 451
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:56 pm

Re: my drone does not fly

Post by Kbev5709 »

Hey, sweet. Nice flying for the most part. A least your crash was on grass and from a low level :D

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