Canners 130/180 quad build

Build's going quite fast now, all seems to be working well so far.




Despite the rubber protection caps the LEDs are still f'ing bright.

Had a silly Homer moment today.  

While messing with the flightcontroller and looking for a way to secure it on the spot I had planned to place it, I found it turned out to be impossible to hook up the USB cable used to configure and update the flightcontroller.

Already fixed it btw

Looking good...have you got the motors calibrated now ?

Thanks 

Spend most of the day with re placing the flightcontroller, it is now underneath the PDB.
Took a lot of time to tidy up the cable/wire mess.

Am not yet to the point of calibrating the motors, though it won't take long from this point.
Going to do a simple throttle calibration first for initial testing.
If all goes fine I will try to do a more precise throttle range calibration for each motor.

Did also bind the Taranis receiver today. 

Arrgh Having some troubles with the Taranis.

After tidying up the cables and binding the Taranis, it was time to configure the flightcontroller with Cleanflight/Betaflight. All went fine untill I had to set up the radio protocol. I had chosen to use SBus and made sure I plugged in everything correctly for that, but I could not get it to work. Though the transmitter is bound to the receiver(showing green light), no signals are received. I can move the sticks, but nothing happens, so can't 'Arm' the quad either. I then tried to setup PPM in Cleanflight, but same result. I searched youtube for what to do, and found I had done everything correctly.

Then I flashed the flightcontroller back to the original Openpilot firmware, and tried configuring again. And again all went fine, could calibrate the ESCs, motors and gyro as normal. Until when trying to configure the radiotransmitter, it doesn't work because again no signals were received by the receiver.

I can still try setting up the radioprotocol with PWM, but got the feeling that won't do it either.

I worked out what the probable cause is, though I am not sure.

On the instruction manual that came with the Taranis there is a warning in thick letters saying:
X8R-EU version only works with FrSky Taranis X9D Plus-EU version/XJT-EU version in D16-EU mode.

When I look in the Taranis menu what mode it uses, it says D16, and not D16-EU. I can choose 1 other mode, but then the radio wont bind at all. I looked on the web and there appears to be a difference between D16 an D16-EU, which means I probably have to flash different firmware onto the Taranis to solve the problem.  http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=13705.0

Your problem is nothing to do with EU version,that only affects it when using an xJt module plugged in the back.
Ddoesn`t sound like your binding the receiver correctly as you should have a red light on..on the flight controller if it is bound.


Just to add,i have not upgraded my firmware on the taranis yet,probably wont do for a while.


And have the right connection,no jumpers needed.

I did use the Sbus port like from the pic. Also tried PPM, but same result. I can bind, but no sticksignals are transfered.

I'm sure it has binded properly, cause the Taranis says 'telemetry lost' when I unplug the battery from the quad. So there is a connection.

Really starting to think it must be the Taranis firmware. Because as I said I dont have a D16-EU mode in the transmitter menu, I can only choose between D16 and LR12. I read that some people have EU firmware that only has D16-EU, and no other options.

Quote :

Your problem is nothing to do with EU version,that only affects it when using an xJt module plugged in the back.

The Taranis has an internal XJT module:

http://www.dronetrest.com/t/how-to-upgrade-frsky-xjt-module-internal-module-in-taranis/1607

Quote :

Just to add,i have not upgraded my firmware on the taranis yet,probably wont do for a while.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

I`m 100 percent sure it`s not the EU thing,you must of set something wrong in cleanflight.
I will post some of my settings later to compare.

I was having a bit difficulty with settings in Cleanflight at first, but found on youtube several vids that showed how to do it.
I'm sure I did everything right, but would love to see how you did the settings.

But I'm having the same problem with Openpilot. After messing around in Cleanflight with 2 different firmwares (Betaflight2.8.1 and Cleanflight V1.10.0) I went back to Openpilot and flashed the latest but old CC3D firmware back onto the flightcontroller. But unfortunatly it didn't help. Got pretty much the same result. Can select Sbus or PPM and set up everything else, but get no signals from the Taranis.

Its weird cause binding the receiver works fine. That, combined with the fact I can't select D16-EU mode on the Taranis, while the receiver does have a EU LBT sticker on it, makes me think it is a problem with the firmware.

Here you can read how common the EU firmware problem is : http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=16800.30

Think I'm going to have to buy one of these cables: https://www.multirotorparts.nl/frsky-usb-upgrade-cable-with-smartport-adapter.html

Fuck the EU

muckyman wrote:

I`m 100 percent sure it`s not the EU thing,you must of set something wrong in cleanflight.
I will post some of my settings later to compare.

Seems you were right after all. Before buying the FrSky USB upgrade cables and flashing the firmware of my Taranis, I decided to ask the shop first. Had contact with Multirotorparts.com and explained my problem. The guy explained that D16-EU is the old version of D16, and it should work fine. Also the fact that the LED on the receiver turns green means it works. He is also sure the firmware is not the problem.

Because everything else on the quadcopter works perfectly, there's only one thing that could cause these problems, the flightcontroller. Think flashing it with different firmware wasn't such a good idea. And even though I flashed the latest CC3d firmware back onto it, it could be that version is not fully compatible with the CC3d Nano either. Unfortunately I didn't backup the original, as I did not expect this problem.

Now considering to buy a different and better 'Cleanflight-compatible' flightcontroller.

Maybe this one: https://www.multirotorparts.nl/electronics/flightcontrollers/motolab-cyclone-f3-flightcontroller.html

These are the important receiver stetings.

That's assuming you are using UART1 on your flight controller.

Thanks for posting your settings. Bit disapointing to see that I did the same. The guy from Multirotorparts wrote some tips, and also mentioned the same settings you posted.
Have tried again today, and again with PPM after watching the latest Painless360 vid, but unfortunately no result. The only thing I haven't tried yet is setting up PWM.

I don't want to mess around too long this way, getting nowhere just trying random things. Maybe if I was a pro I could think up a solution or cause, but this is out of my league.
Maybe the Taranis is just too awesome for the simple and dated CC3d Nano. Think it will come down to me buying another flightcontroller asap.

http://www.banggood.com/Upgrade-NAZE32-F3-Flight-Controller-Acro-6-DOF-Deluxe-10-DOF-for-Multirotor-Racing-p-1010232.html

muckyman wrote:

http://www.banggood.com/Upgrade-NAZE32-F3-Flight-Controller-Acro-6-DOF-Deluxe-10-DOF-for-Multirotor-Racing-p-1010232.html

Tempted to buy that one, though maybe I'll get the one from Multirotorparts. (Cyclone F3) It looks easy to solder straight to the board.
Also nice that the guy at Multirotorparts is trying to help, feel like I owe him to buy at his store, and if it doesn't work I can always ask.



http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2537379

It works!!
 


The guy from Multirotorparts send me a video that showed how to connect and setup a CC3d with an X8R receiver and Sbus.
Turns out I had connected the wrong cable to Sbus. I was using the PWM1 for the Sbus, which seemed logical.
Instead I should have used another cable going from the MAIN port to the Sbus. Also had to turn off MSP in Cleanflight.
I felt a bit stupid, cause I was sure I did everything right. Very happy I got it working now, and don't have to buy another FC.
Also have calibrated the ESC's already.

That was the hardest part done, now I can finally finish the build.

 

Here's that video btw:

   glad you sorted it out m8.

I'm almost done now. I could screw on the props and slap on a battery, and fly. But I'm still working on the camera/vtx and a LED strip I want to add. Also must fix the receivers antennas. That's basically it. 

btw, Had to replace a broken arm from my Eachine250, luckily I already bought spare arms a few weeks ago.

Had a bit of empty space on my minimium throttle. Thought it had to do with bad ESC calibration, but this video shows an easy solution.

Hmm that video only works if you don't use throttle to ARM the quad.

Put on the LEDs using a 12v voltageregulator.







Now I only need to find a way to attach the antennas.

Wow those are bright ones .
Have you got the lost model buzzer and LED`s on the matek working with taranis yet ?

They are indeed very bright, maybe I don't even need the alarm.

Haven't set up the lights and alarm with the Taranis yet. Not sure if I want to actually. Unless the alarm and LEDs can be controlled seperately, I rather not use the alarm. When I connect the PDB to the receiver, and switch on the Taranis, the LEDs go off. Would like to turn on the lights, but not the alarm at the same time. Also I want the LEDs to be on all the time and not have to turn them on manually each time I turn on the Taranis.

I noticed something cool about the LEDs. The red and blue combined together create the same effect as a blacklight.


Just did a first test hover btw Was a bit scary though, cause the accelerometer is really tight on default. When I land with a small angle or even when I bounce a little, the autolevel kicks in and spins up the props quite hard to compensate, making the quad bounce like crazy. Probably needs some tweaking, or maybe I just turn it off completely. But other then that it hovers just fine at about 35-40% throttle.

Cameragear is also working, and it looks like there's no need for an extra filter.

Going to make a first testflight real soon.

Checked the accelerometer, but I already had turned it off.

To get rid of the bounce I then tried the most obvious thing first and removed the rubber landingfeet. It helped a little but not much.
I searched on the web and found there are more people with bounce on landing.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2495576

Now going to try and see what the default settings of my ESCs are, and if I need to change anything.
Since my flightcontroller does not support programming ESCs through Cleanflight I got to partly disassemble the quad.

At least I had it hovering steady. And I found out it is very powerful cause I accidentaly bumped the throttle a tiny bit, which made my heart skip a beat because I was inside the house.

That looks great,very nice job m8