Too much power and pitch compensation is bad thing... not enough is bad too.

[Mark Colwell]

No ground crew today. Down view camera was installed.

Front camera view of todays flight testing of PID settings for throttle cruise 80 & throttle max 120, pitch compensation .30 Test battery a 2250mAh 3s lipo had 1 cell going bad,

I replaced battery and retested, but crashed flat and hard when I panicked and set Mode to FBW instead of Manual..

Systems damage report:

Power train,
APC 7x4 EP prop broken off both sides, replace with APC Gas 7x3 $1.95
Motor mount ripped off, $2 flexable superglue and carbon fiber, New mount for contest $5
2250 mAh test battery has one bad cell now, $60 new 4s 2650mAh 40c for contest

Structural,
starboard side,
Tears in foam on both sides of vertical fin up to spars, $1 Liquid Nails or lo temp hot glue.
New foam body $21 for contest.
Control horn ripped off, but still on wire z bend, $0.50 superglue and add some carbon fiber.
Stripped servo plastic gears, replace set $2.49

All other electronics are fine.

Made several test flights, my observations:
1. Don't flight test with a weak or old battery
2. make smaller PID p changes, over correcting in pitch and over powered throttle in FBW mode
3. Start FWB mode at about 150' when testing throttle or pitch PID changes, 50' higher than normal
4. Train left hand Learn to use Mode switch when panic ensues, place in Manual vs FBW and relax
5. Don't ground test with a weak or old battery
6. Flying in snow is fun!

7. Don't panic!

[Pbreed]

I did all of this with a NetBurner network processor flying my helicopter.
One of my to do list items is to use this as a platform to build a fixed wing autopilot. I would gladly share my code, but the platform and programming resource environment is so different it probably would not help with the AT328. (Full disclosure I'm CTO at NetBurner )

[Mark Colwell]

Well I picked up AVR ok, I'll check out NetBurner

[Mark Colwell]

Repairs

[Mark Colwell]

more..

[Mark Colwell]

Ready to test again, how many more crashes,

I don't know,

[Mark Colwell]

I crashed 3 times (hard nose dives) yesterday, broke pitot probe on #2), One decent landing, & 1 cartwheel,
no other problems. I lost a nose weight on crash #2. That I didn't notice that caused pitching flights, Going back for more.

[Chris Anderson]

You're a brave man! What's do you think the main problem is? Getting the gains right for elevon mixing?

[Mark Colwell]

Gains should be OK, I just need to balance CG and fly straight. Too much desk time, not enough stick time...

[Mark Colwell]

Sample TM data log, catpured with Realterm 4 waypoints for Sf competition:

Init Ardupilot 2.5.1 Beta
GPS: IMU
%%%PWP: 0, 0, 0,
NWP:0, 388302200, -1048121340, 368800,***
%%%PWP: 0, 0, 0,
NWP:0, 388302200, -1048121340, 368800,***
Radio inputs R/A: 1507 E: 1499 T :1015
†WAYPOINTS IN MEMORY
wp_total: 4
home: 388302200 -1048121340 184400
wp #1 388297210 -1048021250 6000
wp #2 388309740 -1048021780 6000
wp #3 388309910 -1048032620 6000
wp #4 388297210 -1048032940 6000
###MANUAL/t0***
%%%PWP: 0, 0, 0,
NWP:0, 388302200, -1048121340, 368800,***
%%%PWP: 0, 0, 0,
NWP:0, 388302200, -1048121340, 368800,**%%%PWP: 0, 0, 0,
NWP:1, 388297210, -1048021250, 190400,***
%%%PWP: 0, 0, 0,
NWP:1, 388297210, -1048021250, 190400,***

Ready to FLY.
+++,0,0,0,0,0,0,49
!!!LAT:38830195,LON:-104812134,SPD:0,CRT:0,ALT:1840,ALH:1904,CRS:49,BER:0,WPN:1,DST:0,BTV:8776223,RSP:0,TOW:588893750,***
!!!LAT:38830195,LON:-104812134,SPD:0,CRT:0,ALT:1840,ALH:1904,CRS:49,BER:0,WPN:1,DST:0,BTV:8776223,RSP:0,TOW:588893750,***
%%%PWP: 388301952, -1048121344, 184000,
NWP:1, 388297210, -1048021250, 190400,***
+++,-18,-1,0,0,0,0,48
+++,-18,-1,0,0,93,128,48
!!!LAT:38830224,LON:-104812140,SPD:0,CRT:0,ALT:1839,ALH:1904,CRS:48,BER:93,WPN:1,DST:870,BTV:8850316,RSP:0,TOW:588899750,***
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,-1,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,-1,0,0,93,128,48
!!!LAT:38830220,LON:-104812140,SPD:0,CRT:0,ALT:1839,ALH:1904,CRS:48,BER:93,WPN:1,DST:870,BTV:9029182,RSP:0,TOW:588900250,***
+++,31,-1,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
+++,31,0,0,0,93,128,48
!!!LAT:38830214,LON:-104812140,SPD:0,CRT:0,ALT:1839,ALH:1904,CRS:48,BER:93,WPN:1,DST:870,BTV:9199607,RSP:0,TOW:588900750,***