Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

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Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby TheBoD » Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:53 am

Tom, would appreciate your feeback on the use of the Altitude control and altitude mode when flying in automated navigation mode.

I am using Altitude mode set as "GPS Altitude relative to home" - the field I use shows as 40meters above sea-level on the Gluonpilot GPS when on the ground ( it is also 40m on the car sat-nav system at the field so the reading is accurate).

What should be the setting in the check-box for "Altitude control' if I want the Gluonpilot to control the altitude as it flys between waypoints ?

When using the "FLY_TO" command is the movement to the target Altitude based on the Altitude mode setting - for example if I am using "GPS Altitude relative to home" and I put 75m as the FLY_TO altitude will the plane climb to 75m above the ground at the field ?

The reason I am asking these questions is that the plane seems to be having problems on recognizing waypoints as I am trying more complex routes , in addition I am having connection reliability issues with the Xbee modules at the field so I am not able to monitor what is happening in real-time.

Many thanks for your help on this.
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby Tom » Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:58 am

The "altitude control" checkbox should not be enabled. When enabled it gives you "alternative altitude control":
- manual altitude control in autopilot mode using elevator stick (when tuning)
- pitch control in stabilized mode using elevator stick (also for tuning)

Yes the altitude on all navigation commands depends on the "altitude mode". Default we use pressure relative to home. For long distance flights (or long duration) you can choose only to use the GPS altitude.

To answer your problem: the altitude is not taken into account when hitting FLY_TO ,FROM_TO, ... waypoints. I suppose the issue is somewhere else? What is the waypoint radius you are using?
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby TheBoD » Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:06 pm

Screen Capture - sensors.GIF
Snapshot of sensor screen.
Screen Capture - sensors.GIF (80.51 KiB) Viewed 29213 times

Screen Capture - control.GIF
Screen Capture - control.GIF (78.24 KiB) Viewed 29213 times


Tom, thanks for your note.

I am currently using 35m as the waypoint radius.

I have been using 'GPS altitude relative to home' - if I switch to 'pressure relative to home' is there a calibration I need to do first ?

I have attached the current sensor and control screens for your reference.

Thanks.
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby Tom » Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:34 pm

Looks fine. I would use pressure sensor instead, will work more accurate. No calibration is needed (is done before takeoff).

The max pitch angles are large. I prefer -5 / +15 when using auto-throttle (so the descent is mainly due to the cut throttle).
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby TheBoD » Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:46 pm

Tom, thanks for the feedback.

I will reduce the max pitch angles and I assume, based on your earlier comment, that I should uncheck the 'altitude control' checkbox on the configuration control tab.

Correct ?
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby Tom » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:04 pm

Correct :)

Happy new year :)
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby TheBoD » Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:34 am

Tom, I tried another flight with the revised settings but the plane still not seem to follow the flight plan and kept on climbing. It is supposed to climb to 45m in a circle before going to a couple of waypoints and then returning to circle over home. I notice that when I look in the log file the barometric altitude shows -81 at launch - is there a place I can reset this.

When I try to upload the XML file I get a message that says

'The upload was rejected because the uploaded file was identified as a possible attack vector' -

Would welcome any suggestions. Thanks.

Flight plan - Jan 5th Capture.GIF
Flight plan file
Flight plan - Jan 5th Capture.GIF (84.36 KiB) Viewed 29175 times


Control Capture - Jan 5th.GIF
Control screen
Control Capture - Jan 5th.GIF (82.94 KiB) Viewed 29175 times
Attachments
Jan 5th XML flight.GIF
XML flight log
Jan 5th XML flight.GIF (131.97 KiB) Viewed 29175 times
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby TheBoD » Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:44 am

Tom, just as a follow-up to my previous note, I have attached the screen shot of the sensor readings when sitting on the ground at home which is close by where I do the flight tests. As you can see the height is showing -86 metres so I am not sure if I need to correct this .
Attachments
Sensors screen shot -.GIF
Sensors screen shot -.GIF (79.63 KiB) Viewed 29175 times
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Re: Clarification on use of Altitude control and altitude mode

Postby Tom » Sun Jan 06, 2013 6:46 pm

No you would need to look at the altitude in the GCS and not in gluonconfig, which shows the raw data.
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