cross channel flight attempt

[Tom]

Alright! This must be exciting times for you!
Please double check autopilot mode will remain on with tx off.
Please send me the nvigation and configuration file so I can double check it
Are you planning to track the flight using a modem?

I will send you the updated firmware tomorrow evening.

[brian]

Tom,
Ok.

No modem, - payload + would have to be very powerful - more battery + enough to do as is - I can get into that later.

Will that be a tweak to v0.7.2 - that's what I loaded.

Brian

[brian]

Hi Tom,
Check your email please.

Brian

[lukasz]

Brian, any updates?
Did the flight took place?

[brian]

Hi Lukasz,
Sorry I should have put a post here.
We were at the commemoration celebrations all day.
Unfortunately we had to call it off due to bad weather forecast.
To do the flight we have to ferry to wales ,leave the model with the club there and travel home before it.
The forecast was correct ; 35km headwinds and thunder storms.
The ferry home may have been cancelled.

I did stay in touch with Tom, who prepared a firmware update to use GPS altitude.
We have approx 4 hours of flying on the gluon now.
The GPS altitude seems to work well and in general the Gluon is flying the little Bleriot very well.
We have a high level of confidence in it's ability to do this flight.

30km headwind = 2 hours extra.
The Bleriot is essentially an open structure and not easy to protect from driving rain. - Shower proof maybe - will have to look at that.
The gloun is in the pilots place in a complex foam housing and we are at the limit for weight due to fuel load.
Also the CG has to locate very precisely to work as the fuel load drops. We need the Cg to move a total of 3 to 4 mm forward as the fuel load drops .
There is 1200cc fuel in a model that weighs 3.2kg dry.

Will do this as soon as suits the guys involved and when the weather suits.

Brian

[brian]

Hi,
We now have the Bleriot flying really well on full auto.It performed 2 x 10km flights yesterday.
The only thing I need to iron out is that if I set a wp at say 120m alt and the next one at 140m alt it climbs abruptly just after it completes the first wp.
It still does it ok but I am trying to dial down the throttle settings to improve fuel consumption.
We will have a few alt,, changes for the overland part of our flight.

In the PID screen what do the boundary settings do ??
I notice in the example in the user guide the Altitude Error- pitch boundaries are set ; -10 < 1 < 10 while all the other boundary setting are -1 < 1 !!!
Also in that example the P is only 0.03 and the I is 0.005. for altitude error ??

Also where you set up auto throttle there is a default speed setting - what does this actually do.

Brian

[Tom]

Hi Brian,

That is correct. The autopilot will try to go immediately to the target altitude. If it is too abrupt you should try to lower the maximum pitch angle or the autothrottle settings.

The PID limits should only be filled in if you enter also a I- and D-term. This is quite advanced and requires a lot of testing, so I shouldn't recommend it.

Tom

[brian]

Hi Tom,
Is there a reasonably detailed guide on using the 'P' 'I' & 'D' settings.
I appreciate that it is complex , however there is no better way to deal with a subject than to learn about it and get to understand it.

I can reduce the maximum pitch and or put in some extra wp's with small altitude increases.
Will reducing the 'P' in alt,, error box play a role here.

I am trying to minimise the time at 'high throttle, the number of times it goes to high throttle and how high 'high throttle' is set.


Forgot to say the circle instruction in the new firmware works really well.

Brian

[Tom]

Hi Brian,

Some explanations in the wiki: http://www.gluonpilot.com/wiki/Stabilization_PID-loops
Or wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller

You can find some PID simulators on the internet as well.

The auto-throttle settings are set in the control tab of gluonconfig. Cruise-throttle can also be set in the easyconfig (during flight if you have a modem). Maybe this cruise throttle is too high?

[Johan]

Was the cross channel a succes?