making Gluon board alive

[sid]

Hi Tom / Everyone here,
Since I got the board I was silent due one or the another personal issues , was not able to spare time. Today I have started building (soldering the pins on the board). PLease find the pictures attached. I am planning to start with quad copter since I have my quad airframe ready. (will post the picture). I am planning to use/install as below.

1. Use pwm inputs not ppm. (no specific reason as such)
2. Use 5V for board and servo as common..
3. Use ftdi cable to cofigure the setup.

I have few questions though. (Tom....???)

1. I see two open solder connections on the back side of the pcb sj2 and sj3.. I belive I need to short sj3 if I want to use the servo 5V power to power up the board ..DO I also need to bridge sj2 ?
2. if i see ICSP connector there are only 5 pins where if I want to use ICD2 programmer instead of a bootloader it has 6 pins..? What should I do ?
3. PPM2 connetor are 4 pwm inputs ..correct ?
4. PPM1 takes only 1pwm input (so total 5 with ppm2) .. Can I also power up the board with ppm1 connector ?
5. I have 3.3 and 5V ftdi both from sparkfun. Which one should I use..?
6. I am assuming configuration will be done through FTDI port only.

Find pictures attached..I will not power on unless everything is confirmed.

I hope this effort will help others also.

Regards
SID

[sid]

Finally my board is alive .. I shorted both sj2 and sj3.. I am powering on from ESC at the moment. (5 V)..As soon as I power on led1 blinks and led2 remains lit constantly. Now I am moving ahead with the FTDI connectins.. I will be using 5V sparkfun FTDI cable. I am going to remove (will make an intermidiate cable) everything else other then Gnd , Tx and Rx of the FTDI cable.. WIth a note from Tom came with the board it has already arrived with the bootloader..

[Tom]

Hi Sid,

Glad you finally have some time with the early board (SN 4 )

1. Yes you need to short both solder jumpers
2. I don't really know about your ICD2 programmer, but mine (a "fake") has only 5 pins. The innermost one is VPP.
3. Yes
4. Yes and yes
5. The 5V one
6. Yes

Extra remark: if you use the ESC's to power the board, please make sure only 1 ESC powers the board. There is also a small voltage deviation (eg. ESC 1 has 4.99V, ESC 2 has 5.04V, ...) so it is best to unplug the red wire from all but one ESC.

The quad code is still very beta (or alpha) for the moment. Let me know when you are ready, because the quad-firmware-hex file is not yet in the download section.

Tom

[sid]

Thanks a lot Tom. I have reached to below stage.

1. Board is working fine.. (power on)..
2. I used another USB to serial cable I had.. Did not use FTDI since another cable had Ground , Tx and Rx..To avoid some cabling modification with FTDI.. It has started working. I am able to connect to teh board with config tool.
3. Uploaded new downloaded hex file using bootloader tool(rtos_pilot 212 kb dated 6-3-10) using bootloader tool.
4. Gps interface is working(connected eb85 using initial baud rate of 38400).. Getting a lock.. Another LED ia also blinking now..

Next steps..

1. I will be using PWM not ppm. SO have made (crimped) a cable which connects 5 pwm inputs from Rx to Gluon.
2. Setup all servos and sensore gains..

Few questions..

1. I want to use this for Quad..Should I setup output mix to quadcopter in control tab ?
2. I do not know the sequence of connecting 4 motors..(Thanks I will take care not to connect all 5V pins to gluon..Will connnect only one 5V pin)
3. If hex file for quad is not the one I have loaded then can you please send me the same on sysnetbrd@sify.com ?

Will keep you posted..

Regards
SID

[Tom]

Hi Sid,

I will try to add these info to the quadrocopter page ASAP! I will also add the firmware for quadrocopters to the download section.

The changes in the quadrocopter version are: (1) attitude filtering at 333Hz, (2) TurboPWM at 333Hz to the ESC's (3) PID control loops at 333Hz.

I'm currently working really hard on testing navigation for UAV's (almost finished), that's why I still didn't upload more info for quadrocopters, but I'll try to do some quadrocopter-basics first so you can start testing!

Tom

[sid]

Hi Tom,
That will be very nice of you. Atleast I can try the stability part first. I have succesfully connected PWM in yesterday and going to add servo out today. One question irrespective of any firmware new or old if we save the config , will it work same as old firmware in the new one if we recall ..?
I have still not reached to teh sensor setup and gains. SHould be there by this wk end and see some flying.

Just for my knowledge which firmware should I choose if I want to do some experiments with airplanes..?
I have currently loaded rtols_pilot.hex 212 kb dated 6/3/10..

Let me know when you upload info and firmware on the quads.

Regards
SID

[sid]

Hi Tom,
SOme more progress.

1. Servo output setup ok.. (STill do not know for the type of airframe but it is working now)
2. Gyros and Accels calibration seems ok.
3. PID basic with 0.3 p term set ok.
4. AP switch works ok..when put on makes servo move by moving the board.

I still have a doubt in calibration in especially Gyro. The readings are not coming as close to zero as mentioned by you. Accels looks ok. Please find the snapsots attached here with.

Let me know if all is ok..I still need to figure out the basic airframe setup..If I want to try with the glider w/o ailerons (I have one). I do not see a Yaw setup(specially gyro) if I need one.

Let me know if the GYRO readings are ok.. I did exactely as desribed by keeping the board motion less. Pressing use current , write and burn. Note:- I am not using 5V from ftdi. I use servo power only , so I think that should not be a problem.

Another thing what the jumper connection SJ1 (three point)stands for ? Just curious.

[Tom]

Hi Sid,

It's ok if the gyro values can be a few °/s, as long as the "average" value you see is around 0, and the fluctiations don't exceed anything like 5 °/s. Normal values are between -1 and +1 °/sec.

Currently, the gluonpilot assumes you are using ailerons. However if your plane only has a rudder and you connect this servo to an aileron output, it should be ok. Your maximum roll angle should in this case be smaller (depending on your plane i'd say around 30 degrees?).

SJ1 lets you choose between 5V or 3V3 SPI & I2C ports.

Tom

[sid]

Hi Tom,
My bench testing is almost done. WIth the P term 0.3 and others 0 in PID I am able to get the servo moving by tilting and rolling the board. GPS locks properly. It's time to do some real flying manual , stabilized and GPS (return to home initially) etc.
PLease let me know should I start with the airplane ? If you can send me the code for QUAD I can start with quad , no problem either. All you need to do is give me some more info about the servo output setup (specially on quad).. you need yaw axis also to be configured in quad..I guess.

Let me know I will go as per your advice.

REgards
SID

[Tom]

Hi Sid,

I would propose you start with a plane. The quadrocopter code is usable (auto-level + steering), but the last version contained a bug which I want to get rid of first. I'm leaving on vacation next week, so it could take a some weeks before this bug is fixed

Tom