FLIGHT CONTROLLER

 A flight controller is the brain of the aircraft. It’s basically a circuit

board with sensors that detects orientation changes of your drone. It
also receives user commands, and controls the motors in order to keep
the quadcopter in the air.
 All flight controller have basic sensors such as gyrometer and
Accelerometer. Some advance flight controller has also Magnetometer
and Barometer.

APM FLIGHT CONTROLLER

 APM is a flight controller which is developed by free open source

autopilot firmware that supports planes, multicopters (tri, quad, hexa,
octa, etc).
 Simple setup process and firmware loading. No programming required!
 Full mission scripting with point-and-click desktop utilities can be done.
 It can support hundreds of 3D waypoints
 Choice of free Ground Stations, which includes mission planning, in-air
parameter setting, on-board video display, voice synthesis, and full
datalogging with replay can be done.
 It supports Autonomous take-off, landing and special action commands
such as video and camera controls.
 It Supports full "hardware-in-the-loop" simulation with Xplane and
Flight Gear.
 Built-in hardware failsafe processor, can return-to-launch on radio loss.
 APM requires a GPS unit with an on-board compass for full autonomy.
COMPONENTS PERSENT IN APM:

 APM 2.6 makes use of an external compass.

 The APM 2.6 has no on board compass, and is optimized for vehicles
where the compass should be placed as far from power and motor
sources as possible to avoid magnetic interference.
 APM 2.6 is designed to be used with the 3DR GPS UBlox LEA-6 with
Compass module.
 Large number of navigation sensors supported, including several models
of RTK GPSs, traditional L1 GPSs, barometers, magnetometers, laser and
sonar rangefinders, optical flow, ADS-B transponder, infrared, airspeed,
sensors, and computer vision/motion capture devices.
 Sensor communication via SPI, I²C, CAN Bus, Serial communication, SBus.
 Fail safes for loss of radio contact, GPS and breaching a predefined
boundary, minimum battery power level.
 Support for brushless and brushed motors.
 Photographic and video gimbal support and integration.
 Flight modes: Stabilize, Alt Hold, Loiter, RTL (Return-to-Launch), Auto,
Acro, Auto Tune, Brake, Circle, Drift, Guided, (and Guided No GPS), Land,
Position Hold, Sport, Throw, Follow Me, Simple, Super Simple, Avoid
ADSB.
 Auto-tuning

CONNECTION DIAGRAM OF APM

CONNECTION DETAILS:
PORTS:

POWERING THE APM

 The easiest way to power the APM is using a 3DR Power Module with a
LiPo battery.
 To wire a power module, connect the red-and-black two wire cable on
the power module to the PDB red and black two-wire.
 Connect the power module to the APM PM port using a 6-position cable.
 Connect the PDB multi-wire cable to APM Output Signal pins with the
M1 wire connecting to the signal pin labeled 1, M6 and signal pin 6, etc.
 

Connect ESCs and motors

To connect motor cables to electronic speed controller (ESC) bullet connectors (each motor
must connect to only one ESC).
 Connect ESC Deans connectors to Power Distribution Board (PDB) Deans connectors.
Connect three-wire cables from the ESCs to the PDB signal pins according to motor
number (see link above to find the motor number configuration for your frame).
Connect the ESC for motor 1 to the PDB pins marked M1, motor 6’s ESC to the pins
marked M6, etc.

Connecting a Receiver
Connect your RC receiver “S” (signal) pins to the “S” pins on Inputs of APM using a
(minimum 5 pin) jumper cable (6-pin-to-6-pin-individual-female-15cm). You must connect at
least channels 1 ~ 5. Channels 6 ~ 8 are optional.

RC receiver will require power. Normally this is done by using one 2 or 3 wire connector
between the APM Inputs and one channel output on the receiver.

Connecting a PPM Sum Receiver

PPM receivers transmit all the channel information above through a single port (some will
transmit additional channels - for example the FrSky D8RSP receiver outputs 7 PWM
channels, while in CPPM mode it will output 8).
On APM we can use PPM input by putting a jumper on the RC inputs for channel 2 and 3
(just the signal pins). PPM input from the receiver should be fed into channel 1.

APM board
LED: Behavior:
Power On when powered
Solid = armed, motors will spin when throttle raised Single Blink = disarmed,
**A (red)** motors will not spin Double Blink = disarmed, motors will not spin, cannot arm
because of failure in pre-arm checks
**B Only flashes along with A and B during calibration or as part of the in-flight
(yellow)** auto trim feature
**C Solid = GPS working, 3D lock Blinking = GPS working, no Lock OFF = GPS not
(blue)** attached or not working
PPM/Serial Flashing when data detected

Analog input pins

Pin 0 to 8: The APM has a row of analog input pins down one side, labelled A0
to A8 on the underside of the board. These are available as pin numbers 0 to 8
inclusive in PIN variables.

All these pins can take up to 5V and may be used for any general analog input.

Pin 12: power management connector current pin, accepts up to 5V, usually
attached to 3DR power brick.

Pin 13: power management connector voltage pin, accepts up to 5V, usually
attached to 3DR power brick.
 ARDUPILOT SETUP

1. connect the board to the computer and boot up the software.

2. Click the “Connect” button in the top right corner and let it connect.
3. Once connected, click on the “Firmware” tab. Then click on the picture
of the model you want your board to be able to control.

4. It’s going to ask you if you are sure that you want to upload the
software. Click yes if you are.
 5. Now click on the “Configuration” tab in the menu on the top

It’s the setup screen for the radio. So, make sure that our radio is on and that
it’s bound to the receiver you have plugged into the APM board. Move the
sticks about and you should see the bars move. To make sure that everything is
moving the right direction follow these points:

 CH 1: Roll Left = low PWM – Roll Right = High PWM

 CH 2: Pitch Forward = low PWM – Pitch Back = High PWM
  CH 3: Low Throttle = low PWM – High Throttle = High PWM
 CH 4: Yaw Left = low PWM – Yaw Right = High PWM
 CH 5: Flight Mode
 CH 6: up to you
 CH 7: not engaged = low PWM – engaged = High PWM

If a channel is moving the wrong way simply go into the reversing menu in the
radio and reverse it. Also make sure that all trims and sub trims are set to zero.

Once everything is moving in the correct direction, click the “Calibrate Radio”
button. Move the sticks to their end positions and click “Done”, center all the
sticks and click OK.

6. After this step, this window will appear for telling the pulse width of
each channel. Click “OK”.
7. Next, click on the “Flight Modes” tab. This is where you can set your
flight mode in which you want to fly your quadcopter. Generally we
want to fly in the “Stabilize” mode so set that to the first position.

8. Next click on the “Hardware Options” tab. If you are using a GPS unit
hooked up to our board we need to enable the compass. Otherwise, if
we don’t have any additional hardware we can skip this step.
9. The last step to the board configuration is clicking on the “ArduCopter
Level” tab on the left. Choose which layout our multirotor has (either
“plus or X”. Now place the quad as level as possible and click the
“Calibrate Now” button to calibrate the accelerometers on the board.
 TROUBLESHOOTING
1. I can’t get the motors to run and/or can’t arm the ESCs
This can be due to a number of mistakes:

1. Have you completed the mandatory hardware configuration steps.

2. Are you in Acro, Stabilize or Simple mode? As a safety measure, the
motors won’t arm in other modes.
3. Are you sure you’re arming them right? When the motors are armed,
the arm LED on the IMU will turn solid after the IMU calibration flashing
(about 5 seconds).
4. Are your Yaw or Throttle channels reversed on your transmitter? Try
moving the Yaw stick to the far left, instead of the right. If that works
green LED tuns solid after the IMU calibration, your Yaw is reversed.
5. Some ESCs are thrown off by some startup signals in Copter. Try
plugging in a USB cable first, to boot the board, and then plug in your
LiPo after it’s already up, or just ensure that the four-wire cable from
APM board to power distribution board is disconnected during regular
startup.
6. Some ESCs have a minimum low threshold before they will arm. If you
need to, trim down your radio throttle and redo radio calibration.
7. Redo radio calibration in the Mission Planner. Make sure that the
throttle channel (Ch 3) is being read properly and the values are around
1100 (low) and 1900 (high), more or less. Remember that your LiPo must
be plugged in to power the RC gear.

2. Copter tilts/flips over or wobbles crazily when I try to

take off.
This almost always means that you’ve configured it or set it up wrong. Check
the following:

1. Is the APM board facing forward and in the direction of forward motion.
2. Have you set your quad orientation right in the setup process: + or x?
3. Check that all the motors are hooked up right, turning the right way and
the pusher/puller props are on the right motors and oriented the right
way.
 4. Check the signal wires on the power distribution board to make sure
they are oriented correctly. If you’ve reversed two, it will cause Copter
to flip. This should be noticeable by doing the hand test as well.
5. Check that your props can’t turn on their motor shafts, as if they weren’t
tightened down enough. If one can, despite its prop being tightened,
that may mean that its motor shaft has been pushed down into the
motor too far for the prop mount to get a grip. Take off the prop and
and use a small allen wrench to loosen the little set screw that holds the
shaft onto the motor. Then with pliers pull the shaft out until it’s the
same height as those of the other motors. Then tighten the set screw,
and put the prop back and tighten it up again.
6. Was the quad stable and flat for the whole calibration routine at
startup? Was it stable and flat during the setup process? (If need be, do
it again)
7. Did you calibrate your ESCs? They should all start together when you
advance the throttle. If need be, do it.
8. Have you checked all your sensors in the Mission Planner to make sure
the hardware is working right?

3. My copter motors spin but the copter won’t take off

(or motors may not spin at all)
While there are a few different reasons for copters to be perceived as
underpowered, this condition applies to motors that simply aren’t spinning fast
enough (if at all!) to generate the lift needed, even though you know they can
spin faster. Some instances discovered recently showed someone had
accidentally imported the wrong parameter file into their copter from the 3D
Robotics Aero, and when they then loaded the correct parameter file, the
THR_MAX parameter was left unchanged.

Check the following:

 Connect to the copter via your GCS

 Go to Full Parameter List
 Examine the THR_MAX parameter and make sure the value is between
800 and 1000. The default is 1000.
 If the THR_MAX parameter is less than 800 and you don’t recall making
this change, set the parameter to 1000 and Write Params out to the
copter
 4. My radio setup isn’t reading the RC channels right or
hangs
Check the following:

1. Click on that Calibrate Radio button. That will start the measurement
process.
2. Are you sure your receiver is getting power and is paired with your
transmitter (it should show a solid green light). Make sure your
transmitter is on!
3. Check your cables! The signal wire should be at the top, and ground at
the bottom.
4. Finally, if all else fails, try to narrow down the problem. First, check that
the the receiver is working right by plugging a servo into the output
you’re testing and making sure that it’s outputting a good signal. Then
plug one known-good RC channel into the APM input channels, from 1-7,
one at a time and see if any are read. If some channels are read and
some are not, you may have a soldering error or may have fried one or
more inputs.

5. My Copter flies okay, but it tends to tilt one way or

another
Make sure the CG (center of gravity) of the copter is dead center. Then run the
level command on a flat surface. Hold arm for ~ 20 seconds to fly in auto-trim
mode for about 45 seconds. It will exit auto-trim automatically and fly
normally. (Don’t worry about counting out the time, just wait for the flashing
lights to enter either mode.

6. The quad always wants to yaw to the right or left when

I take off
This is usually due to an airframe that it out of tune, either with one motor
tilted slightly or the weight balance not centered. Typically, the bad behavior is
that the quad will always yaw by a certain amount, typically around 30-45
degrees on takeoff, but will stay in that direction. This is because the
mechanical asymmetry of an out-of-tune quad is forcing the yaw.

Although you can adjust those terms in the Mission Planner’s PID configuration
screen, the best solution is to solve it at the source. Eyeball each motor and
see if it or the arm it is one is slightly tilted, and bend it back to vertical if so.
Also ensure that the battery is centered on the quad and the center of gravity
of the vehicle is as close to the center of the APM board as possible. It’s also a
great idea to redo the ESC calibration routine just in case.

7. One of my motors started shaking and then burned

out!
Motors will typically twitch once per second or so (often with a beep) while they’re waiting
for a signal. That’s normal. But sometimes, if you have not followed the warnings and
disconnected the four-wire signal cable, they may vibrate rapidly when you reset your
board. This is a rare problem that can crop up with certain ESC types that don’t handle out-
of-range signals well .

8. The APM board works when it’s plugged into the USB,
but not when it’s powered by the RC rail (ESC/Lipo)
A solder jumper called SJ1 determines which is used. By default from the
factory, that jumper should be soldered which means APM will be powered by
the RC rail.

If for some reason, connecting power to the RC rail does not power board,
check to see if that jumper is soldered. If it isn’t, as shown below, just solder a
blob of solder over the two pads to connect them.

9. Copter ESCs keep beeping

1. Have you set up your RC input in the Mission Planner setup process?
2. Check that your RC radio is talking properly to its receiver (typically, that
will be shown by a green light on the receiver).
 3. If those two check out, you probably just need to calibrate your ESCs
(even if you’ve done that before, if you’ve erased your EEPROM and
done a reset, you’ll need to do it again.
4. Check that your radio channels are in right order
5. Some ESCs are thrown off by some startup signals in Copter . Try
plugging in a USB cable first, to boot the board, and then plug in your
LiPo after it’s already up, or just ensure that the four-wire cable from
your APM board to your power distribution board is disconnected during
regular startup.

10. My Copter feels sloppy on roll or pitch axis

Both of roll and pitch axis should give to you exact or close to similar response
when doing hand tests. If one of the axis does not respond as expected, check
your PID settings and you can try to upload firmware again.

Firmware upload might be successful but due internal timing issues some of
the code is not written properly and this can cause unstableness on your
Copter.