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FCS-2 user`s manual

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1. BR WwW Na 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 Figure 2 Connector pins layout top view Pins description Column 1 BATT 1 Used to connect power to autopilot Pins 1 and 4 are connected with common ground GND of autopilot Pins 2 and 3 are connected together only one of them may be used and are the powering voltage terminals 5 8 to 8 5 V It is recommended that the plug for connecting the powering voltage should have four pins Such plug protects the autopilot circuits against reverse voltage which can cause a failure Column 2 RPM Pin 1 of this column is an input for RPM measure see point RPM measure Pin 2 is an analog input connected to A D converter for measure of additional voltage The range of measure is 0 2 V for more information see point Analog input AUX in chapter Additional functions Pin 4 is GND Pin 3 supplies 5 2 V stabilised voltage to the circuit forming the pulses for RMP measure Column 3 BATT 2 Pins 4 and 3 of this column are connected respectively to negative GND and positive pole of the voltage source that powers the RC receiver servomechanisms and GPS receiver Pins 1 and 2 are used by the autopilot for measuring the value of this powering voltage Powering of these devices can be done by different ways for example by the battery that powers the autopilot it
2. SEND 3 1 3085 72 53 51 18 10 166 24 27 82 17 20 1254 1253 2 o tert RIGHT 4 1 302 69 0 0 3 3 168 1 28 3 82 21 21 1255 1253 0 0 Ix E 5 1 299 45 o 0 13 10 165 34 27 82 25 25 1251 1253 2 6 6 1 287 N 0 0 10 10 164 27 33 8 a 20 1248 1253 5 8 Elevator 1 294 17 o 0 a 1461 32 30 75 27 25 1237 1253 11 8 P s SE Y 8 1 291 3 o 0 3 3 1598 31 31 65 27 27 1231 1253 10 6 s I 9 1 287 348 0 0 0 6 158 30 32 55 27 25 1232 1253 6 6 10 1 284 333 0 0 64 35 158 1 34 25 51 31 31 1234 1253 5 0 Rudder 11 1 282 37 0 0 19 38 159 20 26 40 18 47 1241 1253 2 2 0 SEND 12 1 280 305 o0 0 42 54 160 27 a 25 24 1242 1253 3 2 um n 13 1 278 295 0 0 83 51 160 34 24 38 32 30 1240 1253 5 3 4 gt j 14 2 278 284 64 46 64 74 160 20 23 30 21 12 1237 1253 8 8 A 15 0 278 274 0 18 48 42 159 1 15 43 18 14 14 11236 1253 6 8 Neutral Position THR all ev mun 18 1 279 267 l 64 77 74 64 159 11 8 16 10 1 1238 1253 5 o Il 17 1 281 281 96 0 45 35 161 0 3 355 0 12 1249 1253 3 6 l 18 1 283 262 93 51 19 3 165 9 14 342 T 12 1263 1253 43 14 CE 0 Canina Figure 17 Text data for first 18 seconds of real autonomous flight You can mark interesting part of flight route by writing the initial and final time of this fragment to the Start cursor and end curs
3. Dimensions without case 78 mm x 46 mm x 23 mm Weight without case 50 grams Supply voltages 5 8 8 5 V 120 mA autopilot 4 8 6V GPS and RC receivers servos Sensor used 3 gyro sensors of range 150 sec 3 acceleration sensors of range 1 7 g 2 pressure altitude and measurements sensors for velocity 3 temperature sensors integrated with gyros Number of channels 8 maximum 4 channels available for the user Surfaces controlled Aileron elevator rudder motor Other surfaces can be controlled from channels 6 8 Plane types standard delta V tail Digital input 1 for RPM measurement Analog input 1 range 0 2 V Serial ports 2 for GPS and computer connecting Data logging 27 parameters Data logging rate 1 Hz some parameters are memorized at 2 Hz freq Telemetry update rate 1 Hz Gyro sensors sampling rate 100 Hz Servo update rate 50 Hz A D converter resolution 11 bits Servo control time resolution 2 5 us Altitude measure resolution 0 1 m bit Altitude calibration accuracy 5 Number of programmed waypoints 100 additionally 150 waypoints defined in flight Servomechanism connectors standard JR Futaba or similar Operating system for the base station Windows 98 Me XP 2000 Vista W7 32 bits Maximum flight altitude 0 3000 m above sea level GPS update rate
4. gt f L up DN R s H gt Aileron o SEND E UI E Hiperanisctest ierra ler toI MAIS e Aii R E E EAEN AEEA EE A B Elevator 0 SEND DOWN O MTM Irc ET TETTE Ei gt Rudder sao LEFT RIGHT LI Neutral Position THR All ELEV RUD I 3L 1 a oe Figure 5 The general view of the BASE main window Graphics in the BASE window Within the main window of BASE application we can see three graphic fields The largest field named the central field in next chapters is designated for the graphical programming and visualisation of the flight route displaying the map if it is optionally installed and presenting the flight data in a text form The graphs presented in this field can be moved horizontally and vertically by means of scroll bars placed on the upper and left side of the field The drawing scale of flight route can be modified When the scale used in the central field does not allow the details of the plane route to be accurately shown the separate field is used It is called the zoom field and is located above the left upper corner of the central field The zoom field follows the plane and contains the zoomed drawing of the route When the route line reaches the zoom field edge then the drawing process starts from the opposite edge The scale used in the zoom field corresponds with the best resolution of central field and equals about 2 m pixel The real area on the Earth surface covered by the zoom f
5. 1 Hz Airspeed sensor range 0 240 km h Operation temperature range 10 C to 45 C The modes of operation Automatic mode This is the main mode of the autopilot operation In such mode the plane flies according to the programmed path using the navigational data from GPS receiver In the same time the operator can attend on other activity i e the observation of images from the on board camera The operator can modify the flight path by the change of the current destination point selected from the predefined set or newly created The flight stabilisation function is accomplished by the autopilot as well Semiautomatic mode In this mode the autopilot stabilises the plane flight only Navigation function is performed by the operator who is obligated to define the flight course The GPS system is used in the semiautomatic mode as well but the predefined flight path is not valid The plane flies holding the course until its change by the operator The course data are sent using the radio link This is very sensitive point because loosing the connection with the plane i e when it goes out of the range is dangerous To avoid such situation the base station sends automatically and periodically with 20 s time interval the command with the last defined flight course When the autopilot does not receive this command twice it switches to the automatic mode and directs the plane to the start point When the radio c
6. channels and Rx line receives the data from GPS receiver Servos connected to extra channels can be set with 10 bit resolution and about 180 move range Servos motion speed regulation 20 steps is also possible Connectors for the first 3 channels Fig 19 External 18 channel servocontroler are doubled Fig 20 shows the EXTRA CHANNELS SETTING panel for defining extra servos position and the motion speed Ranges of allowed numbers for edition windows are shown under them Full motion speed corresponds to number 20 and is limited by servo parameters The new servo position setting is performed by pressing the SEND button EXTRA CHANNELS SETTING channel no position motion speed Fig 20 Panel for extra channels E SEND caNcEL setting 1 18 1 1000 1 20 After receiving this command autopilot sends another one to servocontroler and confirmation of receipt to base station If the confirmation is received the suitable message will appear at the bottom of panel Additional servomechanisms connected to servocontroler can generate a high current load and therefore it s recommended to power the servocontroler via Y cable fig 21 15 Servo Fig 21 Connection of servocontroler with battery pack and autopilot 9 2 Q O 2 lt x oagooogoooaoad 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 rn oO 36
7. of flight route in form of the geographic points set up to 99 points the flight altitude and speed and a set of coefficients resulting from inertial features of the plane Additional 150 waypoints can be defined by the user during the flight Most of the predefined coefficients and flight parameters can be modified during the flight providing the autopilot is equipped with a radiomodem Due to the wireless communication the current values of the velocity altitude position course of the plane and other parameters are sent to the ground station once per second The received data are processed by the ground station and then can be displayed in text or grafical form on the screen Regardless of the radio modem usage the flight data are always stored in the autopilot memory and they can be transferred to the computer after ending the flight The application for the base station can be used for the so called mission programming as well Such programming means the defining of positions of servomechanisms available for the user The defined servomechanisms positions are set just after the particular waypoint of the route is reached Optionally the servomechanisms can return to their previous positions after one second delay The FCS 2 autopilot cooperates with a manual remote control system RC This system enables taking over the plane control during the take off and landing phase Optionally the landing can be done automatically using the parachu
8. then the programmed route must be read again If the route was not stored on the disk the Read buffer submenu should help The remaining information fields and control elements are placed in vertical panel on the left side of the screen The fields labelled APL and SERVOS display the voltage values that power the autopilot and servos respectively Information field under the AUX button displays the voltage in bits existing at the analog input column 2 pin 2 This value is integrated in time and this integral can be visible after pressing AUX button Then button change name to INT Integrating is performed with the scaling factor A D IN COEFF from AIRFRAME SETTING panel The elements grouped under the name Altitude setting m are used for changing the flight altitude The change happens after entering the data in the field and clicking the SEND button The new altitude value is kept till the moment when the closest waypoint is reached Then the altitude programmed for this point will be valid Clicking the FIX button causes the autopilot keeps the current altitude until cancellation The cancellation can be done by sending a new altitude value The fields labelled Throttle and RPM the SEND button and the slide bar placed just below them regards to the engine control To change the throttle servo position chose the slider position and click SEND button During the slider move the slider position is displayed in the Throttle field The slider c
9. 6 to 2 ms ELEV VS ROT The coupling coefficient for the deflection of the 99 to 99 elevator vs the roll A D IN COEFF Scaling factor for integration the voltage at the analog input AUX see chapter Additional functions AIL GYRO The gain coefficient for the roll gyro system 99 to 99 ELEV GYRO The gain coefficient for the pitch gyro system 99 to 99 RUDD GYRO The gain coefficient for the yaw gyro system 99 to 99 V1 V5 and N1 N5 1 255 for V1 V5 472 727 for N1 N5 1to5 Data defining the characteristics of neutral position of elevator versus air speed Point number 1 5 The digit indicating the defined point of chracteristics above RISE SPEED The rise speed in m s while reaching the set altitude FALL SPEED The falling speed in m s while reaching the set altitude SAIL SPEED The falling speed in m s during the gliding flight when the engine is switched off i e in emergency situation MIN HORIZ SPEED The minimum value of speed vs the air in m s that causes the switching to the emergency mode i e switching to the gliding flight For the last four parameters presented in the table the range is not indicated The setting of proper values of these parameters requires from the user some knowledge about the aerodynamic features of the plane These parameters must have the positive values written with the accuracy of 1 decimal place These values should be defined care
10. AUX button After pressing this button AUX label will change to INT one and in the field the value of integral will appear This function is dedicated for monitoring of battery discharge when the electric propulsion is used For this use the current voltage converter should be used in supplying circuit of the motor If the voltage on pin 2 is proportional to the current drawn by motor then the integral is the measure of the charge drawn The speed of integral growing can be adjusted by input voltage and A D IN COEFF coefficient which can be set on AIRFRAME SETTING panel Maximum value of integral is 255 It s recommended to define this A D IN COEFF factor so as the highest value of integral correspond full battery discharche Integration starts after finishing the programming process and works in all control modes The emergency procedures The system software includes some so called emergency procedures They start to operate when some parameters exceed the normal value range Such parameters are the air speed of plane the falling speed and the flight altitude One of these procedures has been already described while describing the mission programming see page 21 It was associated with the opening of the parachute in case of the flight lowering below the minimum altitude or exceeding the maximum falling speed Both threshold values are programmed by the user Other procedures concern flight speed changes
11. FCS 2 system s i os sece cn 2ctstccssccecticpesticecee ches anena ara aaa aa KAE Rea pidea oraaa aea aa Eia Sia adaa ENa SAREA RnR 4 Autopilot CONNECIOMS Pe E E SER RES E oaa sau EE 5 Pi LAY OUR e i Pin description Installing ROLE DIC e 6 BASE the application for ground station eeeseeeeeeeeeeeee eene nennen nennen nn nnnnnn nenne nn sita sinn satin ennem nnen seins etna 7 Graphicsin the BASE un T 8 BASE application menu Information and edit fields Setting Up ile 13 DX neuesejcnuiunnem E c R 15 Um ciiEsmgiI emcurt 15 Mission programming the MISSION SETTING panel essssesesseeeeeeneeneennennee nennen nennen nnne 21 Defining the flight route the WAYPOINT SETTING panel ssessseeeeeeeeennneneeenee nnnm 23 sure a e E a a aA Ee e E E a ERE ie E e a EEEa 23 The route edition in the text mode 0 ee eeeeeseeeeeeesseeeeseeteaeesneteseeeaeeeaeesaeeeseeseaeesaneseaeessaeeeaeeseaeeeseeseaeeneneseaeess 24 Graphical edition of the route without a map nnnm rennen rennen nennen enne 24 Graphical edition of the route USING a map ssssssssseseeeeenneeneeen
12. It is strongly recommended to check these values by observing the Roll rotation Pitch rotation and Yaw rotation parameters They should be contained in 2 to 2 range at fully unmoved platform If not the calibration procedure for gyros should be performed The outputs from the static and dynamic pressure sensors are also measured at that time and the measured values are used for calculating the the altitude and air speed of the plane during the normal autopilot work Due to this the Pitot pipe connected to this sensor should be protected against the wind in the programming phase The first flights should be carried out while the wind is weak The flight route should be programmed in such a way that the plane is permanently placed in a operators field of viev and within the range of the manual control equipment Checking this range especially when on the airframe board are placed some transmitters e g a radio modem is strongly recommended Autopilot and all transmitters placed on the plane should be switched on during the RC range test For example the test flight route may be a square of a side of 400 to 500 m with a start point at the centre It is recommended that the first flight should be performed at a constant altitude in the range of 80 to 100 m to provide the plane manoeuvres are well visible all the time The best solution is to program the autopilot in such a way that in the automatic mode it should keep altitude which was at the
13. RUDD slave deflects down V tail only GYRO label and click the SEND CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button To avoid execution of all above programming actions after the switching off the autopilot power you have to write all the performed settings to the disk While switching on the autopilot again you can read the settings from the disk The SAVE and LOAD buttons which open the proper dialog box make possible the writing and the reading from the disk These buttons execute the same functions as the Load airframe data and Save airframe data items in the Data menu The default and recommended extension for the file names containing the above mentioned settings is set If you plan to set the servos in the channels 5 8 into the required positions in the sequentially reached waypoints it is the right moment for setting the initial values Using the panel which is opened by the Ch 5 8 Setting button and its control elements you can set the required servos positions in the same way as for the first four channels The value ranges are from O to 254 It 20 corresponds to the range of the pulses width changing from 0 9 ms to 2 1 ms The numbers adequate for the required positions should be noted as they will be useful in the next stage of the programming The executed settings may be sent now to the autopilot by clicking the SEND ALL button NOTE This button should not be pressed earlier than 3 4 minutes after powering the autopilot
14. already defined waypoint may be changed with the exception of the start point by putting its number in the POINT NUMBER field and editing the new coordinates If you want to change the geographical position of the start point you must remove all the previously defined waypoints using reset function from the Route menu and then define the start point again If the already defined whole set of the route points should be moved to the another location on the screen then in the POINT NUMBER field you should select the value 00 use the Start point menu and click on the new location of the start point The remaining points will change their position automatically Graphical edition of the route without a map As it was already mentioned this method is useful if the waypoints don t have to be established in rigorous geographical points The geographical position must be defined only for the start point It should be performed in the same way as for the text edition method After defining this point the number in POINT NUMBER field should be increased by 1 and then you should click in the selected point still taking into consideration the scale of the central graphical field You must also remember that the next point cannot be defined too close to the previous one because the plane may have troubles with reaching it It is recommended to keep the distances between the waypoints at least 300 meters 24 Graphical edition of the route using a map The
15. and SEND button Move the Elevator slider to the left and send the new position clicking the SEND button simultaneously observing the motion of the left aileron channel 2 If the left aileron deflected up you should mark the checkbox near the ELEVATOR UP label on the left and click the SEND CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button If the action from step 15 has been already executed you should move the Elevator slider to the right and click the SEND button The left aileron should deflect up Set elevator channel 3 in neutral position using suitable slider and SEND button The actions described in the step 18 25 regard the V tail system 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Move the Rudder slider to the left and send the new position clicking the SEND button Observe the right rudder motion channel 3 If the right rudder has deflected down you should mark the checkbox near the RUDDER label on the left and click the SEND CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button If the action from step 19 has been executed you should move the Rudder slider to the right and click the SEND button The right rudder should deflect down Set rudder channel 4 in neutral position using suitable slider and SEND button Move the Elevator slider to the left and send the new position clicking the SEND button Observe the left rudder motion channel 4 If the left rudder has deflected up you should ma
16. as with the graphical edition without the use of map You should increase the waypoint number in the POINT NUMBER field and click the left mouse button at selected point on the map taking care about the minimum distances between the waypoints If the defined point lies outside the current map the user can change the map by pressing the button L UP DN or R respectively for left upper bottom and right neighbour of the current map These buttons are placed just above the central grafical field on the right and can be used also during the flight when the plane flies out of the current map When the map is used the scale shown in the field just under the zoom area is not valid The map should have own scaling grid Defining the waypoints during the flight At the bottom of the WAYPOINT SETTING panel we can see the groupbox named Waypoint changing containing the components for sending the data obout new waypoints defined during the flight Changing the current target waypoint to another from existing set or assigning the feature of loiter is also possible The sum of waypoints defined during the programming process and after during the flight mustn t exceed 250 NOTE Points defined after programming process named additional points have not altitude attribute as well as servos positions for channels 5 8 The altitude attributed to additional points is equal to the one last defined It can be changed by Altitude setting componets Ad
17. atmospheric preasure sensor This parameter can have the values 50 2000 for every sub range of altitude measure e Altitude range sub range of altitude measure 7 and 0 mean the ranges for lowest and highest altitude respectively e Startpoint course Expected course to the start point calculated after automatic switching the autopilot to the INS mode due to invalid GPS data Mission Mission setting Opens the MISSION SETTING panel that is used for mission programming On this panel the target positions of user available servomechanisms in CH5 CH8 channels for the particular waypoints can be defined The user can also set the altitude for each waypoint Extra channels setting Opens EXTRA CHANNELS SETTING panel for setting the positions of servos connected to extra channels These channels are available on external electronic panel servocontroler connected to autopilot via serial port Speed setting Opens SPEED SETTING panel for cruise speed defining RC blocade Submenu Active excludes possibility of manual RC control Submenu Auto 1km activates the function excluding possibility of manual RC control at distance plane start point longer than 1 km When this distance becomes smaller than 1 km this possibility is restored Submenu Inactive restores possibility of manual control Waypoints Point Displays the defined waypoints Zone Displays the external b
18. connected to the computer before running the BASE program Ttransmission rate is set to 9600 bps To power all system elements it is recommended to use two separate batteries however you can use one battery with the bigger capacity for this purpose Before powering on you should be sure if the temporarily bigger power consumption caused by the servos movement doesn t cause the battery voltage decrease below the value recommended for the autopilot i e 5 8 V The voltage drop below this value may cause wrong work or reseting the autopilot NOTE The highest supply voltage for autopilot is 8 5 V and mustn t be exceed When RC receiver is supplied from 6 V battery oscilation of servos can be observed after switching on and off the RC transmitter In this case the RC receiver channel outputs and autopilot channel inputs should be connected via 1 2 2 KQ resistors for reduction of pulses amplitude Signal amplitude at autopilot channel inputs should not be greater than 4 V These inputs all pins of columns 12 and 13 are connected to the ground via 5 1 KQ resistors If all elements of the system are connected you set the P1 and P4 switches to the lower positions the base station and autopilot are then connected by cable and switch the power on using the P2 and P3 switches If everything is OK after 2 3 seconds the autopilot sets the servos in the default middle positions and starts the dialog with the base station i e it sends the inform
19. currently present in the application memory The data can be vertically scrolled using a scrollbar on the left side of the table Cursors Opens the Track fragmentation panel in the altitude field to highlight the selected fragment of the flight route and corresponding fragment of the altitude graph The highlight is done after defining the first and last second of the interesting fragment and clicking O K button Defined fragment of route becomes green This function is very useful in flight data analysis The geographical coordinates of the point corresponding to the start cursor will appear in Start cursor latitude and Start cursor longitude fields respectively The HIDE button closes the panel Parameters Enables observation of the selected parameters The selected parameter value is displayed in left field of the PARAMETERS panel that is located on the right side of the screen just above the altitude field The content of the field is refreshed every second The central and right field of the panel contain respectively the minimum and maximum value of the selected parameter measured from the moment of selecting The list of all available parameters is given below e Calc Course the flight course calculated by the autopilot on the base of current position and coordinates of the point to be reached currently e Roll rotation indicator of rolling speed in bits The value 0 means no rolling negative and positive
20. for temperature condition stabilisation and the plane should be unmoved at this moment If the programming command is received by the autopilot it sends the confirmation to the base station after the receipt of which the panel MISSION SETTING is opened The AIRFRAME SETTING panel is closed automatically The HIDE button also closes the panel without executing any other actions Mission programming the MISSION SETTING panel The FCS 2 autopilot enables to change the altitude automatically as well as the automatic execution of simple operations e g taking a photo starting the movie camera taking a sample or throwing out the leaflets after reaching the chosen waypoints Such tasks can be performed by the servos connected to the channels 5 8 If the channel number 6 has been used for aileron control it is automatically excluded from other operations The servos positions for the chosen waypoints are programmed on the MISSION SETTING panel This panel becomes visible after sending the first programming file to the autopilot from AIRFRAME SETTING panel and when receipt confirmation is received by the base station This panel can be opened from the Mission Mission setting menu MISSION SETTING fS PARACHUTE RECOVERY WAYPOINT NO ALTITUDE DEF altitude m B m both options stop engine CH 5 lcH 6 LcH 7 Tl CH 8 fall d m p T Ci ae ADD o FX EDIT e K LOAD SAVE CANCEL min altitude 371
21. in the BASE application window In the central field the flight route is drawn and in the altitude field the altitude graph versus the flight time is presented The remaining data may be visible in text form after selecting the Text Data menu In the central field the table with 26 columns will appear It consists the values of the different parameters updated every second Directly under the line with parameters names the series of initial parameters is shown From the left to right they are neutral ailerons position ail neut neutral elevator position elev n neutral rudder position rud neut fixed speed Vfix AILERON factor aileron ELEVATOR UP factor elev up ELEVATOR DN factor elev dn ELEV VS ROT factor el vs rot RUDDER factor rudder AIL GYRO factor ail gyro ELEV GYRO factor el gyro RUDD GYRO factor rud gyro A D IN COEFFICIENT AD coeff The last 9 parameters are set on AIRFRAME SETTING panel The description of all other parameters is given below Parameter Meaning N number The moment of automatic flight Time interval between neighbouring lines is 1 sek The value at the letter N in the header indicates the automatic flight time in seconds flag Parameter of one byte size in which a few information is coded It can be one two or three digits parameter In the case of the three digits number the number of hundreds means the autopilot mode 1 means the semiautomatic mode 2 INS
22. in such way may be used for correcting the flight direction in the INS mode To do this you should open the WIND INFLUENCE CORRECTION panel using the Course correction item in the Wind menu see Figure 15 Into the fields labelled Airframe speed Airframe course Wind speed Wind course you should enter the following parameters the speed of the WIND INFLUENCE CORRECTION plane relative to the air the plane course to for INS mode only the startpoint expected the wind speed and the wind direction accordingly i Airframe speed km h Airframe course O Course correction Wind speed km h Wind course The plane speed you can read from the AIR SPEED field and its course from the left field Course correction Cancel on the PARAMETERS panel after selecting the Startpoint course item from the Parameters menu Figure 15 The panel for the flight course correction in the INS mode ic Of course the autopilot must then operate in the INS mode After clicking the Course correction button the value in degrees by which the flight course must be changed will appear in the field with the same name and the command to change the flight course will be sent The positive value means the turn to the left and the negative value means the turn to the right Course correction should be performed only one time Additional functions RPM measuring FCS 2 system has a function of RPM measuring Autopilot processor periodica
23. level GPS The current altitude of the flight in meters from the GPS data COURSE The current course of the plane from the GPS data GND SPEED The current speed of plane relative to the Earth from the GPS data AIR SPEED The current speed of the plane relative to the air calculated from the dynamic pressure sensor data SAT USED The number of the satellites being observed currently 12 VALIDITY 1 GPS receiver data are valid 0 GPS receiver data are invalid PNT NO Number of the current target waypoint PARAM The current value of the parameter selected in the Parameters menu PAR MIN The minimum value of the selected parameter which appeared within the observation period starting at the moment when the parameter is selected PAR MAX The maximum value of the selected parameter which appeared within the observation period starting at the moment when the parameter is selected In the programming phase the autopilot sends to the PC the information about its position longitude and latitude The transmitted coordinates are absolute i e in the format used by GPS receiver After programming the autopilot sends only the differences between current and start coordinates Then absolute values of longitude and latitude are calculated in the BASE application from absolute start point position If the application is restarted during the normal operation of the autopilot for example when the computer hangs
24. m max altitude 2773 m Figure 10 The MISSION SETTING panel used for programming the positions of additional servomechanisms channels 5 8 and the flight altitude The view of the panel is shown on figure 10 Four edit fields CH 5 CH 6 CH 7 and CH 8 are used for setting the values from 0 to 255 that define the servos positions when reaching the chosen waypoint Value 128 corresponds with the width of the control pulses of 1 5 ms The change of the value by 1 changes the pulses width by 4 us If the odd value is set the servo returns to its start position after 1 second The initial positions of the channels 5 8 are defined in the panel opened by Ch 5 8 Setting button that is located in the bottom left part of the screen The appropriate settings are performed by sliders The set values are displayed in the fields above the sliders During the programming process you don t need click SEND buttons located above the sliders They are used for the changing the servo position after finishing the programming process If you don t know what values should be assigned to the start and end positions on the MISSION SETTING panel are defined only end positions you can find both positions during the first phase of programming e g before pressing SEND ALL button on AIRFRAME SETTING panel Channels which are to be programmed must be activated by marking the checkbox above the given edit field In WAYPOINT NO field you should put the number of
25. maps used by the BASE application are graphical bitmap files of bmp format and they cover the area of 10 latitude and 15 of longitude If the system is equipped with a map of the area above which the flights will be performed you must transfer the map into the BASE application memory It can be performed in two ways first way the standard one is to enter the Map menu and select the Load from file function Then the dialog window will open you should select the proper file with a map extending Operating in this way you must know which map is adequate for the given flight area If you don t know this you can use a second way From the Map menu you must select the Auto loading function The same dialog window will open but in this case you may select any file from the map file set If the directory contains a file of a proper map e g properly named covering the point indicated by the GPS receiver the application will find it and open The loading of a map must be performed in the third stage of the programming when the BASE application reads the data from the GPS receiver Before the map opening you should be sure that the GPS data are valid If the map appears on the screen and the data from the GPS receiver are valid you can click the current position button In the proper point of map a start point will appear This button is enabled during the programming phase only The further edition of the route is performed in the same way
26. mode The number of tens equal to 1 indicates activating emergency procedure e g gliding flight see chapter Emergency procedures The number of units indicates the autopilot cycle phase The digit 1 means that the airframe is turning 2 means outgoing from the turn to the straight flight and 0 means the straight flight with a possible eliminating of a residual roll Straight flight consists of phases 0 and 2 c course The calculated course to the current target waypoint r course The current plane course received from the GPS receiver 33 aln 1 Number defining the ailerons position at the beginning of the one second cycle of the autopilot operation If the AILERON parameter is positive the negative number indicates the ailerons deflection for the left turn and the positive number the deflection for the right turn With the negative AILERON parameter the situation is reversed aln 2 The same parameter value as described above but delayed by 0 5 s rud 1 Number defining the rudder position at the beginning of the one second cycle of the autopilot operation If the RUDDER parameter is positive the negative number indicates the rudder deflection for the left turn and the positive number the deflection for the right turn With the negative RUDDER parameter the situation is reversed rud 2 The same parameter value as above but delayed by 0 5 second
27. of place on the Figure 6 only two servos are shown It is recommended to connect the servos to all channels which are to be used If the autopilot operates with the radiomodem it is necessary to use 3 section switches labelled P1 and P4 which connect the autopilot to the computer via cable or radio link As P1 switch it may be used 2 section switch but in this case the Tx lines of radiomodem and level matching circuit as well as powering lines 5V should be switched The P4 switch can be omitted as well provided the radiomodem is connected to the other serial port and the powering is set in the permanent way In such case while switching to the radio communication mode you should select the suitable port using the option from the Port menu The P1 P2 P3 switches and the Z1 socket should be placed in the wall of the plane s fuselage The communication between the computer and the autopilot uses the serial port If the computer is not equipped in such port currently manufactured notebooks usually do not have ones you can use the USB port and the special USB RS232 converter After connecting the converter you have to check what port number it emulates e g using the Windows Device Manager If you know the port number you can open the BASE application and using the option of the Port menu you can select the proper port from COM1 to COME As a default port COMB is chosen and the opened if possible provided that the USB RS232 adapter is
28. panel on the left side of the screen to the right position and click the SEND button located just above the slider The message about the change of the neutral position for the direction rudder should appear 8 Ifthe rudder controlled by channel 4 has moved to the right or up for the V tail airframe type the value in the RUDDER field on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel should remain positive In the case of the left deflection you should change the value to the negative and click the SEND button located near the field The message about new rudder position should appear and the rudder should deflect in the correct direction 9 Move the aileron slider to the neutral position and click the suitable SEND button Repeat this operation for elevator and rudder The actions described in steps 10 to 17 concern the Delta airframe type 10 Move the Aileron slider to the left and send the new position to the autopilot by clicking the SEND button simultaneously observing the motion of the right aileron channel 3 18 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 If the right aileron has deflected up you should mark the checkbox close to the AILERON label on the left and click the SEND CHECKBOX SETTINGS buiton If the action from step 11 has been already executed you should move the Aileron slider to the right and click the SEND button The right aileron should deflect up Set aileron channel 2 in neutral position using Aileron slider
29. plane velocity vs course graph Wind graph inactive Closes the panel for drawing the plane velocity vs course graph Show data Draws the plane velocity vs course graph from the read data Course correction Opens the panel WIND INFLUENCE CORRECTION for correction of the plane course influenced by the wind for INS mode Calibration Gyro calibration Initiates calibration procedure neutral position finding Elev calibration active Enables procedure of adjusting of neutral elevator position Elev calibration not Disables procedure of adjusting of neutral elevator position active Information and edit fields Most of the information fields are placed just below the main menu bar They display current information about the flight parameters providing the radio link is used The purpose of each information field is described below starting from the left to the right side of the screen Field title Field content description HOURS MIN SEK Hours minutes and seconds of the flight duration in non manual mode LATITUDE The latitude of the current plane position LONGITUDE The longitude of the current plane position FIXED The fixed altitude of the flight in meters relative to the start point level CURRENT The current altitude of the flight in meters calculated from the atmospheric pressure sensor data relative to the start point
30. the waypoint with which the entered positions will be associated In ALTITUDE DEF field you should enter the altitude which the autopilot will accept as a fixed altitude after reaching the given waypoint The plane will reach this altitude with 21 the rise or fall speed defined on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel Till the time of reaching the first waypoint the autopilot will keep the altitude given in the moment of switching into the automatic mode If you want the plane to keep this altitude during the whole flight you should click the FIX button after finishing this programming step Such altitude will be valid until sending the command with new altitude defined in the Altitude setting m field on the left part of the screen At the bottom of MISSION SETTING panel we can see min altitude and max altitude parameters The values of these parameters are calculated after the first steep of programming process on the basis of data from barometric pressure sensor These parameters depend on altitude ASL of the place where the programming is carried out and are related to the altitude of this place The values set into the ALTITUDE DEF field should be chosen from the range 0 max altitude Note Programmed altitude will be always the multiple of 12 If another number is set to the ALTITUDE DEF field the program will calculate and memorize nearest smaller than set value Negative value of min altitude parameter means that we can define the altit
31. these modes The default mode after finishing the programming phase is an automatic one To change this mode into another you have to open the MODE SELECT panel by selecting the GPS INS menu The upper O K button on this panel is used for switching the autopilot into semiautomatic mode the GPS mode Clicking this button causes the autopilot chooses the course entered in the upper edit field It should be a number from 0 to 359 The HOME button restores the automatic mode and the start point becomes the target The lower O K button switches the autopilot into the inertial mode INS Then the plane turns by the number of degrees entered in the lower edit field You can choose the direction of the turn by MODE SELECT setting the option Left turn or Right turn The Cancel INS mode button restores the automatic mode and the target is now the point to which the plane was COURSE SETTING flying in the moment of switching on the INS mode GPS mode pP j O K HOME Figure 13 The panel for the selection of the autopilot operation mode DIRECTION CHANGING INS mode J The HIDE PANEL button closes the panel You should remember that the lack of radio communication after b jJ O K Cancel INS mode the switching into the INS mode may cause the escape CE ER RUN of the plane and as a consequence its crash If the g entering into the INS mode happened automatically HIDE PANEL due to the lack of the proper data from the GPS receiver it is impor
32. At the beginning of autonomic flight autopilot records the current speed indicated by pressure sensor and tries to keep it by changing RPM The change is done when the diference between avarage value of speed throughout the last 3 sec and recorded speed Vfix exeeds 5 km h and if throttle servo is not in it s extreme position The set speed V fix can be changed during the flight by sending the command with a new value of speed after opening SPEED SETTING panel This pannel will appear after selection Speed setting item from Mission menu When the plane speed reaches Vmin value e g due to the stop of the engine or RPM reduction the system acts radically The set altitude is the ground level and the autopilot switches the plane to the gliding flight with the falling speed defined in the AIRFRAME SETTING panel in sail speed field The course is then set towards the start point If the programmed falling speed is too low and the plane reaches the flight speed less than 0 9 Vmin value the procedure increases the falling speed by about 0 6 m s If the speed increases up to 1 3 Vmin value the falling speed is decreased by 0 4 m s If this doesn t decrease of the flight speed e g if the engine gets back the rotations the reduction of the falling speed will be repeated up till reaching its negative value being equal of 1 m s Such value means the rising with such speed It is the signal for autopilot that the plane has reached the normal flig
33. FCS 2 The Automatic Flight Control System EXT BEE Daa Tra Satpam Scale Fancs Wn Teet sta Cursors Parameters Meson RPMstab Wayins Map Pork Deno Ac sia Wltegecal Photo GPSONS Wind signal TIME POSITION ALTITUDE DYN DATA GPS DATA PARAMETERS TOURS MN SEK LATITUDE LONGITUDE MZED CURRENT GPS COURSE GND SPEED AIRSPEED sar WR VALIDITY PETWO calc comer wx Max v jr Power 10e APL SERVO MOTOR 59 Altitude setting m po Hem nx Nue uy VG 090 aat v 40 0 sewn HELL nN Wu LE 3 odo fore 1 Neutral Position Ch 5 8 Setting sers Manual Table of content inepitp B M 1 Technical Specifications 2c cacsccc 2 Modes lr iore NEN Automatic mode SEMIAULOMALIC MOJE PEPERIT 3 Inertial navigation mode INS eseeseeeseeseseeeseeeeaeecseeseseeeeaeseaeecsaeeeseeseanecsaeseseeseaeeeaaeseaeeesaeeeaeecsaeseaeeseaeeeeaeseaeeeeeeeeas 3 Maridial imode RG e M 3 Block diagram of the
34. GPS Alt The altitude indicated by the GPS receiver in meters rot 1 The output signal value read from the gyro sensor that shows the rotation speed around the vertical axis after the signal processing circuit The readout is done at the beginning of the one second autopilot operating cycle The values less then 0 mean the turn to the left greater the turn to the right rot 2 The parameter as described above read with 0 5 second delay roll exp Expected value of the roll angle in degrees roll 1 Real value of the roll angle degrees at the beginning of the autopilot operating cycle The positive numbers show the roll for the left turn the negative numbers for the right roll 2 The parameter as described above read with 0 5 second delay altitude 2 bytes value indicating the current flight altitude above autopilot programming level The real altitude in meters may be calculated according to the formula H z N 10 where the N is given in the table alt set 2 bytes value indicating the set flight altitude The real value is calculated as described above elev 1 The value indicating the component of the elevator deflection that depends on the current altitude relative to the set altitude If the ELEVATOR UP factor and the ELEVATOR DN one is positive the values greater than zero in this column indicate up deflection and the lower down deflection With the negative factors the situation is reversed elev 2 The parameter as des
35. Mark the checkbox near AIL channel 3 slave deflects down GYRO label and click the SEND Delta airframe type CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button The right aileron slave deflects up The checkbox near AIL GYRO Delta airframe type label should remain unchanged Rotation around the Elevator controlled by channel 3 ELEV GYRO field should remain transverse along the main deflects up unchanged wings axis with the tail u 9s P Elevator controlled by channel 3 Enter the minus sign before the main deflects down number in the ELEV GYRO field and click the SEND button Elevator controlled by channel 2 The checkbox near ELEV GYRO delta or channel 4 V tail deflects label should not be marked up Elevator controlled by channel 2 or Mark the checkbox labelled ELEV channel 4 deflects down Delta or GYRO and click the SEND V tail type CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button The turn to the right around Rudder controlled by channel 4 RUDD GYRO field should remain the vertical axis main deflects to the left or down unchanged for the V tail airframe type Rudder controlled by channel 4 Enter the minus sign before the main deflects to the right or up number in the RUDD GYRO field for the V tail type and click the SEND button Rudder controlled by channel 3 The checkbox near RUDD GYRO slave deflects up V tail only label should not be marked Rudder controlled by channel 3 Mark the checkbox near
36. To activate this function you have to use the TRIGGER SETTING panel which will appear after selecting the Photo menu fig 12 Using this panel you may define the waypoint in which the series of photos begins the first waypoint field the interval as the numbers of waypoints between the consecutive series of photos the waypoint interval field the number of photos in series the photo count field as well as the time interval in seconds between the consecutive photos in the series the time interval field All fields have to be filled with integral numbers Maximum number of photos in one series is 255 Minimum time interval between the consecutive photos is 2 The fields labelled shutter off pos and shutter on pos are used for the defining of servo positions corresponding to released and pushed shutter trigger The SEND button is used for sending information from the panel to the autopilot The FINISH button breaks taking photos in given series The CANCEL button closes the panel If in the waypoint interval field the number 0 is entered then only one photo series will be taken If in the first waypoint field you write the number 0 only one series of photos will be taken at the moment of sending the command NOTE Photos are not taken in the last waypoint 27 Defining of the operating modes The available operating modes of the FCS 2 system were described on page 3 In this chapter you will learn how to put the system in each of
37. an set the servo position within the range defined in the AIRFRAME SETTING panel opened from the Factors menu If the system includes the RPM measuring circuit the RPM field shows the number of rotations per minute see chapter Additional functions The next three element groups labelled Aileron Elevator and Rudder allow to set the positions of the airframe control surfaces i e the ailerons elevator and the rudder These elements are used during the first step of autopilot programming The range of the control sliders change is between 49 to 49 what corresponds to pulse width 1 2 ms The associated information field indicates the set value The command for the correction of the selected surface position is sent after clicking the proper SEND button The four information fields located under the label Neutral Position THR AIL ELEV and RUD indicate the current positions of the servos used to the flight control i e counting from the left the throttle ailerons elevator and rudder accordingly The values appearing in these fields may vary in the ranges from 400 to 800 that corresponds with the control pulses width changing from 1 to 2 ms Below these fields there is the Ch 5 8 Setting button that opens the panel containing the other fields and control elements They have the same meaning as the elements from the groups Aileron Elevator or Rudder but it serve the remaining four channels The difference in setting the 5 to 8 chann
38. ans that the ELEV VS ROT parameter is too small If the plane rises the value of this parameter is too high The rolling speed of the wings for making a turn should not be too violent If it happens the AILERON parameter should be decreased On the contrary situation when rolling speed is too low it has to be increased Autopilot software has a function of regulation of rolling speed so that value of AILERON parameter of 40 50 should be suitable If the oscillations around the longitudinal axis appear it may indicate too big value of the AILERON GYRO gain factor If the plane has a tendency to exceed the turns it will be visible in the flight route you can fight it off by decreasing the RUDDER factor It is recommended to change once all parameters by ca 2096 to 2596 of the initial value If the oscillations around one of the three axes did not happen earlier you could increase the gain factor of the appropriate gyroscope the stabilising effect increases as well till the moment the oscillations appear Then you decrease the gain factor approximately by 2096 and check if the oscillations disappear If this happened you can finish the adjustments After completing the flights on the stable altitude and performing the necessary corrections of the particular parameters you can start the flights with the variable altitude At the beginning the first change of the altitude to the higher should not exceed 20 to 30 meters If you allow the p
39. ation that it is ready for the programming If the information is received by the base station the AIRFRAME SETTING panel is opened At this moment you can check the work of the gyro stabilisation Turning the autopilot around the one of its three maim axes longitudinal transversal or vertical you should notice the motion of the 14 proper servomechanism You can now temporarily switch off the two power sources and make the steps described in the next chapter of this manual The autopilot programming The AIRFRAME SETTING panel The AIRFRAME SETTING panel Figure 7 is used for the programming the different factors related to the inertial and aerodynamic features of the controlled airframe The first setting which has to be done is the choice of its configuration using the options labelled AIRFRAME CONFIGURATION The autopilot is dedicated for the three airframe types normal delta and V tail AIRFRAME SETTING AIRFRAME CONFIGURATION my THROTTLE T Elevator trimming normal delta V tail REV SEND i notvalid slave SEND CHECKBOXS SETTINGS valid fixed servo B C valid float Lo ELEV VS ROT SEND id float AILERON 5 ADIN COEFF gt E SEND vipo El wi 620 S 2 servos aileron control mede REM 4 ELEVATOR UP ET ceno n vebo Ej w2 51 E ka SEND vako 3 600 6 ELEVATOR DN SEND N ORO SEND r E m RUDDER SEND r anon avro 5 E SEND vapo FF wa 55 5 4 4 rise speed fall speed
40. aypoints The parachute recovery criteria can be also placed in the file The file is created on the MISSION SETTING panel that is opened from Mission menu Save mission data Saving the parameters created on MISSION SETTING panel to the disk file Load waypoint data Loading the file with data defining the flight route The data are geographical coordinates of points which are to be reached in flight This is the third and last file required to program the autopilot It is edited in graphic or text mode using the WAYPOINT SETTING panel The way of creating this file will be described later Save waypoint data Saves the flight route data created on the WAYPOINT SETTING panel to disk file The panel can be opened from the Route text edition menu Read buffer Reads the recently written route data from the bufor pnt file This file is automatically saved on the disk at the moment when the data are sent to the autopilot using the SEND ALL button on the WAYPOINT SETTING panel This is an emergency option that is useful when the data were not stored on the disk in other way and we have to read these data once again for example when the computer hang off during the flight The bufor pnt file is located in the same directory as the BASE application Route Text edition Displays the panel WAYPOINT SETTING for text edition of the flight route Reset Deletes all edited waypoints In such case the edition must be repea
41. bmp files and should cover area of 10 latitude and 15 of longitude Additionally the number of minutes following the number of degrees corresponding to the upper or bottom edge of the map must be 0 or a multiple of 10 00 10 20 30 40 50 Permissible numbers of minutes for left and right edge of maps longitude are 00 15 30 and 45 The bmp files can be obtained for example by scanning the conventional paper map For every bmp file should be created text file map for configuration and it should be placed in the same catalog and have the same main name as the corresponding bmp file This map file comprises informations about latitude longitude of left upper corner of the map as well as the width and height of the map in pixels The line below shows an example of full content of map file 1at5430N10n02130E 2010h2191 L5430211E U5440213E D5420213E R5430214E The meaning of letters and digits is as follows Lat lattitude 54 number of degrees 30 number of minutes N north lon longitude 021 number of degrees 30 number of minutes E east 2010 width of the map in pixels h height 2191 height of the map in pixels 5430211E main name of left L neighbour of the current map 5440213E main name of upper U neighbour of the current map 5420213E main name of bottom D neighbour of the current map 5430214E main name of right R neighbour of the current map To be able to
42. ccdussdesatct scessueveastaduaivscecetunenetetsdei 36 Introduction The automatic flight control system FCS 2 further it will be called autopilot provides an automatic navigation and stabilisation of the flight of unmanned mini aeroplanes on the predefined path Both the small dimensions and the light weight of the device results from the usage of the newest and technologically advanced elements and parts That is why the system can be used even in very small and light planes about 2 kilograms The FCS 2 autopilot has eight channels for controlling the same number of servos Four or five of them are used by the flight control procedures and remaining can be used by the user to control additional operations e g positioning the TV or still camera opening a parachute etc The flight stability is provided by the three axes set of gyro and acceleration sensors and two pressure sensors used for measuring the altitude and the speed relative to the air Navigation functions use data from the GPS receiver which is connected to the serial port of the autopilot The second serial port of the autopilot is used for communication with the ground base station it may be a notebook or PC The communication with the control station uses either the cable or the radio link The data exchange between the autopilot and the ground station is supported by the Windows application running on the base station This application BASE also supports the definition
43. confirmation you will see the next panel called WAYPOINT SETTING see Figure 11 WAYPOINT SETTING POINT NUMBER 01 2 2 4 LarTuDE Kj N S DEGREES MINUTES MIN FRACTION EIw LONGITUDE B 2 4 ADD REMOVE LOAD PROG FILE SEND ALL HIDE Waypoint changing Loitertime LOITER NOW na SEND POINT Loiter ao md TIME EXTENSION Figure 11 The WAYPOINT SETTING panel for the edition of file programming the flight route Using this panel you may define the flight route i e enter to the programming file the coordinates of points which should be reached in flight The edition of points may be performed in two modes text or graphical one The text mode is necessary when the BASE application is not equipped with maps standard version and the flight route must reach the points with defined coordinates In such case the user must known earlier coordinates of these points or should determine them using the conventional map and then enter them in the proper panel fields If the waypoints don t have to be strictly defined and may be chosen freely e g for a demo purposes you may use faster graphical method In this method you can define the route points by clicking the left mouse button at choosen points of central field The geographical coordinates of these points will be automatically calculated basing on the scale of the central field and the coordinates of the start point and will be available in the edi
44. cribed above read with 0 5 second delay elev n The value indicating the neutral position of elevator It can vary in time if the average flight speed changes relative to the air and the elevator neutral position versus air speed characteristic is set and used V gnd The speed indicated by the GPS receiver in km hour V air The speed relative to the air in kilometers per hour calculated from the dynamic pressure sensor signal connected to the Pitot pipe waypoint The number of the current target waypoint of the route sat nr The number in this column is the doubled number of the received satellites increased by one if the GPS receiver data are valid When the photo is taken at this moment the value 100 is added to this number throttle The value indicating the position of the throttle It can be changed from the min to max value defined on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel pitch Pitch angle in degrees Positive and negative value means the pitch up and down respectively others This coloumn shows 9 different parameters recorded every 9 sec In succesive seconds are recorded roll temp pitch temp yaw temp temperatures of roll pitch and yaw gyro sensors in bits aut volt ser Volt power supply voltages for autopilot and servos respectively in volts PRM engine rotations aux Volt 34 voltage in bits at analog input AUX aux Int integrated value of aux Volt in arbitrary units Vfix fixed flight spee
45. d km h Except the above mentioned parameters the airframe position data are sent to the computer They are presented as the graph in the central field of main window showing the route of the flight The geographical coordinates for the moment of interest may be shown on the Track fragmentation panel it can be seen by selecting the Cursors menu After writing the selected flight moment to the Start cursor field you should click the O K button In the Start cursor latitude and Start cursor longitude fields should be visible coordinates of route point corresponding to selected moment BASE C STACFCS2 STACMOD FCS2_14 DTA Data Route Startpoint Scale Factors Trim TextData Cursors Parameters Mission Waypoints Map Port Demo Soundsignal Magnetometer cal Photo GPS INS Wind Signal TIME POSITION ALTITUDE DYN DATA GPS DATA PARAMETERS HOURS MIN SEK LATITUDE LONGITUDE FIXED CURRENT GPS COURSE GND SPEED AIRSPEED SAT NR VALIDITY PNT NO CALC COURSE MIN MAX SEC IC ICI AcoHdAn EnaA POWER Janas APL SERVOS 40 Altitude setting m 4 30 sewn Fx Throttle RPM 7 5 smw man map update mag se roll 1 altitide altset elev 1 MIN MAX ETT FI fs m ail n 603 elevn 625 rudd n 631 vixz 84 aileron 45 elev up 33 elevdn 33 elvs rot 17 ruddi 1 1 309 85 64 0 61 51 167 11 14 88 7 19 1253 1253 0 0 Aileron 2 1 307 82 0 0 13 18 166 26 24 86 18 18 1251 1253 2
46. ditional points can be defined using the one of the ways described above but continuity of waypoint numbering have to be kept Before sending the new waypoint data to the autopilot we can assign the attribute of loiter to this point by marking the Loiter checkbox In this case time of loiter have to be defined in Loiter time field Now we can send waypoint data clicking the button SEND POINT The new waypoint data cannot be changed after sending After receiving new waypoint data this waypoint becames a current targed for autopilot if it works in automatic mode After reaching the current target waypoint having the Loiter attribute 4 additional waypoints are generated creating the route for loitering These points are placed in the corners of square surrounding the target waypoint target waypoint is the middle of this square These 4 points are always numbered from 251 to 254 and lie on the axes east west and north south crossing at target waypoint The order of reaching these points depends on the course of plane at the moment of reaching the target waypoint Distance D between adjacent points created for loitering depends on speed of the plane V at the moment of reaching the target waypoint and is calculated from relation D 1 4 V 100 where D i V are expressed in meters and km h respectively NOTE The points numbered 251 254 are created in autopilot only and aren t visible in base station In case of communication lo
47. e MIN position and then in the MAX position If there is no tachometer circuit or if the engine doesn t work the RPM field shows 0 You can see if the voltage readings in the APL SERVOS fields are correct comparing them to the readings from the precise voltmeter The difference should not be greater than 0 05 V Switch on RC transmitter and set the pulse width in channel 5 greater than 1 7 ms RC receiver should be connected to the autopilot in the four fields grouped under the Neutral Positions label you can observe the values that correspond with the widths of pulses in the channels serviced by the RC transmitter joysticks This is the effect of so called automatic trimming procedure After switching the autopilot into the automatic mode the values displayed in the field mentioned above will be memorized as the neutral positions in the channels 1 4 respectively That is why the switching into the automatic mode in flight must be executed with released transmitter joysticks after precise plane trimming Switching on the manual control of the plane resets the time counter The time counter starts to operate again after switching on the automatic control At this moment in the autopilot memory the new data starts to be stored and in the altitude field the new altitude graph vs time is drawn In the central field of the BASE application window the passed route will be drawn If the plane is kept in the same position the current posit
48. e flight direction The data should cover as many directions as possible to be more accurate If the planned flight doesn t cover all directions it is recommended to make one or more circles at the beginning of the flight The collected data may be displayed in real time after selecting the Wind Wind graph active submenu In the zoom field the panel displaying the speed data as the function of the flight direction will appear 28 BASE The vertical scale has two ranges and can be changed by two buttons placed on the Data Track Startpoint Scale Factors Trim TextData Cursors P panel By means of the lower button you TIME POSITION can select the graph vertical range up to 80 HOURS MIN SEK LATITUDE LONGITUDE FIXE km per hour the default one and the upper o 25 02145 7685 B 120 button clicking increases the range up to 160 km per hour POWER B m L Figure 14 The plane speed vs the plane APL SERVOS MOTOR 129 6 85 5 21 ios course distribution 5 f lE The Figure 14 shows the example of the Altitude setting m collected data The graph has a sinusoidal 4 M shape with amplitude that refers to the Um wind speed and the course to which the Throttle ppm L1 55 7120 7190 260 300 38 maximum refers is the wind direction it means the direction which the wind blows to On this example you can see that the wind speed is 25 to 30 km h and its direction is 210 The parameters determined
49. e opening if the plane is equipped with the parachute when the plane altitude is equal or less than the value written in the altitude m field The altitude threshold should be entered in meters One additional condition must be fulfilled before the opening of the parachute the airframe must reach the altitude 20 meters higher than the threshold altitude set in the window it must be fulfilled even for a short time Otherwise the parachute would open always after switching the autopilot to the automatic mode when altitude is less than the threshold The parachute opening may happen independently on the above described condition if the falling speed overrun the value entered into the fall speed m s field This value has to be entered in the meters per second Marking the both options checkbox causes the parachute will open after fulfilling both conditions The default value i e 0 in any of the two fields causes that the autopilot will ignore the given condition In the ch 8 rec Position field you should enter the value defining the control signal for the channel 8 that corresponds to the servo position opening the parachute The parachute opening is associated with the switching off the engine If you have defined all values of interest in that panel you may save them to avoid the programming procedure next time for the similar mission This operation is performed by opening the dialog window when clicking the SAVE button Loading the missi
50. ee it clicking the PROG FILE button Programming File panel will appear in altitude field If you want to choose another start point than the one indicated by the GPS receiver you should edit its coordinates in the appropriate fields and press the ADD button on the WAYPOINT SETTING panel The choice of this point is important because the autopilot after reaching the last waypoint will direct the plane to the start point If after reaching the start point the switching into the manual control mode does not happen the autopilot will be loitering round this point While editing the waypoint coordinates you should enter the suitable number of digits into the edit fields This number is displayed in brackets above or below the each field In the last edit field of each field row you should enter the capital letter indicating the north or south latitude N or S accordingly and the east or west longitude letters E or W CAUTION Entering the improper number of digits into the edit field will cause the wrong interpretation of data by the autopilot After defining the start point you should increase the value in the POINT NUMBER field by 1 edit the coordinates of the first waypoint and click the ADD button The new point should appear on the screen if the scale of the central graphical field allows it and 25 bytes of new data is added to the programming file For the next waypoints you should perform the similar procedure The coordinates of the
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52. els and the flight control channels is that the user has the full setting range of pulse width from 0 9 ms to 2 1 ms The default settings in all channels equal to 128 that correspond with the pulse width 1 5 ms Setting up the system Before using the FCS 2 system you should connect all autopilot parts according to the Figure 6 Elements provided for the mounting in the airframe are placed in area marked with the dashed line 13 l RADIO i RADIO i MODEM MODEM i option option i RS PORT RS PORT l GND Rd Tx RADIOMODEM RI 5V Jenn SUPPLY eile z soa Secr CH1 4 IN GND level a Tx CH5 8 IN e converter 9 onnl g CH 1 OUT eS a R AUTOPILOT L PC or Ch 8 OUT 15V GPS RECEIVER Antenna apop BATT 2 GND i RPM AUX BATT 1 3 Unit f A fee sess gt gt o sevo 2 Servo Autopilot and 10 REM g Jg radiomodem supply 5 8 8 5V measuring CH 1 4 ndn 2422 Rc RECEIVER GPS RC receivers gev and servos supply Figure 6 The scheme of the connections between the FCS 2 system elements Due to the lack
53. for manual remote control RC is switched on The suitable circuit in the autopilot detects this signal and then if the signal is valid disables the servomechanisms control signals generated by autopilot and enables the signals from RC receiver The manual mode is used mainly in take off and landing phases Manual control can be disabled by sending the command via radiomodem Block diagram of the FCS 2 system The FCS 2 system uses RCM3400 microprocessor module produced by Rabbit Semiconductor company It contains the processor 29 MHz clock rate RAM and FLASH memory A D converter and I O ports 11 bits 8 channel A D converter reads the output voltages from all sensors gyroscopic acceleration pressure temperature as well as the battery voltages Block diagram of autopilot system is shown on figure 1 The parts inside the doted line are placed on autopilot board The control mode detection unit should be discussed more exactly The purpose of this circuit is to inform the processor when the manual control mode is switched on It uses one channel of the RC receiver that is not involved in the plane control When the width of control pulses in this channel is less than 1 5 ms or the pulses do not exist i e the RC transmitter is switched off the autopilot takes the plane control The control mode detection circuit blocks autopilot control signals when the mode control pulses from RC transmitter become greater than 1 5 ms RC receiver contr
54. fully for proper plane behaviour during the rising and falling and for the action of emergency procedure NOTE decimal places should be separated by dot point The more precise description is necessary in the case of the V1 V5 and N1 N5 parameters It is known that the plane trimmed for the given speed will be rising at the greater speed and will be falling when the speed decreases To eliminate this effect it is necessary to correct the neutral position of the elevator Therefore the neutral elevator position as a function of the air speed should be defined and V1 V5 and N1 N5 create this 5 point characteristics N1 N5 are the numbers defining neutral elevator positions adjusted for the air speed V1 V5 respectively The relation V1 lt V2 V3 V4 V5 have to be fulfilled Neutral positions for speed other than V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 are calculated from curve slope between the nearest points fig 8 V1 and V5 should be defined close to minimum and maximum horizontal speed of the plane respectively V1 V5 and N1 N5 data can be determinened during the manualy controled flight The use of radiomodem link is strongly recommended to do it 16 During the fly after adjusting the neutral elevator position for selected speed regulated by RPM the speed can be read from AIR SPEED information field as well as elevator position from ELEV field To write this readouts as a suitable point of N vs V characteristics you should define number of th
55. he first flights it is recommended to leave the default absolute values of all factors defining the control surfaces deflections The appropriate changes should be implemented in the accordance to the plane behaviour during the flight this will be described later on In this phase of the programming you should also set the values in the three edit fields grouped under the name GYRO GAIN and if it s needed three checkboxes associated with them 19 The absolute values in the fields corresponding to the particular control surfaces define gyro gains for these surfaces Adding the minus sign before the number changes the main servo move direction around the respective axis Slave servos motion directions can be set by marking suitable checkboxes from the group named gyro slave servo inv NOTE The motion directions for main servos must be set first Table 3 contains the possible reactions of the control surfaces controlled by the main servos for the rotation around the selected axis and ways of changing them Table 3 Motion mode Control surfaces reaction Action to be done Rotation around the The left aileron connected to AIL GYRO field should remain longitudinal axis X for the channel 2 main deflects down unchanged left turn The left aileron connected to Enter the minus sign before the channel 2 main deflects up number in the AIL GYRO field and click the SEND button The right aileron connected to
56. his procedure is performed only during the horizontal and straight flight Neutral position of elevator can vary in the range 4 of full deflection To activate this procedure option Calibration Elev calibration active should be chosen after full programming of autopilot Calibration function is active until chosing the option Calibration Elev calibration not active Activation or deactivation of this function is unnounced by message Calibration of neutral position of elevator activated or deactivated respectively By default calibration function is not active First flights This chapter covers the instructions of matching of some FCS 2 autopilot parameters useful for achieving the smooth and stable flight However these instructions don t run out all cases of behaviour of the plane during the flight Therefore it is strongly recommended that the first flight should be accompanied by the experienced person who can interpret the causes of various plane behaviours and react correctly Remember to swich on the autopilot power supply minimum 3 4 min before programming During the autopilot programming in an open area while standing on the ground the plane is exposed to a strong wind blows You should take care that the airframe is fully motionless especially during sending the first configuration file to the autopilot At that moment the autopilot measures the voltages on the gyro sensors outputs and writes them as the neutral values
57. ht ability and it returns to its mission reaching the altitude and the target waypoint before the emergency situation Calibration procedures Gyro sensors calibration One of the factors determining a precision of control is a quality of gyro sensors In FCS 2 autopilot are used high quality sensors but they also emerge to have a time and temperature drift of output voltage 30 Therefore FCS 2 system is equipped with algorithm for adjusting of O values for unmoved autopilot of all gyro sensors It should be performed after all programming steps if one or more of parameters Roll rotation Pitch rotation and Yaw rotation have absolute values greater than 2 Calibration algorithm is initiated by clicking the Calibration Gyro calibration menu option During observation of parameters and performing the calibration procedure autopilot has to be fully unmoved When calibration procedure is succesfully finished the message Calibration done will appear and new 0 values of all gyro sensors will be saved to the flash memory These values will be used until the next calibration or switching off autopilot powering Elevator position calibration As it was indicated earlier the plane should be exactly trimmed before switching the autopilot to the automatic mode Careless trimming can cause worse altitude and course keeping The user of FCS 2 System has possibility of activating the procedure correcting the neutral position of elevator T
58. ield is about 410 m x 280 m The zoom field can be also used as the place for drawing the graph of flight speed from the GPS versus the flight course Such graph is useful for establishing the speed and direction of the wind The third graphics field in the main window is used for presentation of the current flight altitude versus time and that s why it is called the altitude field It is horizontally elongated and located above the central field Vertical scale on the altitude axis is 1 m pixel and the horizontal one on the time axis is 1 s pixel The graph shows the altitude related to the one measured during the programing process The field contains two blue horizontal lines The solid line represents the ground level and the dashed one represents 50 m level The graph can be scrolled in the field horizontally and vertically by the scrollbars located at its bottom and left side respectively Additionally the small text field located on the left of the horizontal scrollbar contains information about the time of automatic flight in seconds corresponding to the first visible pixel of the graph Of course the graphs in all fields are drawn only when the ground station receives the valid data on the fly using the radio link If the radio link is not available then both the flight route and the flight altitude could be displayed after retrieving the data from the autopilot It is possible after the landing via cable only BASE application
59. ion jitter resulting from the inaccuracies of the GPS system may be visible All these data are visualised if there is communication between the autopilot and the base station If it has been a cable communication till that moment you could disconnect the cable and switch on the radiomodem communication provided the system is equipped in such device If you just want to take off you should remember to drive out the autopilot from the control mode if it has been switched on for the control purposes You have to select the Inactive item in the Trim menu checking if the autopilot has confirmed this command The window with a appropriate message will appear on the screen Before the taking off you can but you don t have to switch on the acoustic signalling of the data transmission breaks When the radio communication is used such breaks may happen e g due to the interference or exceeding the link range The signalling is switched on and off by the selection of the item Active or Inactive in the Sound signal menu accordingly Taking the photos Figure 12 The panel for programming TRIGGER SETTING the photo sequences photo count time interval first waypoint waypoint interval 2E dus system i piens the automatic triggering o e camera y B AE shutter in a programmable way using the servo or an electronic circuit shutter off pos shutter on pos connected to the still camera Channel i 2 SEND FINISH CANCEL 7 is dedicated for this function
60. is point in Point number field and press the button SEND on the right of this field NOTE Before pressing SEND button the elevator stick of transmitter have to be released After this operation the fields V and N corresponding to the digit in Point number field will fill in If radiomodem link is not used the points of N vs V characteristics should be writen to the autopilot memory by switching the autopilot to automatic mode switching off the transmitter for the 2 3 seconds After restoring the manual mode and landing the memorized data should be send to the base station computer Interesting data elev n elevator neutral position and Vfix air speed should be visible after opening the text data table just under the line with parameters names see chapter Flight data Of course defining of every V N pair needs separate flight If the plane propulsion is not electrical the defining of the V N pairs should be carried out at obout half tank of fuel When the speed and altitude is not changed during the flight for example at first flights defining of N vs V characteristics is not essential and has not to be defined In this case the option not valid should be marked Otherwise all V N pairs should be correctly defined After every swithing Figure 8 Example of relation between the air speed and neutral elevator position 1 the autopilot from manual to automatic XP mode the current neutral position of elevator will be e
61. is used for both the GPS and RC receivers Pin 4 is the common GND identically as in columns 1 11 Additionally all pins of column 14 are connected to the sockets located on the bottom of the autopilot housing for cased version Such sockets provide direct mounting of the GPS receiver on the autopilot This column is also dedicated for supply and communication with extra channel servo controler if used Pin 1 must be connected to Rx line of serial port see fig 20 Column 15 COMP This column is used for communication with the external computer base station Pin 1 is Tx output and pin 2 is Rx input of the serial port 2 of the microcomputer module They should be connected to the respective Rx and Tx lines of the radiomodem or base station Low and high voltage levels of Tx and Rx lines of autopilot are 0 and 3 3 V If the external computer is connected directly then the additional circuit for matching the voltage levels in the computer and the autopilot should be applied This matching circuit and the radiomodem if it is used can be powered from pin 3 that is connected to 5 2 V Pin 4 is connected to common ground of the autopilot The current drawn by radiomodem in receive and transmission mode should not be greater than respectively 100 and 300 mA Otherwise radiomodem should have it s own power supply NOTE The cable link is required during programming the autopilot or retrieving the collected flight data The radio link is u
62. ktop PC or a notebook with Windows operating systems specified in chapter Technical specifications and with the serial port If the computer has no serial port the USB port with a special USB RS232 converter can be used Installation of the program can be performed in the standard way by running the setup exe file The BASE application can operate either with the geographical maps in form of bitmap files bmp or without any maps The maps are not delivered on default The application is used for the autopilot programming before the flight and for communication with it during the flight if the system is equipped with a radiomodem link After the flight the data stored in the autopilot memory can be send to the base station using the BASE application and then visualised in a text or graphic form The main application window is shown on Figure 5 Data Route Startpoint Scale Factors Trim TextData Cursors Parameters Mission Waypoints Map Port Demo Sound signal Magnetometer cal Photo GPS INS Wind Signal TIME POSITION ALTITUDE DYN DATA GPS DATA PARAMETERS HOURS MIN SEK LATITUDE LONGITUDE FIXED CURRENT GPS COURSE GND SPEED AIRSPEED SAT NR VALIDITY PNT NO CALC COURSE MIN MAX 0 p p l l l l 1 l POWER aux Jho APL SERVOS 60 40 Altitude setting m Bs 4 30 seND Fix PbereeRPRM 0 60 120 180 240 300 361 v 40 Throttle RPM smp ue midiv E current position 1
63. lly measures high state time on digital autopilot input called RPM column 2 pin 1 Measuring starts at the moment of changing the signal state from 0 to 1 If you use the circuit generating periodic rectangular shape signal of 50 96 duty the value connected with it s frequency will appear in RPM field If input signal changes it s state 2 times per one revolution of propeler RPM field shows value of revolutions per minute For one change of signal state during one propeler revolution you have to multiply observed value by 2 Input signal should change from 0 V low state to 3 3 V high state The function of RPM measuring has the limits For the input signal with period equal to 1 and 2 revolutions time the minimum measured value is 600 and 1200 RPM respectively At lower RPM 0 value will appear Suitable maximum values are 15700 and 31400 RPM Measure is done in all control modes exept 29 manual mode and it s resolution is 120 RPM For supplying the input signal circuit the voltage 5 2 V on pin 3 of 2 column can be used up to 20 mA currend draw Analog input AUX Analog input is placed on pin 2 of column 2 It is connected with A D converter input via multiplexer The voltage existing on this input is sampled every second Additionaly measured values are added giving thus the integral of measured voltage The range of measure is 0 to 2 V The current value of input voltage in bits is shown in field just under the
64. menu All items of the BASE application main menu and its submenus are described below Data Load flight data Loading flight data stored on the disk After loading the flight route and the altitude vs time graph are displayed in their graphics field Save flight data Saving the data read from autopilot to the disk file Recommended and default filename extension is dta Autopilot reading Retrieving data from the autopilot after the flight Before this operation the autopilot and computer must be connected via cable included NOTE The powering of the autopilot and RC Transmitter should not be switched off before sending the data This menu function reads data only to the memory Save flight data submenu is used to store data on the disk Load airframe data Loading the plane specific parameters from the disk The loaded plane data are displayed on AIRFRAME SETTING panel that can be opened from Factors menu The file containing plane parameters is one of the three autopilot programming files The plane parameters are described in detail further in this manual Save airframe data Saving the parameters edited on AIRFRAME SETTING panel to the disk file Load mission data Loading the mission defining parameters This is the second file that programs the autopilot The file contains altitudes to be reached in particular waypoints and the signals for user available channels to be generated in these w
65. moment of switching this mode on Then you will be sure that the possible flight altitude change is caused by the improper adjustment of suitable parameters Before the taking off during the autopilot programming you should check how many satellite signals are received by the GPS receiver It should not be less than 5 If the autopilot system doesn t have the radiomodem it is recommended that the operator knows the approximate positions of the few first waypoints Then he will be able to estimate that after the switching on the auto mode the plane is directed to the correct course and he can intervene if the course is wrong 31 At least one second before switching on the automatic mode the plane should be put into the stable horizontal flight along a straight line and the transmitter joysticks should be released Of course before this the airframe must be trimmed carefully The Figure 16 presents the recommended locations of the four waypoints for the first automatic test flight and the position of the plane at the moment of switching on the automatic mode The plane operator should be in a point 0 It is recommended to make a movie during the first flights After finishing the flight you can analyse the airframe behaviour playing back its flight The first seconds of the automatic flight should give most information necessary for estimating the particular parameters set on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel It is recommended that the first flight
66. ol signals are then used to control the plane It is recommended that the channel used for control mode setting is served by a two positional switch The pulse width for the first position of this switch should not be greater than 1 1 ms and not less than 1 9 ms for the second position GPS receiver can be mounted in different way For non cased autopilot GPS receiver is fixed to autopilot board just above the microprocessor module For cased version it is mounted to the bottom side under the connecting pins Both versions of autopilot allow connecting the GPS receiver by wire as a separate unit GYRO ACCELERATION TEMPERATURE AND MAGNETIC SENSORS Oooo OOOO GPS 3 ANALOG INPUT SERIAL A D CONVERTER PORTI Oo RCM3400 PERIPHERAL MICROPROCESSOR L 4 CIRCUITS countine MODULE 1 ES HEN RADIOMODEM OR GROUND STATION l UE RC RECEIVER Figure 1 Block diagram of the FCS 2 system Autopilot connectors Pin layout Layout of autopilot connectors is shown on Figure 2 The pins are numbered in columns numbers 1 15 at the bottom and in rows number 1 4 on the left The pin construction allows the use of light and reliable connectors for plugs manufactured by JR or FUTABA The pins grouped with the dotted line on the figure are connected to each other mm DR Static pressure sensor Dynamic pressure sensor
67. ommunication is restored the semiautomatic mode can be set again or the current destination point can be changed Inertial navigation mode INS This mode uses the elements of inertial navigation system INS Generally it is used when the GPS device sends invalid data to the autopilot When the invalid GPS data are detected the autopilot calculates the turning angle needed for the course towards the take off point using the last valid data Then the system is switched to the INS mode and the turning is executed using the processed information from the gyro sensors After the turning by the calculated angle the system keeps the plane in a straight flight Flight stabilisation is the same as in other modes If the switching to the INS mode is automatic then the autopilot returns to the automatic mode when the GPS data become valid Take off point becomes the destination point In this mode the wind is very important factor The FCS 2 autopilot can seriously reduce the wind influence The INS mode is used mainly in case of a troubles with GPS receiver however it can be also used when the operator knows flight direction from sources other than GPS e g from the on board camera image or direct observation of the plane In such situation the operator can control flight direction sending the command with turn angle data Manual mode RC In this mode the full control of the plane is executed by the operator The mode starts when the transmitter
68. on data is performed by clicking the LOAD button that opens the dialog window and then selecting the proper file If you want to see how the particular waypoints have been programmed you may click the EDIT button This restores the values set in the channel fields as well as in the ALTITUDE DEF field for the waypoint of the number indicated by the WAYPOINT NO field Now you can send the mission programming file mis to the autopilot clicking either the O K or the FIX button In this last case the autopilot ignores all altitude settings and the required altitude will be this one on which the switching to the automatic mode takes place These two buttons also close the panel The panel can be also closed by clicking the CANCEL button without any other action The programmed data are stored in the program memory If you prefer to program the mission after defining the flight route you can do this not sending the route data to the computer return to the mission programming send it to the autopilot and then send the flight route data If mission 22 programming is not needed just click O K or FIX button In this case the plane will fly at altitude on which the switching from manual to the automatic mode takes place Defining the flight route the WAYPOINT SETTING panel Sending the mission defining file to the autopilot closes the MISSION SETTING panel If the autopilot confirms the receipt of this file and the base station receives this
69. oose the proper option and click the SEND CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button 3 Move the Aileron slider beyond the panel on the left side of the screen to the right position and click the SEND button it is located just above the slider The message about the change of the ailerons position should appear 4 f the left aileron has moved down for the right turn the value in the AILERON field on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel should remain without changes positive In case of the up motion you should write the minus sign preceding the number and click the SEND button near the field The message about new value of aileron position should appear and the left aileron should deflect to the opposite side as before 5 Move the Elevator slider beyond the panel on the left side of the screen to the right up position and click the SEND button just above the slider The message about the change of elevator position should appear 6 If the elevator or right aileron for delta type controlled by the channel 3 has deflected up the value in the ELEVATOR UP ELEVATOR DN and ELEV VS ROT fields on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel should remain positive When the down deflection happens you should change the value to the negative one and click the SEND button near the field The message about new value of the elevator position should appear and the elevator deflection should have the contrary direction to the previous one 7 Move the Rudder slider beyond the
70. or fields respectively and pressing the OK button The value in end cursor field should be greater than the one in upper field You can close the data table by selecting Text data menu again Autopilot FCS 2 can memorize the data through the 3 5 hours automatic flight time After this time a new data are writen in place of old one the earliest writen If the flight lasted more than 3 5 hours the data from all memory are transmitted to base station and a new data are separated from old one by line with zeros djo 60 120 180 240 300 36 v 5 Figure 18 The record of the IPM ge j 1000 midiya ERE E currenty real autonomous flight route a cil Figure 17 shows the text data MAX not all for first 18 seconds of z the real autonomous flight The route of the same flight is shown on the figure 18 After reaching the last point 4 the plane turns to the start point 0 and then flies towards to the 1 point again Special changes were made in autopilot software for this behaviour After travelling the route 3 times the manual control mode was turn on E I Izl E 35 Extra channels availability FCS 2 system allows using 18 extra channels by connecting to autopilot the external electronic board servocontroler Autopilot servocontroler link is realized via serial port which is common for servocontroler and GPS receiver connecting Tx line of autopilot port column 14 controls the extra
71. or vibration reduction The pressure measuring system should be installed as well It is connected with two pressure sensors in the autopilot by means of silicon pipes of 2 mm inside and 4 mm outside diameter One sensor measures dynamic pressure that is recalculated to the flight velocity relative to air Another sensor indicate static pressure that is the measure of the flight altitude SPEED SENSOR dii Autopilot p top view ALTITUDE SENSOR Figure 4 The scheme of the pressure system installation The connections between pressure sensors and external pressure system consisting of Pitot pipe located inside an outer pipe of 9 to 10 mm diameter are shown on Figure 4 The outer pipe outlet is connected to the altitude sensor The pipe has two rows of 10 holes of 1 2 mm in diameter one row on the top and one on the bottom in its front end The Pitot pipe the inner one of about 3 mm in inner diameter is connected to the speed sensor The pressure measuring pipe system should be aligned with the direction of flight It is important that the system is mounted out of the range of the air stream generated by the propeller for example on the wing The Pitot pipe inlet should be placed about 10 to 15 cm in front of the wing attack edge to avoid the air turbulence caused by the plane BASE the application for ground station The FCS 2 system includes the BASE application for base station computer It can be either a des
72. ossibility of stopping the engine during the flight failure you have to check if the sail speed parameter is right chosen Too low value entered into the sail speed field can cause at the engine switched off the crash You can check it by connecting the throttle servomechanism to the proper input of the RC receiver 32 During the automatic flight the engine may be controlled manually and may be switched off at any time After switching the engine off on the safe altitude you can observe if the airframe doesn t change the speed indicated by pressure sensor below the minimum value If this happens you should switch to the manual control mode and after landing enter a little bit greater sail speed value The correction of the sail speed parameter should be finished as the horizontal speed is high enough e g 1 3 Vmin If you plan to change the flight speed during the automatic flight you have to define neutral elevator position versus air speed characteristic see chapter The airframe setting pannel The range of described above autopilot adjustment methods may not be full and the test flights with the autopilot switched on should be carried under the supervision of the experienced person who have the adequate knowledge One of the sources of such knowledge necessary in the case of airframe behaviour analysis may be the data in the autopilot memory that are gathered during the flight After the flight that data can be sent to a ba
73. oundaries around the defined waypoints If the plane enters this area the autopilot assumes given waypoint as a reached Map Load from file Opens the map loading dialog The map covers the area of 10 minutes latitude by 15 minutes longitude Auto loading Simplifies a map loading when the user does not know what map is valid for the given position of the start point With this option the selecting of any map file causes the proper choice on the base of current GPS data This function should be used in the appropriate third phase of the autopilot programming For using this option the maps should be specifically named Delete map Removes the map from the program memory Port Submenu COM COM6 opens serial ports COM1 COM6 respectively The COMS port is opened by default if it s possible 11 Demo Active This function draws the route and altitude of flight from data in RAM memory in real time Inactive Disables the Demo function Sound signal Active Enables the acoustic signalling when the data transmission from autopilot to base station breaks Inactive Disables the acoustic signalling Photo Opens the panel TRIGGER SETTING for photographic camera or other devices control programming GPS INS Opens the panel MODE SELECT for controlling the plane in semiautomatic or inertial INS modes Wind Wind graph active Displays the panel for drawing the
74. qual to measured one at last moment of manual mode It is illustrated on figure 8 The 5 defined points represent N vs V curve Assume S V that after changing from manual to automatic mode autopilot detects the air speed and neutral elevator position corresponding to point A Correction of neutral elevator position can be carried out accord the defined curve solid line or the dotted line passing through point A In first case option valid fixed must be marked Second case will be executed for option valid float chosen The user can test both options and choose the one giving the better altitude stabilization If air speed of plane is less then V1 correction is done with curve slope existing between points V1 and V2 For the speed greater than V5 the curve slope is 0 If option not valid is chosen the neutral elevator position corresponding to point A is fixed for all speed range There are eight checkboxes on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel These checkboxes should be set respectively for the Delta and V tail airframe types except the rev checkbox MI v2 v3 V4 v5 The checkbox labelled 2 servos aileron control should be marked when each aileron is powered by the separate servo and the each one is controlled by the separate channel The additional channel which should be used for the aileron control is channel 6 In such case this channel cannot be used for any other purposes and these two servomechanisms must be mo
75. rk the checkbox near the ELEVATOR UP label and click the SEND CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button If the action from step 23 has been executed you should move the Elevator slider to the right and click the SEND button The left rudder should deflect up Set elevator channel 3 in neutral position using suitable slider and SEND button Move the Throttle slider to the right and click the SEND button located just above the slider The engine servo should change the throttle position to increase rotations If the action is opposite you should mark the rev checkbox and click the SEND CHECKBOXES SETTINGS button Match the utmost position for the maximum rotations entering the proper number to the MAX window near rev checkbox and click the appropriate SEND button Check the chosen position setting the Throttle slider at the utmost right position and click the SEND button located just above the slider If the position is incorrect repeat the actions from steps 27 and 28 for the different value written into the MAX field Match the utmost position for the minimum rotations entering the proper number to the MIN window near the rev checkbox and click the proper SEND button Check the chosen position setting the Throttle slider at the utmost left position and clicking the SEND button located just above the slider If the position is incorrect repeat the actions from steps 30 and 31 for the different value written into the MIN field For t
76. sail speed min horiz speed n bi Bo Jms B Jms 2 ms o kmh VI lt V2 V3 lt VA lt V5 Point numberfi SEND SEND ALL HIDE LOAD SAVE 1 5 Figure 7 The airframe parameters setting panel Table 2 contains the description and the value ranges of all parameters set in the edit fields of this panel The SEND buttons near some fields are used for sending to the autopilot the commands modifying given parameter during the flight or programming NOTE The values set in the ELEVATOR UP ELEVATOR DOWN ELEV VS ROT and ELEV VS AIL fields must have the same sign As the default values there are set the typical values excluding min horiz speed factor values They do not take into consideration the minus signs preceding the numbers which reverse the motion of the servomechanisms 15 Table 2 Field name Parameter description Range AILERON Proportionality coefficient for the aileron deflection 99 to 99 ELEVATOR UP Proportionality coefficient for the up deflection of 99 to 99 the elevator ELEVATOR DOWN Proportionality coefficient for the down deflection of 99 to 99 the elevator RUDDER Proportionality coefficient for the rudder deflection 99 to 99 THROTTLE min Sets the lower limit for the width of pulses that 0 to 99 control the engine servomechanism 1 to1 4 ms THROTTLE max Sets the upper limit for the width of pulses that 150 to 255 control the engine servomechanism 1
77. se station and written to a disk as the flight documentation file To do that you cannot switch off the manual control transmitter after the landing till starting data transmission You have to connect the autopilot with the base station by a cable such transmission is possible only via cable and select the Autopilot reading item from the Data menu Panel informing obout necessity of cable connection will appear After pressing the O K button a new panel showing the data transmission progress should appear After starting the transmission the RC transmitter can be switched off After completing the transmission autopilot is in a stand by mode If you intend to repeat the flight with the same parameters it is enough to click O K button on the panel with transmission progress information Autopilot should return to the normal work It confirms the receipt of this command by closing the panel with transmission progress The autopilot starts a new automatic work session and begins to write the new data if RC transmitter is switched off Now only the new data can be sent to the base station after switching on the RC transmitter Flight data After finishing the flight you can transfer the flight data into the base station only by the cable link These data can differ from the data written during the flight due to the communication breaks After the data transmission from the autopilot some of them are automatically displayed in the graphic fields
78. sed during the flight to transmit the commands and receive the data To make such operation easier the two section switch for switching between these communication links can be applied It should switch the Tx line and 5 2 V voltage line powering the radiomodem and Tx Rx voltage level matching circuit Installing the autopilot The way of mounting of the autopilot in the plane is important for its proper operation First of all the three main axes of the plane X Y and Z should be aligned with the respective axes of the gyro sensors in the autopilot It means the autopilot have to be mounted horizontally accordingly with the flight direction and with connectors on the top and at the back see Figure 3 C g Figure 3 The recommended mounting of the autopilot in the plane AUTOPILOT Z According to the Figure 3 the autopilot is located in the box that is rigidly mounted to the fuselage The space between the autopilot housing and the box walls hatched area on Figure 3 is filled with a foam rubber The foam rubber prevents the autopilot against vibrations and minimises an influence of shocks during the landing The recommended thickness of the foam layer is 6 to 10 mm Autopilot non cased can be mounted to the additional frame for example 1 1 5 mm fibre glass or carbon composite by means of the screws jutting at the bottom of the main board This frame should be mounted to the fuselage flexibly f
79. self In such case the voltage regulator should be used to reduce the voltage to the level of 5 to 6 V Then pins 1 and 2 are not used If the separate battery without voltage regulator is used for powering the devices then pins 1 and 2 should be connected together using the appropriate bridge This bridge supplies the voltage from the pin 1 to the measuring circuit pin 2 Columns 4 11 CH 8 OUT CH1 OUT All three pins columns are used for servomechanisms connections All pins having the number 2 from columns 4 11 are the outputs of channels 8 1 respectively Pins 3 and 4 are connected respectively to positive and negative pole of the voltage source that powers the servos Column 12 CH 5 IN CH8 IN Pins 1 to 4 are the inputs of channels 5 to 8 These inputs should be connected to the outputs of channels 5 to 8 in the RC receiver if they are used Channel 5 input pin 1 is used for switching autopilot control modes automatic or manual Column 13 CH1 IN CH4 IN Pins 1 to 4 are channel inputs for control the rudder elevator ailerons and throttle respectively The inputs should be connected to the respective outputs of the RC receiver Column 14 GPS Pins of this column are used for the GPS device connection Pin 1 is Tx output and pin 2 is Rx input of the serial port1 in the microcomputer module Pin 3 is the positive pole of voltage source that powers the GPS receiver 5 to 6 V The same voltage source
80. should begin from the flight along the straight line i e on the course towards the first waypoint see Figure 16 You can concentrate on the observation of the effects of the elevator control performed by the autopilot If the airframe movements in the vertical surface are too nervous and have an oscillating nature with the period of a few seconds or more it means that the ELEVATOR UP and ELEVATOR DN factors are too big 400 m ep OF diuinis eie tiges b qth 400 m Oa T o S 2 3 Figure 16 The suggested placing of the waypoints for the first test flight In such situation you should switch to a manual control calm down the flight and if you have the radio link available you should correct parameters mentioned above If you dont have such communication you should land and make the necessary corrections on the ground After taking suitable position for the switching on the automatic mode again you can repeat the trial If the vertical oscilations have frequency of 1 Hz or more the cause may be too big value of the ELEVATOR GYRO gain factor The next step in the adjustment procedure is setting the parameters responsible for the behaviour of the plane during the turn At the moment of reaching the first waypoint that is defined according to the Figure 16 the plane should start to turn left rolling the wing If the plane falls sloping the nose down due to the loss of the carrying capacity it me
81. ss Loiter time attribute was created It s a time defined in Loiter time field Shortest and longest time is 180 and 2550 s respectively 3 and 42 min Countdown starts at the moment of reaching the target waypoint Loiter time can be extended by a new time value chosen in Loiter time field after clicking the TIME EXTENSION button This button should be pressed if time extension is needed during the erlier loiter Next time countdown starts when previous counting is finished After finishing of loiter autopilot directs the plane to the start point waypoint 0 After reaching 25 the start point the plane starts to loiter without time limit regardless of whether the loiter attribute is set or not When the waypoint except start point without checked Loiter attribute is reached the plane is directed to the next waypoint Operator can direct the plane to the other waypoint at any time by chosing the point number in the POINT NUMBER field and clicking the SEND POINT button Pressing the LOITTER NOW button creates a new waypoint at the current plane position around which the plane starts to loiter regardless of whether the loiter attribute is set or not Before pressing this button loiter time should be set in Loiter time field If the new waypoints was created during the flight full set of waypoints should be saved on the hard disk if it s needed Preparing the maps As it was writen above the maps have to be prepared in form of
82. t fields on the panel If the BASE program is equipped with the map of the ground of interest the procedure is similar Then the waypoints may be chosen in geografic points you want Panel buttons Button name Description ADD Adds the current point data that are written into the edit fields to the programming file You can see the file content in the panel opened by the PROG FILE button REMOVE Removes the recently added point from the programming file the start point is not removed SAVE LOAD Opens the dialog for saving the programming file to the disk SAVE or loading it from the disk LOAD The same functions are performed by the Save waypoint data and Load waypoint data items in the Data menu SEND ALL Sends the programming file to the autopilot simultaneously closing the panel HIDE Closes the panel without any other operations SEND POINT Sends new waypoint data to the autopilot during the flight LOITER NOW Sends command of loiter around current position of plane TIME Extends time of loiter EXTENSION 23 Sending the file that contains the flight route data finishes the autopilot programming After receiving the last programming file the autopilot switches to the normal work automatic mode The visible signs of this work are the moves of the control surfaces servos especially ailerons On the TIME panel the time starts to be counted In the POWER field the correct reado
83. tant to take into consideration the wind force and direction the detailed description is given in the next chapter The manual control mode can be switched on by switching on the RC transmitter pulse width in channel 5 should be longer than 1 7 ms The wind influence When the inertial mode starts automatically after making a turn by a calculated angle the autopilot tries to keep the plane in the straight flight It uses then the signals from gyro sensors If the plane is pushed aside by a wind then the resultant flight direction is a combination of the initial flight direction and the wind direction This problem is particularly important in the case when you don t know the flight direction from the other sources e g from the onboard video camera Then you cannot correct the flight direction yourself In such situation the plane which initially have chosen the direction to the base station may pass it away in the distance that disables the possibility of the manual control That is why the implementation of the flight correction in the initial phase of the INS mode is recommended taking into account the wind direction and it s speed Because the wind direction may vary with the altitude it should be determined on the planned flight altitude The BASE application provides the procedure that collects the wind data during the flight in the automatic mode This procedure collects the plane speed data indicated by the GPS relative to th
84. te Manual control can be disabled by sending the special command via radiomodem The very useful function of the autopilot is the continuous monitoring of control signals for servomechanisms used for flight control The user can precisely trim the plane in manual control mode and then switch off the RC transmitter control sticks of RC transmitter should be released before switching off At this moment the autopilot stores the monitored signals as the neutral positions The system software supports some emergency functions as well For example the decrease of the plane velocity below the user defined threshold causes the system switches to the gliding flight and directs the plane towards the start point If the plane is equipped with a parachute it can be opened when the altitude decreases to the user defined value i e 50 m In this moment the plane engine is switched off as well The FCS 2 autopilot requires powering by two separate batteries One 5 8 to 8 5 V battery is used for the powering of the autopilot circuits and the second of 4 8 to 6 V voltage is used for powering the GPS receiver the RC receiver and the servomechanisms Acceptable but not recommended is the use of a single battery It is possible only when the special conditions are fulfilled This will be explained further in this manual Autopilot FCS 2 characterizes by low radiation level and therefore can be used without case with EMI shield Technical specification
85. ted from the beginning excluding the start point Trace verification Corrects the invalid plane positions given by the GPS if they were present Start point Informs the program that we want to place the start point Start point is created by the left mouse button click on the selected point of the central field This point should be defined before the waypoints Scale Opens the submenu that allows the central field scale selection The scale values in the submenu are approximate and the accurate values are displayed in the information field just above the left upper corner of the central field when working without a map The maps should contain it s own scale Factors Opens the AIRFRAME SETTING panel that allows the edition of the autopilot programming parameters PID controllers and others related to the aerodynamic and inertial features of the plane Trim Active Enables the autopilot settings check mode In this mode all components of the control surfaces deflections except those that are forced by gyros are equal to zero In this way the neutral positions of control surfaces can be checked as well as direction of control surfaces move forced by gyros More details are given later in the manual WARNING This mode must be switched off before the flight Inactive Disables settings check mode Text Data Opens or closes the table with the flight data that are
86. the motion around the airframe longitudinal axis X the main channel is channel 2 and the slave channel is channel 3 While forcing the motion around the crosswise axis Y the situation is reversed The motion directions of main servos are set in the appropriate fields by setting or not the sign which precedes the number The motion directions for the slave servos are set by checking or not the appropriate checkboxes The similar situation appears for the type V tail system The servo powering the left rudder is connected to the channel 4 the main channel for the motion around the vertical axis and the right to the channel 2 which is like in the previously described situation the main channel for the motion around the Y axis Below in the chronological order there are given the actions needed for setting the servos move directions These operations should be executed after the mounting the servos in the airframe and connecting them to the proper autopilot channels and control surfaces NOTE In the next steps it is assumed that for the V tail airframe type the channel 4 controls the left rudder and for the delta type airframe the channel 2 controls the left aileron 1 Switch on the powering of the autopilot and the RC receiver After 2 3 seconds the AIRFRAME SETTING panel should appear and the servos should be set in their default neutral positions 2 Ifthe airframe type is different than the normal one you should ch
87. ude below the level of autopilot programming but only after the full programming process by means of the Altitude setting field This way allows to change the altitude with 1 m resolution If during the programming process you have defined different altitudes for any waypoint then after reaching this point the desirable altitude will be equal to the programmed value If in all panel fields you have placed the correct values except the group labelled PARACHUTE RECOVERY you should click the ADD button This adds the settings for the given waypoint to the programming file Now you can define the settings for the next waypoint Defining signals in the channels 5 8 as well as the altitude doesn t have to be related to all waypoints At the points which have not been selected the autopilot does not perform any functions related to these channels as well as to the altitude change In the described panel you can see that the channel 8 is a special one It has an additional checkbox labelled stop engine Channel 8 is dedicated for the parachute opening e g after reaching the last waypoint Marking the checkbox means the engine is switched off along with the parachute opening The throttle is set to the utmost position for minimum RPM programmed on the AIRFRAME SETTING panel One additional function programmable in this panel regarding the parachute is available as well It is one of the emergency functions This function concerns the parachut
88. unted symmetrically to the longitudinal airframe axis because the signal in the channel 6 is the same as in the channel 2 If there are no contraindications i e using the ailerons as flaps flaperons in manual mode it is recommended to control both servos from one channel channel 2 Then it is necessary to use the Y type cable In this case 2 servos aileron control checkbox should remain unmarked The rev checkbox from the THROTTLE group enables the change of the engine servo moving direction If the checkbox remains unmarked the value set in its left side defines position for the minimum rotations or the engine switching off position The value in the right field defines then the position of the throttle for the maximum RPM Marking the rev checkbox reverses the situation Figure 9 The assignment of the control surfaces to the particular autopilot channels in the delta type airframe The three checkboxes labelled slave servo inv located vertically on the left side of the panel are used for the setting the direction of the slave servos The slave servo or slave channel term has only Left aileron Right aileron channel 2 channel 3 17 meaning in the case of programming of the delta or V tail airframe types In Delta system you have 2 slave channels This is shown on the Figure 9 In this case the servo driving the left aileron is connected to the channel 2 and the right aileron to the channel 3 While forcing
89. use the option Auto loading during the map loading the bmp and map files should be especially named The names below are an examle of this name and concern the one map 5430213E bmp 5430213E map The meaning of letters and digits is as follows 54 number of degrees of lattitude 3 number of tens of minutes lattitude 021 number of degrees of longitude 3 number of tens of minutes longitude E east W for west This way of coding the maps is common for north or south semisphere because the maximum length of the main name is 8 signs During instalation of BASE application 5 maps are loaded for demonstration of the way of map changing by means of the L UP DN or R buttons The map with name 5220204E bmp is a central one and the rest of them are the neighbours left right bottom and upper If not existing map is chosen the message map not found will appear The final adjustments and control After finishing all programming process autopilot goes into the automatic mode RC sender should be switched off You can now again check the work of gyro stabilization function Select the Active item from the Trim menu This function sets the autopilot in the inspection mode In this mode all surfaces aileron elevator and rudder should stop moving and react only for a rotary movement around the 3 main plane axis 26 Now you can check the utmost positions of the engine servo setting the Throttle slider once in th
90. uts of the battery voltage which powers the autopilot and servos should appear If during the flight the plane will leave the area covered by the map it can be changed to a new one by clicking the map update button The route edition in the text mode Together with opening the WAYPOINT SETTING panel the BASE program each second reads data from the GPS receiver and shows it in the information field under the menu bar At this moment the coordinates of the start point have to be assigned to the chosen screen point You must be sure that the visible coordinates are valid Such information is shown in the VALIDITY field Zero 0 means that the data are invalid and you must wait some time usually 1 to 2 minutes from the moment of powering GPS receiver Data are valid if the value 1 is displayed Now be sure that 00 is entered in POINT NUMBER field Then you should choose the central field scale in the menu Pos Scale and select the Startpoint item Next click the left mouse button in the chosen point of the central field If the panel covers the interesting area you may drag it with the mouse to another place After clicking the mouse in the central field area you will see the square with number 0 This is the start point In the edit fields of the panel you will see the coordinates of this point They should be identical as in the position fields located above the zoom field The first part of the programming file will be created as well You may s
91. values mean the roll moving for right and left turn respectively e Roll gyro temperature temperature of roll gyro sensor in bits Change of 1 C 4 bits e Roll gyro neutral pos value in bits from roll gyro sensor recognized as neutral It can be verified by calibration procedure e Pitch rotation indicator of pitching speed in bits Negative and positive values mean the pitch moving down and up respectively e Pitch gyro temperature temperature of pitch gyro sensor in bits Change of 1 C 4 bits e Pitch gyro neutral pos value in bits from pitch gyro sensor recognized as neutral It can be verified by calibration procedure 10 e Yaw rotation indicator of turning speed The value 0 means straight flight negative and positive values mean the left and right turn respectively e Yaw gyro temperature temperature of the gyro sensor in bits Change of 1 C 4 bits e Yaw gyro neutral pos value in bits from yaw gyro sensor recognized as neutral It can be verified by calibration procedure e Invalid GPS data number of invalid GPS readouts from the beginning of current session autonomous flight e Roll roll angle in degrees e Pitch pitch angle in degrees e Acceleration sensor X axis value in bits from X axis accellerometer e Acceleration sensor Y axis value in bits from Y axis accellerometer e Altitude sensor indication value in bits from

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