X-3D-BL ResearchPilot User's Manual
Contents
1. FA mH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual unsigned char ptr unsigned short length ptr amp ScientificCommandData packetdescriptor l engeh siZe0r ScilentifticCommandData check if serial link is open if J calculate CRC UartInitialized reLurn eCroe Ccrolo ptr Length send packet Wri cestringToUart gt x gt WriteByteToUart length gt gt 8 WriteByteToUart lengthg0xff WriteArrayToUart ptr length WriteByteToUart crc gt gt 8 WriteByteToUart crc amp 0xff All WriteXToUart functions have to be replaced by user specific access to an open serial link With the command protocol a single or all control channels can be taken over by the serial interface Therefore the X 3D BL ResearchPilot must receive the following command data packet with an update rate of at least 10Hz to 20Hz up to 200Hz over the serial link struct SCIENFITIC COMMANDDATA always unsigned piten unsigned unsigned unsigned unsigned flags Bic 0 f Bit 1 foit 2 Bit 3 Bit 4 LTE S 7 Bat 0x17 char packetdescriptor roll shit short short short SR ee ja 0 4095 2048 middle je sl OLI 1 T yaw yaw commands Pitch control through serial interfacae enabled Roll control through serial interface enabled Thrust control through serial interface enabled Yaw control through serial interface enabled ACC Mode on off Height control on2. MEN Futaba m e Full Throttle Click on FP OSP and on connect to connect to the X 3D ResearchPilot Click now on OSP Flight parameters By clicking Load or Save parameter sets can be stored on or loaded from the PC The button trans mit transmits the actual parameterset but doesn t store the setting on the UFO Only a click on Write parameters writes the setting in the permanent mem ory of the UFO Click on Ready and Transmit and disconnect after you done 4 On Board serial interface 4 1 Physical interface The interface is a serial uart link with 3 3V TTL levels which 1s SV tolerant at 57600 baud 8 bits one start bit one stopbit To connect a PC a bluetooth link or a high level processor to the ResearchPilot you can use the same interface as the USB interface GND GND RXDdnput NC TXD output CTS nput VCC 4 3V VCC 4 3V Be carefull with the VCC power supply It s connected to the analog supply of the pressure sensor and is very sensitive to noise Depending on the needed power it might be neccessary to www asctec de Kea f X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual x ESmi connect the power of your transmitter directly to ID ANGLE PTTCH the battery power 12V pins on the X Base ID ANGLE ROLL ID ANGLE YAW Tie CTS to GND for continuous data transfer ID_AV PITCH ID_AV_ROLL ID_AV_YAW ID_ACC_X ID_ACC_Y ID_ACC_Z ID HEIGHT ID RC CHANO ID RC CHANI
3. Struct SCIENTIFIC DATA always PD_SCIENTIFICDATA define PD_SCIENTIFICDATA 0x19 unsigned char packetdescriptor length of data field in bytes Packetlength length 4 unsigned char length flexible data field Maximum 32 integers or 64 shorts unsigned char data 128 by The data field contains the data in any arbitrary order descriped in chapter 4 2 1 The data bytes are distributed according the order and length of the requested data fields A byte uses one byte of space whereas a short uses two bytes and an int uses 4 bytes Ascending Technologies GmbH 20 www asctec de xeago X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 4 3 Test software There is a graphical user interface X 3D BL_ResearchPilot_Testsoftware exe to visualize the data packets described above You can use this program to better understand the serial interface and to check 1f everything is working correctly _ X BL Scientific Testsoftware c 07 Ascending Technologies GmbH Whe Seley Contral Data Test Functions Pitch Active Max M Roll Active wW a Yaw Active pet Hig M Thrust Active Bak Jo A D 127 S 1 Activate All F H K Start Motors ear H is Left Right Min f J Deactivate All Stop Motors a If you did not receive a copy of this software please contact us by e mail 4 4 General hints for using the serial in terface To enable the command interfac
4. ID RC CHAN2 ID RC CHAN3 The configuration packet is descriped in Section 4 2 1 o O ER M Alternatively you can use the pin as an input for a radio modem s CTS Clear To Send pin The X 3D BL ResearchPilot will only send data if the CTS pin is pulled low by the connected device It will stop sending data if the Pin is pulled high by the modem to prevent data loss during the transmission 4 2 Data protocol 4 2 1 Data output The data output protocol is a very flexible user pro gramable serial protocol By sending a configuration packet to the ResearchPilot the data packet can be changed to a user configuration Through the com mand data packet the desired data rate can be set in 5Hz steps from 5Hz up to 300Hz which is automaticly handled by the ResearchPilot The data packet can be configured to contain any arbitrary combination of the values from the following table The standard packet is configured as Ascending Technologies GmbH 13 www asctec de Keo X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual FA mni Raw data gyro_pitch ID_RAW_GYRO_PITCH 2 0 gyro_roll ID RAW GYRO ROLL Pi 0 gyro_yaw ID RAW GYRO YAW 2 0 acc X ID RAW ACC X 2 0 acc_y ID RAW ACC Y 2 0 acC z ID RAW ACC Z 2 0 mag_x ID RAW MAG X 2 0 mag_y ID RAW MAG Y 2 0 mag 7 ID RAW MAG Z 2 0 pressure ID RAW PRESSURE 4 temperature ID RAW TEMP 4 Calculated data Angles 90000 90000 1 1000 90000 90000 1 1000 angle_pitch
5. if one of the propellers touches the ground or any other obstacle and hence the X 3D BL ResearchPilot is not able to take off There is a battery warning implemented in your X 3D BL A low battery is signalized by a pe riodic simultaneous tremor of all motors This is hard to see but it can be heard Depending X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 3 Operating the X 3D BL Re _Q XEEM on the battery you use there is about a minute of flight time left after the low battery warning is activated Lithium Polymer LiPo batteries are very vulnerable to deep discharge That is why the X 3D BL turns off completely if the voltage drops under a programmable threshold You can adjust the thresholds for the low battery warn ing and the low battery shut down using the X Control software Therefor you have to connect the X Base to your PC using the USB adapter and click on X Base Connect and then on Parameters If the ambient temperature changes rapidly for instance when you leave a warm room the angles estimated by the datafusion algorithms might not be totally correct As a consequence your vehicle would be tilted a bit even with a neutral pitch and roll command In this case we recommend to wait a few minutes until all sen sors have adopted to the ambient temperature 3 2 Hints for using the X ACC mode e In the X ACC mode it is particularly important that the vehicle is not moved at all during the initialization C
6. orf only with ACC overwrite ACC Height mode control O mode selected by RC I mode selected by Bit 4 and 5 Bit 7 0x80 Ascending Technologies GmbH Trigger Scientific status packet triggers a response 17 www asctec de X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual KsESMI PER the ara sr Stale Bit 8 15 sendrate of the scientific packet in 5Hz O off 1 5Hz 20 100Hz 200 1kHz 255 packet is only sent once polling mode Scientific packet is send for three seconds max after the last command_data packet unsigned short flags by Ascending Technologies GmbH 18 www asctec de Keo X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual FA mni 4 2 3 Explanation of the command packet The CRC is calculated from byte 5 through byte 15 1 e 11 bytes in this example Please keep in mind that many programming languages use padding bytes to align values in structs to word or dword boundaries If structs are used the structs sent to the ResearchPilot should not include any padding bytes Syne byte 7 7 7 Yaw MSB unsigned short Flags LSB 0x50 Pitch control through serial interface 0 Roll control through serial interface 0 Thrust control through serial interface 0 Yaw control through serial interface 0 ACC Mode on off 1 Height control on off only in ACC Mode 0 override RC control ACC Height switch 1 O RC switch 1 Selected by bits 4 and 5 Request scientific status packet sent inste
7. perfectly suited for the application in this vehicle the actual flight attitude control All parameters influencing the in flight behavior can be tuned by connecting the ResearchPilot to a PC using the USB adapter that came with your X 3D BL and the X Control software Once you are on the field for flying you can select four different parameter by stick commands 1 1 6 X BLDC brushless motor controllers Every motor is controlled by an independent X BLDC brushless motor controller The controllers are highly optimized for the X BL 52s motors and thus ensure the highest efficiency possible Please note that for this reason the controllers might not work with a different motor type sr Sr a ma HGR HL 1 1 4 LED patterns of the X 3D ResearchPilot e red Initialisation 1 1 27 X ACC e red yellow blinking X Base or X BL motors The X ACC is a tiny add on module comprising a tri not detected axial accelerometer e red yellow and green blinking No RC recep tion and ne setting selected e yellow and green blinking No setting selected e yellow blinking green Ready for flight e yellow blinking X Base is in setup mode e yellow red trim reset Using the acceleration data the X 3D can compute the absolute orientation of the vehicle in pitch and e gelb trim saved roll The datafusion is done with an update rate of Ascending Technologies GmbH 6 www asctec de Cae S SS 1kHz to guarantee good stability As a c
8. the X 3D BL UFO The booms which are made of a rigid carbon fiber balsa wood sandwich material can be replaced individually The central unit of the frame called the X CSM Core is made of light weight laser cut magnesium parts Being built out of these state of the art materials the X CSM is a very robust high tech basis for your quadrotor aircraft 1 1 22 X Base The X Base is the central control unit which is connected to and communicates with all active elements of the X 3D BL Next to the battery the motor controllers the X 3D gyro and the receiver you can also connect several LEDs to the X Base to give your X 3D BL a unique fancy look www asctec de X 3D Anschluss Bootloader Motorregler Anschl sse QD OY LW OF HF a ui as ATMEGASB a 5 y Bs 2000 0626 Segue BOS L k MT T A RR OO 00 U IS pl T pow Apo a Big Bian er ed M uuu xufo shop t X Base U4 ie acT c Bab MN USB Modul Anschluss X ACC Anschluss ACT Empfanger Front LED Front LED An LED connected to the Front LED Pads on the bottom side of the X Base will always be on as long as the X 3D BL is turned on Such an LED can be mounted to the very front of your vehicle to make it easier for the pilot to know where the front side is Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual _5 1 BL controllers brushed motors 2 BL controllers 3
9. the front of your vehicle Try to compensate for any movement in yaw by moving the yaw stick in the opposite direction It is much easier to control the vehicle if red is facing away from you as in this case it will move away from you if you push your pitch roll stick away It is per fectly normal that the vehicle drifts slowly in all direc tions As long as you have not installed any external tracking for position control you have to compensate for these movements manually After a few battery charges you will able to fly in any room and with some more practice you can even fly in small spaces and land on tables etc Good luck 3 3 1 X 3D ResearchPilot Parameter The X 3D ResearchPilot offers four onboard stored parameter sets which can be selected my the RC To select a setting make sure that the motors are switched off and the UFO has RC reception The set ting is selected by giving full throttle and moving the pitch roll stick to one of the four corners for a second The UFO acknologes the selection by 1 4 beeps The following image shows the stick positions for the dif ferent settings The factory set parameters are already prepared for the X BL Ufo Therefore there is no direct need to change them Nevertheless if you want to change them connect the X USB module to the X 3D Re searchPilot switch on the UFO and start the PC soft ware Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual _12 X EN
10. the vehicle on is part of the startup process Once the music has been played the X 3D will light the green and yellow LEDs if the transmitter is turned off and only green if a valid signal is detected Now the vehicle is ready to fly To start the motors you have to move the left stick to the very left or right whilst holding throttle in zero position If it is the first flight after a while or the first flight at all hold your X 3D BL ResearchPilot down to the floor You can grab the center part of the frame but make sure that you don t touch any of the rotors In case it tries to tilt in any direction and one or more of the propellers are going crazy Please read the troubleshooting section of this manual Angle stabilization in pitch and roll is active www asctec de xzad even when the propellers are running idle Use this feature as you hold the vehicle from below and tilt it carefully to check that everything works As you tilt it to one direction you must feel some counterforce from the motors if everything is o k You can also try to steer the pitch and roll axis and see that you can directly steer the angles Please check if the vehicle is leveled in your hand with the pitch and roll stick in neutral position If not correct any undesired tilt with the pitch and roll trimmers Now give a little throttle and the vehicle should hover Try hovering in a height of about Im and con centrate on the red marking which is
11. Brushed motors Left Right Back Front 4 PPM Receiver Input Signal from lower to upper connector 5 LEDs Left Right Rear Front 6 LEDs 5V 7 Power connector and marked on the upper side of the board The key below the power connector 7 turns the X 3D BL on and off A short press is enough to turn the vehicle on To turn it off the key has to be pressed for at least 200ms The brushed motors connectors of the X Base 3 are not required as the brushless motors are driven by independent controllers and thus the connectors can be used to drive peripherals like for instance a night flight kit Connector L is switched on and off by R C channel 5 connector R by R C channel 6 The connectors can sink currents up to 5A if they re en abled That means that the input of a peripheral has to be connected to the L or R pad and the input has to be connected to connector 1 Be aware that in this configuration your peripheral will be supplied the whole battery voltage If this not what you need make sure you use a suitable voltage regu lator www asctec de Fae S X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual X EN 1 1 3 ResearchPilot 1 1 5 Motors The ResearchPilot is the sensor unit of the X 3D BL The X BL 52s motors by HACKER Motors Germany With three piezo gyros a high precision pressure are custom built for the X 3D BL The motors are sensor and highly optimized control loops it does
12. Do never short circuit a LiPo battery and use safe connectors Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 8 FA mini 2 3 Teach in of your transmitter If you want to use your own transmitter which you did not purchase bundled with the X 3D BL ResearchPilot please follow these steps First of all you need to install the X Control PC Software If you didn t receive a copy of it please con tact us by e mail Connect the USB adapter to your PC and to the X Base turn on your UFO open the X Control software and click on X Base and then on Connect Then choose Receiver setup and Au tomatic calibration and follow the instructions given by the software You can freely choose a stick on your R C for ev ery function If you are used to a certain configuration you should definitely continue using this one If you haven t flown other model aircrafts before we recom mend the following configuration Mode 2 Throttle The X 3D BL ResearchPilot works with any R C with at least five channels Make sure that all chan nels work independently and that no mixers are active in your remote Please make sure you assign a switch on your R C transmitter to the SW 1 function as you will need this channel to activete the serial interface onboard your X 3D BL ResearchPilot www asctec de ye Ascending Technologies GmbH searchPilot 3 1 Important things to keep in mind e D
13. ID ANGLE PITCH angle roll ID ANGLE ROLL angle yaw ID ANGLE YAW 0 360000 1 1000 angle_pitch_acc ID_ANGLE_PITCH_ACC 90000 90000 1 1000 angle_pitch_roll ID ANGLE ROLL ACC 4 l 90000 90000 1 1000 Angular velocities angvel_pitch ID AV PITCH 0x11 4 int 512 4512 angvel_roll ID AV ROLL 0x12 4 int 512 4512 angvel_yaw ID AV YAW 0x13 4 int 512 4512 Accelerations ID ACC X 1500 1500 ID ACC Y 1500 1500 ID ACC Z 1500 1500 gt E J trans acc x ID TRANS ACC X n pseudovalue trans_acc_y ID_TRANS_ACC_Y S a pseudovalue trans_acc_z ID TRANS ACC Z A pseudovalue mag X ID MAG X l 512 512 no unit mag_y ID MAG Y l 512 512 no unit mag_z ID MAG Z l 512 512 no unit mag_heading ID MAG HEADING 0 360000 1 1000 height filtered ID HEIGHT mm relative dheight filtered ID DHEIGHT l E mm s height_reference ID HEIGHT REFERENCE l S mm relative dheight ID DHEIGHT REFERENCE S mm s speed_z ID SPEED Z l E pseude Z speed Ascending Technologies GmbH 14 www asctec de Xiao X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual XEEM vali Values Controller Data control outputs lock channel0 channel channel2 channel3 channel4 channel5 channel6 channel7 uptime voltage current cpu_load The Researchpilot also outputs a Structure ID CO PTTCH ID CO ROLL ID CO YAW Ox24 4 ID_CO_THRUST 0x27 4 ID_RC_LOCK ID_RC_CHANO ID RC CHANI ID_RC_CHAN2 ID_RC_CHAN3 ID_RC_CHAN4 ID_RC_CHAN
14. S ID RC CHAN6 ID RC CHANT ID UPTIME ID VOLTAGE ID CURRENT ID CPULOAD RC data short unsigned short unsigned short unsigned short unsigned short unsigned short unsigned short unsigned short unsigned short LA to HA LA LA A WY WN int int unsigned short unsigned short struct SCIENTIFIC STATUSDATA alway PD_SCIENTIFICSTATUS define PD SCIENTIFICSTATUS 0x18 unsigned char packetdescriptor flags m SS SS SS 0 2 0 255 0 65535 0 1000 0 200 100 middle 0 200 100 middle 0 200 100 middle seconds battery voltage in 1 10V current in 1 100A cycles per second status data packet ones every command packet is send which has this Bit 0 5 represent the actual status of the ResearchPilot if the interface is disabled by the remote Bit 0 0x01 feat lUS 3 Bit 2 0x04 Bit 2 0x03 Bit 4 0x10 LEE 0x20 Bit 6 0x40 Bit 7 0x0 1 Interface enabled O interface disabled gt ACC Mode on off E Height control on ort gt unused all bits are 0 Pitch control through serial interfacae enabled gt Roll control through serial interface enabled Thrust control through serial interface enabled Yaw control through serial interface enabled only with ACC Scientific interface enabled by Remote control through serial link control through RC Bit 8 15 sendrate of the scientific packet in 5Hz JU 01 07 l 5Hz u
15. X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual V1 5 Ascending Technologies GmbH I N AAN N NAN NNN NN A A NAS beris X Esm X2sc SU aol xeago X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual Contents 1 Introduction 1 1 1 2 System Overview oaoa 1 1 1 X CSM 44446666454 46 R RF be a LL A 2 Go oe we eS we owe Pet eet eee ee ee ee 1 1 3 ResearchPilot 0 0 0 0 02 02 000008 1 1 4 LED patterns of the X 3D ResearchPilot LLS MODE ahi ae tas bee eae ee hee RS 1 1 6 X BLDC brushless motor controllers 0 LET PROC nek nee ein etn een bee be hee Ee Transmiter 44488 R Ge eee eRe eee ewe ee ea se 2 Things to do before the first flight 2 1 Zed 2 Mounting the propellers 0 2 2 2 0 00002 eG Preparing your own battery 2 000000 eee Teach in of your transmitter 0000000 8G 3 Operating the X 3D BL ResearchPilot 3 1 a2 3 3 Important things tokeepinmind 0 4 Hints for using the X ACC mode 3 2 1 Trim memory function 2 0 5000084 3 2 2 Optimisation of the pressure sensor a 3 2 3 Control modes X 3D ResearchPilot 3 2 4 Height control 0 a A Boa ee ae eh ea eH ee EHR a we 3 3 1 X 3D ResearchPilot Parameter o aoaaa a 4 On Board serial interface 4 1 4 2 4 3 4 4 Physical interface 2 2 ee Data protocol nn 42 Dataoutpit gt a sansar t
16. ad of scientific data packet 0 15 Flags MSB Transmission rate of scientific packet OxFF O off 1 5Hz 20 100Hz 200 1kHz 255 polling mode i 7 The pitch and roll value can be converted to absolute angles in the ACC Mode by the following formula angle value x K stick XX XX in 1 1000 For the yaw the following formula can be used to calculate the desired angular velocity angle vel value x K _stick_yaw 2048 in s In heading hold mode the K stick XX expo parameters should be set to zero for a linear output equation angle vel value x K _stick_X X X X HH 65536 in 1 1000 s As a Safety precaution the vehicle will switch back to the transmitter and thus manual control after 100ms not receiving data from the serial link gt GA IE SI SI NI N 12 13 13 07 14 U l 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 0 7 0 7 The scientific config packet is used to set the desired data structure The packet structure 1s Ascending Technologies GmbH 19 www asctec de 2 ps lO X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual X EN struct SCIENTIFIC CONFIG always PD_SCIENTIFICCONFIG define PD_SCIENTIFICCONFIG 0x20 unsigned char packetdescriptor unsigned char data select 126 data select holds a list of up to 128 ID Values which define the data which is included in the scientific data Structure The scientific data structure send out by the ResearchPilot is
17. alibration errors caused by shak ing during startup will influence the performance much more than in the heading hold mode If the vehicle tilts more and more after starting the mo tors itis very likely that it was moved during the initialization In this case please turn it off and on again and make sure that it is not moved un til the X 3D displays the green yellow or green light pattern If your X 3D BL has the X ACC module and the X ACC firmwares installed it behaves different in case of a reception loss If there is no R C sig nal it will activate the X ACC mode try to get to a horizontal orientation and start to sink with 1 3rd of full throttle It will keep this state un til it regains reception If one of the propellers is blocked after the landing the X BLDC con trollers will turn off the connected motor after 10 tries to restart it Attention With the X ACC installed there is no audible signal if reception is www asctec de lost as the motors are used to do a safe landing instead of playing signal tones e If the ambient temperature changes rapidly for instance when you leave a warm room the an gles measured by the X 3D and X ACC might not be totally correct That means that your ve hicle may be tilted a bit even with the pitch and roll stick centered and the trimmers in the right position In this case we recommend to wait a few minutes until all sensors have adopted to the ambient temperature You could al
18. are two types of propellers One pair of propellers is spinning clockwise the other pair is spinning counterclockwise The propellers spinning clockwise must be mounted to the front and the rear motor whereas the counterclockwise rotating propellers must be mounted to the left and to the right motor To improve the durability of the propellers during a crash you can optionally add a cable tie e g 2 5 x 100 mm as seen in the following picture www asctec de 2 2 Preparing your own battery You need a 3s three cells 11 1V Lithium Polymer LiPo Battery We recommend capacities between 1500 and 2100 mAh With a state of the art 2100 mAh battery the vehicle is able to hover up to 23 min utes without any payload and up to 12 minutes with 200 g of payload Make sure you mount your battery such that it can definitely not get damaged by hitting the frame even in acrash Otherwise the battery could explode Here is an example of how to mount a battery correctly The black foam on both sides hinders it from being hurt by the magnesium parts of the frame The woodden plate on the bottom makes it stick to the screw holding the bottom plate of the frame Of course there are many different ways to prepare your battery for a safe operation This is only an example Lithium Polymer Batteries LiPo can be very dangerous if not handled correctly Please read and follow the instructions of the battery and charger manufacturers
19. damage An alternative are sinter filter which you can get in your modell store The following pic tures show both variants www asctec de 3 2 3 Control modes X 3D ResearchPilot The X 3D ResearchPilot has three different control modes e Heading Hold mode HH e X ACC mode e X ACC height control Modus Switching between the modes can be done in two different ways e 3 step switch teached in to channel 5 SWI in the X Base configuration e 2 step switch teached in to channel 5 to switch between X ACC and HH mode A second switch teached in to channel 6 SW2 for enabeling the height control in X ACC mode The recommanded default setting is the 3 step switch Use the second mode RC transmitters without 3 step switched The mode can be changed with the PC Software seperately in every setting in datafusion misc Attention It s very important to teach in the channels 5 and 6 in the X Base receiver configu ration Otherwise the UFO can get uncontrolable as it s switching modes undefenately 3 2 4 Height control The height controller is programmed as sink and fall rate controller Stick in the middle means hold height Starting from the ground is very easy Just push up the stick to full throttle until the UFO reached it s desired height Then put the stick back in the mid dle The UFO will try to hold it s height as good as it s possible This mode is more meant for outdoor usage The controlle
20. e the vehicle must have a stable link to a normal RC transmitter green light on the X 3D and the SW1 function see Re ceiver Setup in the X Control software with the X Base connected must be gt 128 to activate the com mands from the interface This is a safety function as well A skilled pilot should always be ready to take over by setting the SW1 function back to O e g with a switch to take control if your high level control is not functioning as desired The pilot also has to steer all functions that are not activated in the chan nel_select byte Consequently you can activate one function after another which makes setting up and tuning high level control loops much easier Ascending Technologies GmbH 21 XEEM www asctec de seasg 5 Software updates and system configuration changes The X 3D BL is shipped with a fully functional firmware installed on all components Please do not upload any code from our public servers as these versions do not offer the additional features of your X 3D BL ResearchPilot You only need to do a software update if you receive a new version from us To perform a software update you need the X Control PC software If you did not receive a copy of it please contact us via e mail 5 1 Software update of the X 3D FunPilot Connect your X USB module with your PC After wards click on FP OSP in the X Control software and then on OSP Firmware Upgrade on the left Now con
21. eehee heehee ae ena 5 Software updates and system configuration changes 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 5 Software update of the X 3D FunPilot a o a aaa a Software update of the X Base 00 Setting up the X BLDC brushless motor controllers X 3D Parameters ecs Ce Be a e we ee Calibration of the acceleration sensors oso aoao a 6 Contact Information Ascending Technologies GmbH 2 X ESm DoW NA amp S SS SS a ma www asctec de xeago X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual X EN A Troubleshooting A 1 Slight tilt in pitch roll with the pitch roll stick in neutral position A 2 Considerable tilt in pitchorroll 0 A 3 Bad reception during flight 2 ee A 4 The red LED on the X 3D keeps blinking afterthestartup a aa A 5 The X 3D BL turns itself off during flight 2 20 000048 B User programmable startup melodies Ascending Technologies GmbH 3 www asctec de X20 1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the X 3D BL ResearchP1 lot Please read this manual carefully before you start to work with your new vehicle WARNING A motorized model aircraft is not a toy It should only be flown by adults Improper assembly or op erating can lead to severe injuries and or damages Trouble with your remote control due to interferences can occur any time without prior notice Sometimes a model aircraft can suddenly become uncontrol lable due to a failure
22. htelik Klaus Michael Doth Dipl Ing Daniel Gurdan Dipl Ing Jan Stumpf Handelsregister M nchen HRB 166748 Ust ID DE254728199 A Troubleshooting This chapter holds solutions to problems which might occur during the operation of your X 3D BL UFO Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 24 XEEM A 1 Slight tilt in pitch roll with the pitch roll stick in neutral position Due to unavoidable measurement errors it is perfectly normal that your X 3D BL is not always flying exactly leveled in the X ACC mode However a slight tilt can easily be compensated by the trimmers on your remote control A 2 Considerable tilt in pitch or roll There are some situations where the measured angle can considerably differ from the real angle which re sults in big tilt angles in pitch and or roll while the pitch roll stick on your remote is centered This can have the following reasons e Shaking during initialization In the X ACC mode it 19 particularly important that the vehicle is not moved at all during the initialization Cal ibration errors caused by shaking during startup will influence the performance much more than in the heading hold mode If the vehicle tilts more and more after starting the motors it 1s very likely that it was moved during the initialization In this case please turn it off and on again and make sure that it is not moved until the X 3D displays the green yellow or green ligh
23. irectly after turning the X 3D BL on the mo tors produce a short beep It is perfectly nor mal that the propellers move slightly during that tone Keep the X 3D BL totally still after turning it on until the X 3D shows the yellow green no reception or green ready to fly light pattern Otherwise the sensors can not be calibrated cor rectly and the vehicle might go crazy after turn ing on the motors If you accidentally moved the system during startup simply turn it off and on again If only the green LED at the X 3D board is on the vehicle is ready to fly A yellow green light pattern means no reception In this case please check that your remote control 19 turned on and fully functional that the receiver crystal is in stalled in the receiver and that the receiver is con nected correctly After the startup phase the motors are still turned off and secured To turn them on you have to move the yaw stick to the very left or to the very right while your throttle stick is in zero posi tion The motors will then start and keep run ning at their minimum speed To turn the mo tors off you have to do the same procedure again Move the yaw stick to the very left or to the very right while your throttle stick is in zero position There is no flight maneuver where one would use this control input and thus you will not ac cidentally turn off your motors during flight For safety reasons you should turn off the motors 1m mediately
24. nect your X 3D FunPilot with the X USB module Connect the battery to the UFO To update the X 3D FunPilot software you need a jumper to activate the boot loader mode of the X 3D FunPilot Bridge the bootloader contacts and switch on the UFO Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 00 Not click on Connect in the PC software then on Choose firmware and seleect the file X 3D FunPilot VX X hey Click on upload and wait un til the uploaded is finished Disconnect the USB module remove the bootloader jumper and click on Ready The software update is finished 5 2 Software update of the X Base Again you need a jumper to activate the so called bootloader Set the jumper as seen in the following picture Open the X Control software click on X Base and then on X Base firmware Upgrade on the left hand side Turn on the X Base In this case the battery has to be connected to the vehicle and connect the USB adapter to the X Base www asctec de Bid Choose the serial port normally Autoselect COMxx and click on connect Select the ACT receiver xbs firmware file if you are using an ACT receiver 35 or 40 MHz or select the PPM receiver xbs if you are using a different receiver Then click on Upload wait for the upload to be completed disconnect the USB adapter from the X Base remove the bootloader jumper and click on Finished The X Base s
25. nsigned short flags Ascending Technologies GmbH 15 20 100Hz 200 1kKHz Scientific packet is send for three seconds max after the last command_data packet www asctec de X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual KsESM be 4 2 2 Command input All packets send to the X 3D ResearchPilot have the following frame format Startbyte 1 gt Startbyte 2 x Startbyte 3 gt Length of dat in bytes high byte Length of data in bytes low byte DATA CRC16 of data high byte CRC16 of data low byte Length and CRC16 are unsigned short types For calculating the CRC16 of a packet you can use the following algorithm update cre with data unsigned short crc_update unsigned short crc unsigned char data data cre Oxff data data lt lt 4 return unsigned short data lt lt 8 crc gt gt 8 amp Oxff unsigned char data gt gt 4 unsigned short data lt lt 3 calculate the CRC16 of an array of bytes with the length cnt unsigned short crcl6 voidx data unsigned short cnt unsigned short crc O0xff unsigned char x ptr unsigned char x data ine Li for Lee E OE E i CYC Cre Update crc sper 7 PLCE reLurn Crc Sending the packet in pseude c code would look like this struct SCIENFITIC COMMANDDATA scientificCommandData void sendCommandPacket unsigned short cre unsigned char b Ascending Technologies GmbH 16 www asctec de
26. of any component including mechanical parts and electronics In this case the model can rapidly move towards any direction Make sure you always keep a safe distance to people animals obstacles or things of any kind traffic roads etc There are country specific laws regulating the operation of model aircrafts that definitely have to be obeyed Furthermore we strongly recommend to effect a liability insurance for model aircrafts The manufacturer and your dealer of the X 3D BL do not have any influence on nor can they monitor the correct assembly and proper operation of your model aircraft Always be aware of the dangers mentioned above and act accordingly There is no liability of the manufacturer nor the retailer at all as far as legally approved Our products are designed for the civil market only It is strictly forbidden to use them in any military en vironment or to retail them to any military or military related organization Using any of our components for larger scale flying objects is also not allowed SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE 1 1 System overview In this section you find some information about the subsystems used in the X 3D BL ResearchPilot These components are also used in the hobbyist ver sion of the X 3D BL however the X 3D BL Re searchPilot on board software is different Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual ECS 1 1 1 X CSM The X CSM is the mechanical frame of
27. oftware update is now completed 5 3 Setting up the X BLDC brushless motor controllers The X Base will not recognize all motors before they have been set up correctly This is absolutely normal Not until a successful configuration the X Base will recognize all X BLDC controllers and the X 3D BL UFO will signal ready to fly Connect the battery to the X 3D BL turn it on and connect the USB adapter with your computer and then with the X Base Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual A Open the X Control software and click on X Base Choose the correct COM Port normally Autoselect COMxx and click on Connect Chose X BL Setup and click on start search After several seconds four brushless controllers with different serial numbers should appear in the list If less than four controllers appear turn of your X 3D BL check all solderings and connectors and repeat the previous steps If all four controllers have been found click on config and follow the instructions given by the software in order to tell each controller its own position and the appropriate turning direction After that click on Disconnect to complete the controller setup Optionally a startup melody can be installed using the X BL update function A detailed description of how to do this can be found in appendix B 5 4 X 3D Parameters If you connect the X 3D to the X Control software wi
28. one A 3 Bad reception during flight If the X 3D BL does not react while it is airborne please check if someone else uses the same channel Make sure your TX battery is fully charged and that the antenna is fully extended If you are still having trouble you can to the following test to check the range of your R C system During the range check all other transmitters should be switched off The best location to do the test 19 a big open field as metallic objects like cars or wire fences could influence the result You need a helper who holds your transmitter with the antenna as close to vertical as possible Turn the X 3D BL on and wait until only the green LED on the X 3D 19 on signalizing ready to fly Then walk away from the transmitter until the yellow LED starts flickering At this point you should be at least 100 m away from your TX Repeat the whole procedure with the mo tors running at minimum throttle If at a distance of about 100 m the signal is still o k 1 e only the green is LED on your reception is totally fine Due to the size of the aircraft and the associated visibility you will never fly any further away than that If the yellow LED comes up randomly at shorter distances your TX RX combination is to weak In this case you can try extending the antenna of the X 3D BL by using a longer plastic tube or stick which holds the antenna A fully extended antenna works definitely better than one which is wound around a s
29. onsequence the helicopter is able to come back to a horizontal ori entation on its own In the X ACC mode the pilot or your own add on electronics command an absolute angle The further you push the pitch or roll stick the bigger the tilt angle of the X 3D BL If you leave the stick centered the helicopter will come back to hor izontal In this mode you are not able to do loops or flips however hovering and all 2D maneuvers are much easier to do The X ACC is also a great help for beginners In addition the vehicle can be position stabilized by a simple PD Loop 1 2 Transmitter Any five or more channels R C transmitter can be used to operate the X 3D BL ResearchPilot Even if it is controlled autonomously by your own controller board the transmitter is required as a backup As a safety measure the X 3D BL ResearchPilot is not able to launch without a valid signal from the R C transmitter Pitch Throttle Roll qp q gt Yaw 2 Things to do before the first flight The X 3D BL is shipped completely assembled and tested You only have to do the following steps to make it work with in combination with your equip ment Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual aTa X ESm 2 1 Mounting the propellers The propellers can be slid over the axles and be fas tened using a plastic nut Do not fasten the nut too tight as this would bend the propellers Please note that there
30. r characteristics are calm and not very agressive so it s possible and normal that the Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 11 X ESm UFO doesn t climb to the desired height completlty again afer a disturbance Light and other air flows can decrease the performance of the sensor Using a air filter is recommanded see 3 2 2 It s better to use a spring on the throttle stick as well if you fly often with the height control Otherwise it can be hard to find the middle of the stick The deadzone can be in creased in the parameter settings if it s necessary The thrust pulsing battery warnung should be switched off for the height control if you still want to fly with it at empty battery conditions 3 3 First flight We recommend to do the first flights on some big grassland as the soft ground will soften possible crashes If you have never controlled an R C aircraft before you will have to practice a bit until you re able to fly inside your lab Make sure that the battery is fully charged con nected and mounted correctly Switch on the vehicle and be really careful during the startup phase The vehicle must NOT be moved during startup as the gyro sensors are being initialized If the vehicle was moved during startup simply turn it off and on again The startup sequence is completed once the motors start playing the preprogrammed music Please be aware that the first beep after turning
31. so fly using the Heading Hold mode during that period as it is more robust against changes in temperature 3 2 1 Trim memory function The X 3D and the X 3D ResearchPilot are able to save the actual trim setting on your RC transmitter to enable smooth switching between X ACC and head ing hold mode Two functions can be selected with the RC transmitter A simple method to correctly calibrate your trim memory e Reset trim memory Motors off full throttle full yaw to the right e Fly in the X ACC mode and trim the UFO e Land stop motors and save the trim Motors off full throttle full yaw to the left e Set the trimmers on your remote to O and start flying normally Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 10 FA nii 3 2 2 Optimisation of the pressure sensor The pressure sensor of the X 3D ResearchPilot is sensitive to light and air movements perpendicular the the sensor opening e g by wind during a forward flight Therefore it s recommend for the best perfor mance especially outdoor to add a small air filter to the pressure sensor A prooven technique uses some schrinking tube and some foam e g foam from the X 3D ResearchPilot box Shrinking the schrinking tube around the pressure sensor pin and carefully add some super glue to make it hold better Attention It s very important that absolutly NO superglue get s into the sensor Otherwise this very expensive part can take
32. t field designated with Current must be 35 Once you are done click on Finished and then on Transmit and disconnect B User programmable melodies Startup The X 3D BL ResearchPilot is capable of playing preprogrammed melodies directly after the initializa tion To upload a melody please connect the battery to the X 3D BL turn it on and connect the USB adapter with your computer and then with the X Base www asctec de Open the X Control software and click on X Base Choose the correct COM Port normally Au toselect COMxx and click on Connect Chose X BL Setup and click on start search After sev eral seconds four brushless controllers with differ ent serial numbers should appear in the list If all four controllers have been found click on Firmware upgrade then on Select all controllers and open the Select firmware dialog Select X BL Startup melody snd on the lower right of the window and open any snd file you like for instance from the sub directory X BL Sounds in the X 3D BL software package Then press Upload After the upload is completed click on Finished and turn your X 3D BL off and on again After initializ ing it should play the new sound Enjoy it Ascending Technologies GmbH 26 X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual EST www asctec de
33. t pattern e Teach in of your transmitter was not correct To check if your transmitter was taught in correctly please connect the X Base to your PC using the USB adapter and open the X Control software to check if all channels are detected as centered if the sticks on the R C are centered If this is not the case repeat the teach in of your R C follow ing the instructions given by the software e Faulty calibration of the accelerometers If af ter restarting the X 3D BL the unwanted tilt is still there and cannot be compensated using the trimmers on your remote please check the cali bration of your X ACC cf 5 5 e Rapid change of the ambient temperature If you notice a considerable tilt in pitch or roll directly after you leave a warm room in winter or an air conditioned room in summer please wait a few www asctec de ye minutes until all sensors have adopted to the new ambient temperature Alternatively you can use the Heading Hold mode during that period as this mode behaves much more robust during fast temperature changes e Extremely fast maneuvers Also fast maneu vers which result in high accelerations interact ing with your aircraft can cause faulty measure ments If you fly several circles in a row in high speeds it can happen that the measured angle differs several degrees from the real angle If this is the case you simply have to fly gently or hover for a few seconds until the unwanted tilt is g
34. thout the bootloader jumper set you can change all parameters influencing the system behaviour You can also save a set of parameters to port it to a second vehicle or you can upload a set of parameters which you received from us 5 5 Calibration of the acceleration sen sors The X 3D BL ResearchPilot comes fully calibrated However if something goes really wrong and for www asctec de ye some reason you need to recalibrate the accelerome ters here is what you have to do Connect the X Base with the X Control software open the X ACC setup and follow the instructions given by the wizard To achieve the best performance it is very important that the calibration is done very precise Please check that after the calibration the X and Y outputs are roughly zero and the Z output is roughly 1000 if the X 3D BL is standing in a horizontal orientation The automatic calibration gives usable results but sometimes the values can still be optimized manually Please also check the scale factors 1 e see if all sensor outputs are about 1000 if you hold the vehicle with the respective axis in a vertical orientation If everything seems o k you can finalize the calibration by clicking on Finished and on Transmit and disconnect 6 Contact Information Ascending Technologies GmbH Konrad Zuse Bogen 4 82152 Krailling GERMANY Phone 49 89 89 55 60 790 E Mail team asctec de Web www asctec de CEOs Michael Ac
35. tick as described in this manual If you use a stub antenna at your TX this Ascending Technologies GmbH X 3D BL ResearchPilot User s Manual 25 XEEM could also be the reason for a bad reception as such antennas do not transmit the full power In this case try using a standard telescopic antenna instead A 4 The red LED on the X 3D keeps blinking after the startup If you have not configured your X 3D BL using the X Control software as described above this behavior is normal In this case please follow the instructions given in 5 3 If the configuration of your vehicle was completed successfully the blinking red LED means that one of the motor controllers or motors was not detected Please check if all four cables in black and blue color between the X Base and the motor con trollers are connected correctly If all connections are o k please verify that all motors produce a short beep directly after you turn the X 3D BL on If one of them does not play the sound check the power con nection of the affected motor controller Are all wires o k Are all soldering points clean and correct If you connect the X Base to the X Control software it will show you which of the motors is not working correctly A S The X 3D BL turns itself off during flight Please make sure that the current limit of your X Base is set to 35 A To do so please connect the X Base to the X Control software and click on parameters The value of the edi
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