Assembling a Multicopter

Aman Chandra, 15 October 2017 - Kharagpur, India

Beep Beep Beep Whirr! And the mechanical bird soared up and away! Indeed, Aerial Robotics is the most intriguing field in the world of Robotics.

Summary

This blog is a guide to assemble a multicopter with an onboard low level microcontroller, starting from the very quad-root level. Hop onboard, let’s get started!

In this blog

• APM/Pixhawk - The Low Level Controller
• Motors and ESCs
• LiPo - The Power Source
• RC Transmitter and Reciever
• GPS
• Assembly
• Motor Order Diagrams
• Attaching Propellers
• Mission Planner
• Loading Firmware
• Compass Calibration
• Radio Control Calibration
• Accelerometer Calibration
• ESC Calibration
• Flight Modes
• Arming the Motors
• Fly!
• What’s next?

APM

Motors and ESCs

The Power Source

RC Transmitter and Reciever

GPS

Assembly

The illustration below highlights the typical installation of a quadcopter. It contains optional equipment including a Camera, Gimbal and a Battery Monitor and it utilizes an ESC wired “Y” power connection rather than the power distribution board common to many MultiCopters.

Motor Order Diagram

Attaching Propellers

Mission Planner

Mission Planner is free, open source software available for Windows. The latest version can be downloaded from here.

Loading Firmware

Once you’ve installed the Mission Planner onto your computer, connect the autopilot board to your computer using the micro USB cable. Windows should automatically detect and install the correct driver software.

Open the Mission Planner and select the COM port drop-down on the upper-right corner of the screen (near the Connect button). Select AUTO or the specific port for your board (PX4 FMU or Arduino Mega 2560). Set the Baud rate to 115200 as shown. Don’t hit Connect just yet.

On the Mission Planner’s Initial Setup->Install Firmware screen select the appropriate icon that matches your frame (i.e. Quad, Hexa). Answer Yes when it asks you “Are you sure?”.

If all goes well you will see some status appear on the bottom right including the words, “erase…”, “program…”, “verify..” and “Upload Done”. The firmware has been succesfully uploaded to the board.

Compass Calibration

• Under Initial Setup->Mandatory Hardware select Compass.
• Select your flight controler configuration to automatically enter the most important configuration information for your board.
• Confirm that the Enable compasses and Obtain declination automatically boxes are checked.
• Click the Live Calibration button.
• A window should pop-up showing you the state of the live calibration.

• The aim is to rotate the vehicle so that the coloured trail hits each of the white dots. One way to do this is to hold the vehicle in the air and rotate it slowly so that each side (front, back, left, right, top and bottom) points down towards the earth for a few seconds in turn.
• The calibration will automatically complete when it has data for all the positions. At this point, another window will pop up telling you that it is saving the newly calculated offsets. These are displayed on the main screen below each associated compass.

A video demonstration of the live compass calibration can be found here.

Radio Control Calibration

RC transmitters are used to control vehicle movement and orientation. Copter minimally controls throttle, pitch, roll and yaw. Each of these control signals are mapped to transmitter stick/switch(s) and in turn to autopilot channels from the connected receiver.

Copter default channel mappings are:

• Channel 1: Roll
• Channel 2: Pitch
• Channel 3: Throttle
• Channel 4: Yaw
• Channel 5: Flight modes
• Channel 6: (Optional) Inflight tuning or camera mount (mapped to transmitter tuning knob)

For safety reasons you should disconnect the battery and/or remove propellers before preforming radio calibration. Also, centre trims in manual RC mode before preforming RC calibration. If trims are not centred you may need to do the RC calibration again after you have used the vehicle.

• Open Mission Planner’s INITIAL SETUP->Mandatory Hardware->Radio Calibration screen.
• Click on the green Calibrate Radio button in the lower right of the window.
• Mission Planner will display a prompt to check radio control equipment is on, battery is not connected, and propellers are not attached. Select OK.
• Move the control sticks and toggle switches on your transmitter to their limits of travel and observe the results on the radio calibration bars. Red lines will appear across the calibration bars to indicate maximum and minimum values.
• Select Click when Done when all required channels are set at the minimum and maximum positions.

Accelerometer Calibration

• Under Initial Setup->Mandatory Hardware, select Accel Calibration from the left-side menu.
• Click Calibrate Accel to start the calibration.
• Mission Planner will prompt you to place the vehicle each calibration position. Press any key to indicate that the autopilot is in position and then proceed to the next orientation.

The calibration positions are: level, on right side, left side, nose down, nose up and on its back.

• When you’ve completed the calibration process, Mission Planner will display “Calibration Successful!”

A video demonstration can be found here.

ESC Calibration

Electronic speed controllers are responsible for spinning the motors at the speed requested by the autopilot. Most ESCs need to be calibrated so that they know the minimum and maximum pwm values that the flight controller will send.

Before calibrating ESCs, please ensure that your copter has NO PROPS on it and that the APM is NOT CONNECTED to your computer via USB and the Lipo battery is disconnected.

• Plug one of your ESC three-wire cables into the throttle channel of the RC receiver. (This is usually channel 3.)
• Turn on the transmitter and set throttle stick to maximum (full up).
• Connect the LiPo battery. You will hear a musical tone, then two beeps.
• After the two beeps, lower the throttle stick to full down.
• You will then hear a number of beeps (one for each battery cell you’re using) and finally a single long beep indicating the end points have been set and the ESC is calibrated.
• Disconnect battery. Repeat these steps for all ESCs.
• If it appears that the ESC’s did not calibrate then the throttle channel on the transmitter might need to be reversed.
• If you are still having trouble after trying these methods (for example, ESCs still beep continuously) try lowering your throttle trim 50%.
• You can also try powering your APM board via the USB first to boot it up before plugging in the LiPo.

Once you have calibrated your ESCs, you can test them by plugging in your LiPo. Remember: no propellers!

• Ensure your transmitter’s flight mode switch is set to “Stabilize Mode”.
• Arm your copter
• Give a small amount of throttle. All motors should spin at about same speed and they should start at the same time. If the motors do not all start at the same time and spin at the same speed, the ESC’s are still not properly calibrated.
• Disarm your copter.

Flight Modes

There are a few things you need to know about the flight modes in ArduCopter before flying.

• For flying manually without GPS, fly in STABILIZE mode.
• For flying at a fixed height manually, use ALTITUDE HOLD mode.
• For flying manually with GPS use Loiter mode(it flies stably and stays at a position if you leave the controls).

You can read more about flight modes here.

Arming the Motors

• Before proceeding, ensure that the following params are set in Config/Tuning->Full Parameter List

    - THR_MIN  = 130
    - THR_MAX  = 1000
    - MOT_SPIN_ARMED = 0
  

• Turn on your transmitter.
• Plug in your LiPo battery. The red and blue lights should flash for a few seconds as the gyros are calibrated (do not move the copter).
• The pre-arm checks will run automatically and if any problems are found an APM2.x will double blink the red arming light, on a Pixhawk the RGB led will blink yellow.
• Arm the motors by holding the throttle down, and rudder right for 5 seconds. It takes approximately 5 seconds the first time the copter is armed as it re-initialises the gyros and barometer. Do not hold the rudder right for too long (>15 seconds) or you will begin the AutoTrim feature.
• Once armed, the red arming light should go solid.
• Raise the throttle to take-off.

Fly

Flying a multicopter is an art and it will take some time, break some propellers and explode some LiPos but you will definitely get a hold of it! Fly high, may the thrust be with you!

Here’s a video of the Hexacopter Eagle with a self-designed wooden frame:

The High Level Controller

The next step in the world of Aerial Robotics is Autonomous Flight. Odroid and Raspberry Pi are common High Level Controllers. Stay Tuned!