Setup general autopilot parameters
After the firmware has been uploaded, you will need to setup both standard and custom ArduCopter parameters. You can use your standard tools for this using Mission Planner or any other ArduCopter-compatible software. Or, you can also use Skybrush Live itself.
The list of available custom ArduCopter parameters defined for the new SHOW flight mode are listed in the Appendix. The most important ones are also detailed in the following sections of this tutorial.
The following standard ArduCopter parameters are also need to be checked and set up properly.
Enable MAVLink 2 Protocol
We require to use MAVLink 2 protocol instead of MAVLink 1 in all serial channels where MAVLink is used:
SERIALx_PROTOCOL 2
where x is the number of the channel you configure.
MAVLink 2 is required for the serial wifi channel and for MAVLink-driven LED support, too.
Disable superfluous MAVLink messages
To disable excess communication on the wifi channel, please disable all unwanted messages:
SRx_* 0
where x should be the number of the serial channel of your wifi connection.
Please note that Mission Planner and other GCS software tend to change these parameters permanently without notice, which might result in bandwidth shortage if many drones are used.
Disable failsafe for RC loss when in auto mode
To prevent the drone from activating its failsafe mode of operation when the RC reception is lost temporarily during a show, disable the RC failsafe:
FS_OPTIONS 4
This is required if you use a remote controller, otherwise it is optional.
Adjust settings for the position and waypoint controllers
Skybrush uses the built-in position and waypoint controllers of the ArduCopter firmware, and it sends updated setpoints to these controllers at a high frequency (several times per second). The default settings of the controllers are better suited for use-cases when setpoints are changed infrequently, and the controllers themselves have a tendendy to shape or limit the inputs they are provided with. In order to avoid the firmware code to alter Skybrush’s commands significantly, the limits of the position and waypoint controllers should be raised. A reasonable set of default settings for most mid-sized show drones is as follows:
PSC_JERK_XY 20 PSC_JERK_Z 20 WPNAV_ACCEL 800 WPNAV_ACCEL_Z 500 WPNAV_SPEED 1000 WPNAV_SPEED_DN 300 WPNAV_SPEED_UP 550 WPNAV_JERK 10
If you are using an older version of our firmware, it might happen that some of these parameters do not exist yet; feel free to ignore these.