Quad Build - Phase 4

Initial bench tests went well. I tied the quad onto a rope with a tripod to stabilize it before takeoff. The tripod was required since I opted to add the safety feature of only arm if flat.

To tie up I used the top plate and 2 PSU power wires to look over the rope and though the top plate holes. Binder clips allows me to secure the connections without trying to tie wire.

From here I was able to verify the forward, backward, and roll left/right. I did find out that I needed to reverse forward/backward on my remote which was easy via the menu.

I concluded that PID adjustments via this method may not yield desirable results due to the tension of the rope. This may not be true and maybe the adjustment would go well, just a feeling that it wouldn't.

So, getting this to hover I do put the throttle at around 45% but that doesn't mean that the T/W ratio is only 2:1. The arducopter firmware states that it automatically attempts to align hover with 50% throttle. This is an option in the control (Mission Planner) that I left on for the sake of simplicity to start. After that throttle point things should start to ramp up quickly once at full throttle, something I'm still scared about testing in an closed environment.

The next day I took this into the garage while it was empty and did a test flight there. From the start there was obvious room for improvement as the takeoff was anything but smooth. I'm thinking that there are 2 things going on for the shaky takeoff: PID tuning is not too great and vortex states. Given that this is pushing a lot of air and a garage can wrap some of that air around from floor/wall/ceiling the quad is going to create its own wash which can cause the instability. The best way to remove that variable is to take it outside!

Next step: Take outside, pray it doesn't fly off (or tether it down) and attempt APM auto-tune. The Auto-tune that APM has states it works the best when not so windy so that could be a challenge as of late. Perhaps maybe just a very large and open field is what's needed which a significant drift is ok then.