Sentence ● Yusuke Aoyama / Composition ● Editorial department
Lecturer ● Tetsuya Tagawa / A drone engineer whose main job is to design the IPEX connector, which is also used for drones. About six years ago, when he still called drones "multicopters," he started making aerial drones. He has also been involved in the production of racing drones since 2014. He is the founder and administrator of the Facebook group "U199 Drone Club". 2016 Dubai International Tournament Japan National Team He is an engineer. Currently the DMM RAIDEN RACING team he is an engineer.
When the micro drone, radio, and battery are ready, it is necessary to first connect the radio and the aircraft, and make settings that relate the operation of the sticks and switches of the radio to the operation of the aircraft.
With the Futaba radio, you can memorize various settings for each aircraft you fly. Add this set of settings as a new aircraft. In addition, select "Multicopter" from the model types such as "Airplane" and "Helicopter".
Next, connect the radio and the aircraft. This work is called "binding", and after setting the protocol (communication method) adopted by the aircraft on the radio side, the aircraft performs connection work by operations such as "turn on the power while pressing the (al) button". increase.
After the binding is completed, set the aircraft side. In this work, connect the PC to the aircraft with a USB cable, use the software specified for each aircraft, and in the case of the BETA FPV series, use the software called "BETAFLIGHT". This can be downloaded for free on the WEB *.
The specific setting method differs depending on the software, but as a general rule, assign the operation and function of the aircraft to the operation of the stick and switch of the radio, and match the operation direction and position with the operation and amount of operation of the aircraft.
Set the movement and operation amount of the throttle (up and down), rudder (turn), aileron (left and right), elevator (front and back) of the aircraft, and the neutral position of each to the movement of the stick in 4 directions. The main contents are to switch flight modes such as angle, horizon, and acro, and to assign the operation of the arm (motor ON / OFF) to any switch of the radio.
In addition, we set a "PID" that determines how sensitive the aircraft responds to stick operations, and also calibrate (reset) the gyro and IMU that stabilize the attitude of the aircraft.
* BETAFLIGHT download destination (http://bit.ly/betaflight_download) The latest version as of April 2019 is 10.4.0. Download the file that matches your OS from the "Assets" item.
First, select "Model Select" and create with "New". This allows you to record the settings suitable for each drone when using multiple drones in the radio. Next, set "Model Type" in "Linkage Menu" to "Multicopter".
◉ Lecturer Mr. Tagawa explains the flow of binding with a video.
Turn on the power of the radio and select "Linkage Menu"> "System Type"> "S-FHSS".
If you turn on the drone before binding, the LED on the aircraft's receiver will light red. This represents a state where it cannot be bound. Turn on the power of the radio, connect the battery while pressing the bind button of the receiver with a thin stick, etc., and turn on the power of the aircraft. Then the LED of the receiver flashes green and then turns on. This completes the binding. The LED will turn green the next time you turn on the radio.
◉ Propo and BETA FLIGHT setting Mr. Tagawa, the instructor, explains the setting flow with a video.
Connect the USB terminal on the bottom of the 85X to your computer with a cable. Also install the battery. Launch BETAFLIGHT and click "Connect". Next, in order to move the receiver, check that the receiver mode of "Basic settings"> "Receiver" is "Serial connection receiver" and the serial reception protocol "SBUS". In the case of a large machine, there is a risk of injury, so I would like to remove the propeller and connect it.
Turn on the radio switch and open the "Receiver" tab. Looking at the "preview" drone, it's spinning around, even though I haven't operated the radio stick. This represents a state where neutral is not taken.
Adjust the "Sub Trim" in the "Linkage Menu" of the radio so that the Roll (Aileron), Pitch (Elevator), and Yaw (Ladder) values are 1500 (all set to -32 here), and then "Preview". Drone gets stuck. Now I'm in neutral.
While looking at the BETA FLIGHT screen, operate the stick and check if the drone moves in the direction in which the stick is tilted. This time, the movement of the Pitch (elevator) was reversed, so I reversed the elevator with "Linkage Menu"> "Servo Reverse" in the radio.
The endpoint is the setting of the maximum and minimum values of the stick. Adjust the "Operation amount" of "Linkage menu"> "Endpoint" of the radio so that the maximum value is 2000 or more and the minimum value is 1000 or less. For the T18SZ, set all items to 120 and the endpoint will be an appropriate number.
The radio is equipped with multiple toggle switches, each of which can be assigned a user's favorite function (here, Mr. Tagawa's settings are introduced). In T18SZ, each switch is named as above. T18SZ can assign favorite functions to 8ch. Since channels 1 to 4 are assigned to stick operations, assign your favorite functions to AUX CHs of channels 5 to 8. In "Linkage Menu"> "Function", set 4 of 5 to 8Ch to "Spare". 5Ch is set to SE, 6Ch is set to SG, 7Ch is set to SC, and 8Ch is set to SF.
Next, open the "Mode" screen of BETA FLIGHT. The functions assigned to the drone are listed here in order from the top. By assigning a radio switch to each function, that function can be used for the first time.
▲ An expanded version of one function in the "Mode" menu. ARM is a function that rotates a motor. AUX1 is 5ch of "function" of radio.
Assigned to a 3-position toggle switch so that the flight mode can be switched with a single switch. All three functions are specified as AUX2 (6ch of radio) by software. If you specify the angle and horizon with BETAFLIGHT, the rest will be set to acro.
▲ Three functions are assigned to the three-position switch.
Place the drone on a horizontal surface and click "Horizontal Calibration" in the "Setup" menu. Stable hovering becomes possible by making the drone recognize the level properly.
PID is an abbreviation for Propotional, Integral, and Derivative, and is a mechanism that controls the attitude of the drone. Mr. Tagawa has set "RC Rate" to 0.71 and Super Rate to 0.70 in the "PID Tuning" menu. The initial setting is 1.00. The movement of the drone is slower than the initial setting with respect to the stick operation of the radio. If there is wind outside and you are worried about the shaking of the aircraft, increasing the value of P may improve it.
● Reprinted from the May 2019 issue of Video SALON
Micro drone aerial photography