A bit cheeky, APM

[apollo7]

Bit of a long shot but is there a kind person not to far from Bradford that would be prepared to fit APM 2.6 with Neo to my reptile 500, of course i would expect to pay for their time and trouble, i have all the bits, i really want this quad flying as it should,
It has multistar 2213 motors, esc`s with bec, radio is turnigy ai6

Many thanks in advance

[shazzy]

I';d be happy to help out but I';m I';m London I';m afraid

Sent from my MI NOTE Pro using Tapatalk

[Rommie]

im in Stafford and could do it

[apollo7]

im in Stafford and could do it

very kind of you to offer, a bit far away this would mean dual postage, i might see if i can sort it out, but of course if i do it it will just crash!

[hoverfly]

Don';t panic, take your time.the A.P.M.  is not as bad as it first looks.
The Reptile is a nice frame, and will stay together with a dot of locktite
On the screws.
When it comes to the  setup just be methodical ,don';t rush it.
If you have them use 3dr  radios to do the compass calibration ,as with the USB lead attached it gets tangled up, also turn off the auto accept as it sometimes drops out before there is enough data.
Best of luck.

[wobblybob]

MY first build was a APM and a reptile . It';s a steep curve but I learned a lot in those weeks .
Couldn';t have done it without painless 360';s how to guide .
I was a complete noob to all things RC never mind APM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30cCs4aHdB0&list=PLYsWjANuAm4oswLMu9OU8yOm-9J6y30XW

[orfordness]

Peter from droneshop.biz charges £30 for setup, he';s in Wolves area...

[apollo7]

Peter from droneshop.biz charges £30 for setup, he';s in Wolves area...

cheers, might drop him an email, sort of planning to have a go myself, i think i need to get over my fear of doing this

[apollo7]

MY first build was a APM and a reptile . It';s a steep curve but I learned a lot in those weeks .
Couldn';t have done it without painless 360';s how to guide .
I was a complete noob to all things RC never mind APM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30cCs4aHdB0&list=PLYsWjANuAm4oswLMu9OU8yOm-9J6y30XW

The guide video`s put on the tube by painless 360 are a superb set, i will be paying close attention by having one laptop showing the tutorial and the other lappie doing the work

[orfordness]

These are Peter';s help videos : https://www.youtube.com/user/westmidscom/videos

[apollo7]

Well, we are of to a bad start, i went to start doing this set up, opened MP and hoked up to apm, windows failed to install drivers, then MP crashed so uninstalled it, now it wont re install............i just knew it would be trouble

[orfordness]

Try running the setup as administrator (right click the setup file and select run as administrator)


Steve

[apollo7]

all sorted, i have installed it on my other laptop, stage one complete, radio to set up next

[allan9966]

Have you got your quad sorted? I have only just seen your post- I live pretty nearby in Huddersfield and have quite a bit of experience with Ardupilot and am happy to help 

[apollo7]

Have you got your quad sorted? I have only just seen your post- I live pretty nearby in Huddersfield and have quite a bit of experience with Ardupilot and am happy to help 

My plans changed a little as the Quad has become a Hex f550, but i am at the stage to configure and install the APM........it would be nice to get it sorted correctly first time around 

[allan9966]

As I said, I';m happy to help setting up your APM - I see you are up in Queensbury. I can possibly call up that way sometime soon - I have some aerial photos to take up that way for a friend when there';s less wind about. Alternatively, call and see me in Huddersfield - I';m self employed so can be pretty flexible.

Have you got all the hardware connected up? If it';s of help, I have a nice big field here suitable for flight testing.

[apollo7]

I am planning on installing FW and plumbing it in tomorrow, since i started this thread i have had a go at doing APM so might manage the job , but will let you know and many thanks

[allan9966]

Good luck with the build and if you need any help..........

[apollo7]

Good luck with the build and if you need any help..........

Looks like i got a fake APM 2.8, it wont take the ublox compass from my older 2.6

[allan9966]

Not sure if there';s such thing as a "fake" APM - more like non-3DR as most are.  Have you still got your 2.6 to confirm the compass/GPS is still OK with that? Have you got any alternative GPS to try on the 2.8?

At just over £20 it might be an idea to get another 2.6 - they seem to be dirt cheap now.

Do you have a link to the 2.8 you have? I can';t see why your GPS would work with one and not the other.

[apollo7]

on the ublox compass there are two plugs as you will know, the larger one will not fit in either of the GPS ports but fits the older 2.6, my friend has a spare 2.6 so that is now installed but seems the plush 30amp esc`s are not in good health, constant beeping and only one motor powered up

[wobblybob]

on the ublox compass there are two plugs as you will know, the larger one will not fit in either of the GPS ports but fits the older 2.6, my friend has a spare 2.6 so that is now installed but seems the plush 30amp esc`s are not in good health, constant beeping and only one motor powered up

The APM that is sold as ver 2.8 is the one I had .I remember the woes I had . Just  checked back on my old build thread "2.8 uses the old style gps port under the new GPS port for the external  compass."if my memory serves me right this is different to the 2.6 and most of the build logs on the net are for 2.6 . I remember needing to jumper pins as well .
All seems along time ago now so not sure if that means anything . I had the problem of no 3.3v going to this port so had to link it .Maybe worth checking the port is getting 3.3v .
I';ll try and dig out my post .  Just found this if it';s any help . Jumper 1 is linked for external compas (if the neo6 has one)My problem was no 3.3v to the GPS port and my Neo^ was cabled incorrectly if I remember  .



Oh and on the ESC front I had the same problems with Emax 30amp ESC';s  I can laugh now . I ended up buying an emax prog card . But this just confirmed the ESC';s were all programmed the same  . I was just missing the throttle calibration beeps and ended up doing them individually . When I finally callibrated them all it would only just hover at full throttle . This was a setting in mission planner parameters list THR_ACCL_IMAX  was at 80 set this to 800 and it worked .
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