Max flight altitude is 6 feet

JLy · ‎10-23-2017

When flying my drone in Altitude or Position mode I cannot fly higher than 6'. If I do not touch the throttle joystick the drone will slowly creep up to 6 feet and stay locked at that height. I am unable to bring it any higher, but if I pull the throttle down, the drone will return to ground - I can't find any parameters in settings that would control this.

In manual mode I can fly the drone higher but it is much more difficult to control

idata · ‎10-24-2017

Hi jonly,

I have not heard of this behavior before, are you flying the drone with the out of the box software? Can you please update the Image, Bios, FPGA and Flight controller? You can find the instructions to update the software at the following link: https://github.com/intel-aero/meta-intel-aero/wiki/02-Initial-Setup# flashing

If you already followed the wiki, can you please provide the output of get_aero_version.py?

Regards,

Jesus

JLy · ‎10-25-2017

Hi There,

Yes I have updated the drone completely. This seemed to fix some of my issues but I am still having troubles.

BIOS_Version - Aero-01.00.13

DS_Version - Poky Aero

Airmap_Version - 1.8

FPGA_Version = 0xcl

idata · ‎10-25-2017

Hi jonly,

Can you confirm you are using image v1.5.1? The output from get_aero_version that you provided does not show the version number.

Did you change any settings on QGroundControl Software or on Aero prior to noticing this behavior? What happens if you do a frame reset via QGroundControl and calibrate and setup the drone again?

Regards,

Jesus

JLy · ‎10-25-2017

I am using the latest image.

I don't believe any setting would have been changed to cause this behavior. I recall experiencing something very similar months ago after a fresh frame reset and calibration

When I was using the barometer the drone would drift around and continue to fly upwards

Now that I am using an optical flow sensor the drone flys in roughly the same spot but continues to fly up until the 6' altitude

idata · ‎10-25-2017

Which optical flow sensor are you using? Can you share some details of the environment where you are testing? There is a github about optical flow on aero that lists some parameters. Have you tried that?

https://github.com/intel-aero/aero-optical-flow

Regards,

Jesus

JLy · ‎10-25-2017

I followed the steps from this site: http://www.instructables.com/id/Intel-Aero-Drone-Altitude-and-Position-Hold-Using-/ Intel Aero Drone - Altitude and Position Hold Using PX4Flow: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

The environment is a typical plant environment. Greyish floor. Changing the focus or the area of the plant does not make a difference on the flight height.

idata · ‎10-26-2017

Thank you for providing additional details. Let me check with the engineering team and see if they have seen this behavior. I will get back to you as soon as I hear back.

Regards,

Jesus

idata · ‎10-26-2017

Hi jonly,

The maximum altitude is due to the sonar in the PX4Flow. When flying at 6 ft. you have reached the maximum range of the sonar. Once the flight stack tries to fly higher, the sonar will not be able to read the distance to the ground. When flying in manual mode, you are able to fly higher than 6 ft. since it's using the barometer that does not depend on the distance from the ground.

If you need optical flow and fly at a higher altitude, you will need to replace the sonar in the PX4Flow by a sonar/lidar with a maximum range that supports the needed altitude.

Regards,

Jesus

JLy · ‎10-30-2017

I tried a few things last week

After recalibrating the drone and all the sensors the drone no longer has the 6' flight limitation. Instead it just continues to rise upwards. I have adjusted the throttle trims, the hover throttle control, etc, but the drone keeps rising up.

Note, this is the exact same symptom i had before, the only difference is it would stop rising at 6'

idata · ‎10-30-2017

Hi jonly,

Does this behavior happen if you disable the PX4Flow sensor and use the default settings for the Aero RTF Drone?

Regards,

Jesus

JLy · ‎10-31-2017

Hi there,

Yes, this is one of the issues I originally had - the drone would be very difficult to fly using any position/altitude/gps hold modes

When using the internal barometer the drone would bounce around and continue to fly upwards

idata · ‎11-01-2017

Hi jonly,

Can you please flash the software v1.6 that was released today? You can find the announcement and links to release notes/software at following link:

https://communities.intel.com/thread/119178 https://communities.intel.com/thread/119178

Once you flash the drone, please provide the output of get_aero_version.py. Let me know if the same behavior is still observed.

Regards,

Jesus