Shrediquette - the award-winning multirotors by William Thielicke

This is a follow up to the previous post on tilt compensation . I made a video where I explain what FPV camera tilt compensation is needed for, how it works and how it looks like in flight: https://youtu.be/gXeaINFpvow In FPV camera tilt compensation, control inputs (RC transmitter --> FC) are transformed to the local frame of reference of the camera . The control outputs (FC --> motors) may additionally be transformed to the local frame of reference of the propellers (if e.g. the props are tilted or the FC is mounted at an angle - use parameters like 'board align' for control output transforms).

Almost every 'serious' FPV racer is tilting the FPV camera up in order to have a better image during fast flight. Angles between 10 and 35 degrees seem to be common. E.g. I am using 25 degrees. But tilting the camera with respect to the multirotors horizontal plane has a side effect on the controls (maybe you never thought about it, because you are so used to flying with this side effect). Just to make the effect easier to visualize: Imagine you drank a beer too much and now you suddenly think you are Charpu , Mr Steele or Mattystuntz . You mount your FPV camera with 90 degrees tilt (pointing up vertically) because your best friend told you that all the pros do it like this. In this case, your roll and yaw control will be interchanged: When you move your RC sticks to roll left, your copter will roll left, but looking through the FPV camera, it appears as if you are yawing to the left! And if you move your RC sticks to yaw left, your copter will of course yaw left, but the im...

Several requests "urged" me to release new versions of my firmware. I made a quadrocopter (quadrotor), a hexacopter (hexrotor) and a Y6 version of the Shrediquette firmware, called MM4 respectively MM6. Quadrocopter & hexacopter versions were tested and they seem to work pretty good (see e.g. here ). My MM6 flies really good (I am using the same motors/ props/ ESCs as in the DLXm), I built it to make some nice movies when I am in Cameroon on christmas.   Next, I am planning to build a Y6 hexacopter that is even smaller than my DLXm tricopter. The firmware for a Y6 Copter is already included in the zip archive, although I couldn't test it yet. For this tiny copter, I have to design a new PCB with a very small footprint (27 x 37mm). This PCB will be some sort of "minimal circuit", that means it doesn't include components for a servo nor LEDs nor connectors. It is just as small as I could make it: The new firmware versions are included in the existin...

Changes: Gyro offset measurement changed. Right after the startup, the copter tries to measure the gyro offset. If the copter is moved during this period, it won't continue with the start-up. Instead, it will flash the LED in the middle until the copter is placed on the ground. Only then it will initialize . Servo control improved: The servo pulse generation is now synchronized to reading out the receiver. Additionally, it is not possible anymore that an interrupt makes the servo jitter (thx to Lutz Meyer). All servos should work much better now.

Some days ago, I added two FPV videos to the video-section : There are also some more details on the FPV setup that I use in the FPV section. Additionally, there is a new section showing some Shrediquette user builds . Please keep on sending me details about your own build. Soon (next days) I will release a firmware update, that seems to reduce servo jitter, especially when using fast digital servos. Lutz Meyer tweaked some lines of the source code (thanks! :-D ). Lastly, for all people from northern germany, I would like to point your attention to a quadrocopter meeting that will take place on Aug. 21. in Bremen .

Today I finished the last test under veeery windy conditions, and everything went fine. The files at the right hand side (GUI and firmware) are updated. Please note that the new firmware will only work with the new GUI and vice versa! You will also not be able to use your old settings files. Double-check the direction of your servo, something has changed here too. The firmware should allow to increase control loop parameters, especially Acro-P and Hover-D. That should make your tricopter more stable. A new default-settings file is included, as well as my settings for the DLX and the DLXm. You can flash the firmware using my GUI. The file Tricopter_m328p_11.hex has to be placed into the GUI folder.