Introduction
When setting up a flight controller it is very important everything is right. This is the device that will be controlling the flight (duh that's the name). Any screw up in this phase of set up to a plane might mean that it nose dives into the ground and shatters all your hard work. So it is very important to set this board up correctly the first time, as it might be the only time. Safety is key when setting up your board and as it is possible to have an input swapped or to accidentally check a random box and the motor could spool up, you should always disconnect the prop when working in Mission Planner. This will keep you the safest possible and not be risking serious injury
Set-Up
Flashing
A few programs are needed to start this off. A firmware flasher and firmware is the first step. Connect to the board using the micro-USB that comes off the board while pressing the DFU button. This allows your computer to recognize it without firmware onboard and allows it to communicate with Beta flight. Beta flight is the flasher that I used for the board as it has a handy firmware flasher tab at the bottom and it makes it easy. Go online and get the correct firmware for the aircraft or vehicle that will use the flight controller. If the board is being used on a wing then get the wing firmware, if you were to try and use a plane firmware the ports on the board will be different and behave differently so again this step is very important.
Mandatory Hardware Setup
After Beta flight does its thing launch mission planner and click the "connect button" up at the top. Now mission planner will be able to communicate with the board and you can begin the mandatory setup.
At this point, you should have bound your controller to your aircrafts RC controller and go to the tab Radio control calibration. Once it is bound run the setup and move all the sticks and the mode switch in channel 8 (mentioned further down). The program then learns the max throw of all the inputs and translates that to the motion of the bars. Here you should be able to see the data that your controller is sending to your aircraft and the inputs should change based on the stick movements.
After this, you may calibrate the accelerometer, this is a simple setup where you click start and have to position the wing according to the prompts. Here it is important to mention that it is important to use a long enough USB cord that won't cause you to rip the micro-USB port off the board when doing the accelerometer calibration. The micro-USB port is the only way to connect to the board and if broken off it will be very hard to connect and communicate with the board.
Next, you should set up the modes on the aircraft. To do this first go to the mixer page on your controller and add a switch to channel 8. This switch itself isn't specific to a certain one and any of the Taranis switches can be used, just be sure that the switch works as this will be how you change modes and you won't want it accidentally bumped or shorting and have you change modes randomly. Modes can be set up based on personal preference. I set mine up to have the manual control mode on the front and back options of the switch with the flight controller on the middle option, this way if anything goes wrong during the mission I can flip the switch either way and take control with minimal thinking.
Finally, the ESC can be calibrated. This is a relatively simple process that you actually don't need the controller for. First position the aircraft so that nothing is touching the motor, as it can accidentally spool up this can keep you safe from physical harm and you only risk spooking yourself. Go to the Servo Output tab where you tell the board which input is what in the settings and find the throttle channel. There is a reverse box just off to the side of the bar, click the reverse button and the output should switch to the max. Next, plug the battery in and let the ESC beep, once the series of beeps stop click the reverse button a second time, this should bring the output to its minimum and the ESC will beep a series of beeps again. Once it's done the ESC should be calibrated, this can be tested by going to the flight plan tab and actions. Once in actions, connect a battery and click force arm, once again make sure the prop is not connected as you will be spooling the motor. Once its armed slowly increase throttle to see if the motor is spinning, if it is then the ESC is successfully calibrated. You should also be able to test the servos as well and see if they react correctly.
Parameters
Based on the position of the board and how it will be in your aircraft you might need to play with some parameters. There is an arrow on the board that states what it thinks is front, this can be rotated and changed by changing a drop-down in the parameters that will tell it that it is, rolled 90 degrees or yawed 180 or whatever positioning that it'll take to get the flight data tab to pitch and yaw according to the front.
Troubleshooting
In setting up my flight controller I learned a lot. For one an issue that you are having might be solved by simply coming back to it tomorrow, this happened about 3 times when I would get stuck and Mission Planner wasn't doing what I wanted it to do regardless of all the forms I could find online. I would come back the next day and the problem wouldn't exist. Next and another easy thing to screw up is the connections that are soldered/ connected to the board. As one wire might have been soldered to the wrong port and the board cannot communicate with the desired component properly. I mentioned this earlier but going online to some forms may also save you a lot of hair-pulling later and the forms can cover a lot more and be much more specific than one can be in a blog.
Conclusion
In messing around with mission planner over this COVID break I have learned a lot about the software and some of the funny intricacies that the software has. I only wish that we covered more of this in class so that some of my hair might have survived my at home frustration.
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