Crazyflie Stabilizer and Flowdeck

[youngbin1130]

Hello all,

I have two questions regarding the orientation of the Crazyflie while using the LPS nodes. From what I understand is that one should make sure that the Crazyflie faces the +x direction before running the program/codes as stated in multiple forum posts and guides. Is there a way to make sure that the Crazyflie's stabilizer value is (0,0,0)? For instance using the LPS node position set in the client to get the absolute orientation.

The YAW value stabilizer graph from the Crazyflie client for some reason increases/decreases after turning the drone manually. I thought this was strange because once I rotate the drone for around 90 degrees, the graph will go to 90 degrees but it will slowly go down to 0. This is apparent in whatever drone I use. I've uploaded three images of the graph I took from two different drones. Additionally, if I take a look at the "Flight Control" tab from the client, I can see that the drone's stabilizer is moving around when nothing is actually moving it.

Another question is that I've seen some people have issues with the Flow Deck v2 and LPS node together (namely this post at GitHub https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-f ... issues/368). I should update the Crazyflie with the latest firmware, is that correct?

[kimberly]

Hi,

If you want to have the crazyflie's attitude values to be 0,0,0, you would need to put it already in the right direction (while off) on a flat surface, and turn it on.

The yaw value increases and decreases is mostly just due to drift. The IMU has a gyroscope which directly measures the attitude rate and not the attitude in an absolute manner. On the ground the attitude values tend to drift quite a bit indeed but once in the air it's much better. The estimators is just more equipped for a 'flying vehicle' then one on the ground. But at one point we have to look at it... it can be a bit annoying indeed to interpret it.

In your case, you don't have to worry about it that much. Just have the crazyflie face in the +x and have a go at flying with it! Try with one first though .

Your link doesn't work but I guess you mean this issue right? We haven't fully verified it yet but it seems that indeed with the latest firmware it should work. (Btw if you could also confirm it working on the github issue )

[youngbin1130]

Hi thanks for your help Kimberly,

The only thing I'm worried about is that one of our functions depends on the rotation of multiple drones. Thus there could be a problem if some of them are slightly off. Nontheless, I will try it out. I guess what we could do is set one of the drones rotation as an origin point so that is the basis of the orientation of all the drones. Not sure how that will affect the program.

One of the test I ran was to make the run_sequence portion of the drone to sleep so I can manually turn it in whichever orientation. I've attached the result here in .txt file. I didn't take it off the ground and rotated it in a noticeable angle (90 degrees). So even if the degrees are going back to 0, it shouldn't be a problem according to what you're saying. Did I get it correctly?

For the flowdeck, I shall update the crazyflie again and see if it works but so far, a selection of them works (1 out of 5).

Cheers. Always appreciate the help!

[youngbin1130]

Hey Kimberly,

I've added a comment in the GitHub and confirmed that the fix doesn't work for CF2.1! Hopefully the official fix will happen.

Cheers!

[youngbin1130]

Hey Kimberly.

Just want to check if my method is correct.

Following the post here: https://www.bitcraze.io/documentation/r ... tructions/

I was able to compile the code by using

Code: Select all

make PLATFORM=CF2

And I use the .bin file which is named CF2.bin to flash through the CF client. Is that correct?

[kimberly]

Hi! Flashing through the cfclient I would mostly recommend if you are flashing the new release (which is a zip file with the bin files in them and something extra). Just the bin-file is not enough.

You just do the following in the terminal after you put the crazyflie in bootloader mode;

Code: Select all

make cload

Its in the readme instruction of the crazyflie-firmware repo, but I see that there is something wrong with the layout, so I will fix that now:)

[youngbin1130]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I've attached an image here the process of flashing to the crazyflie to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong.

I've right clicked the /crazyflie-firmware, ran a terminal from that folder and ran the code

Code: Select all

 make cload

I hope I did everything is correct!

[kimberly]

It seems to have done the trick indeed