Balancing during the assembly

Firmware/software/electronics/mechanics
foosel
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Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by foosel »

This is kinda depressing... Best result I can get after swapping around my propellers like mad (I got like 10 or so of each type). Will have to try again after I clean all of them of those mold lines.
Not connected_2013-06-02_22-13-58.png
Image
Also: AR.Drone 2.0 (RC-enabled thanks to self-soldered MiruMod) and Hubsan X4 H107
DesTinY
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Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:18 pm
Location: Bünde, Germany

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by DesTinY »

To sort the propellers i prefer to use just one motor and repeat the test sone times before i swap the next one. The values should be the same after repeating the test if they are not +-1% the same you should re-calibrate it.

BTW: To get 100% is inpossible except you calibrate with propellers on the motors. It is not totally wrong because it could be used as a feature to see the condition of the motor/propeller after a crash e.g. 100% before first flight and 88% after a "heavy" crash.

To your reassurance I have some really bad propellers, too. To be honest most of them :cry:
foosel
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Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by foosel »

I did calibrate without propellers. Was mightily surprised about M2 as well... Didn't touch it after remounting it and seeing that value. ;)

Cycled through my props on one motor as well, M3 I think it was. Will play around with that some more some when soonish I think. Only have to re flash everytime, currently I am flying with the real RC exclusively, totally new copter that way :D
Image
Also: AR.Drone 2.0 (RC-enabled thanks to self-soldered MiruMod) and Hubsan X4 H107
DennMenn
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Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:46 am

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by DennMenn »

Hi guys,

I just received my crazyflie. It's great.. But i noticed that right out of the box, the device is really drifting while maintaining altitude,

I looked at a bunch of good propellor balancing tricks, but none of them really worked because the rotors of the crazyflie are really tiny.
So i created my own solution. Here it is:

Image

I stretched 2 strings over a metal holder for post-it notes. And a needle like metal pin that exactly fit inside the propellor.
This gives a minimum amount of friction. You can see on the photo that the heaviest side of the prop hangs down.
I think this works better than the magnet and needle method.

When you try to find the heavy side with this method, and then fit them on the crazyflie and use the balancing tool from DesTinY, you can really see how good your improvements are..

I've also noticed that when you have good balanced propellors, the crazyflie hovers better, makes less noise and operates longer on a full battery.

Hope this helps some people to get better balanced props.
DesTinY
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Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:18 pm
Location: Bünde, Germany

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by DesTinY »

Thanks for sharing your experience!
DennMenn wrote: I've also noticed that when you have good balanced propellors, the crazyflie hovers better, makes less noise and operates longer on a full battery.
Yes, the amazing thing is you really can hear the differences if the CF hovers with good balanced propellers. From a mosquito to a butterfly! :D :lol:

If you have found a good propeller setup please save the values of the balancing test. After a couple of weeks and flights it would be interesting to compare the values (new CF and used one) whether the condition of your CF has changed with time. Maybe not the propellers but the motors wear out?! :?

Happy crazy flying! 8-)
KOschi
Beginner
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Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 4:49 pm

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by KOschi »

is there an easy way to install these tab in my crazyflie VM? I have no clue how to do that and can´t find an nice FAQ part.
TheFrog4u
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Location: Bremen, Germany

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by TheFrog4u »

hi DesTiny, after about 3 week and multiple crashes still with the first batch of propellers and motors I notived a tiny crack on one of the propellers, so I decided to change them use (again) your tool to find a good set. First I noticed that 2 of my old propellers where down to 25/30 percent, while the other two where still wuite good (70-something). I replaced just the "broken" once (they are back at the mid 60-level) and after a short test flight I have to say that the impact on performance is HUGE :)

BUT I think there is a bug in your GUI display. Actually the cf is testing in the order M1, M2, M3, M4.. but the gui is displaying (and updating the values) in the order M4, M3, M2, M1 !

I checked that and in my case I thought M1 was bad, but after some changes of the propellers I noticed that not M1, but M4 is affected. I also checked if Isoldered the motors correctly and it seems to be all fine on my side. Can someone confirm this issue?
DesTinY
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Posts: 97
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:18 pm
Location: Bünde, Germany

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by DesTinY »

TheFrog4u wrote:hi DesTiny, after about 3 week and multiple crashes still with the first batch of propellers and motors I notived a tiny crack on one of the propellers, so I decided to change them use (again) your tool to find a good set. First I noticed that 2 of my old propellers where down to 25/30 percent, while the other two where still wuite good (70-something). I replaced just the "broken" once (they are back at the mid 60-level) and after a short test flight I have to say that the impact on performance is HUGE :)

BUT I think there is a bug in your GUI display. Actually the cf is testing in the order M1, M2, M3, M4.. but the gui is displaying (and updating the values) in the order M4, M3, M2, M1 !

I checked that and in my case I thought M1 was bad, but after some changes of the propellers I noticed that not M1, but M4 is affected. I also checked if Isoldered the motors correctly and it seems to be all fine on my side. Can someone confirm this issue?
Yes, I can confirm this issue! :oops: I changed the Motor names to the official FW names (MOTOR_LEFT -> MOTOR_M4 and so on) a hour ago in the Repo! I will fix this issue.
Please use the pre-built Image for flashing in the meantime:
DesTinY wrote: CF FW (balancing mod):
Image for flashing: cflie_balancing_self_test_v1.0.bin
Source: Bitbucket Link CF FW
Thanks a lot for reporting!

EDIT: Bug is fixed in the repo!
DesTinY
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Posts: 97
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:18 pm
Location: Bünde, Germany

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by DesTinY »

NEW Tab design and propeller acceleration values will be displayed.
BalancingTab_v1.1.JPG
BalancingTab_v1.1.JPG
And DEBUG_PRINT() outs has a higher information level, too.

Code: Select all

MPU6050: M1 Condition:69% (X:0.84, Y:1.22, Z:0.83) [OK]
MPU6050: M2 Condition:82% (X:0.80, Y:0.79, Z:0.73) [OK]
MPU6050: M3 Condition:62% (X:0.83, Y:1.48, Z:0.99) [OK]
MPU6050: M4 Condition:75% (X:0.98, Y:0.79, Z:0.79) [OK]
MPU6050: Propeller Balancing Self Test [OK].
MPU6050: Propeller Balancing Self Test: Finished.
The formatting is not so nice but the print out string is limited.

CF FW (balancing mod):
Source: Bitbucket Link CF FW

CF Client (balancing mod):
Source: Bitbucket Link CF Client

Suggestions for improvement are welcome!
To-Do:
-Stop Button
-calibration values stored in the Client
-notification with colors OK/BAD/FAIL

KOschi wrote:is there an easy way to install these tab in my crazyflie VM? I have no clue how to do that and can´t find an nice FAQ part.
Sorry KOschi i've missed your post. Yes, a nice "How-To.." for that is missing. You can use the TortoiseHG Workbench or i prefer the Mercurial plugin for Eclipse (Eclipse->File->Import->Mercurial->Clone existing Mercurial repository).
DesTinY
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Posts: 97
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:18 pm
Location: Bünde, Germany

Re: Balancing during the assembly

Post by DesTinY »

Another short change note:

- Progress-bars shows the condition with colors (red<=40, yellow<=60,green>60)
BalancingTab_v1.2.JPG
BalancingTab_v1.2.JPG
- Tests can be stopped with the Start/Stop toggle button
- And last but not least the calibration values will be stored in the client (power cycle of the CF is now possible without using the bad default values or a new calibration every power cycle)

Happy testing :D
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