search

ArduPilot / ardupilot

ArduPlane, ArduCopter, ArduRover, ArduSub source
http://ardupilot.org/
GNU General Public License v3.0
10.26k stars 16.87k forks source link

Plane: Add feature to make a loud noise after landing to help find it #2251

Open marcmerlin opened 9 years ago

marcmerlin commented 9 years ago

Currently the mode switch, if it goes past -100, isn't recognized as RTL with standard setups. It would be great to allow recognizing a 7th mode, past RTL, that would simply cause the beeper to get very loud to find the model after a crash in vegetation. I'm currently using a 3rd party model finder plugged into the same port, and have that functionality, but it would be great not to have to depend on yet another device when the pixhawk is totally capable of outputting loud obnoxious sounds if asked :)

magicrub commented 9 years ago

This has been implemented in AC3.3 by setting an aux switch to AUXSW_LOST_COPTER_SOUND

marcmerlin commented 9 years ago

Awesome, thanks @magicrub . I see it's not documented yet, but now that you gave me the name, I can find hits in the code. But is it just in copter? I have a plane and it could get lost too :)

magicrub commented 9 years ago

I wrote one for plane, which inspired the one for copter, and I think there's still a pull request pending but I ended up having some problems with it and lost interest so I may have closed it. On May 9, 2015 7:46 PM, "Marc MERLIN" notifications@github.com wrote:

Awesome, thanks @magicrub https://github.com/magicrub . I see it's not documented yet, but now that you gave me the name, I can find hits in the code. But is it just in copter? I have a plane and it could get lost too :)

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2251#issuecomment-100575315 .

marcmerlin commented 9 years ago

Is it fair to leave this open until the feature is both in plane and copter then? Planes are actually the ones likely to fly much farther and get lost in a more remote location where a model finder would come in even more handy :)

rmackay9 commented 9 years ago

In copter I think we already have two methods of triggering the lost copter alarm. A ch7/ch8 switch and a special stick movement (i think it's left stick down-left, right stick down) so I don't think we will implement a 3rd way to trigger the alarm.

marcmerlin commented 9 years ago

@rmackay9 a 3rd way is not needed, I wasn't aware of the current code when I made my suggestion. Just hoping for this to also end up in the plane source tree :)

marcmerlin commented 9 years ago

@magicrub: do you mind re-opening this bug since it's not done in the Plane tree yet?

magicrub commented 9 years ago

The issue with my pull request was I was trying to get fancy by having the alert turn off automatically when you picked the plane up. I can strip out that stuff and reopen. On May 25, 2015 8:08 PM, "Marc MERLIN" notifications@github.com wrote:

@magicrub https://github.com/magicrub: do you mind re-opening this bug since it's not done in the Plane tree yet?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2251#issuecomment-105373583 .

marcmerlin commented 8 years ago

@magicrub Do you mind re-opening this issue as a reminder to add the functionality in plane too? Thanks :)

magicrub commented 8 years ago

Alarm after land until nice change seems like a reasonably simple feature. Would that work? On Dec 6, 2015 11:21 AM, "Marc MERLIN" notifications@github.com wrote:

@magicrub https://github.com/magicrub Do you mind re-opening this issue as a reminder to add the functionality in plane too? Thanks :)

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2251#issuecomment-162338491 .

iskess commented 8 years ago

I presume you meant "mode change"?

Personally I would like something that activates the beeper for unplanned landings or crashes. After a crash, the first thing I would do is switch to Manual to prevent the motor and servos from moving. If this deactivates the beeper, that would not be helpful. I like the -120% on the mode channel idea. Or perhaps if you hold the rudder/throttle in the disarm position for 10 secs the beeper activates.

magicrub commented 8 years ago

Lol, ya. Sorry, auto correct killed me there.

That's true, switching out of auto right after a land is common procedure. You only really need the beep if you don't know where it landed so a commanded alarm makes better sense. So, I like the alarm via long disarm but want to make sure there's a way to turn it off. Perhaps mode change? On Dec 6, 2015 2:41 PM, "Iam Bouret" notifications@github.com wrote:

I presume you meant "mode change"?

Personally I would like something that activates the beeper for unplanned landings or crashes. After a crash, the first thing I would do is switch to Manual to prevent the motor and servos from moving. If this deactivates the beeper, that would not be helpful. I like the -120% on the mode channel idea. Or perhaps if you hold the rudder/throttle in the disarm position for 10 secs the beeper activates.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2251#issuecomment-162356023 .

iskess commented 8 years ago

I would turn it off by using doing the opposite stick position. By putting the rudder in the arming position. That's the most intuitive solution. I don't see a big risk in arming the plane once you've found it. Usually you would just unplug the battery once you find the plane.

rmackay9 commented 8 years ago

In copter, the alarm only sounds for 1 or 2 seconds so the pilot needs to either keep the TX sticks in that special position (both down and right) or keep the ch7/ch8 switch in the on position.

magicrub commented 8 years ago

Yeah, I like that even better! Just hold rc input as disarm and it beeps. Release and it ends. Easy and safe and intuitive. On Dec 6, 2015 5:30 PM, "Randy Mackay" notifications@github.com wrote:

In copter, the alarm only sounds for 1 or 2 seconds so the pilot needs to either keep the TX sticks in that special position (both down and right) or keep the ch7/ch8 switch in the on position.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2251#issuecomment-162385944 .

iskess commented 8 years ago

I'd rather it stay on without holding the stick, but I'll just make a mix in the Taranis and link it to a switch and I'll be happy :)

marcmerlin commented 8 years ago

Look at this again, Plane now allows disarming with long rudder to the left (like copter). It seems that if you just kept the long rudder left longer, you could start an alarm. Another option is you could just sound the alarm after X seconds if the plane has determined it's not flying anymore, but it's still armed (slightly better because it would work if the RC receiver has been ripped out in a crash, but ardupilot is still powered on).

In the meantime, if others care to get this, I'm using 3 other ways (yes, I'm that adverse to looking for my plane in tall weeds ;) ):

Hope this helps others. Allowing the system buzzer to be used as a locator would still be cool though, just not as important to me anymore. I'm also flagging this as safety because having an auto reminder to unarm your plane after landing, sounds like a good safety feature (in case you don't have a throttle failsafe on your RC controller and could start the prop on the ground by mistake).