AP Pitch/Roll servos - NO Movement during TEST

[skypilot1104]

I am in process of configuring my AP servos... Both the pitch and roll servos discovered successfully, skyview updated the firmware to 5.0.  I went to configuration menu, both servos were configured successfully, I continued to "Test" centered the controls and pushed "OK" the screen indicated the servos should have moved the controls, and asked if it was successful "Yes" or "No"  neither of the servos moved or made any noise at all... any thoughts :-?

 

[skypilot1104]

I powered down the system, and powered it back up, the upper bar showed a status of Pitch/Roll failure.  I go into setup and look at the raw data in servo "Status" and move the stick around and both servos are showing "Installed" and position data.  I checked the VP-X pro, and each servo is pulling about .1 amp at "Rest" which would be normal. The only thing that may be a bit outside the electrical design is... I ran the power(Red)/Ground(Black)/AP(Yellow) through D9 Sub connector (at the servo) as should in the photo.  I checked each pin and grounds, power to the servo is system 12.65v. The Power(Red) Ground (Black) AP(Yellow) at the Bus are NOT part of the D9 Sub connector, Red is wired directly to the VP-X, Black directly to the main Grounding block, and Yellow directly to the stick. The D9 Sub connectors are plugged into the SV-HUB.

 

[jeffa]

Did you make sure your yellow CWS wire is not constantly grounded, e.g. shorted to ground or connected to a N.C. switch?

 

[skypilot1104]

yep... the CWS is functioning normally through the configuration of the servos, actually it is one of the first things I looked at... If I learned anything in all the years I have been doing this... "Grounds" will bite you!!!

 

[skypilot1104]

I have been on and off the phone with Tech Support this afternoon, They asked that I bypass the VP-X and get power to the servos directly from the battery buss... No problem, 5 minute job, but same results... I bypassed the SV-HUB and connected each server directly to the skyview, calibrated fine, but no movement in "test" mode.

long story short...  They do not know what may be wrong... The servos talk and calibrate successfully, position status is reporting, and CWS works just fine. But will not move during Test mode... They sent me RMA's to send in both servos for testing?? I will probably wait til after the holidays and think and check everything again. The servos were bought (1) about a year ago, and the other about a week ago... both servos bad???  I thought maybe it was a firmware issue, but Tech ruled that out... They feel the only thing left is servo testing, but said there is probably nothing wrong with them.

I have one last question... Is the ADAHRS required to be installed and part of the skyview system in order for the AP servos to "Test" Properly?

I know it must be something I am doing wrong... I can't believe that both servos are bad... The wiring / calibration seems real straight forward. I am sure it's something simple and I will get a good laugh when we figure it out.

 

[jakej]

Just a thought - I'd temporarily remove the disconnect wire, also check the power at servo connector with a DMM between the power/ground pins ie not back to the ground bus.

Did the system work before vers 5.0 ? If not, can you load 4.1 & retry ?

Jake J

 

[jakej]

sky1104

I've sent you a pm.

Jake J

 

[skypilot1104]

Thanks Jake for giving me a call from Australia of all places!!
The very last trouble-shooting step I did was remove the skyview system from the aircraft, and connected it to my test bench... using the skyview test cables connected directly to the skyview D1000 ports, I detected / calibrated the servos successfully... But "Test" had the same results, no movement. That rules out aircraft wiring, VP-X power etc. I am leaning towards a firmware bug in version 5.

I look at it this way... If nothing ever goes wrong, you never learn anything. I have a very good understanding of the servos and their configurations, so even though I still have work to do... I learned a ton.

 

[skypilot1104]

Just wanted to update this thread... I updated my firmware to 5.1 last evening. But, no luck in solving the servo issues. Actually I am not sure if it is better or worse. With 5.0 I could discover and calibrate the servos, but testing failed... Now with 5.1, skyview will not even discover the servos... all I see is the Skyview and the EMS... on the network status. Forcing the Network load / discovery does not produce any positive results.
The saga continues...

 

[skypilot1104]

Another Update:

I received my ADHARS today and I hook it up... The pitch servo discovered, calibrated and tested successfully. So long story short. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR ADHARS INSTALLED in the Skyview system in order to run any type of GROUND Testing.

I am extremely happy!! The Roll Servo is dead, and will need to be RMA'd though. Also, it would have saved a ton of aggravation and needless trouble-shooting, removing equipment from the aircraft etc. If the original question in the Post on Dec. 21st about the ADHARS would have been addressed in a timely manner. The ADHARS question was also emailed directly the tech support, with no response...

Anyway... Things are looking up!!

 

[TRCsmith]

I could not find a specific mention of the "ADAHRS must be installed to work the A/P". Maybe it was assumed as a network the ADAHRS must be installed to work with the primary operating system for all modules and servos?

I did find this, "Note that if an ADAHRS, EMS, or Servos are not present on the SkyView network, this menu will note the absence by displaying “(EMS NOT DETECTED)” ,“(ADAHRS NOT DETECTED)”, or “(SERVOS NOT INSTALLED)”

 

[dynonsupport]

Sorry we missed you back in December. We strive to respond quickly, but you did write us during the week we were closed for the holiday.

It does appear you found a corner case that we'd never quite considered before. The AP is prevented from engaging in very low level code when no AHRS exists as a safety measure, and this does extend to the test mode. We just never considered it before since everyone has an AHRS and nobody ran into it so it never got documented. We do miss things from time to time.

Glad you're up and running.