Taranis .EEPE & Pixhawk .PARAM for Deltawing Drone

by jamieFL | December 23, 2014 | (6) Posted in Projects

For the past few months, I have been working on a Crash Test Hobby Grim Reaper XL with RTFHawk (Pixhawk) flight controller and FRSky Taranis transmitter.  My goal is to use it for medium range FPV and aerial mapping.  I’ve finally gotten everything programmed and working and along the way I’ve learned a lot.  To share my newly acquired knowledge, I’ve written several articles which are posted here on Flite Test. 

Now that I am almost done, I want to share my entire Taranis .EEPE file with transmitter settings needed to get an APM Pixhawk communicating properly with a deltawing aircraft.  I am also including the .PARAM file with the settings I use in Mission Planner running APM Plane 3.2.0.  While it should be safe to use my entire Taranis .EEPE file on your radio, I do not recommend copying my entire Mission Planner .PARAM file to your Pixhawk.  Use it as a reference when programming your Pixhawk.

Things You Will Need to Do

  1. Copy the Reaper XL model from my .EEPE into a model on yours.
  2. Put the .WAV files in your Taranis sounds/en folder.
  3. I am using the X8R receiver.  If you are using another, you will need to make adjustments.
  4. You will need to bind your receiver.
  5. Print the .PARAM file for reference.

Features

  1. Deltawing Mixing – Complete deltawing mixing using APM’s older style elevon mixing.  I chose this method because it gives more control and depends less on the Pixhawk.
  2. Ultimate Throttle Safe – Arming the throttle is a two step process.  First, the throttle must be full down, then remove the SA switch from the up position.  When SA↑, the APM will receive no throttle input and the propeller will not be able to spin up unexpectedly, flight modes are disabled, and Safe will appear on the Taranis LCD.
  3. Flight Modes– Six flight modes with priority given to RTL with the down position of SC.  Priority is also given to Loiter mode with the down position of SD, so long as SC is also not down.  Two manual flight modes are selected with SC in the up position and two automatic flight modes with SC in the middle position.  No flight mode can be selected if the throttle is in Safe mode.  Flight mode will also be displayed on the Taranis LCD screen.  Flight Modes are controlled with global variable #1.

  4. Variable Rates and Expos – Expos and rates are assigned to S1 and S2 and can be set from 20% to 50% and 60% to 100% respectively.  Rates and expos are announced when changed.  Expos are controlled with Global Variable 3.  Rates are a multiplex mix of S2 which are disabled in automatic flight modes.
  5. Automatic Flight Mode Sense – When an automatic flight mode is selected full rates will be sent to the Pixhawk regardless the position of the S2 dial.  FBW and Autotune will not work properly unless the Pixhawk receives full roll and pitch inputs.  Automatic Flight Modes are controlled with Global Variable 2.
  6. Full Voice Announcements – Every switch and dial change is announced over the Taranis speaker.
  7. Flight Modes on LCD – Flight modes are displayed on the Taranis LCD screen.
  8. Background Music- SB controls background music.  SB- play’s AWOLNATION’S Sail.  SB↓ plays Slaughter’s Fly to the Angels.  SB↑ is silent.
  9. Inverted Mode – Switch SF puts the aircraft in inverted flight mode.
  10. GEO Fence – Switch SG turns the GEO Fence on and off.  It is off by default with SG↑.
  11. Flight Mode Reset – Switch SH resets the flight mode to recover after a failsafe has been triggered.

I do not consider myself an expert.  I’ve taken things I’ve learned from the net and from people on the Taranis Help Forum on RCGroups and with a lot of trial and error found something that works.  If you have any suggestions, please post them below.  My goal is to make this as easy and efficient as it can be.

Taranis .EEPE v0.9            - Initial Release
Taranis .EEPE v0.91          - Added Ultimate Throttle Safety

Taranis .EEPE v0.9            - Initial Release
Taranis .EEPE v0.91          - Added Ultimate Throttle Safety

Other Files Linked from my DropBox

COMMENTS

makattack on January 8, 2015
Nice going! Looks like a great setup. Just a note: I use arduplane on my FT Blunt Nose Versa Wing, and I found that I get much more authority/control with the newer ELEVON_OUTPUT vs ELEVON_MIXING mode.

It's documented here and confirmed with my own experiences this past Summer trying to tune it well:

http://plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/arduplane-setup/first-time-apm-setup/reversing-servos-and-setting-normalelevon-mode/#New_style_elevon_mixing_EEPROM_setup_ELEVON_OUTPUT_option

Using ELEVON_OUTPUT has a big advantage over ELEVON_MIXING that your inputs won’t saturate the roll/pitch control in FBWA mode, which means you can get better control of your plane.

I definitely found that I have much more control authority in all flight modes (manual, FBWA/B, stabilized, acro, cruise, autotune are the ones I've tried)

I highly recommend using the elevon output mode (where arduplane does the mixing) if only because a APM developer mentioned they haven't touched the mixing code in forever and it is effectively deprecated.
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dnblumberg on December 31, 2014
Interesting introductory article, I look forward to reading more of them.
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nspvarma6 on January 23, 2015
hiiii i dont know hw to figure out my elevon mixing problem in fsth9x transmitter .the problem is that when i move the aileron stick to the right it bleeds the throttle channel and runs out of control. i've tried restoring to factory setting but the problem does not resolve
plss help me to solve the problem
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jamieFL on January 24, 2015
Unfortunately, I don't use that transmitter. My suggestion is to get everything working without the flight controller first, then after that, add the flight controller. That way you will isolate the problem to either your radio or your flight controller.
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DrDiff952 on October 30, 2015
Glad to see that someone suports Taranis owners. I wish Flite Test would make Taranis videos
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biezcom on December 16, 2016
Good night I have a problem, if someone can help me, I have the same problem as nspvarma6 with a taranis, I have tried everything and I can not find the solution, could you tell me how to copy the eepe file in the taranis? Thank you
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Taranis .EEPE & Pixhawk .PARAM for Deltawing Drone