CUAV SKYE Smart Airspeed Manual

Safety Bulletin

Skye v1.1.0 Firmware Update Notice (security update)

Hardware damage may occur due to bugs in previous software programs.

Solution:

If you have a SKYE airspeed meter delivered before May 2023, please urgently upgrade the firmware to 1.1.0; mainly the following security fixes.

Fix the problem that the heater continues to heat in some specific environments, causing the Pitot tube to melt.
Fix CAN_NODE_ID not working
Fix other known bugs.

Please follow Firmware Upgrade to complete the firmware upgrade in time. If your skye has been damaged, please contact your account manager, we will provide you with new hardware for free.

Download the Skye Firmware file

The correct firmware will show the software version as 1.1.

Connect the hardware

Connect the SKYE HUB to the flight controller using the CAN cable;
Connect SKYE HUB to 8~34V power supply (3~8s battery) use XT30 power cable
Connect the SKYE Smart Airspeed to the SKYE HUB using the airspeed cable

Download:CUAV SKYE Airspeed manual (in PDF)

Install to Plane/VTOL

CUAV SKYE Smart Airspeed to achieve IP44 protection level, it needs to be installed according to the following requirements. For conventional Plane/ VTOL, the following installation methods are recommended. CUAV SKYE is mounted on the bottom of the wing, as shown in the picture below.

The rotation of the propeller will cause airflow disturbance, which will make the UAV obtain wrong airspeed data. It is forbidden to install the airspeed near the propeller.

Flight controller (ArduPilot firmware) parameter configuration

Run Mission planner>Configuration>All parameter table; set the following parameters and save and restart.

CAN_P1_DRIVER=1
CAN_P2_DRIVER=1
CAN_D1_PROTOCOL=1
CAN_D2_PROTOCOL=1
ARSPD_TYPE=8
ARSPD_USE=1

If you use AP4.30 or later firmware, you need to set the following parameters

HYGRO_TYPE = 1（thermometer）
ArduPilot AP4.20 and above firmware supports SKYE smart airspeed.

Airspeed offset calibration

After the SKYE smart airspeed meter is started, the temperature compensation function is automatically activated. For better performance, please wait for the device to heat up after starting it (the time is about 5 minutes). During the heating process, the sensor will have a certain airspeed offset. When there is no wind, the airspeed display is greater than 3 m/s, please perform airspeed offset calibration before takeoff

Method:

Place the pitot in a windless environment.
Run Mission planner > Data > Actions
Select “Preflight Calibration” in the first checkbox; click the “Do Action” button on the right.

Preflight Airspeed Check

Please place the pitot tube in a windless environment to ensure that the airspeed value jumps within the range of 0~3 m/s.

Hold the pitot tube with your hand, blow air into the pitot tube, and check that the airspeed value can change according to the airflow speed, which means the inspection is completed.

Airspeed Calibration

The airspeed ratio of different installation positions and methods will be different, and the airspeed calibration needs to be performed on the first flight;

Set the flight controller parameter ARSPD_AUTOCAL to 1 to enable automatic calibration. Start calibration For VTOL (choose one of the following two methods):
Take off in QStabilize or QLoiter mode and convert to FBWA (self-stabilizing A mode) to control the drone to fly around 5 circles. After the ground station message bar prompts that the calibration is complete, perform landing. After the calibration is completed, set ARSPD_AUTOCAL to 0.
If you do not fly in FBWA mode, you can fly with the airspeed meter enabled but the flight controller does not depend on the airspeed but on the airspeed (ARSPD_USE=1; ARSPD_TYPE=8; do not fly in a high wind environment This operation); use Loiter mode to circle about 5 circles after takeoff, the ground station message bar prompts that after calibration is completed, perform landing, and set ARSPD_AUTOCAL to 0 after calibration is completed.

Upgrade firmware

This article mainly describes how to upgrade the firmware for the SKYE airspeed.

Before operation

Flight controller running ArduPilot firmware
DownloadDronecan GUI/Mission Planner
Connect SKYE to flight controller
Download the Skye Firmware file

Set flight controller parameters

To upgrade the SKYE airspeed through the flight controller, you need to set the following parameters in the entire parameter table of Mission plannerd ground station:

For flight controllers using STMF7XX/STMH7XX as CPU:

CAN_SLCAN_CPORT set to 1
Serial7_Protocol set to 22
Reboot the flight controller

These flight controllers will have two usb driver ports in AP4.0/AP4.0 firmware, one is the flight control mavlink output port, and the other is the slcan port; if there are no two ports, please uninstall the driver and reinstall it.

For flight controllers using STMF4xx as CPU:

CAN_SLCAN_CPORT set to 1
CAN_SLCAN_TIMEOUT set to 130000
CAN_SLCAN_SERNUM set to 0
Please do not reboot the flight controller until the upgrade is complete

STM32F4 does not support dual virtual USB ports, so the version of the flight controller below FMU v5 (not included) can only be used for SLCAN by closing MAVlink transmission; after the above settings, USB will stop outputting mavlink data and convert it to SCLAN port; MAVlink will be restored after restarting transmission.

Method one：

Firmware upgrade using Mission planner

Select the device port corresponding to slcan.
Click “slcan mode CAN1” on the UAVCAN interface.
Click “Update”, select NO in the pop-up prompt box (yes is to select online firmware; No select local firmware)
Select firmware file