Pixhawk arming/disarming sound

[Randy Mackay]

 

     Some users have complained that the Pixhawk is noisy especially on the bench.  There’s nothing we can do about the volume of the tone-alarm but in master I’ve disabled GPS glitch protection tone (Bethoven’s 5^th) when the copter is connected via USB which should help a bit.

 

     The other idea was to shorten the arming sound which is quite long and stern.   http://planner.ardupilot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/06/Armed.wav

     I was thinking of changing it to be like the APM2 which is just two short beeps for arming, one short beep for disarming.  Click on attached to hear the arming done followed a few seconds by the disarm tone.

 

     Are people happy with this?

     By the way, the tunes in the tone alarm are very easy to customise.  See instructions at the top of this file: https://github.com/diydrones/PX4Firmware/blob/master/src/drivers/stm32/tone_alarm/tone_alarm.cpp#L49

 

-Randy

 

P.S. you can hear all the pixhawk sounds on this wiki page:  http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-apm-board-leds/#PixhawkPX4_Sounds

 

[Peter Plischka]

Hi Randy,

the short version is fine.

I have a 50k potentiometer soldered into the line of the beeper.
When I fly in the vicinity of the house I can make the sound quieter.
When I fly farther away I can adjust it louder.


Peter

[Craig Elder]

Both are good ideas. We'll just need to update the documentation when we make the next release.

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[Holger Steinhaus]

Disabling the some sounds when connected by USB is a great idea. I found out that there are variations in the actual volume of the piezo speaker - one of mine is so loud that there are after-effects in my ear when I am closer than 1 meter to the copter. My hotfix was to tape some tissue over the opening...

The original arming sound is very intuitive in my opinion. It would be even better if there would be the sound first, then a short delay (chance to get the fingers clear of the props) and finally the real spin-up. So the sound would be an additional safety feature.

Holger

[Randy Mackay]

Holger,

 

     Thanks for the feedback.   Ok, so you like the original sound so I’ll hold off on changing it to the APM2 double-beep sound then.

 

     I plan to make it so that the arming tone happens at the beginning of the arming process instead of the end so hopefully that will help.

 

-Randy

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[Meier Lorenz]

It is on the PX4 native stack early enough to allow you to clear the copter. Saved my fingers once in the field. Its timed so that you have enough response time to disarm or at least clear the props if you respond immediately.

In general arming is a very relevant mode change and if the system is powered from the battery I don’t see any reason to remove it or make it any less obvious. For the same reason that every car should have a seatbelt, no matter if people like them or not - they always do *after* having been saved by one.

We will for sure introduce volume control in the next revision.

-Lorenz

On 12 Feb 2014, at 03:09, Randy Mackay <rmac...@yahoo.com<mailto:rmac...@yahoo.com>> wrote:

Holger,

Thanks for the feedback. Ok, so you like the original sound so I’ll hold off on changing it to the APM2 double-beep sound then.

I plan to make it so that the arming tone happens at the beginning of the arming process instead of the end so hopefully that will help.

-Randy

From: drones-...@googlegroups.com<mailto:drones-...@googlegroups.com> [mailto:drones-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Holger Steinhaus
Sent: February 12, 2014 6:43 AM
To: drones-...@googlegroups.com<mailto:drones-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [drones-discuss] Re: Pixhawk arming/disarming sound

Disabling the some sounds when connected by USB is a great idea. I found out that there are variations in the actual volume of the piezo speaker - one of mine is so loud that there are after-effects in my ear when I am closer than 1 meter to the copter. My hotfix was to tape some tissue over the opening...

The original arming sound is very intuitive in my opinion. It would be even better if there would be the sound first, then a short delay (chance to get the fingers clear of the props) and finally the real spin-up. So the sound would be an additional safety feature.

Holger

On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 8:24:58 AM UTC+1, Randy Mackay wrote:

Some users have complained that the Pixhawk is noisy especially on the bench. There’s nothing we can do about the volume of the tone-alarm but in master I’ve disabled GPS glitch protection tone (Bethoven’s 5th) when the copter is connected via USB which should help a bit.

The other idea was to shorten the arming sound which is quite long and stern. http://planner.ardupilot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/06/Armed.wav
I was thinking of changing it to be like the APM2 which is just two short beeps for arming, one short beep for disarming. Click on attached to hear the arming done followed a few seconds by the disarm tone.

Are people happy with this?
By the way, the tunes in the tone alarm are very easy to customise. See instructions at the top of this file:https://github.com/diydrones/PX4Firmware/blob/master/src/drivers/stm32/tone_alarm/tone_alarm.cpp#L49

-Randy

P.S. you can hear all the pixhawk sounds on this wiki page: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-apm-board-leds/#PixhawkPX4_Sounds

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[Robert Lefebvre]

I think the problem with the sounds that is leading to all the complaints, is that the sounds are very loud when not flying.  So, it's annoying on the bench as was said, and are of limited usefulness on the bench.  Meanwhile, the sounds are too quiet to hear in flight.  I think the usefulness there will be limited to smaller machines and/or closer flying.

If you can institute volume control, is it possible to automatically switch between high and low volume depending on whether or not the motors are running?  That would make some sense.  Or at least change the volume based on whether or not it's armed.

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[Peter Plischka]

> Or at least change the volume based on whether or not it's armed.

Good idea, Robert.
1 +

I have problems with my home residents.
They always hear a Beep from the basement :)

Peter

[Jonathan Challinger]

It should make a sound like a turbine spinning up, then arm the motors :)

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[Robert Lefebvre]

No, horror movie screams! :)

[Craig Elder]

+1!

[Gary McCray]

+1 if you can get that tiny little speaker to do that it would be perfect and leave no doubt.

[jdennings]

I realize this goes beyond this particular issue, but besides volume control, one possible future great feature would be to allow for  .wav files (a bit like the Taranis radio), which  would allow for actual voice descriptions (possibly selectable via mission planner).