Hi,
I was looking for some help on drone building and troubleshooting and found this thread. If there is anyone who has experience with apm 2.8 and motors and esc and troubleshooting them please contact me as i need help massively. I started building a drone last year. I have been working on and off on it. The problem is that it vibrates so much and is just very unstable. I cant figure out why or what i am doing wrong. I would love some help from an experienced drone builder as i don’t know anyone who is into this hobby. Hopefully one day I would be able to help out drone builders in the future.
Thanks
He will be along shortly
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That’s a means of summoning one of the members who goes by the name of Nidge. He has an excellent knowledge of home building so may well be able to help. He should be along shortly …
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ok thanks guys. Finally help is on the way. 
Hi Hassan
I’m the one whom has been summoned.
Can you give me some details of your build please?
Info on the frame, motors props and ESC’s. Pictures if possible would be a big help.
From your description it initially sounds like you have too high values for your PIDS, coupled with vibration in the frame.
Have you tried to use the Autotune feature?
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Hi,
this is what i am working with
S500 Drone Frame, apm 2.8/pixhawk2, hobbyking Simonk 30A Esc and hobby power 2212 920KV motor
There are the photos
And let’sget the preliminaries done:
What size / type of aircraft is it
What motors and ESCs are you using and what size props.
Does it take off ok and can you control it when it’s flying
I suspect it may be parameter tuning if it is vibrating when flying, solid mounting problems if the vibration occurs immediately on startup but I have no experience of APM 2,8.
Here’s a hideously comprehensive manual to read while we wait for the grown-ups to arrive Arducopter-v03022015.pdf (37.8 MB)
Added - whoops, looks like I need to learn to type faster
Sounds like a pretty much standard setup. In fact I’ve built exactly the same setup, except my motors are DJI 2212 920Kv and the ESCs are DJI 30Amp Opto.
If you haven’t already done so I’d use a vibration dampening mount for the APM 2.8 as unlike the newer Arducopter flight controllers, such as the Cube range, there’s no internal dampening inside the plastic case.
I would start by reinstalling the firmware and standard parameter file. This will give you a good starting point. Run the ESC calibration process to rule out any timing issues.
Then I highly recommend setting up the Autotune. This really is a very useful feature. Essentially you put the quad into a hover, flick it into Autotune, and then let it do its thing. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete but at the end you should have a very stable and responsive quad.
Sorry The pics are being weird
sorry took long couldnt upload photos from the phone for some reason.
Are the Dji motors better by the way?
the props by the way are 1045 props
When u say try reinstalling the firmware what do u mean?
is that like when u select the quadcopter or stuff like that in the options in mission planner?
also the auto tune feature how do u turn it on sorry if thats a dumb question
aslo i am using a vibration dampner that came with it u know those plastic things with a top piece and a bottom piece that u can get from banggood
@Nidge
sorry took long couldnt upload photos from the phone for some reason.
Are the Dji motors better by the way?
the props by the way are 1045 props
When u say try reinstalling the firmware what do u mean?
is that like when u select the quadcopter or stuff like that in the options in mission planner?
I wouldn’t say so. In fact I’d go as far as saying they’re exactly the same as your HobbyPower motors and just have a different label on the side.
One thing I would say is if you’re using a 4Cell LiPo you really need to be using 8inch props. The motors are rated for a 10inch prop on 3cell and 8inch prop on 4Cell.
To install the firmware you go into the setup options in Mission Planner. You can select the correct comport but you do not want to connect. Select the correct frame type, in your case a regular Quad frame. The software will then check the comport to see what flight controller is connected. In the case of the APM you’ll see a message that the last update was version 3.4.
If you can give me some time I can do some screen grabs of the process, including how to setup Autotune on your TX16S.
I would share my parameter file but my flight controller is the Pixhawk which is a 32bit flight controller where as the APM 2.8 is an 8bit flight controller.
As you can our builds are nearly identical, with the only difference being the flight controller. But because I have 10inch props on mine I use a 5200mAh 3S LiPo.
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Firstly that looks beautiful. secondly i do have a pixhawk which i was planning to use for a plane. Sure the screen grabs would be great. Thanks for those. Lastly, is using a 3s better than 4s as i was aiming for more flight time. Thanks.