Skip to content

Toolchain Long-Term Support for Flight Controller Introduction

1. Pixhawk 6C & 6C Mini

The Pixhawk 6C is the latest upgrade in Holybro's successful Pixhawk® (flight) controller series, featuring STM32H7 CPUs, IMU vibration isolation, redundant IMUs, and IMU heating functionality. It comes in two form factors. The 6C Mini has a reduced size with built-in PWM motor/servo headers, but slightly fewer ports. Its features include:

  1. High-performance STM32H743 processor, offering stronger computational capability and larger memory.
  2. A new high-cost-performance design with a compact form factor.
  3. A newly designed integrated vibration isolation system that filters high-frequency vibrations and reduces noise, ensuring accurate sensor readings.
  4. IMU temperature control via onboard heating resistors, keeping the IMU at its optimal operating temperature.

WINWORD_KmO33Ln8df

2. RflySim Configuration

If using the Pixhawk 6X flight controller hardware, the recommended software installation and configuration is shown in the figure below; the hardware connection configuration remains identical to that of the Pixhawk 2.4.8.

Pixhawk1

  • Use the px4_fmu-v6c_default compilation command.
  • Select "7": PX4 1.13.2 firmware version.
  • Select "1": WinWSL compiler.

3. Official Firmware and Restoration

Open the QGroundControl (QGC) ground station and navigate to the following interface.

image-20240123171337326

Connect the flight controller to your computer. In the pop-up interface, make the following selections and choose to flash the firmware: px4_fmu-v6c_default.px4

image-20240123171443680

Wait for the firmware flashing process to complete.

image-20240123171632687

Restore the flight controller parameters to their firmware default values.

image-20240123171743005

Set the airframe to HIL Quadcopter X, scroll to the very top, and click Apply and Restart. Wait for the restart to complete.

image-20240123172011009

image-20240123172120025

Connect the RC receiver (note the wiring sequence) and power on the remote controller. Calibrate the remote controller as shown in the figure.

image-20240123172518100

Set the flight modes as shown in the figure below.

image-20240123172705944

Under the Safety section, enable only Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation.

image-20240123172816130

4. Launch Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulation

After completing the above setup, close QGC. Run the "[Installation Directory]\Desktop\RflyTools\HITLRun.lnk" script as Administrator. In the pop-up cmd dialog, enter the flight controller's port number (e.g., 4).

image-20240123173110715

Wait until the bottom-left corner of CopterSim displays: PX4: GPS 3D fixed & EKF initialization finished.

image-20240123173206282

image-20240123173425214

Disarm the aircraft via channel CH5 on the remote controller, and then take off and control the aircraft flight.

image-20240123173546755