Conducting the First Flight

Pre-Arm Safety Check

Mission Planner has a list of pre-arm safety checks that prevent the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from arming if any issues are detected before take-off. This could include missed calibrations, improper configurations, bad sensor data, etc. The safety checks help prevent crashes and fly-aways. If necessary, the safety checks can be disabled.

Use the following guidance:

• When the LED flashes blue or green, it means the UAV can be armed. During the arming process, a low-pitch tone is emitted from the buzzer. The motors start to rotate and the UAV is ready to take off.

• When the LED flashes yellow, disarm the UAV. The failure messages are shown on the HUD. Use the displayed failure message to resolve the error. For more details on the failure messages and solutions, go to https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/safety-multicopter.html.

For more details on the LED indicators, refer to the table below.

LED Indicators

LED Indicator	Description
Flashing red and blue	Initializing sensors. Keep the UAV stationary and level while the sensors are being initialized.
Flashing blue	Disarmed with no GPS lock. Auto-mission, loiter, and return-to-launch flight modes require GPS lock.
Solid blue	Armed with no GPS lock.
Flashing green	Disarmed (but ready to arm) and GPS lock acquired. Rapid double tone when disarming from the armed state.
Flashing green rapidly	Same as above, but GPS uses Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS). The position estimation should be better.
Solid green	Single long tone during arming. When armed and GPS lock is acquired, UAV is ready to fly.
Double flashing yellow	Failed pre-arm checks (system refuses to arm).
Single flashing yellow	Radio failsafe activated.
Flashing yellow	Rapid beeping tone. Battery failsafe activated.
Flashing yellow and blue	High-high-high-low tone sequence (dah-dah-dah-doh). GPS glitch or GPS failsafe activated.
Flashing red and yellow	Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) or inertial navigation failure.
Flashing purple and yellow	Barometer glitch.
Solid Red	Error, usually due to SD card, MTD, or IMU. To resolve the issue, remove and insert the SD card. Additionally, check the SD card and analyze the boot message in the BOOT.txt file.
Solid red with SOS tone sequence	SD card missing or bad SD card.
No light when powered on	No firmware, firmware lost, SD card missing or bad format (ac3.4 or higher version).

Arming The Cube

The Cube can be armed by the following methods:

Remote controller

Hold the throttle down and keep the rudder to the right for five seconds.

Do not keep the rudder right for more than 15 seconds, as this will enable the AutoTrim feature.

Ground Control Station (GCS)

1. Connect The Cube to the GCS.

2. Open Mission Planner.

3. Click Action under the HUD.

4. Click Arm/Disarm to arm the vehicle.