DIY Drones

Latest Activity

yeah weight is what worried me, and I was a little concerned about interference.... Ok so what if I only had a small camera on the front. Not one of them fancy pan-tilt FPV things. Just something to see where I'm going. It might solve the weight pro…
2 minutes ago
zhou added a discussion
I am a layman, for micro-UAVs might be interested in the hope that used for aerial photography. I have several questions ask: (1) For Draganflyer X4,This UAV can do DIY? (2) where the production of such UAVs do have friends? (3) If the DIY drone, ab…
56 minutes ago
Excellent discussion ! I don't know about aerodynamics so I am learning via this discussion. I hope it also gives the programmers some insight as to how to program for different aircraft. I have an EZ* and an Apprentice 15 as well as an EZ Cub. I wa…
1 hour ago
How does the RPM change when I am paralleling the packs? The voltage will remain 11.1V (3S)
1 hour ago
Natalius Kiedro added a discussion
Hi all,   well, from my old-fashioned opinion there is currently too much discussion about the best way to do AHRS in this forum. Kalman versus other approaches like Bill Premerlani's one. Remember that the whole DIYDRONE story started with the Papa…
1 hour ago
Here is a link to the prototype wood one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rp181/4446812554/sizes/l/ On top is a 15" ruler. I cut the grooves for the ESC's, but I think I am keeping it open for better air flow. On the left wing, you can see a arc I drew…
1 hour ago
What are you planning to use for a frame? - Roy
2 hours ago
Hey guys, I want to test out the latest changes I made before posting a revision. I got bogged down with work and family yesterday and didn't get any flying in. Today is snow. It might be a day or two....
2 hours ago
Hi Angus, I missed that it was 9DOM. However, it still has no centripetal correction, so is only suitable for low speed applications. I have the Sparkfun 9DOF Razor, which is similar, so have looked at the limitation a bit. Ryan Beall and his team…
3 hours ago
3x3 props still break off, but not as quickly as 3x2.
3 hours ago
@Wolfgang - I agree that a concise "white paper" for beginners would be beneficial. The problem is that all things surrounding ArduPilot are still changing too rapidly. Also, we have many of our beginners starting out with 3 channel (rudder, elevato…
3 hours ago
If I was in your shoes, I would go about the whole thing in phases: Phase 1: Buy an airplane (Tx + Rx as well) that can carry all of my gear and install the servos and Rx Learn to fly it (if you have not done that yet) and get comfortable to the co…
3 hours ago

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Forum

Jesse

FPV and Auto Pilot 2 Replies

Started by Jesse in Aircraft platforms. Last reply by Jesse 5 minutes ago.

zhou

for Draganflyer X4?

Started by zhou in Aerial photography 59 minutes ago.

Wolfgang Feichtner

White Paper for Ardupilot 15 Replies

Started by Wolfgang Feichtner in ArduPilot. Last reply by Earl 1 hour ago.

Ravi Gaddipati

Planned QUADROcopter UAV, please look over my setup before I buy 12 Replies

Started by Ravi Gaddipati in Newbie. Last reply by Ravi Gaddipati 1 hour ago.

Doug Weibel

ArduPilot Firmware Version 2.5.1 175 Replies

Started by Doug Weibel in ArduPilot software version 2.5.1. Last reply by Doug Weibel 3 hours ago.

Mike Mogenson

Are there IMUs that output absolute position? 6 Replies

Started by Mike Mogenson in Sensors & IMUs. Last reply by Doug Weibel 3 hours ago.

James ehwould jablome

Getting started-newbie- 39 Replies

Started by James ehwould jablome in Aerial photography. Last reply by Ahmed 3 hours ago.

Sean O'Connor

Ardustation - not displaying values 37 Replies

Started by Sean O'Connor in ArduStation. Last reply by johnny klinner 4 hours ago.

Daniel Nugent

Power Supply 4 Replies

Started by Daniel Nugent in Autopilot hardware. Last reply by James ehwould jablome 4 hours ago.

Chris Durkee

Conventions/Seminars/Meets...California? 1 Reply

Started by Chris Durkee in Events/contests. Last reply by Chris Anderson 5 hours ago.

Chris Anderson

Discussion forum for UAVDevBoard, Sparkfun's 3-axis IMU-based autopilot board 594 Replies

Started by Chris Anderson in UAV Dev Board. Last reply by Riccardo Kuebler 15 hours ago.

Emma Chen

The Feeling of Flying

Started by Emma Chen in Aircraft platforms 22 hours ago.

Nesh G

A basic quadrotor ?? 3 Replies

Started by Nesh G in Quadcopters. Last reply by Nesh G 1 day ago.

Scott Lencl

How does ArduIMU and IMU in general work? 16 Replies

Started by Scott Lencl in ArduPilot. Last reply by Scott Lencl 1 day ago.

Ranger B

UAV on the cheap 3 Replies

Started by Ranger B in ArduPilot. Last reply by Sgt Ric 1 day ago.

Will Coffey

Lack of Serial Ports 4 Replies

Started by Will Coffey in Autopilot hardware. Last reply by Will Coffey 1 day ago.

William Premerlani

Wind estimation without an airspeed sensor 30 Replies

Started by William Premerlani in UAV Dev Board. Last reply by Jose Julio 1 day ago.

Jamie Ahmed

Kalman Filtering code for ArduIMU (flat) 41 Replies

Started by Jamie Ahmed in ArduIMU. Last reply by Jamie Ahmed 1 day ago.

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Welcome!

This is a site for all things about amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): How-to's, videos, discussion and more (you can read more about us here). Please use the tabs above to navigate the site.

These are our Arduino-based open source autopilot projects:
* ArduPilot, a very low-cost (the basic board is just $24.95!) autopilot
* BlimpDuino, an autonomous blimp with both infrared and ultrasonic guidance

Other UAV/autopilot projects and code, by processor and OS type, are here.
Earlier DIY Drones projects, including Lego and cellphone autopilots, are here

FAQs:
* I'm new to all this--where do I start?
* Are amateur UAVs legal?
* Can you explain how IMUs using gyros and accelerometers work? Do I need both?
* I'm confused by all these terms! Is there a glossary? (yes!)

You can find a list of external UAV resources, including commercial UAVs and other open source UAV projects and code here.

Follow DIY Drones on Twitter

Contests

The fifth round of the DIY Drones Trust Time Trial (T3) Contest has now begun. This round is a "virtual Sparkfun competition". Deadline is March 14th. Enter here.

Blog Posts

Tom Hastie

Maiden Ardu-Flight for me

It was my first flight with an Ardu-anything today. Working towards getting an ArduIMU/ArduPilot working.



So far it was just a data logging flight. I had a GPS and ArduIMU installed in my Stevens Aero Edge 540 along with an OpenLog from Sparkfun.



After downl

Continue

Posted by Tom Hastie on March 19, 2010 at 1:21pm — 3 Comments

Jack Crossfire

This week in aerospace

PROP ADAPTOR TERRORISM, INDUCTOR INSANITY, THERMOPILE TERRORISM, WHAT SLOW
ATTITUDE ESTIMATES MEAN, LAST WEEK'S VIDEO FLIGHT

PROP ADAPTOR TERRORISM

These aluminum GWS prop adaptors are ridiculous. Lately they started stripping before getting anywhere near the required tension. Down to threadlock on plastic again.

Continue

Posted by Jack Crossfire on March 19, 2010 at 11:18am — 2 Comments

Jeff

USB DSM2 Transmitter for my Blade MSR helicopter




Today i flew my Blade MSR using a joystick, my PC, and the 2.4ghz LP4DSM transmitter which used to be in the tx controller. The serial protocol is best documented here, but in

Continue

Posted by Jeff on March 18, 2010 at 6:17pm — 3 Comments

Gary Mortimer

Interesting

Airservices Australia has taken the extraordinary step of banning model airplanes from entering Canberra airspace during next week’s planned visit of President Obama,
Continue

Posted by Gary Mortimer on March 18, 2010 at 3:00pm — 12 Comments

Philip Giacalone

Introduction and UDB mode switching question

Hello,

I've been silently following the progress of the UAV Dev Board team for a while now, and want to congratulate Bill Premerlani and his great team for their amazing accomplishments.

This is my first posting, so please let me introduce myself. I'm relatively new to RC flying, and have very little experience with micro programming, but do have some background in aerospace and software engineering. Anyway, after crashing a few planes, it's exciting to see that such a capable and inexpensive… Continue

Posted by Philip Giacalone on March 18, 2010 at 2:28am — 14 Comments

Chris Anderson

Voice controlled heli UAV




From BotJunkie:



"This little helicopter is able to understand you when you tell it what to do. No pushing buttons, no using specContinue

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 17, 2010 at 9:42pm — 8 Comments

Jose Julio

ArduPilot Mega sensor shield testing report

Continue

Posted by Jose Julio on March 17, 2010 at 10:30am — 17 Comments

Alex Arevalo

Is this Epson 6-axis sensor useful for DIY drones?


http://www.epsontoyocom.co.jp/english/info/2010/0223.html



It's intended for game machines but it comprises 3-axis gyros,


and 3-axis accelerometers. It's tiny: 0.4 x 0.3 x 0.15in. (10 x 8 x 3.8mm),



Continue

Posted by Alex Arevalo on March 17, 2010 at 9:21am — 5 Comments

David Ankers

A public thank you to Caleb from CH Robotics




As some people might know there is a team hard at work on OpenPilot and we are making some progress, like every complex project things don't go as fast as you like but progress is happening. One of the things we are working on now is the low level infrastructure for the AHRS, this makes

Continue

Posted by David Ankers on March 16, 2010 at 9:30pm — 9 Comments

Irfan Mohamed

A small blog tracking our progress...

Just in case anyone wants to see what me and a college buddy have been doing, pretty amateur compared to this site's standards (I promise it will get better ;)

http://uavproject.wordpress.com

Any help or advice/feedback would be appreciated :)

Posted by Irfan Mohamed on March 16, 2010 at 1:14pm — 1 Comment

Earl

Lab View Ground Station time lag cut to less than 1/2 second.

GSmphFT.vivideo_2010-03-16_00.07.44.m4v

After playing with lab view and the ArduPilot with the ArduIMU I have finally managed to get the time lag from the plane to the displayed… Continue

Posted by Earl on March 16, 2010 at 12:00am — 10 Comments

Jonathan Lussier

Great Article on how 'robots think' (or more accurately, how robots SEE)

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/03/how-robots-think.ars/


Good 5-page article on algorithms, sensors and platforms used in modern robotics.

Posted by Jonathan Lussier on March 15, 2010 at 11:48pm — 1 Comment

Robert Godlewski

UAV flying in/around New York City?

Hey guys, this is my first post here on DIYDrones (I've been reading this site for a few months now, just not posting anything until now).

I'm in New York City (Brooklyn to be exact) and I'm really interested in building and flying a UAV. However, I'm wondering whether it's a good idea, or rather if it's even possible to fly an RC plane here. Obviously I'm not planning on flying around skyscrapers or anything, I just want to fly something and take a few camera shots or videos.
Continue

Posted by Robert Godlewski on March 15, 2010 at 7:51pm — 10 Comments

Robert White

Inexpensive Online Machine Shop

Have you asked yourself "It would be great if I could get this part, but smaller" or "i could use this but it needs extra flanges or tubes or whatever" then you're in luck



http://www.emachineshop.com/



check it out - you get instant part price quoting from the ***FREE*** CAD software program



A little patience goes a long way!

Posted by Robert White on March 15, 2010 at 10:05am — 5 Comments

Mark Colwell

Air Force Academy had to wait for full COA, how can our best minds learn when they can't test fly?

This would work for me..



Verbal Approval/Waiver Authority, pending through review of applications



Posted by Mark Colwell on March 15, 2010 at 9:30am — 25 Comments

William Cox

March Robot Giveaway to Celebrate GoRobotics’ 10th Birthday





Leading up to the 10th anniversary of my robotics blog, GoRobotics.net, I'm doing a series of robot prize giveaways. This month's giveaway features $250 worth of prizes from our sponsors… Continue

Posted by William Cox on March 15, 2010 at 7:41am

Francesco Ferrara

Ardupilot as OSD WITHOUT additional hardware (NO LM1881)

BaroneOSD is a PAL video overlay impression WITHOUT additional hardware required (NO LM1881 Sync generator).


Use only 3 pin:


D1 (USART TX) used to pump pixel in the video connected with a 330Ohm resistor to D6


D6 (AIN0) Video in/out, connect here you camera or radio TX.


D7 (AIN1) 0.3V Voltage reference (you can use a partitor resistor)



http://www.elenafrancesco.org/arduino/




Continue

Posted by Francesco Ferrara on March 15, 2010 at 2:30am — 22 Comments

automatik

What's your screen resolution? - help GCS desing

In order to properly size displays for the ArduPilot GCS it would help to know what screen resolution everyone uses - in the field on their GCS computer (laptop)

640x480
800x600
854x480
960x1200
1024x640
1024x768
1152x864
1280x720
1280x768
1280x800
1280x960
1280x1024
1360x768
1366x768
1400x1050
1440x900
1600x900
1600x1000
1600x1024
1600x1200
1600x1280
1680x1050
1792x1344
1856x1392
1920x1080… Continue

Posted by automatik on March 15, 2010 at 1:00am — 33 Comments

Chris Anderson

March 14 flight report: testing ArduPilot 2.5 RC 2 code


Jason Short and I had great day of testing and improving code (and putting in a pretty good T3 contest time!). Once again we were at the RC club in Point Richmond, across the Bay from San Francisco. Jason was just back from a skiing vacation where he tangled with

Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 14, 2010 at 10:00pm — 19 Comments

Tim Trueman

No podcast this week

We'll have http://www.projectandromeda.com.au/ on next week!

Posted by Tim Trueman on March 14, 2010 at 8:48pm — 1 Comment

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News from Flight Global

German Heron UAV damaged in ground collision

Germany's deployment of Heron 1 UAVs in Afghanistan has suffered an early setback, with one of its aircraft damaged on the ground ...

Untethered hover flight for Mule slips to mid-year

Urban Aeronautics has delayed the first untethered hover of its AirMule ducted fan propelled unmanned air vehicle until mid-year to ensure that all systems are functioning.

Boeing restarts A160 production before receiving new orders

Boeing has restarted production of its A160 Hummingbird unmanned helicopter, despite the lack of a new order for the type ...

Rafael: NATO nations interested in Recce-U sensor

Germany and the Netherlands are evaluating whether to equip their Israeli-made unmanned air vehicles in Afghanistan with Rafael's Recce-U payload: a downsized version of its Reccelite tactical reconnaissance pod

PICTURES: New Aerostar UAV makes first flight

Aeronautics Defense Systems' Aerostar-C unmanned air vehicle has performed its first series of test flights in Israel.

News from AUVSI

AUVSI Asked to Testify on Capitol Hill

The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs has scheduled a hearing entitled, “Rise of the Drones: Unmanned Systems and the Future of War.” The hearing is scheduled to take place on 23 March at 1400 in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Chairman John Tierney (D-MA) extended the invitation to AUVSI and Mike Fagan, Chair, AUVSI’s UAS Advocacy Committee will testify on behalf of AUVSI. The hearing will feature two panels; the first [More]

House Passes H. Res. 1055 to Designate National Robotics Week as An Annual Event

On March 9, the House of Representatives passed H. Res. 1055 by a voice vote. The resolution supports the designation of ‘National Robotics Week’ on the second week in April each year, recognizing the accomplishments of Isaac Asimov, who immigrated to America, taught science, wrote science books for children and adults, first used the term robotics, developed the Three Laws of Robotics, and died in April, 1992. H. Res. 1055 which at the time of passage had 20 cosponsors, was introduced by Representative [More]

Congressional Representatives Speak at AUVSI's Unmanned Systems Program Review 2010

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Congressional UAV Caucus Co-Chair and Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL), Chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee spoke at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems Program Review 2010 Conference in February. Mollohan said there are plenty of civilian applications for unmanned aircraft. "Law enforcement needs them … homeland security and the Coast Guard need them … the Forest Service needs them, FEMA needs them … in the civilian world, we see not just potential for UAVs, but real demand [More]

FAA Announces New UAPO Manager

Inspector Richard J. Prosek was recently announced as the new manager of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Program Office, Unmanned Aircraft Safety Branch, AFS-407. With thirty-four years of aviation safety experience serving in the military, airlines and FAA, Rick is well suited for the challenges ahead. As a retired Air Force Brigadier General, Rick served as the Commander, District of Columbia Air National Guard and he also commanded an F-16 Expeditionary Fighter Squadron during Operation Northern [More]

Standards Development for FAA Regulations

The FAA announced they will be creating a Special Federal Aviation Regulation that will provide a systematic approach for regular access to parts of the NAS for small UAS (sUAS). To support the development of this regulation, the FAA recently announced that they have selected ASTM International and SAE International as the standards development organizations that will develop the sUAS standards. ASTM International’s Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems will be kicking off their effort during [More]
 

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