Q-PCM / Radio

Hey Guys,
I'm a High school student working on a UAV with a couple of my buddies. We've got a ultrastick platform that has flown well for us, we've got a 26cc gas engine with the ugliest cowl you've ever seen and a velocity stack turned ram air. We're using an electronic ignition.

I am using the VEX controller to do the computations for stabilization on the aircraft, it's cheap and easy to use and light weight, it also doesn't use much battery and can power, all of our servos, receivers and the ignition.

Now that you know the basis of what i'm doing here's my problem

currently i'm trying to use a Hitech receiver with Q-PCM to switch between an autonomous mode and a user controlled mode. However I discovered that PCM isn't the most fun to decode and i was wondering if anyone knows where i can get a decoder for it.

OR

do you guys typically use your own radio setup that allows for an easier switch between auto and user?

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated. The cheaper the better :) we're working on a shoe string budget.

if you want to see the final goal for our UAV check out the AUVSI website, we're entering into the UAS competition

Thanks for any help!

Tags: HELP!, Highschool, PCM, Q-PCM, Quick, Radio, UAV

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 1, 2008 at 8:52pm
Here's a post on what we use to switch control from user to auto. Doing it on a separate board like that is the safe way, but if you want to save money (and can accept the possible loss of the plane), it's pretty easy to read the PCM with a Basic Stamp or Arduino. That's what we do with GeoCrawler3 (all the code is there).

I think your problem is the Vex controller, which really isn't optimized for this sort of real time pin-level hardware control. Have you thought about switching to an embedded processor? Cheaper, lighter, better, etc...
Permalink Reply by Barrett Ames on April 1, 2008 at 9:06pm
our vex controller was free, so can't get much cheaper.

but thanks for the tip I'll look into it and see if we can afford it.

Any recommendations on embedded processors, preferably something that I can program in C?

That's the other advantage we saw with VEX is that we have lots of experience programming it.

O and the link to the post? I didn't see it. // edit mmmmm gotta make those links darker, but i got the post link thanks.

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 1, 2008 at 9:17pm
I'd go with the Arduino. C-like programming and about as cheap as a processor board can get ($17 for a dev board with CPU). Cheap and DIY here. More polished here.

And let me see if I can change those link colors!
Permalink Reply by Barrett Ames on April 1, 2008 at 9:22pm
I've had diydrones book marked for close to half a year, idk why i never asked any questions before hand on here.

Thanks for all the great help. I think i will go with the FMA co-pilot and just over ride it with whatever processor we do end up using.

O and I found out about you guys from the business journal or something like that. My bro sent me the clippings because he knew I was just starting and boy am i glad he sent me that.

Next challenge GPS! This time i'll search the forums for the answers, i'm sure I can find it.

Thanks for all the help!

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