Advice For Project !! (Urgent Please)

Hi everyone ,
I'm currently in my forth year in Electronic Eng and I'm planning to build
a Quadcopter from scratch for my final year project . The quadcopter that I'm planning to build should be able to be control be Local control (RC transmitter) and Global control ( GPS for autonomous flight). I'm also planning to attach a camera with it for video transmission to a laptop . The problem is that it is the first time i'm working with UAV and I have no idea where to start .

I have done some research online , and I saw that there is an arduino board (arduflyer) which can be use as microcontroller for the rotors.

An example of the drone I want to build is like in that video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYCE-dXpNys

But I don't know how to got there !! LOL
And i don't know the exact cost , my Budget is $500. Do you think its possible ??

Don't hesitate to leave me your idead and suggestion , really need your help !! [IMG]
If someone can tell me a list of parts to buy and step to achieve my goal...

Thanks for taking time to read
love u all peeps [IMG] [IMG]

Hi Yann,

A $500.00 budget is certainly doable to put together a Quadcopter.

For a quadcopter with full autonomous (GPS) navigation capability the budget is very tight and you really need to consider kicking the budget up to $700.00 or so and it will still demand careful purchasing.

One of the things you need to define is exactly what parts of this project you feel it is important to build from scratch.

Clearly you will purchase existing brushless motors and ESCs (speed controls) as well as LiPo batteries, RC transmitter and receiver.

These parts are mandatory and absolutely not practical for your own "construction".

The 2 parts you can consider constructing yourself are the frame and the flight control board.

However, I would suggest that you get a kit for the frame (They are cheaper and better than anything you could build).

I would suggest you consider the extremely well made Talon V2 quadcopter frame kit from Hobbyking.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__36510__Turnigy_Talon_Qua...

Or alternatively you can construct an individualized frame from their Rotorbits frame parts:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__1247__501__Multi_Rotors_...

and, of course the Hoverthings FLIP FPV Pro G frame shown in the video you have above is a truly excellent choice:

http://www.hoverthings.com/frame-sets/flip-fpv-pro-g-black-gimbal-v...

I would recommend you get the G version because you will eventually want to use a gimbal.

I have one myself and it is a superb frame, here is another build article for it on my site:

http://quadcoptersarefun.com/2FlipsBuild.html#FlipFPVProBuild

And I would also suggest you get a pre-made flight controller board (autopilot).

I know you are an electronic engineering major, but modern flight controllers are so complex (especially their firmware) that you would be lucky to make a home made one flyable at all by the end of the school year let alone performing complex GPS based navigation maneuvers.

You would totally drive yourself nuts and not be at all likely to end with a good result.

You would be much more likely to be successful if you purchase an off the shelf flight controller and perhaps add some programming to it yourself (learning how to do that is in itself a very significant undertaking) to perform some unique tasks of your own devising.

There are several potential controller boards to choose from but the reality is the one that you really need is the Pixhawk from 3DRobotics.

http://store.3drobotics.com/products/3dr-pixhawk

There are slightly cheaper "clones" available, but they can be way more trouble in their (small) incompatibilities than they are worth.

For a school project you really need the real thing and even though it is $280.00 with GPS it will do everything you need and you won't have to spend your entire last year just trying to get it to work.

Virtual Robotix does have some equivalent boards which are also very reliable, but they are the only other ones I would consider.

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/

Raspberry Pi does have some projects and IMU boards but they and their current programming are very primitive in comparison to the boards I have recommended.

Your RC transmitter and receiver will need to be PPM-Sum compatible to work with a Pixhawk flight controller and the FRSky Taranis is the best value you can get that will do this:

http://www.frsky-rc.com/ad/List.html

I would recommend that in addition to DIYDrones and 3DR and the APMCopter Wiki:

http://copter.ardupilot.com/

You also take a look at my Quadcopters Are Fun website to get a better idea of what is involved.

http://quadcoptersarefun.com/index.html

You can also feel free to write to me at gary@dronesarefun.com and I will help as I can.

Best Regards,

Gary

Replies

Gary McCray August 24, 2014 at 10:50am

Hi Yann,

A $500.00 budget is certainly doable to put together a Quadcopter.

For a quadcopter with full autonomous (GPS) navigation capability the budget is very tight and you really need to consider kicking the budget up to $700.00 or so and it will still demand careful purchasing.

One of the things you need to define is exactly what parts of this project you feel it is important to build from scratch.

Clearly you will purchase existing brushless motors and ESCs (speed controls) as well as LiPo batteries, RC transmitter and receiver.

These parts are mandatory and absolutely not practical for your own "construction".

The 2 parts you can consider constructing yourself are the frame and the flight control board.

However, I would suggest that you get a kit for the frame (They are cheaper and better than anything you could build).

I would suggest you consider the extremely well made Talon V2 quadcopter frame kit from Hobbyking.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__36510__Turnigy_Talon_Qua...

Or alternatively you can construct an individualized frame from their Rotorbits frame parts:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__1247__501__Multi_Rotors_...

and, of course the Hoverthings FLIP FPV Pro G frame shown in the video you have above is a truly excellent choice:

http://www.hoverthings.com/frame-sets/flip-fpv-pro-g-black-gimbal-v...

I would recommend you get the G version because you will eventually want to use a gimbal.

I have one myself and it is a superb frame, here is another build article for it on my site:

http://quadcoptersarefun.com/2FlipsBuild.html#FlipFPVProBuild

And I would also suggest you get a pre-made flight controller board (autopilot).

I know you are an electronic engineering major, but modern flight controllers are so complex (especially their firmware) that you would be lucky to make a home made one flyable at all by the end of the school year let alone performing complex GPS based navigation maneuvers.

You would totally drive yourself nuts and not be at all likely to end with a good result.

You would be much more likely to be successful if you purchase an off the shelf flight controller and perhaps add some programming to it yourself (learning how to do that is in itself a very significant undertaking) to perform some unique tasks of your own devising.

There are several potential controller boards to choose from but the reality is the one that you really need is the Pixhawk from 3DRobotics.

http://store.3drobotics.com/products/3dr-pixhawk

There are slightly cheaper "clones" available, but they can be way more trouble in their (small) incompatibilities than they are worth.

For a school project you really need the real thing and even though it is $280.00 with GPS it will do everything you need and you won't have to spend your entire last year just trying to get it to work.

Virtual Robotix does have some equivalent boards which are also very reliable, but they are the only other ones I would consider.

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/

Raspberry Pi does have some projects and IMU boards but they and their current programming are very primitive in comparison to the boards I have recommended.

Your RC transmitter and receiver will need to be PPM-Sum compatible to work with a Pixhawk flight controller and the FRSky Taranis is the best value you can get that will do this:

http://www.frsky-rc.com/ad/List.html

I would recommend that in addition to DIYDrones and 3DR and the APMCopter Wiki:

http://copter.ardupilot.com/

You also take a look at my Quadcopters Are Fun website to get a better idea of what is involved.

http://quadcoptersarefun.com/index.html

You can also feel free to write to me at gary@dronesarefun.com and I will help as I can.

Best Regards,

Gary
- Yann Grandcourt > Gary McCray August 24, 2014 at 10:57am
  
  hi Gary ,
  
  I send you a mail lately.
  
  Some friends on another forum are advising me to buy this module
  
  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__26588__multiwii_pro_flig...
  
  What's your opinion ???
  - Gary McCray > Yann Grandcourt August 24, 2014 at 11:22am
    
    Hi Yann,
    
    Multiwii is actually a valid flight controller choice and if cost is an over riding consideration it probably would allow you to get your project done for less than $500.00.
    
    It is not as capable as the Pixhawk and you will probably need to work harder to get it to do what you want, but it can work well within it's limitations.
    
    It will also work with a conventional PWM based radio control receiver which means almost any 5 channel or more transmitter and receiver will work with it.
    
    There are some older "APM" clones which could work well also but are not as capable as the Pixhawk:
    
    http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__56052__HKPilot_Mega_2_7_...
    
    I believe this particular APM clone has been shown to work reliably but I would be careful of others and definitely do not get a Pixhawk clone.
    
    Best Regards,
    
    Gary

This reply was deleted.

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