Mr. Coyle,
My comment was not to diss the Army. I spent the most interesting year of my Naval career as an intelligence lead with them. Didn't mean to offend you or any other Army folks. I would have done another tour there had there been the chance.

Happy holidays to you.
Julie

Mr. Coyle,
It looks like you and I have a lot in common. I too am a systems engineer, 25+ years working in companies that supported DoD...now I work at a small company that supports NASA.
I stumbled upon DIY Drones without spending a great deal of time investigating the 'Dos and Don'ts' of what the site is all about. Is this a hobbyist forum for folks who are or were RC builder/flyers or is this site focusing on trying to develop the UAV industry in areas that the General Atomics, Boeing's and DRS's of the world don't compete in?

I have been a UAV fanatic for almost 2 decades now. I worked "trying" to integrate the early Predator [back when it was still an ACTD] into the Navy with no luck and was very fortunate while in Iraq to be able to have 'control' of most of the Preds in country. I came back hoping to start a UAV company that provided full up ops to a customer - vehicle(s), control stations, operators, etc. to find that it was impossible to get bankers to understand what I wanted to do in order to get funding. I gave up and bought a kit car company instead. Now, I find DIY-D and have my interests rekindled.

I find your comments in re: ESD to be on the mark. Way back when, when Bombardier was working on what everyone called 'the Peanut', they had all sorts of issues with control. Turns out that they had ESD gremlins. Once figured out, their system worked quite well. I hope folks heed your warning.
Julie

Not yet, is full of dust, i will use it for ardupilot mega, so it will remain in the shadows until then... ;-)

Howdy Thomas. I have have done a bit more troubleshooting and narrowed it down to the transmitter board. There are clearly three black vertcal bands through the video. The easiest way to see them is to connect the camera ground wire, but not the signal wire. I have found that I need a good video display on the receiver that can lock on to the signal to see the bands. If I don't get a good lock, then it looks a bit like static (but it's not - it's a noticeable pattern). I need to take the transmitter apart and review the construction very carefully. One of the fellows at DPCAV has been helpful in guiding my troubleshooting. So, I still need to make progress on that front. Right now I've diverted to a CNC mill retrofit project since I've got a chunk of time off to try and get that running. I will certainly get back to the video transmitter though, I'm just shuffling priorities since winter has set in. And I'll be curious to hear how yours works.

Andy

Well Tom, at first i was a bit dissapointed to read that you don't own the avatar-plane, but finding out more about the MAJA, my dissapointment changed to a very happy state. This kind of plane is exactly the sort of plane i was looking for. I want to start a payed hobby in aerial photography. Vertical photo's for GIS. I will first buy a easystar to get familiar with real flying (instead of game-based) and then upgrade to a more full-load plane, like the MAJA. Do you know if it flies similar to the easystar?
Grtz Bart

Bart,

The Maja is definitely not for beginners so it is wise that you start with the EZ* like I did. The Maja is capable of heavy lifting with the right motor and battery selection and can stay in the air close to an hour at ~25% throttle. You might also want to consider the Multiplex Twin Star II which is a twin engine model capable of heavy lifting too.
Check these websites and build logs out:

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1118600&highlight=maja

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1095996&page=5

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1030786&highlight=twinstar

Regards,
TCIII

Yes, I post on Aeroquad forum and RCGroups as RoyLB

- Roy

Thanks, did you read my question regarding the Borjet Maja? I'm interested in the airframe and I believe you commented on it somewhere along with using the landing gear that they sell. Any pictures or info you could share?

Thanks,


Adam A.

Hi Thomas, noticed on another thread that you requested the PID values for the ursus that you were building, did you eve get them? Ankther uk based member is sending me his ursus pid settings and wondered if I could compare them with yours?

How did you get on with tho aircraft,
About half way through my build,

Waiting for my APM 2 to arrive!
Rich

Thanks Thomas!

Stu

Hi Tom,

I send you a message sometime ago, did you not get it?  Are you still interested in meeting?

Thanks,
Richard

Thanks Thomas,

Ive seen some of your posts on the ardurover project... I've had issues with mine but maybe we can talk about them in the future.

I would like to invite you to a site that I'm working on for Florida Maker's if interested the site is www.floridamakerspace.com it has a forum but I'm still the only person on it as of now... 

 

hey im trying to make a tank ardurover u.got any tips for wiring settings ? i havnt tried anything yet . just nt enuf.time in days.u.just power.output with sabertooth so 5vdc thru out ardupilot.and ur signal wires for s1 and s2 goto inputs. on sabertooth?

@ben,

I split the power rails on the two APM1.4s that I am using and powered the APM and the Receiver with a BEC of suitable size. I did not use the Sabertooth BEC as it is limited to 1 A and a fullup APM/Oilpan with GPS, compass, 3DR telemetry, etc can draw over 1 A. The throttle and steering from the APM output will go to the appropriate S1 and S2 connections on the Sabertooth. The skid steering works well on my 6WD rover and should be okay for a tank.

Regards,

TCIII

hey thomas.
wel just got new saber and setup exactly how u have urs. and same shit is happening. i tirm on apm unit first then reciver and wait for gps fix. tjen turnd on saber and wen i turmd off tramsmitter the saber motors.kept goin .

evverything is seperate. i cd manually turn it.off.obviously :p. btw im a electrician and i am familiar with fanuc controlers just so u know. sorta a enginneer. anyways. wen i turn off transmitter the apm sends signal and tels saber to stay on.

the thing.im afraid.of.is if i run outa battery and my robot keeps goin. i tirn off transmitter and robot turns on motors even if i stopd aswelll.

i hope u can help.somhow coz iv bn doin this non stop since xmas

no i dont have that. but.i cd get a pwm tester tomoro. wen i turn off transmitter apm waits 3 secs then sends signal to saber then saber is running motors. i pull oututs one at a time and saber continues to turn motors