Discussions

Howdy,

I’m working on my third VTOL control arrangement (images below). The first two didn’t go so well:). Using off the shelf ‘damping’ gyros (E-flight G90 for yaw and Futaba GYA352 for pitch/roll) mixed together through Parallax Propeller boards I can just about fly this. I can hold it airborne in ground effect in my living room for about a minute. It should be a lot easier outside with low wind.  My next step is to add 1 or 2 Hitachi H48C 3-Axis Accelerometers and maybe a LISY300 Gyroscope to determine and hold absolute pitch/roll orientation. If I can get that to work I’ll try to pull the G90 and GYA352. Finally add wings and a pivot mechanism then go fly.

Instead of a hodgepodge set of accelerometers I started to looking at off the shelf IMUs and landed here. A couple of questions:

• Does anyone think the ArduPilot Mega is capable is replacing my Parallax Propeller Board with this type of VTOL configuration? Keep in mind for the most basic case I have 4 channels in and 8 PWM mixed out.
• Anyone heard of someone interfacing the IMU “Shield” bit of the ArduPilot with a Propeller? Just in case the microcontroller bit makes me angry.

mVTOL_V3 – Current configuration. Using (4) Turnigy C5055-600 each with independent servo and (2) 5Ah 6s1p batteries.

mVTOL_V2 – Variable pitch motor for pitch was problematic due to thrust hysteresis around center. But probably could have been solved with a bit more determination.

Please note I’m just doing this for fun. But I would like my toy finished and flying soon.