AvrMiniCopter - Linux based controller project - Discussions

Hello Everyone,

I want to share a project I have been working on for the last year. It is a quadcopter controller with full Linux support (maintained using buildroot)

This means:

full networking support (Wifi, Bluetooth)
use scripting or any programming language you want
SSH, Busybox, and hundreds of other tools
compile your own additional tools
video4linux/camera (when using capable board - i.e. Odroid-W or RPi)
anything else Linux supports

The controller's features currently are:

Support for quadcopters in X configuration of any size
2 fly modes - Auto-level & Acro
Altitude hold
learner mode (attach 2 controller simultaneously - one for the teacher and one for the learner)
fast (boot time of around 2-3sec)
WWW configurable (i.e. you can adjust anything using your phone in the field)
Camera support for taking pictures and videos
Live and Offline log charting (vibrations, quaternions, altitude, etc)
Out of box bluetooth (PAN) and WIFI connectivity for receiving flight logs, accessing the file system (NFS and SSH), browsing videos and pictures
Endlessly and easily extensible

The setup is relatively simple and includes 2 boards - AVR board (like Arduino Pro Mini) and SPI capable SBC (like Odroid W or RPi) wired together using SPI.

With the software provided the setup is of plug-and-play and you can control your quadcopter using PS3 controller or via network.

See the wiki for more information.

Sources: https://github.com/rpicopter/AvrMiniCopter
Wiki: https://github.com/rpicopter/AvrMiniCopter/wiki
Precompiled images: https://github.com/rpicopter/AvrMiniCopter-images

If you passionate about linux and quadcopters than this is something you should try! :)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Gregory

Replies

- Gregory D > QuadrotorThai Tevada April 4, 2015 at 2:03am
  
  Looks good. I would not worry about slight Baro movements. You will need to test fly to see and adjust parameters. You might want to read the ArduCopter altitude hold manual. It gives good overview of what parameters should be adjusted.
QuadrotorThai Tevada April 3, 2015 at 6:26am

To day I test fly Rpicopter it look good. But I am not sure to use altitude hold.
This is photo chart for barometer. I can not use barometer.
- Gregory D > QuadrotorThai Tevada April 4, 2015 at 12:47am
  
  Have you test fly with altitude hold? Can you take a video?
- Gregory D > QuadrotorThai Tevada April 4, 2015 at 12:41am
  
  Bmp085 Barometer has a tolerance of around 30cm. From my experience this actually is usually around +/-50 cm.
  To ease barometer errors you will need to protect it from direct sunlight and wind.
  
  You can also adjust Baro constant in the WWW. Take a look at the Altitude section in the WWW. By default it is 500. The higher the less significant Baro reading is.
- Gregory D > QuadrotorThai Tevada April 3, 2015 at 2:34pm
  
  Which controller are you using, are you using PS3 connected to Android device? or PS3 over bluetooth?
  
  For android + PS3 check: https://github.com/rpicopter/AvrMiniCopter-Android/wiki/Controls
  
  For PS3 over bluetooth check: https://github.com/rpicopter/AvrMiniCopter-PS3/wiki/Controls
  - QuadrotorThai Tevada > Gregory D April 3, 2015 at 4:51pm
    
    I use PS3 over bluetooth. I understand to use button. But I am not sure to use altitude hold mode because barometer have altitude overshoot more.
QuadrotorThai Tevada March 29, 2015 at 5:48pm

Do you use raspberry pi for controll altitude hold mode?
- Gregory D > QuadrotorThai Tevada March 30, 2015 at 12:04am
  
  You do not have to use barometer. You can use any other altitude estimation. Using arduino means we would need to write all the different drivers. In this case you might want to look into MultiWii.
  AvrMiniCopter vision is to be a minimalistic controller that can be wiried with other devices like RPi. On RPi you can use kernel modules to read barometer, gps or any other devices.
- Gregory D > QuadrotorThai Tevada March 29, 2015 at 11:09pm
  
  Yes and no. Rpi reads altitude and passes it over to avr for processing.
  - QuadrotorThai Tevada > Gregory D March 29, 2015 at 11:12pm
    
    Why you don't use arduino reads barometer?

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