Hello!
I just discovered the world of UAV’s few weeks ago and got really intrigued by the idea. Found DIYDrones and thought this would probably be the best place for a newbie such as myself to start out, since there seems to be good documentation and active community, both important if/when I get stuck somewhere along the road :)
Have been reading hours on the subject now and am starting to feel confident enough to soon order my own Arducopter. There are few questions I would still like to know though, so if anyone can answer even part of these, it would be greatly appreciated!
1. What is the flight time of stock Arducopter with typical battery (what is the typical battery, is there any reason not to get the battery with most capacity)?
2. How does Arducopter let user know of low battery?
3. What is the practical max altitude and what is causing it (heavy wind, radio range etc)?
4. What is the recommended camera mount for Arducopter (GoPro)? Couldn’t find any from DIYstore/JDrones. Would you recommend stabilization?
5. If I get a stabilized camera mount, can I also control it manually during flight, if needed?
6. Does APM/Arducopter automatically adjust to weight added (payload) that is not right on the center of the copter, or do I have to fiddle with settings?
7. With wireless telemetry, can I give Arducopter all the commands that I can with RC controller? Can I command it to auto takeoff, fly somewhere and auto land - everything “on-the-fly” ie. not preplanned before the flight?
8. I noticed theres some options on JDrones Arducopter page (http://store.jdrones.com/product_p/ackit1.htm). I assume the bigger motor drains the battery faster, but offers more payload and maybe speed/power? What propeller size and ESC should I get?
9. I’m a little bit confused about all the different software versions: Ardupilot Mega news (https://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/News) page states that APM 2.24 is released, yet I only see 1.02 on downloads page (there is “APM2.24 + Remzibi.zip” but I’m not sure what it is). As I understand, the Mission Planner can update the Ardupilot software - does it automatically always download the latest APM version, or do I have to provide it with a file?
10. The Arducopter project page (https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/) also has downloads available. What are these and what do I do with them (Arducopter_2.0.42 seems to be the latest at the moment)? I was under the impression that APM=software, Arducopter=hardware.
11. What is this Ardupirates and Ardupirates NG I keep stumbling upon? I read this announcement (http://diydrones.ning.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter-ng-taken-over-by) and got more confused. "NG" branch as ArduCopter RC2? Arducopter team moving on to the next version (code named ArduCopter Mega)? Is this even something I should think about?
Thanks in advance, and sorry for having such a long list! :)
Replies
Ok, here goes the rest:
2) When Arducopter knows that battery is running out, will it let the user know too, or will I need an additional battery alarm for that? Seems like a mandatory function unless I want my copter to crash?
4) Jani, that's great to know. I'll hold on to my order until you have the mount available.
One more question: what is the recommended temperature to fly Arducopter? It's going to be winter soon (with snow), and I would like to fly this thing as long as possible before that.
Thanks!
John, I can give more information too.
1) What we have measured here at jDrones. Basic ArduCopter quad with 3S 2200mAh gives 12 mins of flight time. This was measured in small winds hovering/flying around the pilot. Flying weight was 1008gr including battery. Same quad with extra 600gr of payload and flying time was 6:10 mins
4) Specific camera mounts for original ArduCopter kits will be available in week or so, starting from jDrones. There will be at least 2 different type mounts. One that is for more generic pocket cameras and one that is especially for GoPro
This is one quick test video done with GoPro specific mount. On this video we had some really cheap plastic servos so there are minor jittering. No any dampening was used to make this test. Flying platform is jDrones default hexa with smaller motors.
On this video we just tested how fast video csn react on rough pitch/roll moves and especially on pitch it keeps horizont leveled really nice.
Mount has direct drive on pitch and rod drive on roll, it has precision ball bearings, 2 axis compensation coming from APM it self and really compact design. Weight of the prototype used in this video is 75gr including servos and all mounting plates.
Mounts can be mounted to all original ArduCopter frames eg. Quad and Hexa. In future to Tri too.
8) Hover current for ArduCopter quad is 12.3Amp with smaller motors eg 3.08Amp per motor. With bigger motors current is 15.2 eg 3.8Amp per motor. And we are working to make it even better
With smaller motors you can have payload of 500-700gr easily and still have rather nice flight times.
Hexas have naturally even higher hover currents but then again with hexa you can lift easily 1-1.5kg
Naturally these figures only applies on ArduCopters that are originating from jDrones.
1) With a 2600mah battery, you should get around 15 minutes. You can use larger batteries for more time but at some point you hit diminishing returns with weight.
2) It has as onboard voltage sensor. You can also add a current sensor for more precise measurement.
3) In most countries you are not allowed to fly over 400ft by federal regulations. ArduCopter can of course fly much higher than that, we just don't encourage it.
4) There are many different kind of camera mounts. For small FPV cameras, the DIY Drones store sells one. For larger (GoPro and larger) instructions are here.
5) yes
6) Within limits, yes. But as with any aircraft, you should try to maintain a proper CoG.
7) Yes. Please see the Mission Planner part of the manual
8) Yes. The 10" is fine for smaller cameras, including the GoPro. The 12" is for larger cameras.
9) I think you're confusing the airplane and the copter projects. The ArduCopter manual is here. The ArduPlane manual is here. ArduPilotMega is the name of the autopilot hardware they both use (we've been trying to clean up this terminology, but you may see some old references to APM as the plane software, too. That's now ArduPlane. I'm not sure where you're looking but the latest ArduPlane software in the downloads section is 2.24. The latest ArduCopter software is 2.042.
But to be clear, you should not have to download or use any of that software (that's just for developers). The Mission Planner will load all the firmware for you and ask you if you want planes, copters etc.
10) Just the reverse: APM = hardware, ArduCopter = software
11) That was an effort by another team a while ago. As you'll note, they're old posts (how did you find them?) I'm not sure what the current state of that is, but this community is just working on ArduCopter 2.x
Out of curiosity, did you find the tabs above or links on the home page to are designed to help new users avoid all this confusion? I'm concerned that it's still not clear enough for newcomers.