Discussions

First Time Builder

Posted by Bryan Anderson on February 10, 2014 at 3:42pm

Hi there,

I am embarking on building my own quadcopter. I started out by buying a small $40 one off Amazon and I loved it. I now want to try my hand at building one.

There are a couple of requirements that I want out of my own quadcopter.

First:

I just want to be able to turn it on, hookup a simple R/C controller and just start flying.

Second:

I want to be able to expand on it; GPS, video, wifi/cellular connectvity, barometric, ultrasonic/infrared

Third:

Program it via language and/or GUI interface

Now I'm guessing the biggest decision on starting this project would be which platform to use (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc.). I have no allegiance to any platform in particular so I am open to any and all suggestions. At this point in time money is not a factor.

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Replies

  • Bryan Anderson February 13, 2014 at 7:39pm

    Hmm OK. I just want to make sure I'm buying the right thing. Robert you have been a great and I will let this be my last question. What board/direction should I take for what I am looking for?

    • Robert B Von Haden > Bryan Anderson February 13, 2014 at 8:23pm

      My actual experience with these boards is just with the APM (multiple successful flights), the KK2 board (very fun acrobatics), and the Pixhawk (setup and ground testing - no actual flights yet).

      There are other controllers out there to which I cannot give an adequate comparison.  From what I have experienced, the APM is sturdy and reliable, but towards the end of it's development lifecycle.  The Pixhawk probably has a bright future, but I have not actually flown it yet so I cannot really give you a first hand account of it's flight characteristics.  All I know about it right now is that it appears to have good promise and I am going to give it a go, with a first flight probably this weekend if the weather gets above freezing and it is not too windy here in Minnesota.

      One thing to note is that most of the external devices like GPS and telemetry radios from 3DR work with both the Pixhawk and APM just by switching cables and reflashing firmware.

  • Bryan Anderson February 13, 2014 at 7:24pm

    So something like a Pixhawk PX4, the connectors used for that system are not proprietary? I could buy my own hardware (not recommended by their website)

    • Robert B Von Haden > Bryan Anderson February 13, 2014 at 7:36pm

      If you want to connect something with different end connectors than what comes with the PX4 cables, all you need to do is cut off the cable end connector and replace the it with one which fits your purpose.  Some sites sell the cables with just the DF13 connector which plugs into the PX4, and the other end of the cable bare so you can solder directly to your external device or attach a different connector.

  • Bryan Anderson February 13, 2014 at 6:38am

    So I think I am getting a clearer picture now about how I want to proceed. My last question is, if I choose one of these pre-built flight controllers (PX4, APM, ArduCopter Mega), am I pigeonholing myself to what hardware I can use vs. just getting an arduino mega and building it from scratch.

    • Robert B Von Haden > Bryan Anderson February 13, 2014 at 7:14pm

      Hi, Bryan,

      You may avail yourself of the pre-configured add-ons like GPS, external compass, power/current sensors, gimbal controls, light controls, telemetry, and FPV OSD.  Or you may build and integrate your own devices because the code which drives this is open source and you can modify it to control whatever devices you want to add on if you find something better.  The only controller I expect you would be pigeonholing yourself would be the DJI Naza since that is a closed system.  Of course it has a nice set of add-ons as well.  It all depends on how much you want to do/tweak/read/understand yourself.

      • Menno Hochstenbach > Robert B Von Haden February 22, 2014 at 6:38am

        @ Bryan, 
        If he choses the PX4 or Pixhawk, can he then still use (modify, build and flash) APM:Copter firmware to this pixhawk board? 
        If so, how? Because I would like to do this. So far I only found these instructions: http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/building-px4-with-make/ , but that did not work for my because I want to use ArduCopter v3.1-rc5 and not the ArduCopter v3.2 (which is a dev. version) which is located in the diydrones/ardupilot repository...

        Thank, Menno

  • Bryan Anderson February 12, 2014 at 6:35am

    Robert and John,

    Thank you for you both of your replies.

    Robert,

    When you say right your own software, what I would like to do is make it so I can write a little program where I can send coordinates, flight direction (throttle, altitude, heading) to the quadcopter via JSON/XML and it will receive these inputs and do as it says. Is that what you mean?

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