Okay - so somebody "donated" a partially built project to us and we are trying to move forward on it.
Step one - figure out what we have.
This is supposedly part of a ground station.
The only logos we can find are xbee - which is just a marking where to put that module and DIYDrones.com
Here is the basic hexcopter kit
And finally, a motor..... No markings on it at all.
Any help would be appreciated. Trying to determine where to start.
Bob
Replies
Thanks Lloyd. The PDB is kind of sad looking anyway, so I'll add that to the list of stuff we need to look at. Re-wiring should not be a problem.
Bob
Lloyd Breckenridge said:
The frame and motors and esc's are a 3DR hexacopter.
It has not really been assembled all that well. The motor wiring should run up the inside of the arms.
The PDB was not that great on that model you would be better off getting either an XT60 to 6, or 2 XT60 to 3, 3mm bullet adaptor leads from Hobbyking.
It should have a fairly good power to weight ratio for flying at your altitude.
I would get rid of the flight controller, GPS and ground station.
Put a Pixhawk on there from Hobbyking.
Get it as a kit with radio modules and GPS and power module.
If you do proceed with it it will be a great learning experience.
The problem will be if any parts are damaged you will not be able to get similar replacement parts.
Make sure you use loctite on the nuts or better replace them all with M3 nylock nuts.
Lloyd
Thanks Mike - we'll proceed that way. The frame an motors are better 'put together' than the electronics - though they feel a bit heavy to me. We're at 5000 ft so we'll see what we come up with.
Thanks!
Bob
All of that tech looks to be at least four years old. The UAV itself is an old 3DR hexacopter with 800Kv motors. The frame isn't bad, but the APM and that ground station aren't up to date. You're better off getting a pixhawk and GPS combo, and save yourself some headaches.
Thanks Neil,
That helped a lot.
As I said - we were "given" this project and have little info on it. The Ardustation is pretty badly assembled, I'm thinking it is dicy to get it working. Also - looks pretty old (dated).
So - my next question is should we abandon this ground station and move to something more modern. And, if we do - do we need to abandon the aircraft components as well.
What we have for the drone is an Ardupilot 2.5 with ublox GPS.
We also have a board that is labeled Ardupilot Mega 1.4 which looks like it may not be fully populated yet (a good thing given the Ardustation work).
If you were faced with this stuff, would you move forward with some/all, or start anew.
Bob
Hi Bob
Your first picture, is of the Ardustation, link below:
It looks like it was never used as the X-Bee module and the holes for attaching the power have never been soldered?
As for the multirotor I do not recognize it.
Kind regards
Neil
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardustation-mega-with-graphic-lcd