Discussions

Hello all,

I'm new to the board and to UAV's in general.  I've spent countless hours over the last few weeks researching the available autopilots, IMUs, multirotor configurations, and the like, and have gotten close to the point  of no return...I'm about to start spending money.

Anyhow, I have a couple of newb questions that I haven't been able to answer on my own.  Thanks in advance to anyone that can send me in the right direction.  Here they are:

1.  As a newbie, I've not gotten a good feel for the group.  Is the DIY drones forum the best place to ask these types of questions?  How should I approach issues such as questions about code?

2.  I will be working in a University environment, and would like to build a multicopter that can be though of as a tool for other folks in their future research.  As such, I would like a configuration that has a largish payload capacity, and decent flight times.  So far, my favorite configuration is the butterflycopter 10-rotor design at butterflyCopter.  Does anyone have any opinions on this?

3.  Can the APM control 10 rotors?  I've seen that for 8-rotors, the current design requires soldering to the oilpan.  If so, where would changes need to be made in software?

4.  In the motors_*.pde file, where do the numbers "/2" and "*0.866" come from?  Is there no parameters for geometry, dimensions, or vehicle reference coordinates?  It seems that symmetry is the only thing considered here.  I'm trying to figure out what would need to be modified to make this work for different rotor configurations.

Again, thanks in advance.  Please let me know if this would be better received as multiple forum posts, or if this list of questions is the way to ask questions going forward.

Thanks,

Aaron