First, I would like to say thanks for letting me into the group and allowing me to tap into your expertise. I intend to get better at this stuff but right treat me like I'm completely new to this tech.
I’m looking for a drone to teach code with.
I want something that I can download and edit programs. For example; I would like to be able to download code to fly a rectangle at a certain altitude and length. I would like to be able to edit this program to change altitude and length of sides. I would like this type of editing to lead to creating new programs.
List of needs:
I need to be able to download and edit the code from a Chromebook.
I need this to cost under $800
Longer’ish battery life would be nice. Running each program wouldn’t take long in itself, but having a class of 10 kids each test their programs in the same hour could require a long battery life, or at least extra batteries on hand.
A camera would be nice.
Being able to add sensors would be great.
What do you guys recommend? I’m open to ideas and suggestions. I’ve done a lot of internet research and haven’t come up with anything conclusive as to what I need. Pixhawk and Parrot ar.drone 2.0 seem to come up a lot in my searches.
Replies
Please please PLEASE do not use a GPS repeater to bring the signal indoors. This will create all kinds of multipath issues, and will lead to a crash. If you're looking to run waypoints indoors, look into the posxy system. Ultimately, your best bet is to write the "code" indoors, then go outside to test. Everything else is possible, but I strongly advise against attempting this indoors.
As for drone recommendations, I would go with a 3DR Solo. You can't beat the price currently, and it will work with Mission Planner to edit the waypoint code.
You would need a GPS repeater to accomplish automated flight indoors. http://www.gps-repeaters.com/ Otherwise you will have to use a system like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping for fuly autonomous flight or this https://www.vicon.com/ for autonomous flight in a predetermined environment.
Thanks for the reply.
I'm not sure if that would work or not.
How does it read Longitude and Latitude? I plan on doing most of our test flights indoors...
Would a file format like this suffice? This is a waypoint dump from my old APM board and they include Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude. I can look up the other variables for you if it would help.
They were xtracted by clicking in the lower right corner of the Mission Planner Interface "Write WPs" http://ardupilot.org/copter/_images/TakeOff.jpg
QGC WPL 110
0 1 0 16 0 0 0 0 37.668651 -97.512300 0.000000 1
1 0 3 16 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 37.668901 -97.512384 30.480000 1
2 0 3 16 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 37.669076 -97.512196 30.480000 1
3 0 3 19 15.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 37.669570 -97.511831 30.480000 1
4 0 3 16 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 37.669647 -97.511933 30.480000 1
5 0 3 16 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 37.668652 -97.512279 30.480000 1
6 0 3 20 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1
7 0 3 21 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 37.668651 -97.512289 0.304800 1
8 0 3 22 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 3.048000 1