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UFO quad-heli

Posted by Bob Kirkpatrick on February 26, 2010 at 10:40pm
In a weak moment, I bought one of those UFO 4 motor heli devices from an online hobby store. Its description explained how it's internal gyro and advanced electronics caused it to be entirely stable and controllable, even indoors. The reality was that it was anything but stable. Since I spent a hundred bucks on this thing, I'd like to see if I can retrofit it with an Arduino device and a better gyro and orientation system.

My question is, is it worth trying, and if so, what components are recommended? It needn't use GPS or telemetry aside from the remote control, I'd just like to have an aircraft that can indeed be used in the confines of indoor flight. I've looked a bit at the ArduPilot and it appears that it might give me what I hope for, but I wanted to ask someone before I spend the money.

How difficult is it really to get the AP system working and adjusted, and is this UFO thing a good enough base to work from?


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Tags: 4, gyro, heli, motor, ufo
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Replies

  • Overwatch February 27, 2010 at 8:49am
    Then there's the X-UFO forum. It does have an english sub-forum, but the bulk is in german. Full of X-UFO tune-up guides and build logs.
    http://forum.xufo.net/bb/viewforum.php?f=27
  • Admin
    Thomas J Coyle III February 27, 2010 at 7:59am
    Bob,

    Checkout this thread on the DIY Drones site for an extremely compact stabilization solution for your quadrarotor:

    http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arduimu-quadcopter-part-ii

    Regards,
    TCIII
  • Developer
    RoboCopter February 27, 2010 at 1:17am
    Hey Bob, in my opinion its not worth it at all. If you upgrade to higher quality/ more stable platform it would be worth the effort to make it AP but with that heli, no. I had a dragonflyer quad rotor and that was ok but it cost me a bit more than 100 bucks. If you want to get into AP helis get a more stable platform. Why do you need to fly it indoors might I ask?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 26, 2010 at 10:53pm
    There's a big German community devoted to upgrading those quads to proper gyros and IMUs. Start here.

    I upgraded mine to the electronic heading hold gyros and it worked great. Was actually flyable for the first time.
    xufo-shop.de
    This domain may be for sale!
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