Hi guys,
I'm new to this forum, I thought It would be a great place to begin my project.
I'm building a quad-copter, I was looking for an autopilot the other day and I got an idea, a smart phone motherboard could be used as an autopilot. It already has all the features I need: GPS, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor and a camera. The motherboard could control the motors using a USB DC motor controller which could be connected to the motherboard via an OTG cable, I could compile a custom kernel and add the necessary drivers to it. I was thinking about using a Sony Ericsson Xperia mini or something similar, Sony provides the source codes for their devices. The CPU and the GPU are quite powerful, The GPU could be used for image processing.
I'm still looking for a USB board that would be able to control 4 brushless motors
Tell me what do you think about this project, any advantages, disadvantages, tips.
Thanks everyone.
Replies
Good idea!
Using a smartphone as-is would be nothing new, but stripping it down to the main board is taking it is better step forward!
Myself, I like the idea of using the motherboard from a UMPC, which would have more options, but would also be bigger and heavier, and I am nowhere near being able to try it.
A couple friends and are trying to get a group started for promoting advanced concepts in drone/multirotor design, maybe you would be interested? Feel free to message me.
anything new about this project?
We'd be happy to help and assist in your project. We've been experimenting with USB OTG communication from an Android phone to an Arduino breakout board here at SNA Power Software and Technology Division http://snapower.net/tech/ but with limited success.