About

Gender

Male


Location

Swindon, Wiltshire


About Me:

Computer geek, Raspberry Pi fan building a quadcopter using the Pi as the controller


Please tell us a bit about your UAV interest

Using a RaspberryPi (rather than Aduino / Microcontroller) to make a quad


Hometown:

Latton


Activity Feed

Andy Baker posted a discussion
Hi I want to use the compass for two reasons:Getting the orientation of my pidrone prior to takeoff which combines with GPS, gives the ability to flying between fixed predefined waypoints.  This works perfectly.Use it as a long term fusion with yaw…
Jan 26, 2018
Andy Baker posted a discussion
With a Raspberry Pi, running standard Raspian Linux, all coded in Python with 7 sensors (Accelerometer, Gyrometer, Magnetometer, down-facing LiDAR and RPi camera, GPS and Scance Sweep), my 5 year from absolute ignorance proof of concept project is…
Jan 20, 2018
Andy Baker posted a discussion
Hi,I'm using off-the-shelf USB GPS receivers for my X8 Drone (pidrone.io); in some quick testing this morning, I'm getting somewhere between 4 and 7 satellites depending on which receiver I'm using; in contrast my DJI Mavic gets 10+. Mostly my…
Sep 2, 2017
Andy Baker replied to Andy Baker's discussion X8 prop layout and control
"One more question; other than yaw control, and protection against motor failure, is there any other reason why the top- and underside props would need to behave differently?  In other words, other than the above two, can the upper and lower props be…"
Jul 7, 2016
Andy Baker replied to Andy Baker's discussion X8 prop layout and control
"Thanks - that's exactly what I needed confirming - it does mean I need to think a lot harder about my controller code, and PCB. Hugues said:
The eight motors are controlled individually by their ESC and own PWM signal from the flight controller.…"
Jul 7, 2016
Andy Baker posted a discussion
I'm considering building an X8.From what I understand so far, on a given arm, the top and bottom prop rotate in opposite directions - note I'm meaning the props themselves; the motors rotate in the same direction, but the lower motor is…
Jul 7, 2016
Andy Baker replied to Joiny klem's discussion Compass sensor "IMU"
"I was about to ask the same question, so I'll share what _I_ think, and hope someone chips in to tell me if I'm wrong.

1 - the compass gives you absolute orientation of your UAV compared to the magnetic north pole - currently somewhere north of…"
Dec 12, 2015
Andy Baker replied to Andy Baker's discussion MPU9250 SMPLRT_DIV and DLPF_CFG data ready interrupt
"OK, I did a little more testing:
Setting the gyro DLPF to 0, the ADC sampling rate goes up to 8kHz according to the spec.  Then setting SMPLRT_DIV to 31 should mean the data ready interrupt triggers at 250Hz.  But whatever I set SMPLRT_DIV to, I get…"
Oct 6, 2015
Andy Baker posted a discussion
I aim to collect IMU samples at 250Hz.To do that, if I set gyro DLPF_CFG 1 - 7, the ADC sampling is 1kHz and so SMPLRT_DIV is set to 3 to get that 250Hz.  All works well - the time of flight matches the number of samples taken to 0.1% e.g. a 10s…
Oct 3, 2015
Andy Baker posted a discussion
She's got legs. She knows how to use them. from Andy Baker on Vimeo.Code on GitHubI started the project 27 months ago, completely ignorant, and wondering whether it was possible to build a quadcopter with a Raspberry Pi as the flight / motion…
Mar 16, 2015
Andy Baker posted a discussion
The accelerometer readings from my MPU6050 drift over time. See the attached graph.  Throughout, the quad sat stationery on the ground, and only the flight controller powered up - no power to motors / ESCs.Quad frame accelerometer X, and Y readings…
Jan 23, 2015
Andy Baker replied to Andy Baker's discussion MPU6050 deadzone around 0g?
"Thanks Phillip, useful background

I'll have a go with trying higher frequency dlfp - it makes a lot of sense - I already have lots of code integrating / averaging both sets of sensor readings much like you describe so it should be relatively safe…"
Dec 19, 2014
Andy Baker replied to Andy Baker's discussion MPU6050 deadzone around 0g?
"One (unrelated) questions?  Why set dlpf as high as 250Hz?  I'd always assumed that nearly everything above 10Hz was just going to be prop / motor noise - I'd assumed acceleration due to movement was not noisy once the props / motor noise was…"
Dec 18, 2014
Andy Baker replied to Andy Baker's discussion MPU6050 deadzone around 0g?
"Thanks Phillip,

I tried pointing X and Y axes down, and they did show 1g as expected, so as you say they were fine - after a bit of thinking and digging around, I found a bug in my code that was creating the dead-zone (related to subtracting…"
Dec 18, 2014
Andy Baker posted a discussion
If I pick my sensor board off the floor, the MPU6050 Z-axis accelerometer detects this.Once off the floor and no longer rising, if I move forwards, and then to the left, the X and Y accelerometers do not detect this.I've got the sensor set at +/-…
Dec 15, 2014
Andy Baker left a comment for Andy Baker
"Hi Nick,
My code lives on GitHub under PiStuffing/Quadcopter - it's just a single python file qc.py.  I only updated it yesterday so you'll have the greatest.

I don't believe using Linux rather than a RTOS has adds any extra problems - I think it's…"
Jun 5, 2014
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