I have sad news to share.

Lester Haines Register Special Projects Bureau chief and head of the LOHAN mission passed away on Monday 13. June 2016 aged just 55.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/16/lester_haines_obituary/

Our community has lost a visionary and an amazing human being.
To work with him was a blast and a fascinating adventure.

Thanks mate, it was a great experience.  
You left far too early and you will be missed.

Let's all raise a glass to Lester!

I want to share with you the tremendous fun I'm having with the BBBmini DIY ArduPilot project, which I discovered during the summer. Hopefully, I can demonstrate what a sexy DIY Linux Autopilot for around 100 bucks looks like and convince you why Linux autopilots are cooler than a cat playing the piano.
 
For some background, Mirko Denecke, who designed the BBBmini, wrote an introductory blog post on his DIY ArduPilot Cape here, and about further enhancements here.
 
Since Mirko released rev1.4 into the wild as Open Hardware, there's been a BBBmini usergroup down at DIY Drones, so that's a good place to see what's happening with the technology.
 
Rekindled enthusiasm
 
Being a Linux autopilot enthusiast, I naturally had a BeagleBone Black lying around and so was immediately attracted to this project. While building and getting the BBBmini into the air, I quickly realized that it was just the right kind of project I needed to rekindle my enthusiasm.
 
DIY Linux autopilots: What's the attraction?
 
I really love the idea of flying Linux autopilots and must admit I've been hooked since I saw the first talks Andrew Tridgell and others gave on the topic, the early rumors about PXF, and the first boards like NavIO and  Erlebrain and so forth. I can see a bright future in this field, with the kind of  collaborative community effort such as that down at DIY Drones - which drives the technology forward.
 
After finally joining the Linux autopilot club, I had a kind of epiphany about how it opens a huge door to the opportunity of getting new ideas integrated much more easily thanks to the power of open innovation. The underlying Linux offers a sense of comfort and massive gains in usability.
 
Getting more out of your Autopilot
 
For example, I recently decided to configure my quad to log into different folders each day and rsync my log files to my NAS running samba at startup. That way I can archive them for later use as well and delete old logs when the SD cards becomes full. So, I should be find logs more easily and create a permanent archive, which was the initial reason for the set-up. This was all done with a few very basic modifications and open source tools / software made available by developers for public use.
 
Build your own DIY Linux autopilot
 
So, if you too like getting hands-on and want to make your own DIY Linux autopilot, now is the time to get your feet wet.
 
We're all keen to see what you'll come up with. For example, Mirko did a self-balancing robot based on the BBBmini and ArduPilot software, and I have something in the pipeline to fill the long winter nights.
 
We are working on improving the BBBmini experience and since Mirko recently added dual-MPU9250 support we are now flying with two MPU9250's. We also have a few ideas for extra add-ons.
 
I have put together a BBBmini DIY Kit to simplify the process of getting started, and if you are interested in buying a kit or just a PCB please send me a PM or go here.
 
Here is a short video of me flying the bbbmini just for fun.
 

 
The full project is available on GitHub and we invite interested users to contribute to the further development of the project.
 
Happy flying.
 
Cheers,
Linus
 

Hi all,

i wanted to write down the journey i did over the past few years after a friend pointed me to diydrones.com.

I was quickly hooked by the hobby virus after assembling, flying and crashing my first rc-plane and afterwards fiddling around to get a APM1 integrated into a Bixler.

Since i live in a dense populated city i thought i should start with doing autonomous missions on the ground and so was pretty enthusiastic about the released rover code from Jean Louis Naudin in 2012.
I bought me a rc car from Hobbyking, strapped a APM1 on to it and it was great fun right from the beginning.

When i got involved with the rover community i teamed up with Tom and Tridge and we did a huge amount of tinkering, coding and testing in the following years.
I could get little deeper insights how things are working and Tom was able to win the 2013 AVC with his vehicle (Peloton class) which was a quite satisfying outcome i think.

I then bought me a few more components, a quad frame and started further explorations at the flying field.

Over the years i flew MultiWii, Megapirate, Harakiri, Baseflight and other available firmware/hardware combinations.
I did build a few big camera ships (Hexas, Octos) as well, mostly equipped with DJI and ZeroUAV autopilots.

But to be honest i am always missing the features and functionality ArduCopter/ArduPlane and APMrover2 comes with.

I will stick with Pixhawk in the future whenever its possible.

Today i can proudly report from the first big feature filming job with a X8 Octo equipped with a Red epic cinema camera beneath :) A rig worth 50.000 $. It was a long exhausting but very satisfying day.

So i think its time for a few nice words to all the developers and all other people involved.
This achievement wouldnt be possible without your work, the time you spend with the project and i am thankful for every single line you wrote over the years!

Im really looking forward to spend more time with pixhawk / linux autopilots and the community.

In deep gratitude for your time and efforts helping me to reach my very personal moon landing :)

Cheers
Linus