This time I've take-off in manual mode and then switched to auto. The plane starts to fly as programmed, but wind slide it few meters away from the point. That time observers starts to panic and I (never do that again) switched to manual to turn plane back to me... That was the biggest mistake! I've should wait a bit more... Luckily, nothing was broken - plane disassembled itself into 3 pieces. 5 minutes to take it together without any glue and back to the sky!

Here is a video of it. It has few other flights I did that day.

Onboard video from MonZon on Vimeo.

After that accident I did the same mistake once - this time I could rescue the plane from tree only after 2 days =)

Right now I'm far away from home, but I've found some extra time to work on my code for APM. But how am I going to test it without APM? Here is the video which shows a successful run of modified APM code on virtual APM =)

"\n" is not working good on this emulator.

Here is what you need:

Arduino IDE  direct link

Proteus (I'm using v7.7 sp2)  Demo version (according to demo limitations it cannot save or modify any MCU simulations, but you won't need it - you can use mine in read-only way, no problems with changing firmware) UPDATE: Unfortunately, there is no way to run my simulation file unless you have full (paid) version of Proteus.

APM firmware source code v2.24 (use newest if available)

and my Proteus simulation file attached (or you can do you own - it is really simple) ardupilot_sim.rar

UPDATE2: It is also possible to use AVR Simulator from AVR studio with HAPSIM plugin to get it running, but on my netbook it is sooo slow - so I couldn't make the video. 

I hope it helps.

Here is another thing that I did - 9) CLI – message when bad command entered - Add a message so users know when they have entered an invalid command.

So instead of just swallowing wrong commands it will be something like this:

ArduPlane V2.24] blah-blah-blah
Unknown command! Please try again.

Type 'help' to see list of available commands.

Submitting this code at the moment!

UPDATE: Right now I've received mail from Doug saying that my patch has been added to master branch and we'll up for everyone with next firmware release! *YAHOO*

Hi there!

I've always wanted to take part in arduplane development, so I finally have chance to do it =)

Here you can find info on how to do the same http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-contribute-to-a-diy-drones-project-start-with-something-sm

I have chosen this one -

8) Minimum altitude feature for modes >= FBW - Add a feature where the user can specify a minimum altitude that the autopilot will not go under when in higher modes

just because I was implementing some anti-crash functions on my own.

So here my little demo. APM is in FBW-B mode and I hold pitch all the way DOWN! until the very end of video. The jumps you will see is my code bringing the plane back to safe altitude. Minimum alt was set 30 meters above home altitude, so you can see ground. Enjoy and post your ideas!

UPDATE: Here is new video (new algorithm, no jumps): 

And my patch has been applied to the ArduPlane source! =))) Man, I wish I could have a job related to drones...

It is AXN Floater with APM128 board. Waiting for the good weather... Pictures says the rest =)

BTW. XBee is under buzzer, just behind the motor. Sometimes it does interfere with receiver. Thinking to move receiver...

I've got broken rc hummer2 from a friend as a gift, when he learned that I do drones. After some time I fixed it and tested =) Hehe, drink and drive - legally! (do not try to repeat! LOL)

But without ardurover for now - APM is in my plane =) Just FPV car. Also it uses plane ESC, so car can move only forward.

In case my plane get lost in the wild :-D I've made some stickers with contact info, so if found - it can be returned.

As far as I know not all of us have color laserjet printer. And inkjet prints usually get blurred when soaked in water. In my case, my inkjet have black ink as pigment type of ink, which is waterproof. But if you like - feel free to change it.

Here is jpg demo and psd template.

Lost%20TAG%20DIYDronesBLANK.psd

As I can see everyone liked the post of GliderUAV about automatic thermalling. I have tremendous interest in such things.

For a few month now I've been developing algorithms which will help our UAV's increase their flight times. And I've started to get some positive results.

Right now one algorithm has been already tested on x-plane HIL simulation, and I will say - it is neat!

Let me tell you some information about it. For now it doesn't have anything with searching thermals and loitering on them. Just simple soaring with constant feedback correction. I've tested it on some heights like 100, 200m and result are fine. But when I've tested it on 1km height it flew 9828m long and it took 12min 36sec without using motor at all!!! Which I can say is great result!

Let me know what you think. Can it be nice to have in our UAV's? Any ideas appreciated.