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ARM7 mini quad with xbee remote

Posted by Tim O'Brien on January 23, 2011 at 1:00pm

Using an Phillips NXP LPC20148 ARM7 processor, a Nintendo Wii motion+, and some xbees I've made a really stable platform for quads. (mode details here) It is running FreeRTOS which makes it very expandable in the future. My old frame flew great with it, but I wanted something smaller. Enter my new carbon fiber mini-quad: 


3689386406?profile=originalHere's the plug-and-play LPC flight controller. The motion+ is inside and wrapped in foam. The XBee plugs in to its' socket on the top. The ESCs plug in back.

3689386453?profile=original

Here's the remote. I can easily adjust the PID gains, and it sends them to the flight computer before taking off (there's no eeprom on the LPC). You should see the difference 0.05 on the pitch and roll I term makes in stability. 

3689386268?profile=originalNot bad for an computer engineering undergrad in their spare time, with no class credit, and on the budget I get as a photojournalist for our paper, eh? This is remote v1.5, and remote v3.0 is in the works. Here's a sketch I drew a couple of weeks ago. 

 

Everything's open source! I hate seeing people's cool project, wondering how it works, then getting the promise of OSS sometime in the future. I want to see how asap. Well here's how I did it: The remote code. The copter code. 

Tags: arduino, rtos, flying, quad, quadcopter, quadrocopter, xbee
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Comments

  • Diego Douglas Cabral Sobrinho March 29, 2016 at 1:31pm
    Tim thank you for providing the code. Ill take a look on it and restart my project.
    I did a ps3 controller as a RC. And I'll need to study your PID adjustment to understand how I'll manage them with the ps3 controller.

    Thank you so much.

    Do you have any other project with xbee? Could you provide? My email is Diegocabral.sobrinho@gmail.com
  • Tim O'Brien March 29, 2016 at 1:10pm

    Hey Diego, I migrated that code from SVN to github if you're still interested: https://github.com/t413/remote_xbee for the remote and https://github.com/t413/os_copter for the flight controller. Hope it's still interesting!

    t413/remote_xbee
    arduino + xbee + lcd + gimbals -- quadcopter remote with full menu system - t413/remote_xbee
  • Diego Douglas Cabral Sobrinho December 24, 2014 at 12:46pm

    Hey your code links are broken, can you provide it again?

  • Chris Gilroy February 14, 2011 at 2:53pm

    Awesome little project, always impressed with the micro quads, yours even moreso with the custom built controller.

     

    I'd also like to suggest taking a look at these: http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=... I know their somewhat pricy compared to what you want to use, but they don't seem to eat a ton of cpu, or as was suggested you could use a dedicated 328 for driving it.

     

    Where did you find the control sticks for your controller?

  • Tim O'Brien February 6, 2011 at 7:09pm

    Christopher: I get around 15 minutes on my 800mah battery, hovering just above half throttle. I should time it exactly, or add an automatic flight timer in software. I could even integrate the throttle and estimate power consumption. Hmm...

     

    Sebastian: The transmit rate is adjustable in the remote's menu, and I usually have it at 10Hz. Multiple processors is an alright way to do it, you've just got to coordinate data. I personally really like everything on one µC, and these ATmegas have plenty of power to handle both tasks. 

     

    Oscar: The remote control is made out of 1/4 inch smoked acrylic and the blue flight computer is 1/8 in acrylic. Both were cut on a laser-cutter. 

  • Chris Walsh February 2, 2011 at 3:56pm

    what sort of flight time do you get on your mini quad?

     

    great project!! :D

  • Sebastian Gralla January 24, 2011 at 8:15am

    how fast are you sending RC commands?

    I plan to build an RC controller by myself, too.

    thought about using multiply processors (like 2 Atmega328)

    one for RC commands, one for telemetry and driving the display

     

    do you know the dragonfly controller?

  • Oscar Rosillo January 24, 2011 at 6:16am

    Hi,

    What´s the material of your flight controller? blue one, home-cut plastic??

    I like your remote controller.

    Bye

  • Tim O'Brien January 23, 2011 at 7:57pm

    Steve- Motor distance is 13cm from center. 

    As for parts, I'm using 4mm adhesive foam tape, 0.8mm connectors, TURNIGY 6A ESC, Rhino 610mAh 3S Lipo, ZIPPY 800mAh 3S1P, GWS EP prop 102x64mm, 18-11 2000kv (10g) motor.

  • Gerry Lichter January 23, 2011 at 7:14pm

    That's so cool. Way to get the job done. I've seen 5+ projects involving XBee RC. You delivered the goods.

     

    Respect,

    -Gerry

This reply was deleted.