ARM7 mini quad with xbee remote

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:

Here'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.

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.

Not 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.

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Comments

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
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
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
Tim O'Brien January 23, 2011 at 6:37pm

Well, that depends. If you get the modules I've got, these, then you're good to about 300 feet. I recently fried one of mine, so borrowed these from a friend. My verdict: Get the ones my friend got (if you have the funds, I don't). They're rated for ~6 miles line of sight and with great antennas, and ~2 miles normally. I'm personally looking at these, but only when I've got some great hardware that can fly that far on its own.
Tim O'Brien January 23, 2011 at 5:30pm

About my site: Yep. I chose tonight to upgrade the CMS (zenphoto). Not a good choice, on afterthought. I'm on my svn server fixing things. That page is up and running now. Now I'm fixing the ajax image browsing.

ArduPilot? I'm sure one could. My plan for my remote v3.0 is to write code plugins for lots of flight softwares with a common protocol. One controller to rule them all: any digital project you want.
Jason Lyons January 23, 2011 at 3:32pm

Very cool! I love the custom built remote!

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