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My first ArduCopter flight--perfect, right out of the box!

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 19, 2010 at 1:00pm
I'm a bit late to the party in actually building a beta ArduCopter kit, but I just finished last night, loaded the code and set the motor rotation directions this morn. Then the kids and I took it out to our tiny backyard and just took off. This is the result--amazing. Rock-sold stability (this was in windy conditions, too) and no tuning required--these are the default settings. So much better than the Gaui 330 XS, both in terms of performance and setup!

Ted Carancho's configurator software is the key. Best setup experience I've ever had. It not only tests all your hardware, but really walks you through the process in an intuitive way. It looks great, too:


My only issue was the the rudder channel seemed reversed in the configurator, but worked fine on the quad. I'll dig into that a bit more. But the main point is this: ArduCopter is in great shape, and as far as I can tell, ready for prime time. Really looking forward to the commercial release in a few weeks. Huge congrats to the team!

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Comments

  • Limebear (Rob) September 23, 2010 at 11:35am
    Yes Jani, I did mean Ardupilot Mega and Oilpan. Sorry for confusion.
    Thanks
  • Charles John September 23, 2010 at 6:42am
    Nice, I will wait for release. I was going to buy the xaircraft x650
    but I believe the arducopter is the way to go and thanks everyone for your help
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen September 23, 2010 at 3:04am
    Yes that is correct, final price has not been stated yet due there are still some issues that we need to find out before we can give final price information for full KIT. Price will be anyways rather nice that I can say. Our original goal was to create a fully functional UAV kit with less than 1000 USD and I'm happy to say that yes we are way under it.

    Full kit includes everything else but no radio rx/tx, battery and naturally chargers. So those are only things that you need to have.
  • Taylor Cox September 23, 2010 at 3:00am
    It's going to be Sub $500
  • Charles John September 23, 2010 at 2:59am
    I did search that's why I'm asking I. Hope that's. Not a problem
  • Taylor Cox September 23, 2010 at 2:54am
    @Charles, maybe try to do a little more searching through this forum as well as other arducopter posts. It has been stated that the price is not decided yet.
  • Charles John September 23, 2010 at 2:42am
    Any idea what kit will cost?
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen September 23, 2010 at 2:42am
    Richard, yes Arduinio Mega and V2.0 shield is used on AeroQuad. AeroQuad and ArduCopter are two different projects and they are not hardware or software compatible.

    For ArduCopter you need to have ArduPilot Mega CPU board and ArduPilot Mega IMU board.

    @Charles, ArduCopter KIT that Chris uses on this his post were made only for developers and few external beta testers. They are all sold out already and we are now working to get next batch of more like retail kit. Most of part orders are already sent to our factories and we are now waiting parts to arrive so we can start making shipping.

    When ArduCopter KIT is ready to ship, it will be announced here at DIY Drones due it is a DIY Drones project and you can find it from DIY Drones webshop along with PhiFUN web shop and few other locations too. Just need to wait a bit more.
  • Charles John September 23, 2010 at 1:42am
    sweet, can you post the link where you bought the kit?
  • Richard Hirst September 23, 2010 at 1:36am
    Hi Jani.
    You talked about the Arduino Mega. This is used in the Quad Copter with the V2.0 Sheild. Can you tell me the link if any with the code for ArduPilot Mega and Arduino Mega. Which setup would you recomend?

    Thanks
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