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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
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen September 23, 2010 at 1:33am
    Currently you cannot buy kit yet. It is still on factory. After we have received all parts and it is ready to ship or to pre-orders, we will post links and it will be also available in here at DIY Drones store.
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen September 22, 2010 at 9:37pm
    Limebear, did you really mean Arduino Mega?? If you bought that, i'm afraid that you will have problems due it is wrong. You should have gotten ArduPilot Mega and Oilpan. ArduPilot Mega and Arduino Mega are two different boards. Yes they both have same main CPU but other than that they are totally different.

    Yes you can have all parts are separate parts too. Kit is just a packet that has been put all products in one box and we have full support for those products like Motors, ESC, Propellers, Frame parts etc. This way we can also give settings for you that will work our from the box. If you use some other motors, propellers etc you need to find your own settings and that is usually long and difficult process.
  • Limebear (Rob) September 22, 2010 at 5:21am
    Hello Jani,
    To get some experience with the Arduino Mega board in advance of the frame being available, I have already purchased the Mega board, the Oilpan, and the GPS module. I expect other people will have done a similar thing. Will we be able to pre-order the frame kit with selected parts deleted please?
    Thanks for this very exciting project.
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen September 21, 2010 at 8:35pm
    Fred, don't worry.. You won't miss it and in anycase it won't be on this month. Jordi is moving his electronics manufacturing lines to new and better facilities. I'm starting to receive different parts of frame begging of next month. Motor/ESC leadtimes from factory is about 3 weeks and there are some holidays on China where those are made and they are messing our delivery schedules a bit.

    But when they are ready to deliver. It will be announced here and our Asian sites.

    We might release it to pre-order in two weeks or so after we have good understanding of it's release date. If it happen, it will be announced on DIY site too. This would be only reasonable way to get them on pre-sales, we try to avoid any extra hassle with it..
  • Fred Grantham September 21, 2010 at 3:07pm
    Jani I see where production has begun on the units. Can we put down a deposit or pay up front as to know that we would get a ARF setup. Had my eyes on this for sometime and I will be back on the road working as of the end of this week and really busy. Reason for me asking I would feel confident knowing it would be on order and not have to be checking to see when they are orderable.
    Thank you ahead of time.
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