I've just started my UAV project and budget estimate seems to be not that small
Hope this will be useful for newcomers.
That's what you'll have to buy to get the full-functional UAV, assuming you already have something that flies:
- ArduPilot Mega – $60
- IMU Shield – $160
- 3×8 Angle Connector x 2 – $4
- Servo cables x 8 – $12
- GPS – $86
- XBee-PRO 868 x 2 – $140
- Xbee adapter x 2 – $50
- XBee ground antenna – $11
- FTDI cable for ground Xbee – $18 (really, too much for that simple piece of hardware)
Reasonable minimum. Without directional antenna, camera or FPV. $541 without shipping.
Would be good:
- Airspeed sensor – $20
- Tubes for airspeed – $6
Another $26.
Would be really cool:
- Magnetometer – $45
sAbout $600 total. Quite expensive hobby, I'd say. Add another $100-$200 for shipping if you live somewhere far from the US. I'm in Russia and my shipping estimate exceeds $200 for airframe and ardupilot gear.
PIf anybody knows cheaper ways to do the thing, please, tell me.
Comments
That's exatly what I am doing... Why? I just want to learn a lot of things.
Long-range telemetry is must-have for me, since i'm going to fly quite far. And I'm probably going to crash there eventually, so would be nice to catch the last-known position to ease the search in the forest (-:
The Xbee modules are usefull but not indispensable! You can make a very good drone without telemetry! 200$ savings! Just use EEPROM or Flash memory for storing logs instead of telemetry.
You can also use a short range bluetooth module (much cheaper), and only transfer data when the drone is close.
And if you wand to save even more money, and you are good at programming, just buy a 32bits microcontroler board (ARM7, CORTEX M3), an 3D gyro (accelerometers are a bit useless), one 3D maghetometer, a 10Hz GPS module, a bluetooth module. That's all you need!
... But you need to add a lot of engineering work!
Swarms are mostly about programming, not avionics. I'm a programmer, I chose aviation-related field for the hobby only because I have some flight experience and I like it. But I chose the hobby itself because of programming - just good to have a chance to write something useful in C this days.
(actually that would be OK from an educational standpoint, but not much of a challenge anymore)
It is nice to see a consolidated parts list. I'm not sure if there are others on this site since I hadn't thought to look.
Oh and that FTDI cable can be used for everything. I'm pretty sure it can even make me breakfast I just haven't figure out how yet.
Its amazing that the price list isn't in the tens of thousands, like it would have been just 5 years ago.
I don't look at this as a hobby as much as an incredible learning experience.
When a full featured autopilot like this drops to $ 99 and is available in Walmart, I'm outta here!
Maybe I'll take up amateur astrophysics or build a DIY reactor when that happens.
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