T3 Back to the Future

Remember back, way back in autopilot years probably about 20. The year 2009 and the first round of our gentlemens (ladies are allowed just none have ever entered) competition the T3 challenge.

Back then just flying way points was hard and all this gear was expensive. Ardupilots were made at Sparkfun in batches that ran out quick.

Lets try it again I suspect this time the challenge would really be flying it faster than somebody FPV racing.

Read about the first time here for hints and tips.

As tech has moved on all aircraft types welcome lets make it not above 50m and 5 laps. All of course autonomous. Extra marks if that is from take off to landing.I will count the time from take off to landing so screaming dives to the start will not help. KMLs as evidence please!

UPDATE: Rovers (and boats) are also allowed! There will be a special rover/boat class, and you only have to beat other vehicles in that class. The course for such ground/water vehicles is 100m x 100m.

I will accept FPV times for the sake of science and should they be much much quicker it will give the pure FPV crowd something to brag about.

An Easystar (yes before HK copied it) made one lap in less than a minute in 2009 so 5 in 5 minutes should be more than possible.

As ever the time frame is flexible but why don't we all meet back here on August the 1st and find out who won!

Please add your entries and adventures below. Points are always awarded for silliness, just as long as its safe!

I didn't check this website way too long and just noticed now that this T3 contest is running.

Great entries of David with the flying wing in 221s and Rob with the heli in 281s. Congratulations!

Back in 2012 my Cougar flew autonomously in 34 seconds around the figure 8. Here is the entry in this forum. The Cougar flew between 30 and 40 m/s and was controlled by a Paparazzi autopilot. Here the Desktop Record.

Unfortunately I will not make it for an entry until Monday. In a month or two I might find some time to try. I am still flying the Cougar and using Paparazzi, but havn't done much AP flying since 2012. I think 36s per round plus 5s for takeoff and 15s for landing summing up to approx. 200s should be doable. Flying 40 m/s below 50m AGL will be quite thrilling :-)

Good luck you guys!

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T3

healthyfatboy September 18, 2015 at 9:43am

They closed it out two weeks ago.

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/pixhawk-prizes-for-pronto-pair-...
Moderator

Gary Mortimer August 31, 2015 at 4:25am

Coming very soon
T3

healthyfatboy August 25, 2015 at 5:58pm

Any updates on results?
T3

healthyfatboy August 21, 2015 at 8:38am

Just as an update but here is a link to one of my better runs I got on video during the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH5C6x9lYM0

I still had to take it out of auto once or twice during the run but you can see it navigating relatively well. There were a few close calls with the light poles in auto mode that you can see.

My setup is pretty lame with the compass not even level but I did the proper calibrations and it seemed to work well. I had to return the Pixhawk/GPS combo since it's finished but I can try to dig up a picture of the setup when I get home.
Moderator

Gary Mortimer August 19, 2015 at 9:22pm

The gavel falls, its August 1st!

I will now in conjunction with Chris sort the results.
T3

healthyfatboy August 19, 2015 at 8:09am

I just realized I may have okay video footage of one of my runs. It's not of either of the posted runs but one from a morning test run. I'll dig around for it and post it up tonight.
T3

healthyfatboy August 17, 2015 at 6:45pm

Tom, do you have your log you can post of the runs you did? I would be interested in seeing how straight they looked and how fast you went throughout.

So, is today the cutoff? I haven't seen much activity lately so maybe? Still waiting on the go-kart snipe or Rob's heli snipe too.
T3

healthyfatboy August 15, 2015 at 5:47pm

Alright, I'm finished giving it another go! I thought I would go 3S and see what I could come up with. I found I could get up to around 17 ms^-1 but I just don't have the space. It was iffy enough to find a 100m x 100m area but it's just too close to the curbs to reliably run much faster than I went on my test without risking my vehicle any more, especially since I had to borrow a Pixhawk as my APM was giving me trouble. I came within inches of the curb or light post several times so my most recent submission is going to be it unfortunately. At least that one was really good for me!
100KM

Reto Buettner August 14, 2015 at 4:05am

I didn't check this website way too long and just noticed now that this T3 contest is running.

Great entries of David with the flying wing in 221s and Rob with the heli in 281s. Congratulations!

Back in 2012 my Cougar flew autonomously in 34 seconds around the figure 8. Here is the entry in this forum. The Cougar flew between 30 and 40 m/s and was controlled by a Paparazzi autopilot. Here the Desktop Record.

Unfortunately I will not make it for an entry until Monday. In a month or two I might find some time to try. I am still flying the Cougar and using Paparazzi, but havn't done much AP flying since 2012. I think 36s per round plus 5s for takeoff and 15s for landing summing up to approx. 200s should be doable. Flying 40 m/s below 50m AGL will be quite thrilling :-)

Good luck you guys!
dr0n3droid August 12, 2015 at 11:51am

Trying to reconstruct the scene in my head. The gps probably went wide too, X8R was almost on the goal line, solder splashed everywhere.
The broken parts pile is growing.

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