Hi everyone! I am finally ready to show off something I've been working on for months! It's a motherboard (which I am calling the MAXboard) that all the various electronics for a multirotor aircraft plug into. It eliminates pretty much any possible wiring mistakes, and all soldering. It makes it much easier to build, repair, and upgrade your aircraft.
This is an open source project, and am I running a Kickstarter campain to get some funds to continue development. I am also really hoping to get the support of the DIY Drones community to help me test it and work out bugs.
There is also a frame I designed to go with it as well as a ground station I think you'll like. I'll post more information on those, as well as some videos, soon.
For more info, or to help support the project, please take a look at my Kickstarter. Thanks! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703258614/maxrotor-open-source-plug-and-play-modular-quadcop
Comments
BayAreaCrasher, I haven't had any issues in flight testing, but I haven't thoroughly investigated RF issues. I'd love to get your suggestions on how to do that. I have the equipment to measure and localize RF emissions (up to 1.5Ghz) but it's harder to tell when a device is being negatively affected by it. So far I do not believe there are any significant RF issues. I hope to do more testing during the beta program (see the kickstarter for details).
Todd, that's not a bad idea. If the peripherals are similar enough and there is room, I might even be able to simply add another socket (sorta like how I have two sockets for telemetry) for the PX4 so it would work for either that or the APM2.5. If the project funds, I'll definitely pick up a P4X and see if I can do it (or DIYDrones can lend me one <wink!>)
Daniel, Thanks! I run into those a lot.
Steve, Okay, that sounds pretty clear. Give me a few days to get that done. The principal is sound, but I'd love to try different vibration dampers to see which ones work the best, I think the current ones are a little too stiff. Now I'll have a way to quantify it. Thanks for your help!
Michael, just go to Advanced Parameter list in Mission Planner and change the log level to Default+IMU then click Write Parameters. Then fly in a hover for a minute and land. Then download the flash logs in Terminal and then click Log Browse. Then click accel x y and z and also look at gyro x y and z and view the graph to see how strong the vibs are. Randy must have a video on that so check out his youtube channel.
I can imagine a PX4IO-style daughter board that connects between the PX4FMU and this MAXBoard.
Nice design! I pledged for a bare board.
Peter, Love it! Most of my early helicopters used crossed booms like that (the one that flew from the hot-air balloon in the kickstarter video, for example) but I didn't know PCB design back then. I may have to revisit it. Man, you're giving me all sorts of ideas! Maybe I'll have to do something similar when I have time. I'm also learning the STM32 right now, they are cool chips!
Steve, Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I can do that, but I don't actually know how. Do you have a link to instructions? I think there is fine tuning still to be done on the vibration damping (better suited rubber bumpers, I think the current ones are a little stiff) but we have to start somewhere.
Beautiful design! Love the vibration isolation. Can you post a IMU graph of your xyz accel in a hover?
I'm flying with minimal wiring too, may be went a bit further - mother board combines central plate, distro board, UHF LRS, 2.4G link, FC and soon more.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=25252318&postcoun...
Taylor, you're awesome! Thanks!
Alexsev, thank you very much! I really appreciate the great feedback.
Luiz, you're one of a few people who have asked. Maybe I'm missing something. What interference are you talking about? I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary while flying it, but I'll be the first to admit that there are things I don't know how to thoroughly test. If it's RF interference, I do have access to a spectrum analyzer and probe set at work. Maybe I should try that. Or are you referring to something else?
Very nice, have you tested for interference yet?
Most impressive copter design i ever seen!
Good work!
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