1) I want a helicopter to fly by itself! Can you help? We get this one daily. I don't really understand why. Perhaps it's because helis are so hard to fly manually? At any rate, most of these folks don't stay long. As the regulars here know, helis are the hardest autonomy challenge there is, between vibration, lack of forward motion for GPS yaw correction and generally fiddlyness. It sounds easy ("can't I just use a gyro or something?"), perhaps because heading-hold gyros are so common in RC helis, but it's not.
2) Where can I buy a UAV ready to go? Do you have one for less than $100? This is pretty understandable, and maybe someday you will be able to buy UAVs at Target. But not yet. And this is, after all, DIY Drones.
3) I've got a tilt sensor/heli gyro/Wii controller/iPhone. Can it fly a plane? This is the reason we have the FAQ about the need to fuse data from three gyros and three accelerometers to create a full attitude solution right on the front page. Again, unless you know about gyro drift and accelerometer noise, you don't understand the need for both. Hopefully a little reading here will help explain all.
4) I want 2 build a UAV drone! Can u help me please sir! Sigh. This is invariably from college students from a certain country I won't name. No, we won't do your homework for you. Please do us the favor of reading the information on this site for just a minute before you ask people to repeat what's already here.
5) How do I do [X]? (where X is something linked right on the front page). This is probably our fault as much as newcomers', but there is an incredible volume of information on this site if people would take the trouble to look for it. We've tried to anticipate most needs with tabs, a search box, forums organized by categories and a newbie guide ("I'm new to this. Where do I start?") right at the top of the front page. As we move the documentation to the Google Code wikis, we'll have even more organizational features at our disposal. I suspect this is a job that's never done, but if you all have any suggestions on how to do it better, please leave them in the comments.
Comments
I really enjoy building stuff myself rathar than buying it ready as glup-n-play. Specially if there is a step by step manual like the ArduPilot.
And I think if someone doesn't like the idea of DIY, he should not waste his time here!
But most N00bs don't do that... they just want people to do all the work for them.
As for the blender, that is an easy one. When the autopilot detects insufficient roll and pitch oscillation in your locomotion it fires up the blender (AKA margarita machine). :)
LOL Barbie is a new one, but recall they just introduced the newest Barbie (now 50 years old and on her 126th career), "Computer Engineer Barbie."
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/barbies-next-career-comput...
If one needed to strap an action figure to an Arduino, there's the one.
I haven't seen you answering or trying to help any newbie either. Rest assured , no one is offending any newbie as every one here is /was/ were NOOB some time ago but being a open source forum with diverce, focused, self motivated bunch of busy folks doing their part, where time spent on newbie question that has been answered a dozen times before , is the time well spent doing some thing else. All that is asked/said is to do some home work by reading the forum beginner's pack. I bet you don't expect to go a public library , ask for a book and expect it to be read too. Even a public park has a fence around it , does it offend people going in or people walking by? does it prevent or dicourage people from haveing fun? Is the fence there to protect people inside or people outside or keep them seperate etc?
Part of this stems from the education system in those countries which favor memorization over problem solving and probably overly high expectations from their teachers.
Either way, it comes down to 'RTFM' or this case, search before asking!!
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