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"Remember, MyGeekShow has always been about failure, learning from it and making progress"

People who have been following Trent's journey will be aware his USA Trip, which received assistance via a successful funded Indiegogo campaign, was ended prematurely due to unforeseen complications.  Sadly, and adding insult the injury of his defeat, he has also had to endure some particularly unpalatable comments from those among his audience.  I expect that the almost unanimous chorus counselling him to sweep the leg and power on come what may, while obviously well intentioned, would also have given him somewhat mixed feelings.

Frankly it is overwhelmingly clear that Trent had little option but to abort his mission, as it was the only responsible course of action he could take in the circumstances.  Personally I think his decision to do so, even in the face of what must have seemed to have been an almost overwhelming pressure to push on, shows him to be exceedingly well qualified for the task he has set himself.

After a week of down time spent, among other things, nursing his pride and gathering his thoughts, Trent has reemerged with a direct and hard hitting response to his critics and an outpouring of appreciation for his supporters along with a detailed and well reasoned explanation of exactly why he chose to end his ambitious project early.  Most importantly, he has also reaffirmed his commitment to his ambitious project, which is fantastic news.

I look forward to continuing to follow Trent's progress as he works through the improvements, advancements and refinement necessary to better prepare him for the next attempt along with the opportunity to again support him in his endeavour.

minimOSD is a board that can read the flight data (MAVlink data) from Ardupilot and 

combine flight information symbol and input video signal into composited video signal. You can connect the video signal PAL/NTSC to your video transmitter. Here is my minimOSD test on my multicopter.

1. display setting using OSD config:

2. Video output result from minimOSD:

Summary:

The minimOSD is quite useful on FPV, but it is a bit expensive on its price.

Thank you all who have sent in their impressions already. Shirts are being printed, packed and sent to you! Sorry, not delivered by drones with help of UgCS yet!

If you want to fly your drone in style, you still can get our polo delivered to you completly for free. Just fly with our software and send us your impressions, suggestions or bug report! That is as easy as that, just one email or post on DIYdrones!

More info here: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/new-release-of-ugcs-and-goodies-up-for-grab

Happy flights!

UgCS Team

Seeing Andrew Tridgell's post on the SF02 LRF used for landings on APM, I thought I would post some flight logs of our landings using the same rangefinder.

NOTE - Log sample rates are 120milliseconds - each vertical line in the graph is 2.4seconds from the next.

The top chart shows Baro height (ASL..) . Our SurVoyeur A/C landing commences with a spiral down to 80meters AGL, and then lines up with a computed descent point, down a parabolic curve in a circle, to exit the circle at a point approx 20meters above ground, and lined up with the touchdown point.

Point - 1 above is the beginning of the spiral from 80M AGL down to the 20meter spiral exit point.

Ignore point -2 - that is where the datalink power is switched from 300mW to 20mW - short link loss during this period.

Point-4 is where the LRF is enabled - measures 38meters AGL - we switch to laser height here from ( always erroneous) Baro height. Pressure Alt is always in error - 0.5mbar is around 4 meters, so that bad for the touchdown. In a half hour flight, baro pressure can easily change by 0.5mbar...Temp compensation of static pressure sensors to give better than 2meter error is not simple, and even 2 meters error is not good for touchgdown.

Point-6 is the 20meter AGL spiral exit, lining the A/C onto the straight in landing approach, aiming at a GPS point.

A throttle from airspeed error and throttle from height error control loop manage throttle in this part, till touchdown.

In the top graph, the RED line is the commanded height to fly down - the green is the actual A/C height from Baro pressure.

In the lower graph the RED line is the LRF range height, and the green line from point 6 is the height line we wish to follow onto the flare to ground. This green line is computed form a desired descent rate, and manages the A/C height accordingly. Lots of gain scheduling in the height, speed and throttle loops happen from point-4 to point-5, the touchdown point. At point 5, the A/C flares in the final touchdown, with a descent rate of around 0,25m/s

In the graphs below, Point-1 is the start of the spiral down from 80meters AGL, 2 is the link power change point, and 3 is the flare in the pitch angle for the flare to touchdown - all works smoothly.

The oscillation in the A/C pitch angle in the lower graph (RED) at the touchdown, is from A/C pitching as it rolls over the rough terrain - a gravel plain with golfball size gravel...in the desert here. A/C is a tail dragger, so resting pitch is plus 12 deg, as seen in the final pitch angle below.

The lower graph - GREEN is the commanded pitch angle, RED is the A/C actual pitch angle.

The SF02 Laser Rangfinder works VERY well indeed - it does not compromise on range , nor does it have any limitations related to the type of surface from which it will work thanks to some smart and innovative design. ( ok, a mirror might not work..).

We used to use a SESCOMP ultrasonic rangefinder - which is a very good product, accurate, no noticeable wind disturbance effects, etc. However, the reliable working range is limited to 6meters max, and if you have a pressure ALT error of say 0.6mbar either way, an error of around 5meters, you introduce major pitch disturbances into the final flare due to a major step change between pressure alt and Ultrasound height when ultrasound is detected. This is at the worst point, where you are close to the ground, etc. The laser fixes all this!   

There is a new laser from LightWare.co.za, the SF10/a, with serial, I2C and analogue outputs, its smaller , and very neat. We intend to fit these as standard now on all our autoland airframes.

I would beware of options with smaller lenses and lower power emitters - they will not work reliably on 'all' surfaces' at expected ranges - from costly experience...

See my previous blog on the LRF for more info on its fitment to SurVoyeur, etc

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/laser-rangefinder-flights-tests-in-namibia-1

From the NamPilot..

Below the Ultrasound and Laser rangefinders                                                        Below the new SF10/A

Here's the video from day 2 of testing my 3D / reversible prop code. I still have a minor bug to work out in the acro pitch leveling code, but what's working is working well!

- Afro 30A ESCs with SimonK (reversing/braking/complementary)

- RcTimer 9x4.7" CF props (doubled up for symmetry) 

- RcTimer BC3530-10 1400KV motors

- Rctimer 450 frame

- Adrucopter3D code (based on Arducopter 2.9.1b)

Here's a close up of the prop configuration:

Remote control drone carrying drugs crash-lands at Wheatfield Prison

A sophisticated plan to land drugs into Wheatfield Prison using a state-of-the-art remote control drone has been foiled after it crash landed in the yard.

But before prison officers could retrieve it one inmate managed to pull the drugs off the device and swallow them.

An digital memory card onboard the mini-helicopter recorded the exact route the device took and also shows the smugglers carried out a trial run before the failed attempt.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/video-remote-control-drone-carrying-drugs-crashlands-at-wheatfield-prison-30384204.html#sthash.h6QlzCp1.dpuf

Andrew Tridgell has been testing laser rangefinder with ArduPlane, for more precise autolanding. Here's his report:

Testing the SF/02 laser rangefinder on a Pixhawk on my Meridian. Worked very nicely! Some results:

The baro showed a bit higher than the laser, but the laser was definitely much more accurate - the baro was affected quite a bit by the speed of the plane causing low pressure in the fuselage.
I connected it to the Pixhawk using the analog connection, on one of the two 3.3V ADC connectors. That gives very good resolution, and low noise.

Once PulsedLight's LIDAR-Lite changes to using a laser (as they plan to do) and fix the short range and long range issues (bad values at ranges below 1.5m and bad values at long ranges) I hope the two will have similar performance, and the I2C connection on the PulsedLight module will be a better fit. The LIDAR-Lite prototype I have now has a range of about 12m compared to 40m for the SF/02, and gives bad data at short and long ranges, so right now the SF/02 is better for the work I'm doing on landing, but longer term I'm hoping the LIDAR-Lite will be a great option

There is more discussion of this on the DIY Drones Dev list here.

Yes i was watching the hobbit :)

Just a quick heads up for people new to the Pixhawk.

If youe plug the switch led into the wrong connector, it will cause the GPS to short so it will be intermittent sometimes and not work at all the other times.

And sometimes it will no have enough power

this is just to help anyone who has this issue.

also PX4 man!

i cannot wait to fly!

I love the subhead of this piece, from Inc Magazine's annual "35 coolest entrepreneurs under 35" list: "Jordi Muñoz launched 3D Robotics with former Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson via email, didn't finish college, wrote the first autopilot drone program, and built a factory in Mexico all before he could legally drink a beer."

Here's the article:

In 2007, when Jordi Muñoz was 20 years old, he moved from Tijuana, Mexico to Riverside, California with his newly wedded and pregnant wife to get a green card and start a new life. While waiting eight months for his green card and with nothing better to do, Muñoz sunk himself into his passion: planes and computers.

"It was a nightmare, I was disconnected with my family in Tijuana, I couldn't work because I didn't have a green card or go to college," Muñoz tells Inc. "I started using my computer like a drug, I felt desperate and stupid. But, I realized microcomputers had great potential for phones, cars, and planes."

Muñoz hacked the sensors from a Nintendo Wii controller, wrote his own code, and equipped a remote helicopter with microcomputer boards to successfully build the first-ever auto-piloted drone. He recorded the flight with a camera and uploaded the video to a new website he stumbled upon called DIYdrones.com, which was created by former editor-in-chief of Wired magazine Chris Anderson. After Anderson saw the video, he sent the young inventor $500 so Muñoz could continue his work.

That's when Muñoz channeled his inner MacGyver. "I started making my own electronics, but I needed an oven to cook the chips. So, I went to Target and bought a toaster oven and hacked it with sensors to make it work like a professional reflow oven in my garage," says Muñoz. (A reflow oven, for the uninitiated, is a temperature controled heating system used to attach microchips to circuit boards.)

From there, he built all the software and hardware and setup an online store for enthusiats to build their own drones. "It was like selling drugs, I made the boards for $1 and the profit was amazing," he says. Not bad for an autodidact, who got his start in aeronautical engineering in a Mexican high school.

By 2009, Anderson and Muñoz founded 3D Robotics without ever meeting in person. By 2011, 3D Robotics, which sells all kinds of drones equipped with open source autopilot software--from the ready-to-fly Iris quadcopter, which comes assembled out of the box, toDIY quad kits, for the more experienced droner--had made $5 million in revenue. 3D Robotics' drones are bought by enthusiasts and hobbyists to fly for fun, but as the GoPro camera attaches to the underbelly, a range of professionals can use them to take aerial images--from real estate agents to military personnel. 

Muñoz, now 28, is awed by his success. Today, the drone startup that grew out of his apartment is the largest commercial drone manufacturer in North America and the second largest in the world after China's DJI. And with more than 200 employees, a manufacturing plant in Tijuana, and two other offices in San Diego and Berkeley, the sky appears to be the limit for 3D Robotics and Muñoz.

"He's of the native web generation," says Anderson, who did end up meeting his co-founder after all. "Jordi doesn't know what he doesn't know. He has access to Google, the greatest information resource the world has ever seen. He didn't know teenagers aren't supposed to build factories, he just did it." He adds: "Muñoz has animal instincts about where technology is going and the courage and time to just do it."

This is an excerpt a post I developed in conjunction with Mitch Solomon of Aironovo.

—-

Since its publication in early 2013, AUVSI’s The Economic Impact of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the United States has become the gold standard forecast for the commercial drone market, garnering media attention typically reserved for celebrity weddings and babies born to royalty.  Its primary forecast is that the UAS market will reach a whopping $1.14 billion in the first year after the FAA issues favorable regulations and that the precision agriculture market will “dwarf all others.”

The accuracy of these predictions is enormously important. A lot of people – tens of thousands, if not more – have been relying upon them for big decisions like, “Should I leave my job to start a drone company?” or “Which market should my company pursue?”  But commercial drones are not just cocktail party conversation–they are increasingly driving the flow of capital and labor, and impacting many lives in the process.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Recently, however, a growing chorus of industry observers has started to ask questions about the reliability of AUVSI’s findings. This post at Drone Analyst is a good example. These individuals, many of whom are among the true pioneers in commercial UAS usage, can best be characterized as enthusiastic but pragmatic UAS evangelists who don’t want to see unwarranted hyperbole lead to unmet expectations.  Many realize that initially overhyped industries never recover because customers, investors, and employees who were burned in the initial wave of unmet expectations are difficult—if not impossible—to ever win back.  They are passionately committed to the industry’s success and believe that rational expectations are a key part of it.

With no axe to grind or agenda to advance, I [Mitch Solomon] partnered with Colin Snow @droneanalyst to explore whether the skeptics and pragmatists were on to some something.  We felt our combined backgrounds in market intelligence and tech market strategy would give us a reasonable set of expertise to draw upon and would help others form a more balanced opinion of AUVSI’s forecasts.  So over the past several weeks, we’ve been carefully reviewing AUVSI’s report, as follows:

• Compared their research methodologies to what we believe to be best practices in market research based upon our own experience.
• Conducted an in-depth interview with the researchers themselves, so that we could directly ask them questions about their methods and results that were not made clear in the report.
• Initiated a follow-up discussion with AUVSI leadership to understand their perspective on the report and its origins.
• Performed intensive primary research with about 20 carefully selected professionals in the field of precision agriculture to understand their UAS adoption plans, since the report’s findings are almost entirely based upon rapid adoption by American farmers.

We then synthesized our findings into the following five conclusions about the report and its reliability.

Read more here: http://droneanalyst.com/2014/06/25/five-reasons-the-auvsi-got-its-drone-market-forecast-wrong/

Once again, London calling all UK multi-rotor pilots for an opportunity to fly a "Peace Drone" during MIA's Lovebox performance on July 19, 2014.

This is a general call for mulit-rotor pilots. UK multi rotor pilots needed the week of July 17-19, 2014. This is a project in the London area and we are looking for 10 pilots to fly multi-rotors. A few requirements include:

* Ability to fly a quadcopter in a safe and repeatable manner. This includes tight formation flying in manual mode.

* Multi-rotors and radios provided on location. Here's a link to MIA's DBT video that includes "Peace Drones": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AKH16--VE

* Looking for Mode 2 flyers but not a deal breaker depending on skill

If interested, please provide a name and contact information either in the comments, via my diydrones account or an email to the following address: info@hooperfly.com

Cheers,
Rich (a.k.a. HooperFly)

Well the big news of this week, this month and possibly this year is that Colin Guinn is back in the multicopter business and this time with 3D Robotics, his employment was confirmed this afternoon.

Colin Guinn was the global face of DJI on YouTube, known for his tutorials on using the Phantom, he specifically credited his team for DJI’s 27,000 Facebook likes and 30,000 YouTube subscribers and millions of views in the injunction against DJI that was filed on 22nd of January 2014.

The fact 3D Robotics is a US company and Guinn has experience building up a multicopter brand in America makes for an interesting combination.

The multicopter masses had a love hate relationship with Colin Guinn, his tutorials on the Phantom were universally well received but there was frustration that problems such as fly-aways were never really addressed except on one video by Mitch Bergsma, which DJI recently tried to have taken down but appeared to relent after a social media outcry, even this video presented fly-aways as a preventable user error which isn’t a fair analysis.

If Colin Guinn enters the social media limelight for 3D Robotics, it would be welcomed if this time around there’s a more open and honest appraisal of the benefits along with the risks of using multicopters.

Colin Guinn clearly is successful at marketing but new users of multicopters such as those from professional photography backgrounds expect excellent customer service such as that offered by Canon, so marketing spin alone isn’t enough.  3D Robotics has to date offered, especially to IRIS users, very good customer service, that is a focus it cannot afford to lose.

3D Robotics is playing catch up, whilst its newest quadcopter the IRIS has a loyal following and has a lot of power features, it clearly wasn’t designed for video photography and the offering of the Tarot gimbal really isn’t inspiring.  With Colin Guinn on board, could his passion for creating video with multicopters help 3D Robotics redefine its product offerings?

Great interactive map of drone legislation from Marketwatch. Clickable version is at the link below:

As the federal government decides how to regulate drones in the U.S., states are moving on their own. Check out the status of drone legislation in your state here.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-25/casa-plans-legal-action-over-drone-crash-in-geraldton/5550764

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is planning legal action against a drone operator after a triathlon competitor was allegedly hit by an unmanned aircraft in WA's Mid West.

If it goes ahead, CASA says it will be the first time in Australia that the use of drones has resulted in court action.

This was discussed on diydrones in this blog http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A1615437&commentId=705844%3AComment%3A1620321

Wow. The AMA response to the new FAA rules is scorching: 

States AMA President Bob Brown, “The FAA interpretive rule effectively negates Congress’ intentions, and is contrary to the law. Section 336(a) of the Public Law states that, ‘the Federal
Aviation Administration may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model  aircraft…’, this interpretive rule specifically addresses model aircraft, effectively establishes rules that model aircraft were not previously subject to and is in direct violation of the congressional mandate in the 2012 FAA reauthorization bill.” The interpretive rule reflects the FAA’s disregard for and its unfamiliarity with the makeup of the modeling community. Nearly 20% of the AMA membership is 19 years old or younger and an even greater percentage is retirees over the age of 65. FAA’s intention to impose a strict regulatory approach to the operation of model aircraft in the hands of our youth and elderly members threatens to destroy a wholesome and enriching activity enjoyed by a vast cross-section of our society.

“AMA cannot support this rule.” said AMA Executive Director Dave Mathewson. “It is at best  ill-conceived and at worst intentionally punitive and retaliatory. The Academy strongly requests the FAA reconsider this action. The AMA will pursue all available recourse to dissuade enactment of this rule.”

Ground Station for the Phantom 2 Vision and the Phantom 2 Vision+ has arrived. Now you can program in a flight, let go of your controller and focus on getting the shot you want.

Features: 
- 16 waypoints 
- 3.1 mile (5Km) total flight distance 
- 500m range
- Safety features including waypoint flight prevention when the battery is below 30%, a go home trigger and an altitude limit of 200m.

Works great!  Flew our first mission this morning.

From CNN:

Seeking to speed up government rule-making about the use of drones in newsgathering, CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology said Monday that they would jointly study how to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) safely and effectively.

In a press release, the partners called it a "research initiative" and said they will share data with the Federal Aviation Authority "as it considers regulations that will allow for the safe and effective operation of UAVs by media outlets."

The announcement comes amid widespread interest in newsrooms across the country in what's been dubbed "drone journalism," and equally widespread uncertainty about the legality of it. The FAA has severely limited the use of drones for commercial purposes, including newsgathering. It is due to develop new drone rules by September 2015.

"Our hope is that by working cooperatively to share knowledge, we can accelerate the process for CNN and other media organizations to safely integrate this new technology into their coverage plans," David Vigilante, CNN's senior vice president for legal, said in a statement. "It's a natural opportunity to work with our neighbors at Georgia Tech, who have experience and insights into this area."

CNN and the university said the project work would start sometime this summer. "The effort will evaluate the technology, personnel and safety needs to operate effectively in the national air space," according to the press release. (CNN and CNNMoney are owned by Time Warner.)

"We're excited to be engaging with CNN to study the newsgathering applications for UAVs and look forward to working with one of the most respected news operations in the world," said Mike Heiges, principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the feedback that was sent to us. We are happy to announce here are the latest updates:

• Support for Tlogs. 
• Bulk drag and drop uploader for Tlogs. Description is set to filename, date from the Tlog data.
• UAV limit removed. You can now create and store more than 1 UAV. Service is still free, guaranteed. 
• Report Log Feature
  • Can report logs that fail processing
  • Can report problems with processed logs
• Tabs in Log List, one for processed, one for failed logs
• Faster load time for Detail Log Views
• Battery data plot for Tlogs
• Privacy policy is now available here: http://exmaps.com/privacy. This is important to us, I thought we needed to state as a service where we stand on this. 

We hope you can give this service a try and drop as a line at hello@exmaps.com. Appreciate the feedback and keep them coming!

Weiliang