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This is an amazing price for a very capable multicopter flight controller board with GPS: just $65!

The MultiWii team has been using the ArduCopter code to add navigation elements to what used to be just an RC controller (the board is based on the same Atmega2560 processor as APM). This looks like a great opportunity to see how well it works. Ordered!

It looks like the main differences between this board and APM 2.5 (aside from size, connectors and enclosure) are:

• No secondary processor for RC interface/failsafe
• Older sensors (more like the ones used in the original APM 1.0)
• No datalogging

Still, an amazing price and great way to get started with the MultiWii software.

From the product listing:

The MultiWii PRO is a gyro/accelerometer based flight controller that is loaded with features. This version of the MultiWii supports direct connection of a GPS module (package includes MTK 3329 GPS module) allowing for ultra-precise positioning functionality. With expandability options and full programmability, this device can control just about any type of aircraft. This is the ideal flight controller for your multi-rotor aircraft.

Features:
(MultiWii PRO)
• SMD component design with Atmega2560
• ITG3205 Triple Axis Gyro
• BMA180 Accelerometer
• BMP085 Barometer
• HMC5883L Magnetometer
• Servo output for camera pitch and roll control
• Supports direct connection of GPS module (MTK 3329 GPS module included)
• On-board USB connection for programming

(MTK 3329 GPS Module)
• Based on MediaTek Single Chip Architecture.
• L1 Frequency, C/A code, 66 channels
• High Sensitivity, Up to -165dBm tracking, providing superior urban performance
• DGPS(WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS) support (optional by firmware)
• USB/UART Interface
• Supports AGPS function (Offline mode: EPO valid up to 14 days)

HobbyKing has introduced an adaptor that makes it easy to flash Atmel processors such as those found on ESCs.  Flash SimonK firmware without even taking them off of your multirotor!  I've started a product summary here:

http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/09/atmel-flashing-tool-from-hobbyking.html

Life is becoming pretty difficult for drones lover in Belgium: apparently the department of air transports in Belgium has either approved a new law or a new interpretation of an old one, which equiparates drones to any other RC aircraft: under that interpretation, drones can only take off from approved terrains, and can only go maximum 400m from the RC club, and must stay at more than 200m from any building.

That means that basically autonomous drones like Arducopter can do autonomous missions only inside the air space of the RC club, so they cannot even be tested in your own garden. This is even a bigger threat to other "toy drones" like Ar.Drone, because I doubt people that buy such "toys" will ever join a RC club (which might cost a few hundreds euro per year).

The article cites that the main problem is the protection of privacy since all drones are equipped with cameras and might pictures.

Here is the link to article that discusses about that topic: Drones à usage civil en Belgique : interdiction de décoller depuis le jardin (in French, sorry).

www.onedrone.com

We would like to present another new 3DRobotics - diydrones - distributor ... this time from a small EU country. We are trying hard to gather all the greatest brands from hobby UAV, FPV and hi-tech in one place at a competitive prices (yes ... we know ... prices are higher than in US and Asia ... but they all include VAT, which is subtracted for the customers outside EU). We are offering products from premium brands like Team BlackSheep, DJI, 3DRobotics, Hubsan, LawMate, KopterWorx, Revolectrix, ImmersionRC, Graupner, FatShark, GoPro, ... and we are adding new brands and products every week to our portfolio.

Welcome to our shop! We will be happy to see some constructive critics and opinions about our store. And even happier if you buy something :)

Special thanks to Trappy (for inspiration, tnns of information and for answering our annoying mails about stock availabilities and shipping times ;) ... and to all the members of diydrones community. We've really learned a lot from you.

Best regards,

Robert

OneDrone.com

It took me a little while to learn what most of the switches and buttons on my DX6i could do. This past weekend the Trainer switch was assigned to start the timer in a count up mode.

Behold!

With my EFlite 30C 11.1V 3200 mAh battery almost 7 minutes of mostly hovering flight was achieved (no touch down at all until exhausted).

"Is that all you get?" comes the question from the group.

To that end one issue has been my conservative approach to charging the battery. Keeping a battery cycle log seemed like a good idea and there the evidence can be seen that although a few balancing charges have been made, the charge rate needs to increase. The cell values of the charge prior to this flight were: 3.96, 3.97, 3.97. The first couple of cycles saw 4.2V nominal. I seem to remember dropping the charge current to 800 mA. The heli buff at my LHS keeps his cells at the 4.2V level.

I think this battery can handle more, don't you?

Oh, did I tell everyone on the 3DR and APM hard/software teams how happy I am with the way this copter flies?

WOW! It flies like it has rails and I haven't even adjusted any of the PID settings or any other variables, just TX trim. Many times I have simply held the TX in my right hand and enjoyed watching her sit in the air. Hi-5 to all the devs. Why anyone would want another autopilot is beyond me.

So, if you read this, and you have some data, why not respond with your flight times. Once the battery is topping off better, I am sure the time will be closer to 8 minutes. Cutting weight would help on this bird but.. I won't complain about her weight if she doesn't complain about my flying. ;)

Of course if you have two batteries, half my weight (now at 3.4 lbs/1.5 kg with battery), then you will stay in the air longer.

This build is a trainer/development platform. The next build may be also based on the 3DR frame but the goal will be to cut frame weight to allow 2 batteries.

I've got the multicopter monkey on my back now...and I love it.

Globaltop PA6C Gps module

• based on new mediatek 3339  chipset
• Real sattelite fix time 5-7s (in home too) before ardupilot is calibrated -module always get lock
• high accuracy
• pin-compatible with APM2.0  & PA6B (previous 3329 chipset) adapter
  

get download tool & firmware with preset 38400 bps, GPGGA, GPVTG strings - for compatibility with Ardupilot/Arducopter software download here
 

configure arduino sketch APM_Config.h add this:

# define GPS_PROTOCOL GPS_PROTOCOL_NMEA

in libraries fix bug in module AP_GPS_NMEA.cpp (AC ver 2.7.3 / ap 2.6)

find uint16_t frac_min

and change to uint32_t frac_min

to pin 4 connect 5,5V 0.22F ionistor type EECS0HD224V Panasonic

Hey everyone!

 Many of my supporters over at kickstarter and here have been wringing their hands, waiting for me to publish a 3-D model of the Techpods internal volume.Here you go!

Download an iges file here for you CAD folks. 

techcargo_fill.IGS

have a great day!

Image: 1st Run

AVC was great fun and even though I went for broke on the last run and lost my copter, it was well worth it. I learned a lot about copter navigation. The latest code includes all of the updates, which is being tested now by Jack Dunkle.

Run 1 went really well. In turn 1 you can see the copter overshot the waypoint. Crosstrack error pulled the copter back to the desired path and kept it from being blown into the building from the high winds. The sonar altitude hold was working really well. Later the wind would pick up and make the copter go higher than sonar, which made it susceptible to an altitude hold bug. More on that later...

Each waypoint was hit perfectly, even though the copter tended to go too fast (17mph) and overshoot. At Turn 4 the copter buzzed the crowd at about 6 feet. Thankfully everyone ducked. Then the copter went to position hold for 4 seconds to settle down before going to land. Unfortunately this area was really windy and the copter was blown towards a tree. I had to abort by popping the copter up by 50 feet. 

At that point I thought I would try and finish the mission by landing in Auto. Unfortunately, I had set the mission to reset on entering Auto. It began to re-fly the mission at about 100ft now. It hit turn 1, then a gust of wind grabbed it on the way to turn 2. That wind was 50MPH. 

I was able to recover the copter this time. But the next two runs were not so lucky.

Run 2 went bad quickly. The wind shifted and lifted the copter above sonar range almost immediately. The baro alt hold bug kept it from coming back down properly. The wind above the building was gusty and blew the copter to the front of the building. Then a loose battery fell out of the copter... Because the motors were now free spinning, it auto_rotated to an upright landing from > 100 ft. The landing gear - plastic heli skids were partially broken, but it was otherwise in perfect shape. I should've taken the hint and called it a day, but run three was my last chance to finish.

Run 3:

It looked identical to run 2, except the copter kept climbing and the high winds just swept it away.

Anyway, much learned and code updated. I am trying a rate limited version of waypoint navigation. The idea is that the copter will want to travel at a certain speed towards the waypoint. This enables it to fight high winds by flying steep angles. It will also make overruns more predictable. 

Once these new updates are tested, I'll open up the code to a public beta.

Jason

Some photos posted by Mark Grennen:

Love this one:

UPDATE:

I actually recovered the lost copter when I returned to Sparkfun this year to compete. It somehow found it's way back to me, thankfully.

The flight was doomed form the start. Once it cleared the buildings it was swept away by 50-60 mph winds. I clocked it with the GPS going up to 69mph at one point. Here's the recovered data log plotted in Google Earth.

This was very early software that was literally more bugs than good code. In fact, the morning of the race was the first time it ever flew autonomously. We've come a long way thanks to Tridge and Randy and others, not to mention the Flash SIM I built to develop the current flight management system. Looking back at this flight I'm amazed it actually worked at all.

If you've not flown the latest 2.7.3 you're in for a treat.

Jason

Good news: After banning multicopters this year because of space/safety concerns, Sparkfun will be moving the aerial competitions to another location next year so all vehicles can participate. 

At this point, you might be asking yourself, "Self, how can they possibly allow unlimited entries, quadcopters, and massive-scale robots at their current location." Well, that's the catch. AVC 2013 won't be held at SparkFun headquarters and the aerial and ground competitions will run concurrently in separate locations.

Details here. 

I went out to Citrusdal to try to film a mountain bike race using FPV/Arduplane. It went really well and it could've worked, but I decided to relocate at the last moment and triggered RTL forgetting that I launched from the valley 350 meters below, so it dropped altitude while still over the mountain, smearing my Skywalker along a cliff face...

But we had fun and lesson learned.

My interests tend towards high-altitude balloons, but I find that there's more than enough overlap in the technology here to keep me coming back (in case you haven't noticed, there's some darn cool stuff that happens here).  So far, I haven't had a reason to actually post to the blog, but this might be relevant enough to justify consuming your time: a camera that is designed to output composite video while recording 1080p high-def.  Check out the video above (if you can, watch in 1080p), then read on....

A week prior to this flight, Sparkfun announced the camera that we used to capture this video, the HackHD (Manufacturer Page) (Sparkfun Product Page).  You can find all kinds of information that we captured on our review of the camera, but what I thought might get the attention of this community was that it also offers a live NTSC video output during recording. 

(Image from www.sparkfun.com)

Pins 5 and 6 of the module are ground and video out respectively (Pin 1 is near the uSD slot), and, sure enough, they output live video while the camera is recording (the lens flare in the video is my camera flash; note that the rest of the video is still pretty clear):

Bottom line is that this camera is smaller and lighter than a gopro, will run for a very long time on the 6000 mAh pack from Sparkfun, has awesome dynamic range, and is extremely easy to set up... it's going to be a permanent fixture on our balloon flights going forward, and it might be of interest to you as well.

Watch it on the BBC's site here (embedding not enabled, sadly). Includes a bit about the troubles the West Wales Airport, which is hoping to become a drone center, is having finding tenants. Also includes an opera singer, who is worried about drones over her house, singing "Does it fall from the skies above?"

That cool retractable pan/tilt that we wrote about last week is now available in a mini size. $25 for MDF, or $35 for ABS plastic. Details here, video follows.  

The highlight of this year’s voestalpine Klangwolke in Linz, Austria, was a choreographed air show with 50 small helicopters equipped with LEDs. Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies GmbH set a world record with this, because this was the largest swarm of these “quadrocopters” (so called because of their four rotors) outdoors at the same time.

Full story

Perhaps this story really speaks to the fact that this would not have been allowed in the USA.....

The APM 1 board is still very popular, especially with fixed-wing pilots, but our world is moving to the smaller APM 2.x boards pretty quickly. So 3D Robotics is clearing their inventory of APM 1 boards with much lower prices. 

The full APM 1 kit is now $100 off, at $150

And for all of you with the original (and now obsolete) APM 1 1280 boards, you can upgrade to APM 1 2560, which is fully supported by modern code, for just $49 

In the quest for ground clearance and light weight legs I think I found a great product. 

These landing gear are usually made for 90 grade F3A Airplane but they fit very well on the 3DR frame. 

Super sturdy, made of Carbon fiber and shaped to absorb some impact (they are very stiff) they work great and will not add a lot more weight.  I first saw something similar on the uDrones products but they were straight and looked a bit thin.

I always try to bring you guys the best products and I sure know I got a lot of request for longer, stronger legs.  Well here they are and as a bonus I find them pretty sexy!  hehe 

As usual, let me know what you think? keeper product or not? 

https://www.canadadrones.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CF-LEGS-20-2

Real clearance under the center plate is more 17cm (around 6 1/2 inches) 

This is a really sexy 3DR Hexa!   Oh and the props are 11X4.7 real Carbon Fiber too, this is stiff and price went down recently so really happy to offer them now! 

With 2.7.3 out there is no excuses to not fly!! 

I'm not quite sure that they're right that this is the first autonomous transition from vertical to horizontal flight (there are some others that do that already, including Quadshot, although I suppose they could argue that it's more of a copter than a plane, or maybe not a full UAV?), but impressive all the same. 

From Hackaday:

 [Team ATMOS] from Tu Delft University in the Netherlands, has developed a UAV that can autonomously transition from quadcopter flight to that of a fixed-wing aircraft. Although the world has seen several successful examples of transitioning-flight or VTOL aircraft, team [ATMOS] claims to have made the first autonomous transition of this type of craft.

This UAV was featured in their school newspaper, which provides a write-up about the work that went into creating this hybrid UAV. When you’re done with that, be sure to check out the two videos after the break. The first shows the [ATMOS] taking off vertically and flying off as a flying-wing fixed aircraft. The second video shows this and other UAVs in the [DARPA] competition that it was designed for. Fast forward to 2:24 to see this aircraft do a fly-by.

I know that the it looks like I have a a prop balance issue but it is actually a bent prop causing the vibration and (jello effect) I have new props on order. 

Other then that I have the Quad working well in Alt Hold and stable so far. working on the reset still.

I just caught the Foreign Correspondent documentary on Drones, Rise of the machines, and I have to say it was quite balanced, it presented all the issues currently surrounding civilian UAVs quite well. It features Chris Anderson and Team Blacksheep.

I imagine it will on iView very shortly: http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2012/s3582815.htm

Look! Up in the sky. It’s a bird*, it’s a plane. It’s a floating TV station streaming live to the web. It’s a prying lens snapping lucrative snaps of a celebrity party. It’s the police chasing suspects. It’s kids playing in the park. It’s a government agency keeping an eye on things. It’s all of the above.

Just as mobiles and wireless dramatically changed the way we live our everyday lives, drones are set to become the next game-changer.

"This is a powerful technology. It is real, it is coming. No amount of hand-wringing is going to stop it." PETER SINGER Drone Expert, Brookings Institution

For many onlookers, drones have been a controversial weapon prowling over foreign battlegrounds targeting enemy combatants and terrorists, often with devastating consequences for hapless civilians in the vicinity. Now as America’s military campaigns wind down many of those drones are coming home, losing the military decals and weaponry and turning their attention to porous borders, law enforcement and a myriad of civilian uses.

“The size of the industry - it’s billions of dollars. $30 billion by 2015 was one estimate I’ve seen.” CHRIS ANDERSON Editor, Wired Magazine, Drone entrepreneur.

The exponential growth is happening with smaller drones in the hands of anyone with a few hundred dollars and access to the local hobby shop. They can buy a sophisticated, unmanned aerial vehicle over the counter. Guided by GPS and tiny autopilots, hobby drones now have the ability to fly for miles providing sharp video vision directly back to the pilot. But hobbyists are one thing, some operators are defying the law and flying their drones for commercial purposes; Journalists chasing a story, real estate agents selling a house, paparazzi chasing celebrities and a big-pay day.

"Well I wouldn’t step out on your wife, that’s really the first thing. I think it will cut down dramatically on adultery. What should people do? I’d say carry an umbrella.” CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Syndicated columnist and conservative commentator

In just three years an order from the US Congress will see tens of thousands of drones take off legally into an already crowded sky, competing for space with domestic aviation. It’s a regulator's nightmare. No one seems to know how it will be managed. Supporters see farmers and scientists at the controls. Opponents fear terrorist drones.

“There are political, legal and ethical issues that play out with this. Everything from how do we ensure rights of privacy, to what way the police should be allowed to use them, what way should they not be allowed to use them and how do we keep bad actors from utilising these technologies?” PETER SINGER Drone Expert, Bookings Institution