Blogs

We know you love DIYDrones... so here is the Valentine's gift from the Dev Team! Yeah, we love you back. LOL =)
Anyway, in fact the title of this post could also be "ArduCAM OSD Project meets Michael Oborne"!!!

This tool makes setting up the awesome MinimOSD board super easy!

You can also buy from your local distributor, like JDrones.

Now you can:

• enable and disable panels;
• positioning panels by drag or numeric input;
• save and load layouts from file;
• save and load layouts from board's EEPROM;
• test video mode switching with adaptive layout;
• update firmware;
• update character set;
• customize background picture;
• set grid on/off;
• test the layout with telemetry logs from Mission Planner;

If you want to know more about each feature, check this wiki page.

To upgrade your MinimOSD board just went to our download area and grab the "OSD Config" and "MinimOSD 1.9 Pack".
An update pack contains two files: the Firmware (.hex) and the CharSet (.mcm).

Pay attention to the right update order. The tutorials are linked below:

1. "Update Firmware" (it adds support to upload the character set);
2. "Update Charset".

I'm super happy with the progress of ArduCAM project.
Now with Michael aboard... the sky is the limit just the start!

Enjoy your new toy! ;) There is much more coming out.

Note: The battery remaining icon was temporarily disabled due it's a work in progress on APM code.

Hello fellow UAVers,
dronemapper.com
My UAV partner (Ross) and I have been working on a project that we'd love to get some feedback and additional ideas for. Our intention is to allow free access to this web based tool and also a really cheap subscription model per month (think $4 range) to support hosting costs and the large amount of cpu processing power needed to generate maps. The free users will get all the same features but lower resolution imagery and possibly less accurate georeferenced tiles/tiffs/added watermarks to support the site. No ads.
 

Our software and backend servers use tons of different open source packages to complete the process of georeferencing and building image mosaics. We are also trying to offer an "easy to use" UI to view each flight and all the associated data. We really hope you enjoy our ideas! We are planning to open the site up to beta users by request in a month or so. Please keep an eye out for more information on that.

We've been having some problems getting our own flight systems up and running, ranging from a bad MUX on an APM 1 (thanks for fixing!), APM2 delays, and code issues with the Tri-Copter platform. This has prevented us from getting amazing imagery on our own at this point. :( Lucky, the awesome guys at Petryx UAV posted a ton of sample imagery which is so cool! Pteryx FTP Sample Imagery

We can't wait to open the site to beta users so you can test your own imagery and flight paths, hopefully at that point we will have our own platform up and running!

So, here we go -- some screenshots and comments:

Upload your flight imagery and Ardulog/GPX/Petryx/CSV log file.
Imagery and Flight Processing Queue
Imagery Dashboard w/ Flight Path, GeoTIFF served via Geoserver, Blended and Georeferenced Mosaics

Same as above, different flight.

Georeferenced View w/ Google Earth API - Shows Tiles, Flight Path

Second Part of Georefenced View - Shows GeoTiff Mosaic Preview and Metadata

Third Part of Georeferenced View - Shows Additional Maps
 

Blended Mosaic

Our Tricopter platform. Quadcopter and also Skywalker platforms we've been testing!

Quadcopter w/ IR Powershot a490 Camera
 

We would love to hear some questions and comments!

Thanks for reading and thanks for your support,

DM Team (JP and Ross)

Famous author and public intellectual Francis Fukuyama, ("End of History", etc) is now a DIY Droner! He's blogging his project here. He's just doing a RC quad now, but no doubt now that he's got the bug he'll be shooting for more "real drone" things soon ;-)

The Robbe during Nuremberg toy fair 2012 has presented the new version quadricopter RO-Copter A-Frame with Acrylic Frame and P-frames, laser cut plywood. To complete both versions will be purchased separately the set of four brushless motors , receiver, radio and battery. Both versions of the parts are provided for the support of a compact camera.

http://www.robbe.de/ro-copter-a-frame.html

Paul.

The H-King Darkwing is a huge composite flying wing designed specifically for FPV, with its sleek design and menacing lines, this is one fantastic looking model!

Specifications:
Wingspan: 1727mm
Length (fuselage): 762mm
Wing Area: 49.3dm2
Dry Weight: 1400g

Required:
Your own 4 channel TX/RX with delta mixing
42mm Brushless Outrunner motor
60A~80A ESC
2 x Standard size MG servo
3700mAh~5000mAh 4s Lipoly battery
FPV Equipment

Price is US$ 167.44

More information on the Hobbyking site: http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=20276

Not being overly chuffed with the battery mount on the 3DR and wanting somewhere to mount a camera, I decided to make another layer to the quad. A third plate below the quad seemed idea. 

I fished out a scrap of unused fibreglass PCB I had in my goodie box. I took the quad apart to get at the bottom plate to copy as a template.

The normal plates have a series of 3 holes in the middle of each edge which seemed a perfect option to mount stuff. I drilled the same hole patter in the new plate.

Using M3 * 30mm screws built up my new platform. it is suspended under the quad and allows for a snug fit ot my 2200mAh 3S lipo. It simply slides in and is held there by itself. I might look at putting a strap in for safety to stop it sliding out.

The underside of the  board is the copper clad which I was going to etch off but decided against it. It would make a perfect  solution to adding more stuff like a camera gimbal because you can solder it :D

I did not take any pics during the build but it was pretty straight forward. The copper clad board is very easy to work with and rather strong. 

The only think I am concerned about and will be changing is the screw length. I think the battery is a very tight fit and apparently lipos expand as they (dis?)charge so this might be an issue. 35mm will be ample.

The battery in place (above)

It seems there are methods to increase accuracy of the GPS location to cm using a reference station network.

Real Time Kinematic (RTK) satellite navigation  is a technique used in land survey and in hydrographic survey based on the use of carrier phase measurements of the GPS, GLONASS and/or Galileo signals where a single reference station provides the real-time corrections, providing up to centimetre-level accuracy. When referring to GPS in particular, the system is also commonly referred to as Carrier-Phase Enhancement, CPGPS.

Check this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Time_Kinematic

I came across this video on my youtube feed today. How is this kind of endurance possible with standard LiPos? The last best flight time of 45 min was achieved by Holger Buss with his hexa mikrokopter if I'm not wrong. Can anybody shed light on how microdrones managed in excess of an hour?

Here a video a the latest firmware of the ThermoPilot v5.2 (2012 version) which uses a new algorithm (MLA) tested in HIL mode on Xplane v9.70 during a full autonomous slope soaring flight in high mountains. The ThermoPilot is a full enhancement of the ArduPlane v2.28 which adds the Thermal Hunting capabilitie and some others features for the gliders pilots. The ThermoPilot v5.0 has been tested successfully in july-august 2011 on a Cularis electro-glider and on oct 2011 on a ASW-24 3m50 electro-glider with an ArduPilot Mega 2560 v1.4 IMU (phase 3). The phase 4, now uses an APM v2 with the v2.28ThP5 firmware. I am using Xplane v9.70 as a test plateform in HIL mode because, it is able to reproduce with accuracy various weather conditions (thermal upwards, dynamic soaring, slope and/or ridge soaring) in a real 3D mapped world...

The ThermoPilot is able to do a cross country soaring mission and it is also able to do a slope soaring pattern pointed by two GPS points. These two points are pointed in flight by the pilot along the slope and then the glider is able to flight itself as long as the dynamics upwards are still actives.

More infos at:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arduplane-v2-full-autonomous-flight-hil-simulation-of-a-nimbus-4m

and at: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/thermopilot-project-a-thermal-hunter-glider-drone

Regards, Jean-Louis

Early december last year we spent a couple of days vacationing in the wild west and shooting some FPV videos. The videos will be released on a weekly basis over the next 2 months or so. We're kicking off the Road Trip with Lake Tahoe:

Follow the Road Trip on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/teamblacksheep

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5B40A0CC1FE25C63

Special thanks to:

HobbyKing: www.hobbyking.com

GoPro: www.gopro.com

Burton: www.burton.com

So guys here is what a finished one looks like. The level of stabilization is unbelievable, a key factor is in the torsional rigidity of the motor arms and the weight of the props. Whatever you do electronically I think it will be impossible to replicate this with upright long motors on a long stick. Demo videos will start when the weather improves. Bur after weeks of non stop wind and rain, efforts have been shifted to further dev. work.   

I finally translated all the website of my home-made UAV in english.

http://heli.bot.free.fr/index_en.html

Do not hesitate to post any question or comment about the UAV, about my work, or about the website!

Remember that this small UAV is totally home made, and do not come from any other project.
100% of the code is programmed by myself.

Have fun!

Leon - French hobbyist.

In the quest for daylight flying, it's our 1st attempt at detecting the position of an aircraft using the SURF implementation in OpenCV. It's a long way from detecting something flying in a room with lots of background detail & even with a noise free background it has a hard time with accuracy. The single 3.7Ghz core does 8fps.

This is the algorithm used by every augmented reality app ever made. It was invented in 2006.

Another problem with aircraft tracking is it's a 3D object.  All the demos of SURF show it tracking planar objects.  It could probably track the Marcy 1 logo, but not the complete aircraft.

Noticed SURF doesn't have any transparency support, so it requires either a rectangular object to search for or no background detail.

SURF isn't the answer we were hoping would enable daylight flying.   You're still limited to old fashioned keying.  Difference keying is still the most effective at separating the copter from the background, but the camera can't move.

There are brute force techniques.  They would require a cascaded search.  For each resolution, draw every possible ellipse & take the best match.  That wouldn't handle rotated ellipses, but they only occur during takeoff.  The camera could stay still during takeoff & use difference keying.

There's the hough transform for ellipse detection, which seems to be just another brute force search.

There's hybrid difference keying.  Make the camera stop moving every few frames to recompute the difference key.

  It's not very obvious why the thing needs to fly in daylight.  Luma keying in darkness is basically the poor man's Vicon & they in their infinite budget use IR cameras to remove the background.

Finally, we have some footage of what Marcy 1 looks like in the flying space.  Handheld & wide angle gives new possibilities, if not good quality.

Good day everyone,

Today I was contacted by some producers who do a ton of work making programs for the Discovery Channel. They do the shows like military channel etc.

Today we discussed Aerosight's availability to assist in a new show that will follow the UAS operators tracking down lost people in a SAR type of mission. The show will be a series, paid, and in and outside the USA. The involved companies/persons will need their own equipment that is capable of live data feeds. We are not needing POST data retrieved ships like JUST MAPPING but UAS capable of live moving map, optical, thermal etc. The UAS doesn't have to be all military grade, just effective! We are looking for packable UAS and operators as most of the filming is in tough climates. Think of packing your UAS in the man vs wild episodes. It will be like that at times.

We do not have anything signed at this time. I am only locating talent to assist should the contract be signed in the future. Obviously we still have the FAA to deal with but part of our group are military contractors so MAYBE we will have some clout there. Once wages etc are all agreed on, Aerosight will discuss finders fees for the series with all involved.

Please list all of your contact info, abilities, pics of equipment etc. And list any/all projects you have done, IE: Searches, Mapping, etc..

Reply to my email below:

Dave Skala / Aerosight

www.aerosight.com

www.civilianuav.com

My email:

uavdave@yahoo.com

I added very bright LED headlights to the quad a while back a) to freak the locals out at night and b) to help with orientation when the quad is far away. These are 12V LEDs and run straight of the 3S lipo. All was well....

One thing I don't like much is the rather small and dim SMD LED to tell me when the motors are armed. Mostly because it is small and dim but I also want to paint my CD spindle housing black.

So, why not make the LEDs turn on and off when the motors are armed and disarmed? Simple. We have a relay which can be controlled and I speak code (well, sort off).

A delve into the current 2.3 source code and I think motors.pde would be the best place to do this.

A simple relay.on() and a relay.off do the trick.

Now, I run the power from the LEDs from the battery, via the relay and the to the LEDs. Lights on. Lights off. :)

Hopefully this will help someone else do something like this.

if(motor_armed == false){

    // arm the motors and configure for flight
    init_arm_motors();
    //turn the headlights on
    relay.on();

}

...snip...

if(motor_armed == true){

    // arm the motors and configure for flight
    init_disarm_motors();
    //turn the headlights off
    relay.off();

}

p.s.

If there is a better place to put the command, I'm all ears. I've not studied the whole code

layout.

Here's a fun competition between a KK navboard quad and one flying the Ardupirates version of the ArduCopter code. They're set to the same GPS position hold target and then, well, watch the video....Very dramatic ending!

As is customary and traditional, we celebrate every new 1,000 members here and share the traffic stats. This time it's 22,000!

There were more than 1.33 million page views this month, which is a record. It just took us four weeks to get this latest 1,000 members--we're averaging about one new member every 43 minutes.

Thanks as always to all the community members who make this growth possible, and especially the moderators who approve membership applications and blog posts and otherwise answer questions and keep things ticking here. We've got about 40 moderators now, but if anyone would like to join this group, please PM me. If you've been here for a while and have been participating, you'll fit in great.

Fascinating NYU experiment reveals surprising data on fluid-dynamics for top-heavy airborne structures.  

From ScienceMag (video) via Wired Science: 

"Think that floating pyramids are more metaphysics than physics? Think again. Results just in from an experiment that levitated open-bottomed paper pyramids on gusts of air reveal a curious phenomenon: When it comes to drifting through the air, top-heavy designs are more stable than bottom-heavy ones. The finding may lead to robots that fly not like insects or birds but like jellyfish.

The researchers placed hollow paper pyramids inside the cylinder. The objects were about 1 to 5 centimeters high and were made of tissue paper or letter paper on carbon fiber supports, like tiny homemade kites. Physicist Bin Liu led the experiments, attaching a beadlike weight to a post running down the center of the pyramid and changing the height of the bead to give the object a different center of mass. Common sense says that the pyramid should be most stable when the bead is at the bottom of the post, like ballast in the hold of a ship. But when the team released the pyramids over the subwoofer, the opposite was true: the bottom-heavy pyramids were likely to flip over and fall, whereas the top-heavy ones remained upright and continued to hover (see first video), the group reports in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.

Zhang's team suggests that flapping pyramid or cone robots could combine stability and maneuverability. They would quickly right themselves if they leaned further than 30° in any direction, but within 30°, they should move freely."

Hello all!

Just a suggestion for those who got affected by the FAA enforcement policies against UAVs used for aerial Photography in LA area, and even if you are not affected by this you can use our telescopic masts that go up to 60 ft high.

No crashes, no more "mayday mayday, my batteries are dying", no police asking questions, no repairs and no parts to be ordered for replacement......

Most of my customers and even myself are completing 90% or more of the AP jobs only using telescopic masts, shooting the images from an average altitude of 35 - 45 ft.

Feel free to ask me questions at info@aeromao.com

More info is available here:

http://www.aeromao.com/telescopic_masts