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Easy to use FrSky-library for Arduino

20111221073704890.jpgFor my Control Station project, I also started writing a bunch of decoding function for the FrSky telemetry protocol.

I have now moved those functions into their own library for Arduino. My focus while writing and expanding this library is on ease of use. There is already Arduino code available but I found that a bit complicated to integrate. With the new library, all the user needs to do, is read one char from the serial port and send it to the library via the ::update method. All the decoding is done internally. The ::update method returns 1 when a complete packet was received, otherwise it returns 0. There is (will be) a dedicated method to access every parameter. I'll also try to keep up the detailled documentation.

At the moment, the library decodes only the basic information, RX A1 & A2 ports, uplink and downlink RSSI. Additional sensors will be included as I receive the hardware (which hopefully is soon).

Find the library at GitHub.

Example use (on MEGA 2560):

#include <frsky.h>
FrSky frsky;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial2.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
if (Serial2.available()) {
char c = Serial2.read();
if (frsky.update(c)) {
Serial.print("TX RSSI: ");
Serial.println(frsky.getLink_up());
Serial.print("Telemetry RSSI: ");
Serial.println(frsky.getLink_dn());
Serial.print("RX Voltage: ");
Serial.println(frsky.getRX_a1()*0.0517647058824);
Serial.print("A2 Voltage: ");
Serial.println(frsky.getRX_a2()*0.0129411764706);
}
}
}
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3D Robotics

3689505297?profile=originalYou may have noticed some slight design changes here over the past day, which are simply me band-aiding a situation where the external site that hosted some of our design files shut down, leaving a bunch of broken images and mangled CSS here. For now I've reverted to some native Ning design features and brought back an old header (above), but this strikes me as a good time to start the process of a proper redesign. 

In Spring, Ning (which we're hosted on) will roll out a bunch of new design and functionality features, which should improve things here considerably. It still won't perfect, especially for very long comment threads, so we're going to launch some new forums for product/software discussion/support on the new manual/wiki site that we'll be previewing in a few weeks. These new forums will be based on a very good WordPress forum plug-in, so they should be a big step up from what we've currently got. And by pushing product/technical support to a separate site, DIY Drones can focus more on its original function on news and discussion about civilian UAVs and technology in general. 

In the meantime, it's time to update our header. So I'd like to launch a competition for the best design. The winner will get an APM 2.5+.

Guidelines:

  • Create a rectangular graphic (width 955 1,000 pixels, height anything from 100 to 200 pixels) that will replace the above. 
  • The name should stay the same ("DIY Drones") but the tagline should change to "Amateur UAVs, Contests, Products and More" Revision: I've had advice to lead with "community", so let's try this: "The Leading Community for Amateur and Civilian UAVs" Another revision! After yet more advice, let's go with "The leading community for personal UAVs"You can use any style you think looks best (caps or lowercase).
  • There should be some image of a UAV. Ideally, it should look cool and "drone-like" but not look military or threatening. Fixed wing or multicopter, it's up to you.
  • Post your submissions in the comments below
  • The competition will run one month, until March 23rd

Last time we did this, back in 2010, we got some great submissions. I'm looking forward to seeing what the design talent in this community can come up with this time!

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Doodle your Drone

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I recently came across the 3Doodler on Kickstarter.  Imagine creating some of your quad parts with this!:)

It's a pen that can draw in the air! 3Doodler is the 3D printing pen you can hold in your hand. Lift your imagination off the page!

3Doodler is the world’s first and only 3D Printing Pen. Using ABS plastic (the material used by many 3D printers), 3Doodler draws in the air or on surfaces. It’s compact and easy to use, and requires no software or computers. You just plug it into a power socket and can start drawing anything within minutes.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pen

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100KM

Proposal to merge XFLR5 and PX4

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(copied from my blog at hobbyuav.com)

Hey everyone!

I have not found a place where the fixed-wing control for the PX4 is being done so I started this blog.

Above is a Screen shot from XFLR5. I use it to mathematically model the physical form of an airplane. I can then take this description of said plane and then start modeling the flow of air over the surfaces described is the model. You can then send modeled air at it in different angles and at different viscosity. In other words different pitches and yaws as well as different air densities or altitudes.

I use it all the time to make U.A.Vs. I think it should be integrated into the PX4 so that we can start introducing into the mathematical models of the control algorithms, a model of the crafts interaction with its environment (air).  Thus achieving a much more complete  mathematical description of the system.

This can be implemented by modeling the aicraft in XFLR5 then taking the results and generating LUTs of the predicted  air/air-frame interactions. just one example of this would be to use the generated full airplane polar graphs to predict what AOA at a given speed and air density, should produce level flight or even produce a desired vertical acceleration (climb or dive). This would greatly reduce the dependence on the PID loop to achieve a given altitude, making the system much more stable at a greater range of the aircrafts flight envelope.

This can also be applied to different control loops as well. yaw and roll control. It can also be applied to  every control surface as well. XFLR5 can generate tables of inertial moment data as well giving you a Cm polar. this can be calculated for various control surface angles. You can then  take the aerodynamic Cm data and combine it with a physical inertial model to do a full stability analysis. The output of the Cm and the inertial model data can then be feed in to the control loops to achieve desired rotational accelerations instead of purely relying on the PID loop. Giving the control loops a much wider dynamic range that is possible with just a PID loop.

high-alfa.jpg?w=560&h=325

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An Interview with Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics

I have a little blog about my experiences with quadcopters called OddCopter.com. I have been so impressed by the recent feature enhancements and popularity of the APM2.5+ platform that I wanted to track down Chris Anderson and see if he would do an interview for my blog. He graciously accepted and here are the results:

An Interview with Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics

I think the interview turned out great and contains some really interesting stuff. Please check it out if you get a chance.

I am fairly new to the DIYDrones community. I have only used the ArduCopter software via the MegaPiratesNG port running on a MultiWii Pro Board. I have a Naza, and when I had tried various open source projects in the past, the altitude hold feature didn't seem to measure up, However, I noticed the recent iterations MegaPiratesNG had huge improvements in Altitude Hold. I also setup and flew a few missions a while back. It was a little scary for me, but it worked great. This has gotten my really excited about getting the real thing and giving it a try! 

Britt

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3D Robotics

iPhone-controlled paper airplane

3689505317?profile=originalFrom Gizmag:

Earlier this month, we reported on the PowerUp 3.0 – a US$50 kit that lets you control a powered paper airplane via your smartphone. At the time, we were still waiting to hear back from its designer, regarding how a simple add-on motorized propeller could be used to actually steer the plane. Now we know.

To recap our previous article, the PowerUp 3.0 kit consists of a capacitor joined to a propeller by a carbon fiber shaft, that can be attached to a user-supplied folded paper airplane made from regular A4 or 8.5 x 11-inch copier paper. Using an iPhone equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 and PowerUp’s app, the user can then control the flight-path of that plane. But how?

As was suggested by some of our readers, the kit turns the plane via a small tail rudder, and climbs and descends via throttle control – this means that whenever it speeds up, it climbs, and whenever it slows down, it descends. According to creator Shai Goitein, the rudder is controlled simply by tipping the phone left or right.

“The really cool feature is the on-board accelerometer which gives the artificial horizon on the iPhone realtime airplane orientation, you can virtually fly it just by looking at your phone,” he added.

A PowerUp 3.0-enabled paper airplane can be seen in flight in the video below.

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WWF-Nepal-UAV-640x425.jpgThe World Wildlife Fund is turning to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a bid to tackle an upsurge in illegal poaching of rhinos, elephants and tigers carried out by increasingly sophisticated and well-equipped cartels. The WWF provided two hand-launchable UAVs to the government of Nepal in 2012. In December, Google awarded the organization $5 million to develop more advanced UAV systems. It is hoped that these systems will reduce the poaching of endangered mammals and save the lives of the park rangers assigned to protect them. Ars spoke to WWF's Crawford Allan to learn more the UAV system, dubbed SMART, that is now in development.

Read full article at: Ars Technica

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Moderator

T3 season two, the multirotor one.

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Its been a while so lets try again. Had a hangout with Chris and we briefly spoke about the next T3 round. Chris will work on a top prize ;-)

The mission is simple, get airborne climb to 20m 

Fly a cube with 50m sides, pausing for one minute at each corner, so your flight time cannot be anything less than 8 minutes..... Bonus points if you can stay longer at each corner....

The neatest cube KML wins.

If you can do this with a 3D aircraft I feel you would have a very strong chance of winning!

I will close the competition on April the 14th. I will be looking at where you are flying very closely. Please don't try this in public places or within 500m of any building / road. 

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Easy LED Sonar Heater

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They say the sonar modules will not work under 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). I have tried using the  4, 10 ohm resistors but this seems to work much better, and is easier to install  for me This is how I keep my sonar module warm in the winter, all you need is a small piece of the strip of red LED's, this is where I got mine

http://www.quadroufo.com/product_info.php?products_id=78&osCsid=h227449ro31sm8hvhoo3ge3sv4

make sure to get red, they are much hotter than other colors. (red LED's usually use more power (watts) than other colors)

you only need a piece with 3 leds o it, it wraps around the sonar perfectly (currently cost .46 cents)

Just remove the film for the adhesive and wrap around your sonar, solder the wires to 12v and use a tie wrap to hold it securely.  I hooked mine into my lighting so I can switch them on and off.

here is some pic's.3689505176?profile=original3689505302?profile=original

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DIY hook to carry and release cargo underneath 'Copter

Hi all,

Apologies for the video in portrait, hope it is still visible.


True to the DIY element of this community, I've devised a small, cheap and simple way to attach items of any kind to my Quadcopter and via a servo to release it.

It's quite simple yet effective, using one servo and some pieces of metal and a screw to mount it underneath my hexa (custom frame built entirely from 3DRobotics parts).

You can see I have been doing a lot of bending to get the right angle etc. Now that's DIY! ;-)

Photos from three angles:

3689505158?profile=original

3689505027?profile=original

3689505233?profile=original
With one switch I can now release anything I'd like to transport around, e.g. Waterballoons, Cupcakes, Parachutes etc.

I had all the parts necessary already lying around and the build is really simple. I had to bend a lot of the small metal parts into the shapes I wanted them using simple pliers.

I had been racking my brain about such a thing for a long time, and today was the Eureka! moment.

Hope you like the idea!

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Quads Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum

3689504999?profile=original

 

[copying from Robohub]

 

Two of the most challenging problems tackled with quadrocopters so far are balancing an inverted pendulum and juggling balls. My colleagues at ETH Zurich’s Flying Machine Arena have now combined the two.

 

As part of his Master thesis Dario Brescianini, student at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, has developed algorithms that allow quadrocopters to juggle an inverted pendulum. If you are not sure what that means (or how that is even possible), have a look at his video “Quadrocopter Pole Acrobatics”:

 

 

You can read the full article with much more details and other photos here:


http://robohub.org/video-throwing-and-catching-an-inverted-pendulum-with-quadrocopters/

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3689503720?profile=originalTim Harford, in Adapt, talks eloquently and favourably about the use of innovation prizes to spur innovative thinking.  He concludes that, hands-down, it's the most cost-efficient way to conduct research and development.  The success of the Kramer prize and the various X-Prizes, as significant examples, also demonstrate the ultimate effectiveness of the approach.  More recently, the DARPA-sponsored UAVForge event was intended to provide an incentive to solve the intractable 'perch-and-stare' requirement.  Although the prize was not claimed, it seemed to drive some very innovative thinking.

What I'm trying to determine the level of interest in one, or maybe even a series of innovation prizes aimed at driving innovation and deployment of UAV/UGV technology in the oil & gas industry.  There is no pre-conceived notion as to what the applications might be, but the one that most use as an example is pipeline and facilities inspection.  But realistically, any of the dull/dirty/dangerous jobs of the oil & gas industry would be candidates for a competition.

I would be very interested in hearing the membership's thoughts on this topic.  In particular, what specific tasks would be valid for such competitions, the level of award that would get potential participants attention...in fact, anything which would help evaluate the idea.  Thanks very much for your help.

(Photo courtesy of djmacpherson)

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My BI COPTER BUILD

(Moderators- User informed to add content to post, I.E video/pics)

Hi everyone,

From month now, i finaly decide to make that build that i wanna share here.

The control is AIO Pro card with Multiwii 2.1 don't know if APM can handle the Bi Copter configuration ?

I did it with 10 mm aluminium arms and plastic blocs. hope you like it !!!

Next Step is the command. Enjoy !!!

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Mikado Logo 400 flybarless heli project

3689505060?profile=originalI've had a blog running in the group ArduCopter (traditional heli) user group called Mikado Logo 400 flybarless project with ArduCopter and video with OSD but R_Lefebvre suggested I switch to this main area.  I hope I'm doing the right thing. 

If you are interested, please have a look at the start of this blog at the link provided above.

I'm using a convetional (albeit 2.4 GHz Futaba R608FS) Rx but was wondering what is meant by "a PPMSum output which only needs 3 wires on the input side".

Is this the same as using a Futaba SBus receiver?  If yes then I would gladly switch to that.  I assume the channels set up in the transmitter are then interpreted by the APM2.5+ correctly or is there a requirement to set up the APM differently?

Just as a heads-up; I've already upgraded the ppm encoder firmware to ArduPPM_v2.3.13_ATMega32U2.hex following Randy's advice to do so. 

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iOS Ground Control Station...Its Alive!!!

3689504963?profile=original

I've been wanting to make a GCS for my iPhone for awhile now but finally got the time to start working on it! The GUI is very very basic as of now, with only an attitude indictor that displays only roll. I'm concentrating on cleaning up the mavlink implementation and then i'll make a nice GUI.

The way i'm currently communicating is an Arduino w/ Ethernet shield connected to a old wireless router(i'm in college and money is tight, so no WiFly or Bluetooth 4 Module).

I'm just sending UDP packets with the RAW MAVlink data...All the encoding/decoding messages is done on the iPhone. What this means is that bluetooth 4, a wifly module or and other way of sending the Serial data from the xbee will work with little effort. The Arduino is just relaying the data through the router.

Here is an example of the pitch, roll and yaw data being received:

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Planned Features(So Far):

- VFR Heads-Up display

- Arm/Disarm Toggle (3 second hold to enable/disable and throttle must be 0)

- Show Copter position on map

- Edit PID's In-App

- Change flight mode (Stabilize, Acro, Auto, Loiter, etc.)

- Create/Edit/Delete waypoints

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