Blogs

This one is worthy of discussion. At very least as a group we should be taking it upon ourselves to operate away from potential conflict. These guys sort of tried but perhaps could have thought about it a little longer. There is no indication of what AP this was or airframe. 

The operators of a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) were lucky to feel only embarrassment rather than grief after their aircraft got lost near a busy aerodrome. It’s an example of why RPA operators must take them seriously as aircraft.

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect. So said Captain Alfred Gilmer Lamplugh in 1931, in one of the first attempts to understand the risks of the air.* His words are just as resonant today. They apply even in the almost complete personal safety of operating an unmanned aircraft from a ground station.

http://www.suasnews.com/2013/01/20510/intruder-in-the-circuit/

As is customary and traditional, we celebrate every new 1,000 members here and share the traffic stats. This time it's 33,000!

There were well over 1.7 million page views this month, which is a new record (we get over 65,000 page views a day). It took us just 22 days to get this latest 1,000 members--we're averaging about one new member every 35 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 65 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.

Mentions 3DRobotics...

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/09/technology/drones/index.html?iid=HP_LN&hpt=hp_t2

I decided to run some older imagery I came across the other day through photoscan and came up with some pretty cool results. Above is the park behind 3d Robotics where I used to fly after work. Below is an aerial shot of the 3DR neighborhood.

And here’s a model of a rural area outside Jakarta on a hazy day made with images taken during a training flight.

If you’re working on aerial photography I encourage you to just get out and start taking pictures, you’ll be surprised what comes out when you’re just flying around randomly! Just don’t fly around former employers’ offices unless they’re into drones too ;-)

Video Series on how to fly rc helicopters / quad copters. The video above is one of the last videos in the series. Maybe a little basic for most here but good for beginners.

Complete playlist here:

EX 

Today's guest Doug Davis, Director of Global UAS Strategic Initiatives at the NMSU PSL.

Doug  has been a long time contributing member of the unmanned aviation community. This will be an excellent opportunity to hear about the Global UAS airspace integration effort past, present and future. He was head of the FAA UAPO department so should have his finger on the pulse of what might be about to happen.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/suasnews/2013/01/09/global-uas-initiatives

Please email patrick@suasnews.com if you have any questions the link above should show the right time zone for whatever one you are in. Its in a couple of hours.

From Patrick Gevas on the Google+ DIY Drones community:

I work with Epson and wanted to share a video of Epson's Moverio BT-100 transparent wearable display that allows a user to fly a drone equipped with a camera and see the first person view, while still being aware of their surroundings. First Person View - Aerial videography using Epson Moverio glasses

We'd love to hear your thoughts, and any ideas on different or fun applications. Thanks for your time!

Please email me with your thoughts at pgevas@walt.com(I’m with Epson’s PR agency.)

Stephen Hawking, who is part machine, wants to stop the rise of the machines.

From Fast Company:

Stephen Hawking, who turns 71 today, has joined the board of an international think tank devoted to defending humanity from futuristic threats. The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk is a newly founded organization which researches existential threats to humanity such as extreme climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, artificial life, nanotech, and other emerging technologies. Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn and Cambridge professors Huw Price and Martin Rees founded the project in late 2012.

Price and Tallinn collaborated on a speech at the 2012 Sydney Ideas Festival which argued that artificial intelligence has reached a threshold that could lead to an explosion of autonomous machine dominance similar to the rise of Homo sapiens. The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk's stated goal is to establish a research center dedicated to the study of autonomous robot (and other) threats within Cambridge University.

From Paul Saffo on the Google+ DIY Drones community. (We did the same thing with ArduCopter here):

Parrot and Autodesk123 used to terrain-model a construction stockpile. Fun to see the rough-tough survey crew watching as the little red parrot takes off and flies past the Cat D8.

A Parrot AR Drone 2.0 was used to map a stockpile area on a civil engineering project. The video feed from the drone was captured at 0.5s intervals using FFMPEG and modeled using AutoDESK 123D Catch to create a 3D textured surface model.

From Gizmodo:

Panasonic claims its new wearable HD camcorder will be perfect for adrenaline junkies and recreation-seekers alike—but can it compete in a market that's already dominated by GoPro, the clear winner in our recent action cam test?

The HX-A100's water-proof and dust-proof case houses hardware capable of filming 1920 x 1080 video at 60 fps, 1280 x 720 video at 120 fps, or 640 x 360 video at 240 fps. It comes packing Wi-Fi, so can be used to broadcast live streams on Ustream, while its battery—tucked away in the remote processing unit—will let it film for up to 140 minutes on a single charge. The small lens unit weights an ounce and is connected to the 4 ounce main unit by a 2-foot cable....

This might solve some of the issues with balancing.  Also much less wind resistance then the cubic GoPro.

I've noticed a trend - that many journalists are much more interested when an Editor-in-Chief of a long-respected technology and culture magazine quits his job to play with toys drones.  Also just heard a primer segment hinting at a bigger audio piece to be aired on Marketplace later today.

[audio https://googledrive.com/host/0B9L7Ju7dsRLVbEpGVlhxTkYtZFU/2013-01-08b-tcr.mp3 ]

"These days, we tend to think of "drones" in a military context. But drones are popping up in a number of fields, including firefighting and newsgathering. A new company that makes them is run by a former editor of Wired magazine and a 26-year-old engineering whiz from Tijuana. Reporter: John Rosman"

Original article

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10909&cs_id=1090901&p_id=10159&seq=1&format=2

Capture all the action with the new MHD Action Camera from Monoprice!

The MHD boasts a full, high-definition 1920x1080p display with 24-bit color depth at 30 frames per second. It can also be set to capture at the lower 1280x720p, 24-bit resolution with 30 fps. It features an ultra-wide 120° field of view, so you can really get up close and personal with your shots.

The camera is waterproof to depths up to 10 meters without a separate outer enclosure. It is also shock, dust, and freeze proof, all features that are necessary in an extreme sports action camera. A waterproof microphone allows you to capture the entire audio/video experience. A two-axis gyroscopic sensor ensures that the video maintains the proper orientation.

The MHD weighs only 3.9 ounces and measures 3 3/4" long, 1 7/8" high, and 1 1/2" wide. It comes with a mounting bracket and can also be mounted onto a standard 1/4"x20 threaded mount, giving you maximum flexibility in how you use it.

A one-touch slide switch is used to start and stop recordings. The switch is about 1" long by 3/8" wide, so you can easily start and stop a recording without having to remove your gloves.

A locking and removable cap on the rear of the unit gives access to the resolution selection switch (FHD or HD), the hardware reset button, the micro-SD card slot, which can accomodate a card up to 32GB size, the mini-B USB port for charging and data sync, and a Micro HDMI port for direct video output to an HDTV. The internal battery has sufficient charge to allow up to 3 hours of continuous recording and up to 6 hours of standby mode.

In addition to being used as a video camera, the MHD Action Camera is also a 5 megapixel still camera. A large button on the top of the unit is used to snap pictures in Single Photo, Burst, and Time Lapse modes with 24-bit color depth.

The camera has plug and play operation and is automatically recognized as a storage device by Windows and Mac computers. Integrated software can be installed to a Mac or Windows PC to allow access to the internal settings. The software is compatible with Windows XP SP3 or later or Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

Additional Mounting Accessories:  Helmet Mount, Board Mount, Suction Cup Mount

I'm back from a 3 week holiday in Namibia, I took my small Swift II FPV ship with!

What fun, I flew over Walvis Bay's lagoon, game farms, dunes, beaches, chasing quad bikes, kite surfers, fantastic landscapes and mountains.

I decided to compile the best few seconds of all videos into one and posted it. It's long (15 minutes) but there are some great moments. Youtube does not agree with my music selection, so please let me know if you're unable to view it.

Please excuse the video quality, I successfully destroyed my Horyzon HD just before the trip and was left with an iffy HK Wing Cam.

I'm now building the ultimate Swift II complete with expanded mid section (blunt nose), APM 2.5+ and MinimOSD.

I'm loving this setup, it's really a grab-and-go FPV dream.

Good day everyone.

There is open-source library implementing the CANaerospace protocol, targeted for microcontrollers and Linux. It is compact and easy to use in embedded systems with few amount of memory and limited processing power (such as most drone autopilots).

It is released under MIT license, so there is no problem if you want to link and distribute it along with your closed-source project.

The repository is here: https://bitbucket.org/pavel_kirienko/canaerospace

Examples, of course, also provided: https://bitbucket.org/pavel_kirienko/canaerospace_embedded_examples

Why CANaerospace

The time of randomly mixed I2C, PPM and UARTs should be over.

1. Reliability

The first reason is reliability.

CANaerospace allows the use of redundant CAN buses as well as redundant units. I.e. you can connect each device to  the two CAN buses simultaneously, and if one bus fails other will keep going (so there is no single point of failure). In case of unit redundancy you can use two identical mission-critical devices, and if one device fails you'll simply switch to another and save the world.

Note that this library supports CAN bus redundancy in fully transparent way, i.e. your application simply will not care about how many buses are currently in use, and how many of them are dead.

To know a bit more about unit redundancy you can read the corresponding chapter in the CANaerospace specification.

2. Common standard

The second reason is the ability to come to the common standard to get a better interoperability between devices from different vendors. Consider the great ESC32 project (I'm not affiliated) - it has nice CAN interface, but lacks any software to work with it. Consider the discussions on OpenPilot forum for instance, where people are looking for a way to build a reliable bus for their system.

Yes, CAN bus will be a bit more expensive than usual interfaces, but it's worth it in most cases.

Supported hardware

Currently just two platforms are supported out of the box, they are Linux (with SocketCAN) and STM32 (with embedded dual CAN controller). Since STM32 is so wildly popular in UAV systems, support for it does worth a lot I believe. If there is a demand I'm feeling ready to provide even AVR/Arduino support, despite the fact that using CAN on AVR is not a best idea I've had.

Anyway, if you lack support for your very own hardware, it is not a difficult task to write your own driver for it. Just refer to the examples.

UAV-specific features

If there are guys who are familiar with CANaerospace, they may be aware that standard NOD identifier distribution lacks support for some messages which may be extremely useful in UAV applications, such as:

• Camera control messages
• Messages to transfer the covariance data from IMU
• Messages for magnetometer readings
• Whatever else

Thus, I'm going to extend the standard ID distribution with these messages, to make this protocol more UAV-friendly. Feature requests are highly welcome.

Conclusion

Feel free to publish feature requests or whatever on the project page, and good luck with your work. :)

Found this on a Norwegian newspaper today!

Sorry everyone but I have to announce the shipping date for techpod has been pushed back to march 15th

I received this in an email from my factory contact at world models 

” The production would be completed and ready to ship by early March. It is longer than expected as our factory will be closed for three weeks starting from early February for the Chinese New Year holidays. Also, the carbon tubes (fuselage) will take about 20 days to order from our supplier and we need some time to work on the tubes when we get them. “

Well it looks like more time in the salt mines for me and my poor supporters are going to have to wait another month to get their techpods. Well the bright side is the production unit the factory sent me is awesome and going together nicely. I am waiting for some new lipos to come in so i can fit them in the fuselage. 

Here is the new set up: 

motor

2x lipos

12x8 apc prop

APM 2.5

HackHD

Will be looking for 3+ hours flight time with this set up.

thanks everyone for your continued support and patience.

Wayne

hobbyuav.com

It's raining robots-

That will be the headline all of us will cringe at, when the Media goes manic over the first commercial drone crashes of any significance. The same way they do anytime something new takes a stumble (or two).

The thought of my craft hitting somebody really haunts my mind. I'm sorry to be a downer, this topic is definitely a buzz-kill from the heady intoxication of being in the midst of the next great economic boom, but I can't let it go.

So the topic is failure. Despite what your high school sports coach told you, failure is not just an option, it's a guarantee. Yes- our thrust makers, power systems, flight controls, and firmware will get better quickly. However, even if we could magically achieve 100% reliability with all of our flight critical components, failure will still be there. The most random shit is always going to happen.

 The project-

I'm focusing on multicopters in particular with this project, but I feel that a similar strategy would be effective with fixed wing craft as well, in fact it's used all the time.

The specific type of failure scenario I want to tackle here is a total loss of thrust and/or control. Deployable parachutes are being developed, and seem to be working well. I would like to pursue a more passive system, an aerodynamic design built into the airframe itself. Inspired by watching Marcy fly around and wingsuit pilots, I hope to achieve a passive "auto-rotation" or glide of the entire airframe. If the the craft looses thrust, the actual act of falling makes the conversion into an alternate flight mode. A slow spiraling glide to the ground, with a gear down orientation maintained. Energy absorbing landing gear, maybe even a supplemental air bag would compliment the design. The key in my opinion is making the recovery mode completely non-dependent on any system other than gravity and wind resistance. Time is so critical in a recovery scheme for these types of failures at the altitude multis usually work. No sensors, servos, or firmware required, just a thoughtful arm and frame design. The challenge will be to prevent undesired flight characteristics while in normal powered flight, in fast controlled descents we don't want to be induced into a flat spin! Can the free fall decent rate be slowed enough to usefully lower the risk of damage on the ground and airframe itself?

Step one- Get to the sewing machine and build a Bat suit for one of my quads

To be continued.

I have been wondering about how to mount my GoPro camera to the 3DR Camera Tilt Gimbal and found a solution so simple yet so ingenious (if I may say so myself) that I thought it would be worth sharing.

This is my second GoPro camera. The first one broke as it fell off the Gimbal during rough "landing" and I did not have it in its protective housing (duh!). It fell lens-down on the concrete, cracking the glass lens causing some swearing on my part. Needless to say I wanted the new GoPro to be attached including the protective case.

Problem however is that the protective case plus attached base are together too tall to mount on the 3DR Cam Gimbal. When you have a battery fitted as well, there is not enough room for the gimbal to tilt without the Camera case getting stuck underneath the battery space.

However, after some contemplating I found a solution! The Gimbal is now mounted rock-solid without using any extra parts.

What to do: Take 2 minutes!

 1. I used a simple pair of pliers, actually a wire-cutter to cut through some of the holes in the gimbal to make the opening a bit wider as you can see below.

2. Then take the mount of the GoPro case and disassemble it like so:

You just need the long bolt/screw.

3. Then take the case and place it on the base of the gimbal, through the hole you had widened.

4. Now put  the screw in place and make sure you push it as far as you can, use tools if necessary.
By doing so, you are wedging the case in place.

5 . The result is this:

6. And this:

7. Here you can see the wedge caused by one side of the screw being bigger than the other.

If you have wedged it properly, the result should be that the case is tightly fitted to the gimbal. I used it already for recording a video and that confirmed that it is solid as there is no jittering and after flying it for some time, the case is still firmly in place.

All without glue or tape or tie-wraps and in 2 minutes! I was pleased!

P.s. Apologies for the out-of-focus images :-)

P.p.s. It's not my habit to leave the propellors on the quad while tinkering but this was just for the photos as I was about to go outside and fly. Certainly I do not connect the battery inside while the props are on. Trust me, it went wrong once.

At Gary Mortimer's suggestion, we last week started a DIY Drones community on Google Plus, which has grown nicely and is now at more than 500 members. If you use Google Plus, you'll find this an easy to way to integrate drone news and discussion into your stream. We'll be posting highlights from DIYD, as well as others on Google Plus can share and post their own drone news and discussion.

Please join us here!