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A fitting last post for what has been a most exciting 2012, which saw the founding of ConservationDrones.org and ResearchDrones.com, hundreds of successful drone missions in Asia and Africa (and a couple of epic crashes as well), and exciting new partnerships with conservation groups and colleagues around the world.

This is video footage from a December drone training mission on the beaches of Pongara National Park in Gabon, off the Atlantic ocean, conducted by Remo Peduzzi of ResearchDrones.com for WWF Netherlands, Team Libreville.

Not only did the drone capture detailed video and images of turtle nests on the beach, but it also had a serendipitous encounter with a Gabonese SWAT Team, which was parachuting down to the beach from a helicopter.

Looking forward to another productive and exciting year to come in 2013!

-ConservationDrones.org & ResearchDrones.com

I've had this idea in my head for some time now, finally got serious about sketching it out.

Yes, I know that all the props are pushers ; ) I couldn't find the tractors and wanted to get some pics up anyway. First flights will all be with gemfan carbon plastics, but I'm stoked to use these wooden props once everything is verified to function in flight. She looks a little fat in the rear I admit, but that is 5.6 Ah 4s in a hard case. All up weight is 2.71kg.

Spindly landing gear fills in for top-secret next gen gear that can't be shown yet. This configuration has some Klingon Bird of Prey in it, that's obvious.

The goal for this project is a clear view, roll/tilt gimbal that utilizes the waterproof GoPro housing and is positioned coplanar with the motor mounts. 

I'm using a pull/pull set up for both axes. It works well, but a little more dialing in will be needed. I'll get a video up tomorrow after I clean my shop. 

Tilt control and video out are fed down the central rotating axle. This axle and gopro housing are the only moving parts, both riding on nylon bushings. Tilt pivot is vibration isolated from airframe. "Manually printed"- pivot sockets, control horns, and video out connector are attached to waterproof gp housing.

Stiffen and lighten this yoke, increase the diameter of the axle, print some proper gopro attachments (Rostock-Kossel in the works!!) The camera housing is easily opened without removing from the yoke.

Belly up view. Remember, this is just a rough draft, plenty of little changes to make for MkII, starting with a completely different frame. I'm done with the hub and spoke form. Multi-copters are basically just a packaging exercise, and I keep wishing for a different shape while trying to integrate all these sweet-ass robot parts. The next frame will be a folding Roman five, a "V" with horizontal bars top and bottom.

I can remove a lot of weight from this of course, the motor mounts, arms, wiring, etc. I like to make things heavy and adjustable at first, then begin to lighten and lock down everything.

The important part is the parallel rails and the gimbal arrangement, that's what i want to develop a bit more. The roll axis motivation could come from any number of sources, I've used pull/pull for it so the servos could be grouped and positioned optimally for weight balancing. 

so here is the latest news concerning the techpod:

   Got the production unit in.

  You can see more at the newly revamped hobbyuav.com. Also we now have an actual online store with paypal and credit card payment options and international shipping as well. Check out the full gallery for more picteres of the different parts.

i am very impressed with the quality. The tops of the wings are glass smooth, the bottoms have only minimal bumps from the steam vents used in the molding process.. Every thing fits well and everything seems plenty stiff to withstand sudden maneuvers.

Thanks guys!

Wayne

It has been a wonderful multicopter year!

Thank you DIYdrones & ArduCopter & all the member of the community!

December 25th, 2012

Back in May we processed an interesting data set from Easter Island, Chile at 30 cm / px GSD. Kim Anh Hoang from the Easter Island Statue Project used the 30 cm Orthomosaic and DEM to produce a 3D Flyby of Rano Raraku and an EISP excavation site. We've now re-processed the data at the highest resolution possible, 15 cm / px GSD. The original imagery was obtained using an autonomous UAV flying at an elevation (AGL) of ~330 meters with a consumer level Ricoh GR Digital III camera. The GR Digital III is not GPS enabled, so geo-tagging was accomplished locally using the UAV flight controller logs. In total, 140 NADIR images were shot at 10 mega pixel covering an area of 3.7 km^2.



"Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation, where 397 moai remain. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park." Rano Raraku - Wikipedia



A map of Easter Island/Rapa Nui, showing the three main volcanoes Terevaka, Poike, Rano Kau, as well as Anakena beach, the islets including Motu Nui. Modern Hanga Roa and Mataveri International Airport, the ruins at Orongo and the quarry at Rano Raraku. It marks major ahus with moai.



Above we've displayed a small subset of 8 images from the original 140. We recommend obtaining more overlap and imagery for an area of interest (AOI) this size.



Contact Us for the full geo-referenced downloadable data set.

Over the last few of months I have been making regular visits to the lab of Dr. Alejandro Ramirez-Serrano at the University of Calgary.  Called the Autonomous Reconfigurable/Robotic Systems Laboratory (AR2SL) it specializes in research related to (from the web site): 1) Ground and aerial unconventional unmanned vehicle systems (UVS), 2) reconfigurable intelligent mobile robotic systems, 3) swarm robotics, 4) intelligent control for UVS, and 5) search & rescue applications of mobile robotics.

Roughly once a month, and on a very informal basis, a tour is organized where there is a walkthrough of the lab followed by lunch and discussion.  The objectives are simple: expose Dr. Ramirez-Serrano's work to a broader audience, and try and coalesce interest in UAV work in Southern Alberta.  Thought is also being given to setting up a semi-permanent Meetup group to pursue these objectives.

If you would like to be included in one of these upcoming tours, by all means, please get in touch and we can make the necessary arrangements. A photo from a recent tour, which shows the Evader bicopter prototype.  Additional pictures can be found at shard Photo Streams for the tours that ran on 2012-10-18 and 2012-12-13.  

Hi All

I have been thinking about a ROLL/TILT for the skywalker platform and I came up with something like this. This design is great for Roll/Tilt stabilization.

Any good ideas for something like this?

Of cause I'm willing to share 3D drawings in what ever filetype needed for milling or 3D printing when and if the thing will be finished.

Inspiration from the skylark uav.

Here are some Photos showing how to get 6 positions on a Futaba 9C super

It will set them for these 2 switches

go to advanced settings choose PMX-6 CRV

first page 1/2 of PMX-6 CRV  should be set as shown below

Second page 2/2 of PMX-6 CRV should be set like this (below)

Make sure to note the order in the planner when setting up your flight modes, the switching order is not 1-6 in order.

that should do it,

Hello all,

I have read many comments on the sensitivity of the Sonar sensor, i.e. mainly two types of issues:

-first electromagnetic interferences, electric interferences that impact the distance measurement stability. Especially the sonar sensor should be as far as possible from all magnetic/electric sources (such as the ESCs, the motors, electronics in general).

-second parasitic sound sources, or vibrations (which by definitions creates sound waves in the air) can also impact correct and stable readings of the sonar sensor.

In the pictures below is shown the installation of the XL-MaxSonar-EZL0 sonar sensor:

I have used the 3DR sensor mount that places the sensor in between two arms of the quad copter. On this picture you see that the three wires going from the sensor to the APM are shielded within a metallic plastic sleeve. This was home built from these metal bags that protect electronic boards...

On the following picture you can see a close up of the sensor that I covered with some microphone bonnet. In fact I purchased a microphone bonnet and I cut the tip of it to match the size of the sensor. This improves the sonar not to pick up too much parasitic noises:

This picture shows the microphone bonnet positionned on top of the sonar sensor

This picture shows the system in place, screwed on the sonar mount (fiberglass piece from 3DR store accessories)

On the last picture below you see how the cables passes through the microphone bonnet, by making a little slit into it:

The wires coming out of the sensor are wrapped in this metal plastic foil as explained above. The bonnet holds simply with a touch of hot glue (hot glue guns are great for that) and by the cables going through the slit.

I did not test this setup yet in flight (I just built the quad and am still waiting to get my radio delivered from hobbyking and that takes ages to come from Asia...) but will keep you posted of the results. So far some tests done as inside a cluttered room with PC interferences are promissing.

Happy new year to all

The christmas Tiger-Motors Navigator Series MN4010 370kv motors  !

Unbox photo review of these pretty motors.

More picts on our blog : http://www.aedrox.com

Hello World! I made this little stuff in my kitchen. It's my third multicopter and it's controlled by an APM 2.5

I like the "H½" architecture, it's very strong resist. The washers made plastic tube are good dampers.

Pins are solder on the opposite side to use the APM like a shield on an pcb test mother board.

Same thing with the turnigy 9ch receiver.

Project.

1) Have a better english (I'm very sorry for the mistakes)

2) Change the central part of the frame to give more protection to the camera, 

3) Make a real PCB mother board for the ESC, AMP and receiver ....

Thank

Interesting Video i thought many guys would use it for food for thought... Anjoy it. 

Excellent positive piece about domestic drones in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, featuring us ;-)

Excerpt:

'Didn't you always want a bird on a leash?" asked the young man. He was wearing a dinosaur hoodie, with soft fabric spikes down the back, and holding a piece of tape about 10 feet long. At the end was an airborne personal drone—four hoops fused together, propellers inside each—buzzing obediently behind him. The crowd of a hundred, at this month's DroneGames in San Francisco, was rapt. A drone as a pet! We all wanted one.

The competition, a sneak peek into what's coming in the new year, included 12 teams, with 43 programmers from Twitter, Stanford and beyond. The winner wrote a virus that installed itself in a drone and made it go crazy. He called it "amuckcopter." But don't let that throw you. Drones are more peaceable than you think—or they can be.

I've just added this page of tips on choosing radio frequencies to the manual. Corrections/suggestions?

-----------

Some tips on picking wireless frequencies

Wireless can be something of a black art, and there are a dizzying array of standards and choices. Here are some simple guidelines to help you pick wisely:

• RC and amateur UAV gear usually operates in these frequency ranges:

1. 72 MHz (older analog RC gear in the US)
2. 35 MHz (older analog RC gear in Europe)
3. 433 MHz (RC and telemetry, in Europe)
4. 900-915 MHz (video and telemetry, in the US)
5. 1.3 GHz (video)
6. 2.4 GHz (digital RC gear, video and telemetry)
7. 5.8 GHz (video)

• It is a bad idea to have transmitters and receivers in the same frequency range, so you'll want to choose your equipment to avoid this. Even if they use different frequencies, try to keep transmitters (telemetry, video) and receivers (RC, GPS) as far apart as possible. The only time you should consider having two radios onboard that share the same frequency is if they are digital spread-spectrum radios, such as those in the 2.4 GHz range.

• In general, the lower the frequency the longer the range because it can go around obstructions better, so 900 MHz video tends to have longer range than 2.4 GHz video. But digital transmission technology can more than compensate for that, so it's not a hard-and-fast rule. For instance, a high-end spread-spectrum 2.4 GHz wireless video setup can outperform a lower-end 900 MHz one.

• Some frequency ranges are more crowded than others. For instance, indoors and in urban environments 2.4 GHz has to compete with everything from WiFi to Bluetooth to cordless phones. 900 MHz just competes with some cordless phones.

• 1.3 GHz is quite close to the frequencies the GPS satellites transmit at, and it can degrade your GPS performance. If you are using a 1.3 GHz transmitter, keep it as far from your GPS module as possible.

Here are some sample recommended configurations:

This video was just posted by EndOfDays, a well known figure in the photo/video multicopter scene.

And for the record, let me just say that some people have WAY to much free time. :)

More cool stuff from MIT's AeroAstro lab.

Cool stuff from MIT's AeroAstro lab. 

Congrats to Gary Mortimer, whose sUASNews site broke this story:

The long arm of the law has finally caught up with the operators of the Columbia Packing Company.

In January 2012 we were sent the images that exposed the level of pollution occurring. They were taken by an sUAS News reader that still wishes to remain anonymous. The story went viral and continues to receive hits nearly a year later.   I believe this is the first environmental crime to be prosecuted on the basis of UA evidence. Authorities had to act because of the attention the story was receiving.

Well done again that person for getting the shot and making a difference.

DALLAS -

A Dallas County grand jury returned several indictments on Wednesday against an Oak Cliff meat packing company accused of dumping animal blood in a creek that flows into the Trinity River.

Columbia Packing Company and its owner, Joe Ondrusek, face twelve indictments for water pollution.

If found guilty, the company could pay fines between $6,000 and $1.5 million. Ondrusek himself could get five years in prison and fined up to $100,000 for each count.

The grand jury also found evidence that the company, Joe Ondrusek and family member Donny Ondrusek tampered with physical evidence and returned six counts against them. The company could face more fines, and the Ondruseks could face up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 for each charge.

Neighbors near the plant on 11th Street had long complained about noxious fumes and other problems from the meat packers. But investigators didn’t get involved until a remote-controlled toy enthusiast happened to affix a video camera to an RC aircraft and videotape gallons of what appeared to be blood gushing down the river.

This has been out there for a while, but I don't think we've posted on it here yet. It's an art piece (with a bit of a political message), but still very nicely done. From the Ponoko blog:

The UAV Identification Kit 001 was made by James Bridle while he was an Artist in Residence at the Visible Futures Lab at the School of Visual Arts in New York. It is intended both to help visualize drones for a public that is still largely unaware of their particulars and to aid in the identification of drones by observers on the ground.

The kit includes 3D printed models of three commonly used military drones: the MQ-1 Predator, the RQ-170 Sentinel, and the RQ-4 Global Hawk. Equivalent kits for manned aircraft have long been used to train both military and civilian spotters, the most well-known example being civilian spotters trained during WWII.