Blogs

Here we go again.

Like mp3 encoders before LAME, RTK GPS based on inexpensive GPS receivers & software has long been a dream that no-one has been able to get working. 

http://gpspp.sakura.ne.jp/rtklib/rtklib.htm

For years, a Japanese team has used a discontinued uBlox module that costs just as much as a commercial RTK GPS solution.  Now the latest hobbyist movement is to use just the GPS front end & do all the baseband processing in software.  Unfortunately, we have no idea what to do with baseband GPS data to convert it into RTK corrected information.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/datasheet/index.mvp/id/5241/t/do

For years, Maxim has had a GPS front end available for $11 but only now has anyone tried doing anything with it.  http://unreasonablerocket.blogspot.com/2011/02/gps-progress.html

It doesn't look like he's going to have enough time to finish it.

There are some notes on using a laptop for baseband processing but no actual sourcecode.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/datasheet/index.mvp/id/5241/t/do#Application%20Notes

The only remaining step is really getting data into the format RTKLIB needs.  This is really a movement worth getting behind, since RTK GPS would eliminate the pressure sensors, sonar, pitot tubes, & guesswork VTOL flyers have become familiar with.  Well, unless you're in the business of selling pressure sensors, sonar, & pitot tubes.

My collection of links in the process of assembling what I'll need for an ArduPilot-based boat:

(The platform sailboat I'll use, a Soling 1M One Meter, the largest class of model boats in the American Model Yachting Association)

ArduPilot (original version)

• ArduPilot board and a row of breakaway headers
• GPS module (MediaTek or uBlox 5+adapter and cable recommended)
• FTDI cable for programming
• Four female-to-female servo cables to connect ArduPilot to your RC system
• [Optional] Two Xbee modules for wireless telemetry. This one in the air and this one with this antenna on the ground/laptop side. You'll also need two Xbee adapter boards. You can connect the airborne Xbee adapter to Ardupilot Mega with jumper wires.

Specifically needed for a Sailboat - a sailboat only absolutely needs a wind vane the rest is optional

• Wind vane - sensor for wind direction (applicable potentiometer for about $45 that has ball bearings for low friction and 360 degree range http://www.usdigital.com/products/ma3/)
• Anemometer - sensor for wind speed (may be able to use the same sensor as the wind vane, though a photo gate would be a lot cheeper)
• Compass - need something that compensates for tilt like this one $150 is a little pricey for a compass... http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8656
• triple transducer - to measure speed through the water, temperature (not sure how that is important), and depth (mapping applications or not running aground) http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads/catalogPages/cat_145.pdf

Other discussion of ArduPilot-based boats:

Lake Depth Survey Blog - http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-goes-into-the-water
Lots of interesting posts about the evolution of a boat used the survey the depth of lakes. He used the Ardupilot and V1.0 software, but modified it for a his boat.

Discussion regarding sailboat application - http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/imu-3000Didn't entirely understand the conversation, but it regards drift compensation. 

Required components for a Boat - http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/ardupilot-boat-requirementsUser Jim Covert asks about the components need for a boat project. Chris Anderson points out the that he'll want to use Ardupilot 1.0 which lacks stabilization control. A boat doesn't really need that feature.

Another lake survey project - http://letsmakerobots.com/node/21098Detailed description of boat building process and application of an Arudino Duomilanove for controlling the boat.

Boat navigation with ArduPilot - http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/boat-navigation-with-adrupilotUser Tony K. asks about the components needed to pilot a sailboat. Chris Anderson Give some direction on what is specifically needed and some specifics about GPS parameters. 

Two-way Telemetry - http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/moving-waypoints-in-flightUser Peter Ho appears to be using ArduPilot on a boat and wants to change waypoints while en-route. Chris Anderson points out that two-way is available on the ArduPilot Mega.

AP for Sailing Vessel - http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/ap-for-sailing-vessel

andrew was starting a project for a auto pilot for a sailboat. He focussed on the magnetic compass. He demonstrated a working tilt compensation compass details here.

AUOOSB Open Ocean Sailboat Project - http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A62783&commentId=705844%3AComment%3A62801

 Michael King Put up a community page at auoosb.ning.com to work toward building an autonomous sailboat. The site appears to have put on hold by NING but I believe I contacted Michael about reactivating it. 

PID Tuning - http://diydrones.ning.com/forum/topics/705844:Topic:46763?xg_source=activity

Michael King Post on how to tune your PID settings for each craft. Not specific to boats, but PID tuning did cause Harald Molle a lot of grief in his boat project.

dx6i interception/injection board from BARTHELEMY Roman on Vimeo.

My shipment from HobbyKing arrived today.  Among a few other things, the new Quad Frame V1 was in the box.  I  was pretty excited to get this and see if it was worth the $14.  

When I opened up the shipping box I noticed that HK packaged the frame parts in its' own box instead of having just a bag of parts.  I opened that up and to my surprise, the arms had been pre-assymbled!  Everything was grouped and packed nicely in bags.  The only thing that I did not see...Instructions!  Who reads them anyways, right?  

I pressed on and started to dry fit everything.  All of the pieces clipped together nicely and in no time, I had the frame mocked up. I am very happy with the construction, it seems to be well done.  The only thing that I think will be a problem is the landing gear.  Right now it just seems too flimsy to last.  I did not glue/screw anything together yet, but I don't think that will change much.  Also, as you can see in the first photo, the gear orientation is for + flying setup only.  I'm sure I can mod it to work for X without much effort.   I was wrong, I figured it out.

Overall I would have to say that this frame will do just fine.  Once I get everything installed I'll give you all an update, but at this point I would easily recommend this frame, especially since it cost less than I paid for the materials to build my own.  Mine did not have gear or a camera mount!

Here are some stats and additional photos, I hope it helps.

Motor to Motor distance: 19.5"

Ground Clearance (without camera mount): 4.5"

Inside area: ~5"

Inside Height: 2" 

Dry Fit Weight: 5.7 oz

It's 1 of those really obvious things that no-one tends to get on top of, but we do have snow forecast for Saturday morning.  Sounds like a good time to fly.  Might be a good idea to get the aircraft ready.  Are we getting it?

Our airframe is beyond its useful life.  It might get some 30ft shots on video, but no stills or anything spectacular.

Had again a really nice saturday flying with my Hashcopter. Took first images from the copter with my 800 gram camera. Pictures didn't turn up to be anything spectacular but copter flew nicely at high altitude and was very controllable. I'm still waiting for parts to arrive for my camera stand and FPV equipment. For that reason camera stand was just taped to nice position and images shot by feeling.

I actually had some difficulties with cheap ESCs not arming the motors properly. This was due to it being -25 degrees Celsius temperatures and electronics just needed some warming up occasionally. Actually so did the pilot. Eventually one of the ESCs broke down and flying was over for the day.

Because ESCs did some tricks on me I accientally ended up testing what happens when one of the motors shuts down. I was landing the copter still hovering at around 20-30 meter height when one of the motors just stopped. It was nice to realise everything was still controllable and I was able to land to copter nicely to a snowy field. It could have been flown with just 7 motors despite the heavy camera hanging under the copter.

All saturdays pictures with better resolution:

http://www.markusjahn.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=47419

Previous two parts of the story:

http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/weight-testing-of-8-motor

http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter-quad-with-eight



Here a video of the maiden flight of my Quad Rotor Observer (QRO) v7 with a Wii Motion Plus and a "home made" KKmulticontroller type board.

Flight controller hardware:
- Home made KKmulticontroller board with an ATMEGA168 and based on the board of Rolf R Bakke
- Wii Motion Plus (genuine Nitendo version) with the IDG-600 and the XR3500 MEMS sensors

Flight controller firmware:
- XXcontroller_KR_v1_5b based on assembly code by Rolf R Bakke converted by Mike Barton modified by Minsoo Kim and Jean-Louis Naudin

- 4 brushless motors DualSky XM2822CA 1450KV 7A
- 4 ESC 12A XC1210-BA
- Lipo battery 3S (11.1V) Turnigy Nanotech 2200 mAh
- receiver Corona CR6D 2.4 Ghz

Here a video of my quadcopter at high speed forward flights and at high turns rate... The Quadcopter is now well tuned with the WMP sensors, it can be very stable during the hovering and also very agile. The flight is really fun...

The Full tutorial for hacking the WMP is at:
http://ardupilotdev.googlecode.com/files/GyroWMPen.pdf

More infos at:
http://diydrones.com/profile/JeanLouisNaudin

China has awoken so have we!

In last 3-4 weeks there has been a lot of changes on how ArduCopter factories are working and how we as a creators are organized. First we moved out working under FahPah and we are now fully standing on our own as jDrones. 

Our new office / storage area are now fully working on its new location starting from Monday 21st. And we are really happy about this change. If you are visiting in Bangkok, please let us know and you are welcome to visit on our office.

Even tho there has been a lot of changes and we have been moving our storage, we been able to ship out kits and other parts with rather steady stream.

China had 3 week Chinese New Year holiday and that caused delays for bigger shipments, now it is over and first shipments are starting to arrive. Ok it will take some weeks until all queues of our suppliers are fully cleared but they will be.

New distributors are also demanding a lot, to full fill these orders will also affect on jDrones stock levels for awhile but eventually we are in position that kits are always in stock. Now there are uDrones, Robonor, BYOD and naturally DIY Drones who are selling kits.

How things are looking in future:

We all in ArduCopter group have been working hard to make this project better and better. There are new frames coming out shortly like Tri and Hexa frames that are following traditional ArduCopter design. Sonar mounts are out already and 3-4 different type camera systems will be available too.

Just like other our partners we have created fully assembled quad kits. These assembled kits are great for customers that are busy or not sure if they have right tools or skills to assemble their own quads. Good thing on these kits is that you can be sure that all electronics works and has been build properly. Only thing you need to add on these kits is your own radio, receiver and battery. They are already tested for you and test flown before shipped out from our premise. User just need to connect receiver, do calibration for them and they are ready to fly again on your home area.

After other frames are ready to ship out, we will start provide them too as ready assembled kits. We also have been looking to take this one step further but we will tell about that after time is ready. But first we will do some packing and shipping to full fill our users growing demand.

As we are part of DIY Drones internal network, we just started to carry more of their electronics on our site and more will come.

More parts for DIYers ...

For private users and DIYers we now carry all our parts that can be used to build your own drones or what ever. This parts includes various nylon screws/nuts/washers, hexagonal spacers, polycarbonate screws and nuts also specially designed cable sets are available.

Best way to find these are by looking under "Parts & Pieces" category. More will be added and if you might have some special needs, please drop a note to us and we can look what can be done for you and whole community.

There will be more general R/C parts too visible in stores shortly like servos, rc-switches, battery alarms, cables and so on.

Have fun and safe flying,

Jani

If you're interested, the new PPM encoder project with RPM measurement, including the .hex file, is attached to this post.

PPMEncoder.zip

And here's a picky of the Heli static display at our local club's public display held yesterday at Hastings foreshore.  I'll upload the other photo soon on the clubs web site (www.wpmac.com.au).

My heli is on the right with the ACM connected - prompting a few questions from onlookers and members alike.  The green coloured box sitting on the muffler is a fibreglass crashproof box for the Ardupilot.  I'll provide some details on how to make one in a later post.

Now - On to the Heli code.

Hi guys,

As promised I've started a port of the Ardupirates code to an "Arduinoless" state that should be able to run on Pipo.

I call it Pipopirate  :)

It's not anywhere near functional but you can check it out on:  http://code.google.com/p/pipo/

Hello everyone,

For anyone interested, there are several job openings available at our company.

We are looking for engineers to work developing prototype unmanned aerial systems in El Segundo, CA. Chosen applicants will be working on a small team building and testing small-scale (RC airplane sized) to full-scale vehicles on a rapid timeline. Candidates should be entry-level or have several years experience. ALL positions require the candidate to be a citizen of the US.

Available positions include the following:

Aero-Design and Structures Engineer:

- Bachelors or Masters degree in engineering

- Knowledge of aircraft and/or helicopter design, stability, and control

- Strong CAD skills, preferably SolidWorks

- Stress analysis experience using FEA tools

- Hands-on abilities including building prototypes, using a variety of tools, and machining skills

Software/Electronics/Robotics Engineer:

- Bachelors or Masters degree in engineering

- C, C++, Python

- Windows and Linux

- Version control (SVN)

- User interface programming (preferred)

- Embedded systems, microcontroller experience (preferred)

- Electronic schematic design and PCB layout (preferred)

Desirable for both positions:

- Strong teamwork and cooperative design skills

- Self-motivated to learn and solve problems independently

- RC/full-scale airplane or helicopter experience

- UAS experience or knowledge

- Strong technical writing skills preferred

- Living near Los Angeles, CA or willing to relocate

These positions are needed immediately. For more information please contact ati.hiring@gmail.com. Please include your CV and any questions. Thanks!

I keep breaking my ArduCopter arches, so rather than order replacements, I just laser cut my own through Ponoko. I've uploaded the design, so you can do it too.  Select 3mm clear acrylic, P1 size. It should cost $8.20 plus shipping for the four arches shown above. Note that these are laser cut, not CNC milled, so they don't have the notch on the side that fits snugly on the arms. But they work fine all the same.

Thanks to Sandro Benigno, you can also order a set of five replacement dome rings, as shown here:

All the other parts are in the ArduCopter repository, but need to be converted to SVG format to laser cut. If you see something you'd like to make, let me know and I'll convert and upload it to Ponoko. Most can be laser cut as easily as CNC milled, but in some cases you might need to do a little finishing work, like counter-sinking some holes. No biggie...

UPDATE:

I've added the Main Square:

And the Legs:

And the carrier board:

FCU simple remote display for flight testing.

Sometime I just wanta test specific feature and I don't want to carry a heavy laptop outdoor.

Just for fun.....XD

Here's a short flight after I did a bit of PID tuning.  Flying latest ArduPirates code and still need to tune the hover and position hold.

QGroundControl is currently improved on a daily basis along with the efforts to implement a common mission interface for ArduPilotMega and MAVLink. While this is work in progress, I'd like to share some impressions of the new features. Once the next APM version is released, a matching stable version of QGC will be released as well optimally supporting APM. The picture above shows the Google Earth mission interface on Mac OS X, which supports waypoint creation (double click) and dragging. The Windows version is lagging slightly behind: Waypoint visualization works, dragging not yet. I would like to particularly thank our restless beta testers, their excellent feature requests and bug reports really helped improving the usability.

Realtime Linechart Plot: Allows to log data to a CSV file (e.g. for Matlab) and to see how sensors and filters behave in realtime. It includes mean and variance values (second and third column) and you can freely set the window size for the calculation of mean and variance.

2D Map: Perfect for mission planning and computers without the processing power for Google Earth

QGroundControl got now also persistent settings, which means that preferences are stored. Most of the widgets store the last configuration (e.g. which option you checked). You also can rename MAVs, e.g. MAV001 to ALPHA. You can even set QGroundControl to auto-connect your serial link with the last settings on startup. On the protocol side safety was improved by retransmitting lost packets, ensuring now that not a single parameter is lost.

QGroundControl can now also log MAVLink packets with timestamp and replay whole missions. It accepts binary logs (raw data from e.g. serial logs) as well. So you can now run a HIL simulation and view the output in realtime in QGroundControl, log it, send it to a friend or export the data to Matlab. The offline logfile analysis tool (not shown here) allows you also to print 2D plots or create PDF or PNG files from them.

For the brave: There are daily experimental builds that work with the SVN version of APM. They are in general stable, but of course not as well tested as a full release version. The executables for Windows and Mac OS can be downloaded at:

https://github.com/pixhawk/qgroundcontrol/downloads

Since this is still beta software, bug reports and feature requests are welcome:

https://github.com/pixhawk/qgroundcontrol/issues

Sorry for the bad image.

Appears Searching within Forums is not working at this time...NING Support is aware of the issue.

Thanks to member Brad Barnum for reporting this.

Ron

Here's a short video of the maiden flight.  I spent some time after this flight tuning the PIDS and am now waiting on the battery charger and the winds.