Blogs

A report on my images of local flooding. I haven't gotten an autopilot up and running yet, but am about to install auto-stabilization.  Even with the footage I got, the local web news site was happy to get it. Video here.

As you know, earlier this year we released the latest version of APM, the APM2560 board, which has twice as much memory as the older APM1280 boards. This was to allow us to continue to add features and functionality to the ArdupilotMega and ArduCopter code without running into the memory limits of the older 1280.

The dev teams worked hard to maintain seamless compatibility with the older boards, which has proven successful. So, for example, if you use the Mission Planner to upload your firmware, it autodetects which board you've got and loads the right firmware. And the two boards are 100% plug compatible. There are countless other tweaks in the background to make that migration seamless, and it's worked well.

In the meantime, the dev teams have been doing just what they promised in adding cool new stuff and both the ArdupilotMega and ArduCopter code have matured tremendously both in terms of performance and features over the past few months. The result, however, is that we are now nearly out of memory on the 1280 boards and development must shift to the APM2560 board to take advantage of its additional capacity.

Our plan is to, in the next few weeks, release a "final" stable and full-featured version of both the APM and AC2 code that supports both the APM1280 and APM2560 boards. (The code versions will probably be 2.3 for APM and 2.0 [non beta] for AC2). After that, future versions of both code bases will be APM2560-only.The final 1280-compatible code will represent the state-of-the-art of APM software as of mid-2011 and reflects three years of learning and work. So it will be very good indeed. But further innovation will move to the 2560 boards.

If you have an APM1280 board, you can be assured that it will continue to work great and we will continue to support that final code version for a good long time, making bug fixes where necessary. If you're happy with it, you can use it as is for years.

But if you'd like to continue to evolve with the project and participate in the continual process of adding new features and improving performance after our cut-off date later this summer, you'll need an APM2560 board (don't forget to add a couple strips of breakaway headers, too, if you don't already have them).  Please note that there is no need to upgrade your IMU shield; it works equally well with both boards. Indeed, this is the reason we made APM modular, so people could upgrade one component without losing their investment in the other. And the good news is that the base processor board is by far the cheaper of the two!

You'll note that this generation shift is right on schedule in our product release cycle. If you look back at our history, we tend to release new hardware versions every six months (dating all the way back to the original ArduPilot board, two and half years ago). As new processors and better sensors become available, we work as fast as we can to make them available to the community, and the pace of that isn't slowing down. We try to maintain at least six months of backwards compatibility, and support older hardware for about a year after we stop making it. (We're no longer making the original ArduPilot, for example, but will continue to support it until the end of the year).

Going forward, you should expect this six-month pace of hardware releases to continue. If you'd rather not be on a continual learning curve, you can always choose not to upgrade (or go with commercial autopilots, which evolve much more slowly). But the spirit of DIY Drones is constant learning, experimentation and innovation. These are early days yet in the UAV world, and we've just gotten started with all the cool things we want to roll out. Thanks for joining us in the spirit of this collective adventure and exploration of the future of aerial robotics.

In these years we're doing a lot of experience to develop , electronic board , frame , esc , imu .

The last products was dev product only for hobbist .. now we decide to join force with other partner and start to work on professional platform , improve it and put all our experience in drone used for professional application. The first product is VR Dragon Y6 . This is a Hexa Coax developed by my friends Antonio CEO of FlyCam Italy that ask me to improve his original idea. This platform can support a heavy lift payload , you can put on it professional HD cam and fly for more of 15 minutes , with the coax conf is possible to lost a propeller and landing without big problem. For develop this kind of product we develop professional custom electronic board , firmware frame and gimbal , this product will be optimize during the professional service doing for filmaker service.

for more info contact : lasernav@gmail.com

original post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/foxteam-support-and-improve

Best

Roberto

Just been testing this "new" copter.

Good

Stable flying

Easy to build

PnP no need for installing code

Can be finetuned via software, but has 3 knobs to adjust gain in field.

Bad

ESC: Got problem starting the BL motor, but when motor are running it's pretty powerfull. (Need slow startup)

Navigation mode: (hold position and RTH) need more testing. Not working very well.

Some drift: (maybe better prop or balancing motor/prop could help)

All in all: Nice little Y copter. The FY91Q can easily be intergrated in much bigger frame with bigger motor /ESC or be used in other configuration (like X frame).

Need for work with the RTH or Hold position function, too early for me to say it's rock solid. 

Pilot: John Jensen, DK

The Telemaster during pre-flight checks. 

APM, GPS, Air speed sensors and bubble level in the center payload bay.

Hobby Lobby's 74" Telemaster

Motor: Electrifly Rimfire 42-50-800kv GMP4700

ESC: Cermark ESC70BL

Prop: APC  16X8

Battery: Lightmax 3s 5000mAh or 2ea; 4000mAh

Receiver: Spektrum AR 7000

Aileron Servos: HS82 MG

Flap Servos: HS81 MG

Rudder Servo: HS85 MG

Elev. Servo HS85 MG

Camera: Canon SD1100IS

APM 2.1.2 MOD FOR POWER SENSOR

Planner 1.0.20

Planner worked very well loading software updates, .params and waypoint files.

HIL Simulations worked well with X-Planes

Still needs tuning but flight over an area survey path went well.

See:   01-07-11 12-00 9.kmz

The APM Log file is:   01-07-11 12-00 9.log

.param file: Cadencia 07-01-11 FLIGHT.param

Mission Check List: UAV APM Mission Check List 07-01-11.rtf

We are now ready to sort out the needed waypoint commands to snap pictures.

Dear Friends,
in these days i'm starting to test a lot of configuration using MP32 + VRIMU and Ardcuopter NG 32 and Arducopter32 2.0 .

The main problem is to set PID , in my revision of code i add Mixertable for fast Setup of different configuration.
In this video you can see my Heavy Lift Configuration ... we are working on complete RTF Hexa that include professional Gimbal with Pitch Roll and YAW stabilization.

What do you think about our last creation ? :) This is only the begin ...

original blog post here :  http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/heavy-lift-arducopter32

Wonderful work from ETH Zurich with their Vicon motion capture system and a Ascending Tech quad:

From Hackaday:

 "[T]hey are using Kinect to monitor their joint positions, mapping a handful of actions to the operator’s movements. Once the quadrotor is aloft, it can be directed around the room using the operator’s right hand. The gesture recognition system responds almost instantly, guiding the vehicle in all directions with ease. When the user’s left hand is raised, the quadrotor does a mid-air flip and awaits its next command, while a quick clap of the hands brings the machine to rest on the ground.

For the protection of anyone testing out the system, overhead motion tracking cameras are used to keep track of the Kinect’s position, creating an invisible midair barrier through which the quadrotor is not allowed to pass."

The Zephyr is a popular FPV wing.  Launching a heavily wing loaded Zephyr by hand is super tricky and many times results in a hard belly 'landing'.  I've been using the new "RUBY" Auto Pilot from uThere in my 60" Zephyr to perform fully automated launches, without fail.  Take a look and read more about it here.

The new FPVraptor will soon be ready for production. Just need some small adjustments.

The platform comes in two versions: 1.6 M and 2 M version.See the first review by Ali on youtube.

Hope you like what you see.

Lanyuhobby tried to find a good solution to reach out to both FPV and sUAV flying.

Pricelevel ~ 100-115 USD

Feel free to comment.

You can buy the FPVraptor 2m here.

WIND TUNNEL

Amplifier Stage

This night flight video looks clear enough for my FPV night flight next time.

Day FPV flight with ACM2 tri, like I owned a easy to drive private helicopter for air traveling.

Especially the RTL function consolidate the FPV flight safety when wireless video or RC control was lost.

Today, Bask Aerospace would like to announce the introduction of a new product, AeroCase.

This ABS Plastic bulkhead case has been designed to work perfectly with the ArduPilot Mega System (including MediaTek GPS Module and 900MHz Xbee Telemetry). It features; CNC Machined Servo Pin and USB Holes, pre-mounted PCB stand-offs for easy ArduPilot Mega mounting and everything else you need to help protect your system. We use the same case for our popular AeroPilot so we know just how good this little case is.

For just AUD$24.95, you get everything you need to help protect your ArduPilot Mega and make it simple to integrate into many aerial platforms. Find out more >>

Today we are beginning to work with depron foam for the construction of one of many test airplanes to come. In the previous days, we have built insulation foam models at a small and large scale. After testing both insulation foam models, we have collectively decided to keep our basic design, but to scale it smaller than 3 feet x 3 feet. The center of gravity was consistently in the center of our models if we tampered with weighing down some parts of the aircraft, which was a positive aspect of our design. Some models that we tested flew many meters on a light toss. In progressing to using depron, we are spending a lot of time working with the thinness and dimensions of the material to maximize the amount of the resource we have. Although sometimes it is tricky to strategically build the planes out of the 13 in. x 39 in sheets, we are having success.

Beginning this week, we plan to attach the ArduPilot Mega to a pre-built model airplane to experiment with its functions. Once we have a good, working depron model with control surfaces and a propeller, we will begin experimenting with our plane and the autopilot. We are excited to see how it will function!

Dear Friends,

we doing fly test of HexaCoax developed by Daniele A. based on MP32+ VRIMU. The video is the first flight test . We need to finisht the work on PID.

Ciao a tutti,
ieri abbiamo collaudato e fatto volare l'hexa coax di Daniele, una bella realizzazione in aluminio . Il video e' del primo volo e Daniele stava prenderndo familiarita' con il mezzo.
Di solito pilota riproduzioni aeree , ma si e' trovato subito a suoi agio con il suo nuvo drone , bisogna ancora lavorare sui PID , specialmente sullo YAW ancora un po' molle.

This is the configuration of HexaCoax.

I componenti sono :

Firmware : Arducopter32 NG
Scheda CPU : Multipilot32
Scheda IMU : VRIMU
Regolatori Motorius 30 A
Motori Motorius 2217

The source code , lib and ide snapshot is available here :

Lo snapshot del codice utilizzato e' questo : http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=vrobotix-ide-0.0.4%20mixer%20hexacoax.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges

Original post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/diy-hexacoax-by-daniele-a

The T6EX doesn't have a 3 position switch channel, so I had to combine channel 5 and 6 to get four modes. I made it work with a pot that has double terminals for each knob position, so that way there is always 2 pins to connect cables to for a single position.

Think of this knob as a bridge between same terminals: A to A, B to B, etc, closing the circuit to ground.

Channel 6 is connected to a terminal A and a terminal B from the opposite side.

Channel 5 is connected to a terminal B and C.

This is how the pot look like:

I got this switch at the Home Hardware in College st and and Spadina Av, Toronto, Canada. Sorry I don't have to much information about it. It's just a position knob.

Later, in the radio, I set up 2 PMIX mixes. they appear as PMX 1 and 2. PMX 1 it's at +70%, MAS (for master) is channel 6, SLV is channel 5, SW is channel 5.

PMX 2 is set to -60%, MAS ch6, SLV ch5, SW to ch5.

The final look:

Let me know what is not clear and I will edit this blog!

Enjoy-

We played around with a Kinect as a way to more naturally interact with the quadrotors in the Flying Machine Arena and made a short video of the result. Since there is a bit of saturation of Kinect-ish videos out there, we tried to include a short explanation of how this demo works. You can find more info about the Flying Machine Arena here.

Big thanks to Sandro for tutoring me on that one :)

There is an option to connect LEDs to the IMU, using the same pins we going to control 12V LED Strips :)

You can get those at Hobby-King:

Next we need this guy:

ULN2003

Important thing is not to go over 700mA, on all channels. So the LED strips can't be longer than 9 LEDs per arm.

check LEDs datasheet, maybe you can use more (or less) 

Here is some pictures of the process :)

Green,Red and 2X Blue, wires going to LDE Strips.

Cut the long legs :) and shrink tube it.And you done:)

Here is the leds.pde, it have that blinking part in it, but you can go crazy here :)

Gaui 330X-S / ArduCopter 2 / Remzibi OSD from Kevin M. on Vimeo.

ArduCopter 2.0.30b modified with Remzibi OSD code.

Needs PID tuning and less windy conditions.

Video is on 2.4gHz, in residential neighborhoods it looks terrible! At the field it's much better.

Not stable, pulls different directions even when precision leveled with 0.1deg gauge. Going to build a leveling tray with offsets for bootup and level commands.