Today is a great day! finally we had setup the little e-commerce and stocked it with a few products. Be advised! The page still have some little bugs!After making a payment, paypal will return you to the preview store page, don't worry about that, at that point you order has been sent.And the Store URL is................... this:http://store.diydrones.comHaa! I need to sleep now, was an unsigned long long day; Feel free of buy everything you need. ;-) More products coming soon!Good Night!
Read more…3D Robotics
DIY Drones factories North (Berkeley) and South (LA) are working hard this weekend. Down in LA, Jordi is populating ArduPilot expansion boards with pressure sensors using our in-house reflow oven.
Meanwhile, up here, the Blimpduino kits are now boxed and waiting for final QA. Here's the box design:
I'm beta testing the new third-party apps platform that Ning will be rolling out soon and trying to decide which are right for us. At the moment, any app I add to the network will appear on every member's profile page (as well as the front page) so I need to choose carefully.
One of the more useful ones is a wiki, which you can see I've enabled in the tab above right (but haven't done anything with it yet). The question is what's the best use for it. Options include:
1) Use it for ArduPilot and Blimpduino documentation. (Paparazzi uses a wiki like this, but they're a stand-alone site, not a community).
2) Use it as a group-editable list of UAV resources, replacing my out of date list.
3) Use it for general how-to instructions, group created and group editable.
What do you think? Vote/discuss in the comments, please.
There are also a lot of other apps. The whole list is for beta testers but here are most of them in the most relevent, ecommerce, collaboration and communications:
Would any of these be useful for us? Remember that if I enable them they show up on every profile page, so we should pick only those with the broadest application. (This may change in the future, but it's the way apps work on Ning now)
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You can't beat child labor! 200 Blimpduino kits being readied for Maker Faire. (And yes, as you can see out the window our house is a construction site at the moment. We're building a drone lab, among other expansions.)
Read more…Developer
Yeah! Finally arrived by Fedex Saturday. Otherwise will be impossible to have them ready for this Monday. Also came with them another 50 pressure sensors, so that means i will have enough for the release.BTW, this red pcb's are "Special Edition", the next batch will be traditional and boring green, so hurry!
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Finally the project has a name, Project Nelson :) From the Seagull song fame" The Seagulls name was Nelson"Finished the build today, did the first un powered launch today, went ok.Regards
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There has been some recent interest in using the EasyGlider as a flying platform so I've included some updated pictures. Space was increased beneath the canopy by removing the rudder servo since it's not being used and grinding/cutting into the right fuselage wall. This area was reinforced with fiberglass and the increased space allowed addition of the EagleTree datalogger and extra GPS. The rudder is now locked in place by the horn and a piece of balsa glued to the vertical fin.
I have started to assemble my parts list for my Globalhawk[1] UAV.
Google Docs: Teque5 UAV BuildI am having trouble deciding on a lot of specifics, but i hope to have something conclusive before the weekend is over. I am very open to comments on my first foray into the DIY Drones world. I am specifically looking for recommendations on a battery. Is is possible to get 2+ Hours long duration w/some kind of LiPo pack?ps. Have you guys checked out Wolfram Alpha? It launched today and is sweet as hell.[1] I haven't settled on the RQ-4 Global Hawk airframe yet, but this one looks pretty nice.
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Folks,
As you know the FAA is midway in a long rulemaking process to figure out how to integrate UAVs in the national airspace, but the bottom line from the inititial recommendations are as follows:
For us (non-commerical hobbyists), you must stay within these limitations:
--fly within line of sight
--under 400' alt
--under 30 knots
--under 4.4lb
--Fly at least 3 miles from any airport
As you're designing your airframes, keep these limits in mind!
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Team OSAM has been working hard to get ready for the 2009 Student UAS Competition. Eventhough we are having issues with the new airframe (see http://diydrones.com/video/first-flight-of-the-new ) all is going to plan. The backup airframe is flying great and is still has that new plane smell.Our in house IMU (AggieNav) is also nearing completion... We are currently working on the kalman filter and ironing out the bugs. In other news we have started pushing harder for multiple UAV formation flights. One 48" plane has been made autonomous and another will follow soon. Unfortunately for this project the competition preparing takes up a lot of this projects time.For the competition we also have a few tricks up our sleeve that everyone will have to wait till after the competition.
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I couldn't believe it when I found this site!If you have a look at my photographs you will see my under construction aircraft.It is 1200 mm long, 90 mm wide, 220 mm high.Made from cardboard, balsa, 12 mm square aluminium extrusion tail boom.It will be powered by an OS 28, with a pusher prop.Weight at the moment is under 1kg, with no engine, canopy "glass", or radio gear.The whole point of this aircraft design right from the start was1) stability2) lots of room for avionics3) a camera platform4) a test bed for AUV systemsThe fuselage sides are made from cardboard, I used polyester resin to fuel proof it and give it a bit of extra strength.It has a full flying elevator, the rudder at the moment is full flying, but that has proved to be impractical.When I ran up the OS 28 for the first time the rudder shook like hell and I am going to put a more conventional vertical stabiliser/rudder combination on it.Wing span will be around 2000mm.I want to flight test it just under normal radio control first with a simple wing and minimal electronics.After that I plan to put 12 2V, 500mA photovoltaic cells in between the wing ribs, 6 in each wing.The idea being to keep the plane aloft as long as possible, I was going to fit a clunk tank pick up to a 250mL PET fruit juice bottle.I gotta find a name for it!
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I've been pretty silent for the past many weeks up to months. I cannot detail too much, but that I'm working on a perch and stare project that I will be able to disclose to the public after I have the research completed and the prototype made.-Steve
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It is quite amazing the mindset of the FAA when it comes to UAV operations. There is something desperately wrong here. I fully understand the need for air safety. And have absolutely no problems with that of course. But what i fail to see the logic is the more or less total BAN on amateur UAV development. Or should I say High Altitude UAV development. I guess if you stay below 400 feet you are Ok. But this is the part i do not understand.I can launch, and do all the time already totally legally by the way with the blessings of the FAA. Balloons that carry payloads up to 6 pounds each, and up to 12 pounds if multiple payloads. And use balloons that are anywhere from only a pound or two to balloons that weigh hundreds of pounds even!I can do this, and as I stated already do legally.But to do a UAV at altitudes we do with the balloons up to 120,000 feet we can not do. Of course above 60,000 is un controlled airspace. And you should be able to do anything you want. But you need to travel through 0 to 60,000 first.But the part the FAA has NOT given us an explanation to is this. two examples,Example 1We fly our 4 pound experimental payload via a balloon, It rises at a speed of anywhere between 500 to 1500 feet per minute, exatly how fast the rise not too controllable, all depends on the lift placed in the balloon. The flight path is totally determined by the winds aloft. Whatever way the wind is blowing is the direction the balloon will go we have absolutely no control over this. The balloon reaches max altitude, and either pops or is terminated, (depends on the type of the balloon) and the payload starts to come down via a parachute. again totally un controllable, where it falls is totally dependent of fall rate and the winds aloft again. eventually landing wherever it lands,,This is ABSOLUTELY LEGALExample 2Using the EXACT same guidelines as the example for payload weight , weight densities, etc, it falls easily into the legal definition of the above balloon flight in every way. But with one change, After seperation from the balloon we are able to steer the payload. Be it a standard payload with a parafoil type of parachute where we can steer it to directions we want. Or taking it one step further a true UAV glider where it still meets all the spec's needed to be legal,, but now is in the shape of the airplane glider. So again it's steerable!Example is absolutely ILLEGAL and FORBIDDEN!!!WTF?Ok we are thinking of safety,, which would you rather have,1- a 4 pound box falling via a parachute to wherever it falls no matter where it is..and they do! we have had them land on tollways,, we have had them lane between taxi ways at OHARE international airport, we had them land at Nuke plants where they called out the bomb squads to check it out. But this is all fine and OK and no one has a problem with BUT........2- take a 4 pound glider, and as it's coming down if it looks like it might be going somewhae not safe,, an airport, or major approach or departure lane,, or ny other not too safe situatiion so you deciode to steer it so it does NOT go there. Sounds great huh? But IN THE FAA'S EYES THIS IS TOTTALLY ILLEGAL. CCan anyone at all see any logic in this?Maybe I see we haul the glider up to 100 K drop it, fly it wherever we wish until it gets to 60 K then let go of the controls, and let it go wherever it does, then once it's below 400 feet then control it again and land it he he heDrop me a note with a copy of what you reply to this please. send it to,nss@mwt.netThe total logic just escapes me.Joe
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I am testing DCM update with PI drift tracking. I am using one closed loop with gravity vector and other for magnetic field vector (3 axis vector), i am comparing measured vector with my local magnetic field vector. it works ok!i have read than magnetometers can not be used with electric motors, but i have tested this board over a electric plane, and i can see noise due electric motor is very very small, it is dificult to see any effect in algorithm result.Thanks to Bill Premerlani and Paul Bizard for his DCM method description.jlcortexnmine.com
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Propeller Flying Inertial TestbedGoal:To develop and refine software that will read sensor values and perform the necessary calculations to produce a stable and accurate IMU (inertial measurement unit).Performance:The quality of the code will be evaluated on how well a simulated horizon aligns with the actual horizon. Using the Propellers video drivers, an artificial horizon will be displayed over a real world view to see how well they align.Features:The Parallax Propeller’s architecture allows it to run multiple IMU routines simultaneously (true parallel processing) so software refinements can be compared to a baseline routine. For example a floating point kalman filter can be directly compared to an integer kalman filter to see which performs better. Or the same filter can be run at higher frequencies to see if performance improves.Hardware:Airframe – HobbyLobby Wingo Had one too many crashesAirftame - Easy StarMicroprocessor – Parallax PropellerIMU – Sparkfun 5DoFCamera – Inteligent Flight KX171Here is a partially assembled board used during testing. There were a few layout problems that have been fixed.
The underside of the board with the 5DoF IMU. The camrea is only mounted to the board for testing.
Good news for those of you with Bill Premerlani's UAV DevBoard who have been reading about his impressive new DCM code and other software but are a little fuzzy about loading it on the board. Bill has just released a tutorial on programming the board with a PIC programmer.
For us ArduPilot users who have been spoiled by Arduino's easy to use IDE and cheap FTDI programming cable, PIC programming can be daunting indeed. But this tutorial is clear and will walk you through every step. Highly recommended--Bill writes great documentation that's a model of the form.
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