Well today placed the order for a few bits n bobs with a widget or two thrown in :) the Ardupilot and accessories was ordered. This includes the 900Mhz Xbee Pro, only the FMA sensors to order still as they are back in stock on the 15th :DThe new DSX9 2.4Ghz and the EasyStar with brushless upgrade can now be put to good use, well as soon as the thing is built....
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Just a small bug fix: the previous 2.1 code set the altitude for all waypoints at 75 meters and ignored the altitudes set in the configuration utility (this was a safety measure we were using at the Sparkfun contest and we forgot to switch it back). Jordi has just uploaded ArduPilot 2.1.1 which reads the altitude settings for each waypoint correctly.
Thanks to Bryan Cuervo for catching the bug!
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Here's a stack of Blimpduino boards being programmed in preparation for being sent off to the distributor. We're going to start selling the full kits, blimp, senors, beacons and all) through the Make Magazine store and they'll be available at Maker Faire on the 31st (and in the online store around the same time). Price not yet set, but under $100.
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This isn't about flying robots, but it's cool all the same. A 30-minute long exposure of a Roomba cleaning a room, as seen by the track of the central LED. What's interesting is that although its movements are essentially random, it looks like it didn't miss anything (those gaps are less than a Roomba-width apart). From Gizmodo.
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Does anybody know what wattage [how powerfully] I can legally transmit without any sort of liscence?On what Channels?btw, a radio works by grounding the antenna to the middle wire on a pnp transistor correct?So I could use two transitors to build a simple amp?Like this?:_______New ant.______________________I_______________________+ --[I]-- - GND________________ ^__________________________ ^ <---------------WIRE____________ ^___________________________ ^_______________+Volts + --[I}--^ -______________________I_______________________RC ant.___________-The underlines are used to hold the spaces.Thanks-R.Drone ;)
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ArduPilot is selling faster than Sparkfun can make them! It's out of stock again, but the boards are on the PNP machine now and it will be available again by Mon/Tues. Total sales at this point are approaching 600.
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Well finally its nearly ready to fly Just waiting for the wind to drop for a test flight.Its a modular thing, with stacks of room for gear in the front a work in progress of course. Hopefully of course it will provide a steady platform for an Attopilot which should be released from its shackles before too long. Dean has another one of the smaller ones which he should be test flying, thats Airframe 2. Airframe 1 is being flown to bits in order to see how well the EPP performs after lots of UV on it. Hopefully in the end we will have a useful platform at FlyingScotsCam for doing the work of the Twinstar and flying wing.
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Because of bad weather her in Denmark I had the time to make a pan and tilt system for my Seagull 2200 inspired by the pan and tilt system from Range video. (DIY is much cheaper). I have ordered a 1 Watt 2,4 Ghz Video TX and RX from Range video so now the Seagull will soon be ready for a FPV flying.Still wayting for better weather before I can start testing Ardupilot again.
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Today was radio day :) JR DSX9 it was, easy to change modes, easy to program and 2.4Ghz. More than enough radio to grow into over time, good local support and the price was reasonable.Now the build can start, well that is after the hobby room is prepared :)Later...
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Well took the first steps to UAV heaven :) Havent flown in over 20 years..... So there, this will be a challenge, or rather maybe a few (or plenty) of them.Got the Easystar yesterday, a few odds and ends, upgraded to a brushless motor etc.... will take a few pics as I go along :)
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I've been working on an open source autopilot for a while now. It's not finished yet but it's getting close. The board is quite small - about the size of an ESC - and weighs 10g.
Features:* Plugs directly into any R/C receiver - up to nine control channels.* Can control up to ten servos.* Combined GPS/IR leveler board makes installation easy.* Barometric altimeter.* microSD card for flight plans and data storage.* Fully open source software. You can improve it or change it however you like.* Easily reprogrammed via USB with no need for a special programmer.* Powerful on-board flight scripting language.* Optional radio link to the ground.* Optional 9-axis IMU.* Many expansion options including I2C, SPI, etc.* Powerful ARM7 processorBy the way this is an open source project - not a commercial project - so please don't ask me for release dates or free samples!The autopilot software is at:http://code.google.com/p/flyingfox/My original (kinda old) build thread is at:http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734791Read more…T3
Flight testing of "AileronAssist" is complete. This is the firmware that I had in mind when I started out. It controls ailerons and elevator to stabilize neutrally stable aircraft and performs return to launch. I was able to use it to fly a Goldberg Endurance with some confidence and ease. This is an aircraft that I crashed 5 times last summer. I have finally soloed with it, though most of the credit goes to "AileronAssist", to Paul Bizard, and to everyone else who has helped me so far.Above is a picture of my Endurance, with the electronics mounted on top with velcro, just like I tell everyone else not to doThe firmware and documenation is available on the main page for UAV DevBoard. For those of you who have the board and have tried MatrixNav, the next step is to try AileronAssist in a neutrally stable aircraft. I think you are going to like it. Its smoother and more precise than I ever imagined it could be.The weather is good today, I am going to get out of here and go do some flying.Best regards to everybody,Bill PremerlaniPS For those of you waiting for restocking of the UAV DevBoard, the first board off the production line is on its way to me. When it arrives, I am going to do thorough flight testing with it before releasing it. I will make an announcement.
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This video is the demo that goes with an excellent introduction to PID tuning from my friends in the Lego robotics world. KP, KI and KD are the P, I and D gain constants.
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Hello,I have known about this community for about 10 months and have been waiting until I have time to get into this stuff. I will be a Junior in the fall at the University of Michigan as an electrical engineer and just finished this semester.I got into RC aircraft about a year ago when I got a Belt CP helicopter. In November I also got a Slow Stick to get into fixed wing. Right now I am looking at the Twinstar II and Easy Star and am looking for any input regarding these platforms. I live on a small lake, and whichever I choose I plan to build into a seaplane. Is it feasible to have a water-based AP/UAV platform, or am I just wasting my time with this idea? I have several LIPOs so I will definitely go brushless right away. The main reason I am looking at the Twinstar is its very large surface area and it seems to have a large fuselage for gear. Once I get the new platform up and ready for the water, I will probably start working with the Ardupilot. I am also open to any other airframe suggestions that would be good for water.It has been interesting watching all the developments here over the past months.Thanks,Ryan
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Yes the first testflight is over, and the seagull 2200 are still alive.I planed a small 5 waypoint route on a open area near Aalborg, Denmark.
After calibration on the FMA sensor I was ready to give it a try.After a little manual flight I pushed the auto button on my remote CH 5.. So far so good. The plane started making bit of rocking with the rudder - after a sec or two the plane gets stabel and just holding the course... hmmm.. Not navigating as it surpose to do. I tried about 5 times to se if there are any sign of showing just a little navigation for the first waypoint. But just a straight path.
So what might be the problem?If I try "flying by wire" without the gps I have one very weak control over the rudder and elev.Anybody out there! anybody.. :-(Here is the function on the board... It looks right to me.Read more…
Hi all,We are using the thermopile sensors to estimate attitude of our airplane. The problem is that the paparazzi wiki mentions a nonlinear relationship between the angle and the voltage. Therefore, we can't use it unless we calibrate it experimentally and find the values for different angles and store them in a table. However, that would be cumbersome. It would help greatly if there was a mathematical relation or a lookup table between the voltage and angle, but so far we haven't been able to find it. Any ideas on this?-yogesh, aravind
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I want to power my ardupilot and attached xbee 900 pro separately from my Rx, due to the current drain imposed by telemetry and GPS. I have an 1800 mAh lipo 3s on board powering video so I figured to tap into there (although inefficient , I know) instead of adding another low voltage battery to the rig .So, I soldered the batt jumper on the ardupilot board, made a deans to header cable and thought I was OK to go. But when applied to the battery terminal, an instant fire ensued (picture attached)! I figured it was a short, but turned out not to be. Input V too high?It can take up to 15V, so I'm told, but haven't seen/heard of anyone taking it up past ~7 V. Id like to grab the data sheet anyway. The voltage reg is imprinted with 'k850', but I have yet to find a sheet based on this info alone. Has anyone used a 3 cell? Any info would help. Im fairly sure I did not make a rookie mistake here but at the same time, im not suggesting a design or production flaw. Just want to make this work without toasting another board.Read more…
This might be obvious for you but as an electronics noob it took me a while to figure out how to connect the Sparkfun FTDI Basic Breakout board to the ArduPilot. The different naming of the pins confused me and of course I thought I'd blow up everything if I connect it the wrong way.ArduPilot pinsGND = GroundVCC = Voltage of the Common CollectorGRN/DTR (green) = AutoresetTXO = OutputRXI = InputVCC = Voltage of the Common CollectorCTS = Clear To SendBLK/GND (black) = GroundFTDI board pins (-> ArduPilot)GRN/DTR -> GRNRXI -> TXOTXO -> RXI5V -> VCC (unused)CTS -> CTS (unused)GND -> BLK/GND
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