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My Very First Test Flight was a Sucsess!! 

  This was at about 4am when i solved the last bug and it wanted to hover. 

Like my painters tape Battery Straps... I found some velcro later.  

    This is a fasttrack guide for building an ArduPilot Mega QuadCopter.  If you have already started or are about to start building a QuadCopter this guide is ment to be used as a reference to help fill in the blanks with your build and first setup. 

1.)  Remember SAFETY First, Always Remove Propellers when working with the quadcopter powered on the bench.  Proppellers can cause serious injury to You, others, small childern, and animals.     Remember not to forget to read up on Lipo Safety, Don't burn your house down!!!  LiPo Batteries are great batteries if used correctly.

Lipo battery info:  

2.) Hardware:

1. QuadCopter Frame:

     1.) Build your own.  If you build it yourself remember to keep it Light and Strong. 

     2.)  Already pre-built here:

        ArduCopter Frame Only              $170.00

        ArduCopter Frame + Motors        $320.00

 Motors: x 4   

        1.) AC2836-358 880Kv   with 10x4.5 prop      $24 

        2.) AC2830-358 850Kv  with 10x4.5 prop       $18      

        3.) TURNIGY 28-22 1400kv with 9x5 prop      $13

Propellers: x 4

     1.) 12x4.5             $6

     2.) 10x4.5             $6 

     3.) 9x5                  $3

3.) Electronics:

     1.) ArduPilot Mega & IMU with GPS /  header pins not assembled                                     $250

*Optional* Compass (needed for GPS hold)         $45

*Optional* Rangfinder                                      $54

*Optional* Telemetry                                        $150

          2.) Radio Control "RC"  Transmitter and Reciever  Tx/Rx 6 or more ch. 

                         1.) Turnigy 9X 9Ch                   $54

                         2.) Spektrum DX8 8Ch             $429

          3.) ESC  Electronic Speed Controller

               1.) DIY-Drones 25 amp ESC                              $18

               2.) HobbyKing Turnigy 25 amp ESC                  $12

         4.) Batteries  

 A basic quadcopter using the above listed motors and ESC needs at least a 2200mha 11.1v 3s 20C Lipo battery pack

                                                 Flight Times

              11.1v  2200mha  = 6-8 min +/- 1

                 http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=15019                   $13

              11.1v  4400mha = 12-15 min +/- 2

   11.1v 2650mha  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9267           $17

   11.1v 5000mha  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14651         $25

After building your QaudCopter bench testing is a great way to determine the QuadCopters true power consumption needs. An Amp Meter can be used to verify that the battery(s) are opperating with in a safe "C" range.  Before you start flying around with your QuadCopter you should test your battery time on the bench to get an average idea of how long your batteries will last.  Setting the transmitter count down timer will help remind you when to land. Only if you remember to start it. :)  My rule of thumb is land before the battery(s) get to low.  Low voltage battery alarms are a great way to help protect your batteries and your aircaft form power failure.

                 Low Voltage Alarms:

    Multi      http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=INTC23212                                     $12

            3s  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7223                              $4

            4s  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7225                              $4

The APM also has a 4s voltage alarm buit in that can be used as well

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Software Downloads:

ArduinoIDE    

                       This program is used to load your choice of QuadCopter "code" to the APM.

Windows download

MAC download

Linux download

 Reference guide for using the Arduino software http://arduino.cc/en/

 ______________________________________________________________________________

MediaTek utility and firmware 1.6 upgrade for GPS .

                            This program is used to update GPS firmware.

                Heplful reference                                     __________________________________________________________________________________________

Xbee module setup software:

      Latest version of XCTU: Contains features from previous versions, plus adds support for over-the air configuration of select XBee modules. 

This software will update it self once installed and yes it will work on 64-bit vista and win7

                          http://ftp1.digi.com/support/utilities/40002637_c.exe   

      Helpfulreference

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Configurator

  http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/downloads/detail?name=Configurator.zip

ArduCopter Configurator (requires LabVIEW runtime and drivers, too)

This Software Configures your RC Tx Transmitter and lets you test adjust the flight characteristics 

of your QuadCopter. 

Reference guide for using the Configurator http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/Configurator

  __________________________________________________________________________________________

                                                 QuadCopter Code:  

Both files are needed. 

   PiratesNG Sketches rev.527  Place these files in your Arduino Sketch folder.

   PiratesNG Libraries rev.527  Place these files in your Arduino Libraries folder.

!!!!Must READ!!!!

ArduPiratesNG Reference page

Reference Guide for loading the code

Reference guide for using CLI

This is the code I'm currently using with my QuadCopter... :))

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________

 Building The QuadCopter 

Build a light weight ridged frame.

        Spec.

               Square Aluminun tubing  1/16"' thick x 3/4'' x 3/4'' 

                1/16" x 1/2" Flat Stock

                 1/16" x 4"x4" Plate

      Secured together with 5/32" Rivets and Silicone in between.

                 24'' between motors

                 Frame only Weight:  350g       

This Frame is more on the tough side, i added Lightening holes to help lower the weight.  The Lightening holes only subtracted about 30g of weight... My next frame I pan on using carbon fiber arrow shafts and curcuit prefboard in hopes of creating a strong and even lighter frame.  Less weight = Longer flight times.

_________________________________________________________

 Props

         This Prop Has Been Balanced using sandpaper

The difference in CW & CCW rotating propellers

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!REMOVE PROPS until you are ready to fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This video will help you Balance your Props 

 Installing Motors:

Warning!!!!!!!!!! Do Not Install Props!!!!!!!

    Motor:

       Model: TR28-22B-1400
                                          Max Eff: 5A
                                       Max Load: 8A
                                               Kv: 1400
                                           Weight: 36g
                                       Pull: 100~450g
                                     Prop: 8x4 or 9x5
                                         Voltage: 6~9v
                                        Length: 23mm
                                         Power: 70W+

                                       9 x 5 Propeller

        QuadCopter ready to fly weight 990g

        These motors are great!!  During bench testing each motor measured 5 amp's with a total of 20 amp's constant with all 4 motors @ a hover and climbing to 26 amp's with sudden throttle burst. After a 7 min hover around the motors stayed very cool. The only down side to these motors is that you need to buy 6 to make sure you get 4 really good ones.  One of my motors has loose bearings and vibrates really bad sometimes.  I also recommend getting at least one extra motor just in case you crash.  Don't for get props too... :)

 Watch and listen to this motor vibrate on takoff.!!!!!!!!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Connecting Motors to ESC             

Electronic Speed Controller             

ESC

Model:

Turnigy 25amp Plush 

              Cont Current: 25A
             Burst Current: 35A
             BEC Mode: Linear
             BEC : 5v / 2A
             Lipo Cells: 2-4
             NiMH : 5-12
             Weight: 22g
            Size: 24x45x11mm

 I like these ESC because they come ready to go out of the box, although you should always make sure each one is programed the same first.  During my bench testing they barely even got warm.

Helpful reference guide for connecting ESC's

                                        http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/ESC

 How to correctly connect motors the first time with this setup is easy.  Use the identifiers to help u connect each motor.  Each motor has 3 wires Black, Red, Yellow, Each ESC has 3 wires all red but labled at the ESC "A,B,C".

  Start with the Front & Rear motors    3 Front & 4 Back

   "A" wire from esc connects to RED wire on motor 

     "B" wire from ESC connects to BLACK wire on motor

       "C" wirre from ESC connects to YELLOW wire on motor

When connected correctly front and rear motors should spin

in the same direction Clockwise "CW"

                           Left & Right motors   1 LT & 2 RT

   "A" wire from esc connects to BLACK wire on motor 

     "B" wire from ESC connects to RED wire on motor

       "C" wirre from ESC connects to YELLOW wire on motor

  The left and right motor should also spin in the same direction as eachother but in counter clockwise "CCW"

Connecting ESC's to Main Power connecter

 I recommend soldering these connection for many reasons.

• Cheap than buying connectors
• Connectors can fail
• Connectors are heavy
• more dependable

Connecting the ESC's together is pretty straight forward

RED to RED

BLK to BLK

• Use a battery pack to verifiy you have connected the wires to the battery connector the correct way afterwards. 
• Use heatshrik and electrical tape to protect the connections from contacting. 

 Configuring ESC connectors for APM

• Lable each ESC with motor #

           Front 3    Supply Power from ESC

           Rear  4

           Left   2

           Right 1

• Remove Red Power wire from ESC's 1,2,4
• Heatshrink non-use power wires from ESC's

Helpful reference guide for connecting ESC's

                                        http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/ESC

Now The QuadCopter should look like this

______________________________________________________________________

Mounting Electronics 

•   Curcuit PrefBoad
•   Nylon screws & nuts
•   Light weight setup
• Mount APM Telemetry Port pointing forward @ motor # 3 for   ( + )
• Mount APM Telemetry Port pointing Between motor # 3  &  1  for   ( X )

All this was cut with a razor knife.  Score and Break

The preboard's hole line up with the pins on the bottom of the APM witch helps to lock it in place without glue.

<<<<<<<<<<< I used packing foam that came with the SparkFun Xbee radios on top of the APM and tightend down the nylon nuts to compress the foam and lock in the APM.

I did this with the RC Rx as well  >>>>>>>>>>

________________________________________________

Connecting to the APM

_

• Compass
• GPS
• Telemetry

At this end of the Compass I used a small dab of silicone to help protect the compass from being damaged.

      I used 2 Plastic Headers to keep the Compass from being to close to the APM

Connecting to the compass is straight forward

• compass connects to APM not IMU
• Check Compass firmware with utility provided in software section of this blog.

          Use Double sided foam tape to attach GPS.>>>>>

• Telemerty Port is a good way to identify front of APM
• 

__________________________________________________

Connecting RC Rx to APM

• Indentify in/out ch on APM
• Modify female to female connector
• connect Rx outputs to APM inputs

Remove all but 1 RED wire

ch1 to in 1

ch2 to in 2

ch3 to in 3

ch4 to in 4

ch5 to in 5 

ch6 to in 6

The one jumper with the RED wire will supply the RC Rx with Power from the APM.

Good Reference Guide

http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/ESC

<<<<GPS- APM-RX-Xbee

Connecting it all together in the QuadCopter

Right motor ESC 1 >> APM out  1

Left motor   ESC 2 >> APM out  2

Front motor ESC 3 >> APM out  3

Rear motor  ESC 4 >> APM out  4

Before Plugging a battery in you should always double check to make sure everthing is connected correctly, otherwise you run the risk of Desrtoying any chance of fun. 

It's a good idea to hook everything up and get it all programed and talking before it's installed in to the Quad.  This will help get you comfortable working with the APM. 

___________________________________________________

Almost ready for take off....  

!!!!!REMOVE PROPS!!!!!!!

• Check all wiring is correct
• Load Code with ArduinoID
• Run CLI Setup
• Run Configurator Setup
• Test RC connection & range

  Reference guide for loading the code         http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/Code_Loading

  Reference guide for using the Configurator http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/Configurator

  Reference guide for using CLI                   http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/CLI

  Reference guide for PreFlight                    http://code.google.com/p/ardupirates/wiki/Flying

If all Goes well then it's time to Fly.  This is video of my First test flight.

2nd Test Flight

3rd Test Flight

4th Test flight

Designed especially for FPV (First Person View) camera flight!
This is a true FPV plane thats easy to build and comes packed with common sense FPV must-haves such as rear mounted servos for the elevator and rudder to help counter balance the additional radio gear. Other practical features include the large internal ply mounting trays for attaching large amounts of equipment in the desired position for correct C of G and of course a large canopy area, the canopy is not mounted to the frame allowing you to configure as you please.

This model is hand-launch which is easy due to combination of a large wing, and plenty of fuselage to grab a firm hold of, with the reccomended 4s power train, there will be plenty of power for the initial launch. The fibreglass fuselage is ultra tough and ideally shaped landing on grass, with a flat bottom and rear skid.

Specs:
Material: Fiberglass & Ply/Balsa
Wing Span: 1669mm (65.7")
Wing Area: 34.3" dm2
Fuselage: 1181mm (46.5")
Motor Mount Diameter: 58mm
Distance From Center of Mount to Fuse: 114mm (max prop diameter 8"]
Flying Weight: 2300g
Minimum 4 Channel, 4 x Mini servo

Price is US$ 175 (or US$ 166 if you wait about half a minute for a pop up to appear)

More information: White version or Grey version

The MatrixPilot dev team is happy to announce that version 3.0 is finally out the door! This update includes a hefty code reorganization into modular, reusable libraries, along with some important new features, and refinements to our dead reckoning and wind estimation algorithms. The code should also now be much easier to hack on as a basis for using the UAVDevBoard for other purposes.

Thanks to all the developers and testers who helped out with this release!

More info over at our wiki.

What's New in MatrixPilot 3.0

• Support for up to 8-channel PPM RC Input on a single pin, freeing up other pins for other features, including up to 9 RC outputs. Compatible with this board from the DIYDrones store.
• Added a new mission description language based on LOGO.
• Allow sending waypoints (or UDB Logo instructions) mid flight over the telemetry channel.
• Much improved Navigation, due to improvements in Dead Reckoning and wind estimation.
• Improved camera-targeting logic and precision.
• Added an RTL Hold feature that keeps you in RTL mode once it's been triggered, until you flip your mode switch. This helps avoid chaos if you're flying at the edge of your RC range.
• Support for a still-experimental native On-Screen Display using this board from SparkFun.
• Improved autonomous landing control.
• Improved flight analysis tools.
• Code restructuring into shared libraries makes building your own UDB-based projects much easier!

Control Diagram finished 4/28/11

I know these servos are cheap but have some pretty good reviews, I hope they can handle well.  The reason I chose to use 8 mini servos as apposed to the recommended 4 mini and 2 standard is to try to make space.  How you wonder?  Well being able to eliminate the linkage cables in the plane I plan to build an access panel under the plane so I cam mount electronics near the CG, I also hope to make access there to make some kind of removable wing brackets for easier transport.  One major complaint of the MQ-9 is lack of space, however I plan to make scale missiles to house batteries under the wings and open up the fuse lodge, by doing all this I will probably not know what to do with all the extra space!  The super brain esc should be great for data logging. 

I purchased my PROJET MQ-9 Reaper from NitroPlanes.com for around $166 shipped. Very Nice looking Plane. Recieved on 4/18/11 in great shape, well packaged.

For the TX/RX I plan to use a Turnigy 9x from hobby king. (Ordered 4/18/11, cost $53.79, it was perfect timing to get it while it was in stock, only lasted a few hours online.)



I plan to install a programmer to add new firm wire updates.
I will get a Pocket AVR Programmer. You can find out some good info here on Hacking the Turnigy 9x by Chris Anderson.

Those interested SmartieParts offers a Turnigy programmer that is solderless and includes a backlight screen. They even offer various colors.

I Plan to use er9x as my firm wire since it has ArduPilot Binaries all ready to download and install and tweek. They even have a tutorial download on VTail mixing.

Naturally I plan to order the Ardupilot Mega kit from the store, and in another build phase in the future the APM Telemetry kit.

For the motor: (Ordered 4/18/11 from Hobbyking.com, cost $23.53)


Specs - from HobbyKing.com
Model: TR50-45
Input Voltage : 8~22V (3~5S Li-po)
Kv : 890 rpm/V within 10%
Dimentions : 50mm X 45mm
Shaft diameter : 8mm
Weight : 260g
Recommended model weight : 900~1500g
Power equivalent : .36,2stroke
Stator Dimentions: 40x10mm
Speed Controller Required: 60A+
Estimated Power: 700W +

One customer commented that they got 12x6 APC E 54.90A 15.12v 830W 10290rpm 2989g ef 77 % on a 4S lipo. I plan to use 3S for mine but at least I know that if I need more power I can change to a 4S. My total estimated weight on my entire build is somewhere between 7.5-8.5lbs. Most people seem to recommend 100w per lb. but since this is a gentle flyer running it less than that should be fine but I estimate I need to keep around at least 76-85w per lb.

Many customers gave this motor good praises which is why I decided to try it out.

For the power cells I plan to use (4x) Turnigy 2200mAh 3S 20C Lipo Pack I plan to use all 4 for motor for 8800mAh or use one for other electronics. I plan to use various model rocket parts to build 4 scale Hellfire missiles which I plan to house the 4 batteries. This will free up a lot of space in the fuse lodge for the electronics. Plus make it a little easier to balance the plane, I will also make pods to hold two per side and do my best to make it look like the real deal.

Spec. from HobbyKing.com, ordered 4/18/09 on sale for $8.49 each!
Minimum Capacity: 2200mAh (True 100% Capacity)
Configuration: 3S1P / 11.1v / 3Cell
Constant Discharge: 20C
Peak Discharge (10sec): 30C
Pack Weight: 185g
Pack Size: 103 x 33 x 24mm
Charge Plug: JST-XH
Discharge Plug: XT60

If this proves to be too much weight I will drop down to two batteries. 4 will add 740g not counting with what I come up with for the missiles.

Also ordered on 4/19/11 from hobbyking is a T3 Blade EP Propeller 12x8 / 305x204mm for $3.33 and Aluminum Prop Spinner 58mm / 2.25inch diameter for $6.24.

Still not sure what to do for the servo's. Have some ideas but still researching.

Still a long way down the road but my beginning plans for a ground station will include an old Dual Core PC board I have with a 10-15" LCD built into a suitcase ran off lipo batteries. Still researching this but a ground station is probably close to a year away at this point.

Other plans are to come up with a pan/tilt setup for the camera ball, I plan to make my own probably using a dome from a mini security camera dome. I hope to use a Zoom camera for this but due to budget limitations I will probably just use a 600tvl Sony HAD CCD. I have a StealthCam Epic HD 720p video camera with a wide angle lense I plan to hack and use for FPV video out the front of the fuse lodge. It has a SD card built in and also will output live video. I plan to use a video switcher which I will change between cameras in Autopilot. Hobbyking has some decent looking packages for CCD cameras with transmitter that I will probably go with they also have a cheap Pan/Tilt rig that just needs servos.

I am also researching the idea to use a Pan/Tilt/Zoom network camera with Ethernet ran to external transmitter, it may also be possible to hook it up to the ArduPilot with an adapter and use this for telemetry. Still have a lot of research here, but so far this idea is rather expensive and I am having a hard time finding a setup that will transmit enough data at a decent distance that is light weight.

Now before anyone posts, I will admit that through my research most say that this is not the best platform for a lot of weight or electronics.  I plan on looking into adding some extra strength to the wings and as long as I keep the airspeed up this plane should handle well. With wide gentle turns it should be fine, I have no delusions of pulling high G turns barrel rolls or other acrobatic maneuvers. From my limited research on the real MQ-9 it is not a particularly slow flying aircraft.  It was designed more for range and endurance.  Im sure that if the engine cut out on it, it will still fall at steep rate.  However I can confirm my theory.

Some great info for those of you working on this plane or thinking about it:

These videos are done by NightFlyyer, they were also used by NitroPlanes on the site, they are great videos.  This guy has definitly forgotten more abour RC than I will ever learn.  He has a lot of knowledge and a lot of great videos on youtube something like 470!!!  Worth checking a lot of them out.

Big Remote Control MQ-9 Reaper Predator Drone Aircraft w/ Bigger Motor & External FPV Camera

MQ-9 Reaper 98" 4-Ch Brushless RC UAV Predator/Drone Aircraft * Build & Maiden Flight *

Big Remote Control MQ-9 Reaper Predator Drone Aircraft w/ Bigger Motor & External FPV Camera

MQ-9 Reaper UAV Drone. Comprehensive Review & Maiden Flight with 3 Cameras, 

MQ-9 Reaper UAV Drone Part 2. FLYING ONLY!

Here is a nice flight video on nitroplane's site:

UAV MQ-9 Reaper 2500mm Military R/C Drone by ProJet

Great build video's on Youtube:

By glazier808

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 1

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 2

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 3

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 4

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 5

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 6

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 7

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 8

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 9

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 10

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 11

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 12

98" MQ-9 Reaper Pt. 13

98" MQ-9 Reaper Light Test Pt. 1

98" MQ-9 Reaper Light Test Pt. 2

Glazier808 did a great job, his MQ-9 looks amazing and I will definitly use some of his ideas/techniques. Especially the lights.

Some other videos found on you tube for Nitroplane's Projet MQ-9

The Drone has flown

RC Reaper Camera Turret

The following are by MrReaperKeeper - sadly his plan crashed.

Fwrd avionics bay.3gp

MQ-9 Maiden Crash 6-5-10.AVI

MTS Ball set up.3gp

Here are some forum postings online on builds of the MQ-9

ProJet MQ-9 Build (Tips/Tricks) (RCGroups.com)

Here is a build going on here at DIYDrones

Wohooo! My MQ9 has arrived! - By Ersin Acar

There is some more info out there if you have something I dont let me know and I will add it, if I find more I will add it.

I hope to start my build very soon just need a few more small things, I plan to post video's and photos of the progress so stay tuned.  This is a long term project for me, 6-12 months before it gets in the air.  It will take that much time for me to get all the parts and money ect, and build, research, program, play math wizard, ect.  and if you just read this whole post and havent bought a MQ-9 you should, you clearly want one, lmao....

Update 4/24/2011

S

step by step, the HEXA frame is being constructed.

haven't worked on it for a while, but now i'm done with an interesting part:

I used the original arducopter motor mounts (the plates that come with the motors, which are not used on the official arducopter frame)

to be tied on the square arms, and between the mount and the motor, i've used:

*bling*bling*  RUBBER MOUNTS *bling*bling*

on the video you can see it works perfectly. isolating the motor from the aluminum arm.

with 6 motors working at very high throttle to keep this 4.5-5kg hexacopter, i'll need this vibration isolation to make nice and smooth videos.

and now, some pictures, 'coz we all like 'em !

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME !

http://pilotmag.com/images/mar-apr11pics/insidecockpit_spread.jpg

Nice!

"You ready to rock and roll, man?” I still didn’t believe what was about to happen. I looked up through the clear glass cabin roof, knowing that the next time I looked up, I’d be staring at the ground below. “We’ll start off with a roll. I’ll count down from three. Ready? THREE!”

Oh this is nonsense. Helicopters can’t roll upside down. Doesn’t this guy know that? Go ahead buddy, keep counting over there. “TWO!” What does this guy think he’s going to do when he gets to zero? I glanced over at the pilot and caught my reflection in the Red Bull logo painted on his flight helmet. Gosh I look silly with a smile this big. “ONE!” I should really tone down that smile. These pictures are going to look… “ROLL!” I look up just in time to catch the sight of a freeway zooming by, and then it’s over, blue skies return.

http://pilotmag.com/redbull

This is easy camera roll stabilizer to ArduPilotMega (I used code version 2.012). Camera mount was easy to build. Camera angle can be adjusted during flight with RC controller. Stabilization needs only one line code to program! Of course also pitch can be stabilized in the same time, but I have not yet tested this.

Optionally some free radio receiver channel can be connected to 6th input port(In my board name is In5, in new board probably In6)

Then I added one line to APM code: In the main program there is fast_loop. To the end of this subroutine, just above }, I added this line:

APM_RC.OutputCh(CH_6, constrain(g.rc_6.radio_in - (dcm.roll_sensor * 0.1),900,2100));

Then I uploaded program to APM, and thats it.

Also pitch can be stabilized in the same way. Servo and receiver goes to next channels, and this code can be added after the code line above.

APM_RC.OutputCh(CH_7, constrain(g.rc_7.radio_in - (dcm.pitch_sensor * 0.1),900,2100));

Some explanations to codes: It is easiest to think, that servo middle position is 150 degrees, in the program this is indicated as 1500. This is default value if receiver is not connected, and we get this value from radio receiver if knob is in the middle position.

Servo maximum turn is 60 degrees to each position, so we have minimum value 1500 - 600 = 900, and maximum value 1500 + 600 = 2100. These numbers are in the code above. If we want to reduce movement, then we must change these values. For example if camera can turn only 20 degrees to each direction, the values are 1300 and 1700.

Stabilization works always, also on manual mode. Camera can turn even 60 degrees to all directions. Probably analog servos are better, digital servos jitters very often.

In the forum there are some drawings from some other camera mounts http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/apmimu-camera-stabilization

I had my radio 4 days.  I wanted to use a LiPo battery pack instead of the "AA" holder that came with it.  I some how managed to reverse the polarity and blew the CJ78L05 voltage regulators to peaces.  The wiring on the main processor board even melted and smoked.  So now after salvaging the switches, potentiometers and LCD display, my brand new Turnigy 9c Tx radio is in the trash and the quadcopter just sits there lifelessly waiting............. So during the next month or longer while I wait for the 2nd new Turingy 9c radio I'm gonna figure out how to incorporate a fuse into the new transmitter so that this never happens again.  Sorry no pics!!!  

Here is an interesting look at an AMA Member conversing with an R/C Beginner who is not an AMA member:

Regards,

TCIII

I flew from Oklahoma City to Denver for the day.  The SparkFun AVC event was great fun.

Here are a couple of photos.  The entire group are at grennan.com/SparkFun.

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High_res

There was a lot or rumor about the Festo Smartbird in the last weeks. They actually built a nice bird, mainly by simulating and trial and error (see the movie posted lately Video).

Now scientist go to the roots, letting an owl fly through a bunch of cameras measuring the movement.

"It's not as though we are going to apply these results to an A380 – its flight characteristics bear no resemblance to those of an owl. But the research results can be applied to smaller, unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs,"

Here is the full article: The secret of efficient bird flight

It will probably take some time till they get results (also depending on the owls :-), but good to see there is progress!

After yesterdays transmitter failure, we flew the SkyWalker again today with Jacks Spektrum transmitter. This time everything went very well, and we successfully flew a search pattern over the CMAC field.

The flight we did was:

 - takeoff in fly-by-wire-A mode
 - switched to GPS loiter, worked well
 - switched to full auto, and flew a "mow the lawn" 18 waypoint search
   pattern over CMAC

The plane flew beautifully and the APM behaved perfectly. The audio feedback from mavproxy was really useful (it called out the waypoint numbers automatically during the flight for example). The wind was quite strong, and the SkyWalker coped well, although its speed upwind was affected quite a lot. From the GPS log, the upwind speed in auto mode was around 21km/h, whereas the downwind speed was around 48km/h, which means we were fighting a 27km/h wind. The upwind track ended up with a lot of curves in it, whereas the downwind tracks were fairly straight.

Tracks for the fully automatic part of the flight are here:

 http://samba.org/tridge/UAV/SkyWalker/logs/2011-04-26/f2/CMAC-search.kml
 
The planned search pattern is here:

 http://samba.org/tridge/UAV/SkyWalker/logs/2011-04-26/f2/CMAC-search-plan.kml

as you can see, the wind really pushed it off course!

There are a few photos here:

http://photos.tridgell.net/v/CanberraUAV/SkyWalker/

and a video of the auto-search here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUr55J0T4_Q&feature=channel_video_title

We flew with 2x2200mAh 3S LiPos wired in parallel, and after the plane landed we measured the amount of charge the charger would put in as around 900maH per battery. From that, we estimate we'll get around a 1hr flight time if we switch to a 5000mAh 4S battery.

We're now planning on adding the pandaboard and ptgrey camera this week, and we will try a search pattern with the camera in the SkyWalker next weekend. That will give us the image data we need combined with full telemetry (attitude, GPS, altitude etc) to get back to the image processing and 'find Joe' task for the outback challenge.

Minuteman in the pits

Lining up for the final heat

Roadrunner

8:30 AM Friday, April 22. I leave Los Alamos, NM, headed for Denver. The weather is blustery, but I have a good audio book to keep me entertained for the 6 hour drive. After a stop for some food and gas in Walsenberg, CO I arrive at my brother’s house in Highlands Ranch by 3:00. We load load his stuff in my xterra, and head for the sparkfun building. There are a few teams practicing the course with their ground vehicles. I see a few traxxas rustlers, and the big t-rex vehicle. A father and son team is troubleshooting their car, and a handful of sparkfun employees are setting up tents and tables. The starting ramp and barrels have not yet been placed. My brother (team Roadrunner) and I get our vehicles out and commence the testing. Roadrunner’s car (a traxxas stampede) uses GPS for navigation, and depends mainly on a compass to adjust the heading. The side of the building closest to the pond seems to be difficult for most teams to navigate due to poor gps signal quality and limited space. Roadrunner has some successful runs and he refines his code and waypoint placement.

I start testing minuteman, and have some successful runs. Minuteman is a dead reckoning system, that is unaware of it’s latitude and longitude with reference to earth. It only knows where it is in relation to where it started. It knows how far it’s gone and at what angle. Each inch or so, it updates its coordinates, and it does all of this in the background. It can be manually driven to some location, and it will take care of updating its position as it goes. At any time, it can save its current location as a waypoint in eeprom memory. Many waypoints can be saved sequentially, and later navigated automatically.

How, specifically, does it do this? Well, it uses two sensors, an optical encoder on the input shaft of the transmission, and a mems gyro. The encoder measures, very accurately, how far the wheels have turned. Its output is fed to an external interrupt on the controller (an ardupilot), and every x number of clicks, it calculates a new position. To calculate the new position, you also need the angle, which is provided by the gyro. That’s it, in a nutshell. I’ll add though, that you must always start the car at the same point and at the same angle to get repeatable runs.

So, for it to work you first have to manually drive the car to the various turning points, and set a waypoint at each one. With the ardupilot, it is simple to switch between auto and manual control, which facilitates this process. To set the waypoint, I click the 3rd channel button on my transmitter. The arupilot is programmed to recognize this action and save the x,y coordinates.

So, back to the parking lot, I map out the waypoints, and run the car a few times. At “slow” speed, the car navigates the course in about 1 minute (see, Minuteman, get it?) and at fast speed it goes around in 30-40 seconds. This is without the barrels and hoop, which will add some complexity.

Things don’t go off without a hitch, though. In fast mode, the car overshoots the points significantly. It will later course-correct by itself, provided it hasn’t already crashed into a curb. So it takes some practice to set the waypoints for high-speed runs. Usually I have to set the waypoints, then run it in auto mode a few times under close supervision. I can abort the run if it looks like it’s headed into a curb--this saves me quite a few times. Once a course is dialed-in though, it repeats it very reliably from run to run.

At the really high speeds, I had to be very cautious. Any mis-set waypoint could cause the car careen into a wall, and most likely break. The car goes much faster than I can run, so I would have to arm the car and let it sit and calibrate for about 10 seconds while I took-off sprinting around the building. I would be down at the second turn, now watching and waiting for it to come screaming around the corner. I would watch the car to make sure it was still on course, then sprint to the next  turn. Minuteman would pass me right about at turn 3. I would continue to chase long enough to see it round corner 4 (now way up ahead of me), and as soon as I saw it head for the finish line, I would abort, knowing that the run was successful.  I did this 4 or 5 times, until I could no longer run!

Satisfied with the testing, roadrunner and I headed back to Denver for the night. Next morning, we left at 7:20, with some foreboding clouds to the north. Small flakes of snow were falling, and soon we started passing southbound cars that were covered in snow. Not a good sign. By the time we got to sparkfun, at 8:35, the roads were wet, and a steady mix of light snow and rain was falling. We set up our gear under the tent and tried to get warm. I set up right next to the DIY drones team, so I got to hang out with the popular kids! Their quad copters gathered a lot of attention.

Around 9:00, I decided to brave the moisture, and do some practice runs. I did a setup run, then a test run at slow speed (60-second pace). On the test run, it navigated around the barrels and through the hoop and was rounding the 3rd corner, when it stopped. The LCD screen was blank, and I couldn’t get it to respond. This was really bad news, because in my many hours of testing, it had NEVER done anything like this. I hurried back to the tent, and tried to revive it. I recharged the battery and tried to blow any moisture off the controller board  (there were a few small drops of water). I still couldn’t get any response. Now I was really nervous. I figured at worst case, I could probably buy a new ardupilot from sparkfun and install it, but I would probably miss a heat or two. Meanwhile, Roadrunner came by to offer help, and he tracked-down a heat gun. Fortunately, about 2 or 3 minutes of hot air solved the problem, and I wrapped the ardupilot in plastic at tape.

By now, though the heats were starting, and I wasn’t set to go. Somehow in the process, my waypoints were fouled up, and I would have to reset them by running the course. Between heats, I got in a couple of practice runs, staying out of the way of the contestants. Now, I felt pretty good about everything, and I waited for my turn.

In heat 7, just before me, was roadrunner. With high hopes, he started, and was navigating the first turn, when he was T-boned by another car. They were both stuck beyond recovery and were forced to forfeit the round.

Now it was my turn. I lined up on the end of the ramp in my designated starting position and got everything armed. The starting gun fired, and my car sped off to the first corner.  Disaster soon struck, though, as a judge for one of the other cars inadvertently stepped on mine. Afterward, It looked like that kid from that bullying video on youtube who gets slammed to the ground. It just looped around in circles with a dazed look.  Luckily, though, nothing was broken.  As there was some time until the start of the aerial vehicles, I was permitted a do-over, as the interference was from one of the judges. This time, the car navigated the course perfectly, threading the hoop and rounding all the corners right on cue. The time was 56 seconds, plus a 30 second deduction for the hoop, made my official time 26 seconds! So far so good!

Now I had time to relax. The next-best time was around 1:20 seconds, and they didn’t make the hoop. So, I took some time to chat with the other participants, and to answer some questions about my dead-reckoning system.

While the awesome aerial vehicles were providing the entertainment, I thought about how to do the next run. I decided a medium speed would be best instead of going all-out, so I set it to about a 45 second pace. I started testing before the start of the 2nd round, but began to meet resistance from the event director. Apparently I was gaining an unfair advantage by running my repeated tests, and in general getting in the way of the event, so an announcement was made that no more test runs would be allowed.

After much begging, I was able to make a few set-up runs, but I had to line-up for my second heat without testing my newly programmed waypoints.  At the start, the car rushed out to the first waypoint, and turned a HARD right--a little too hard. I had set the next waypoint back at greater than 90 degrees to get lined up for the hoop, and with the increased speed, the car spun-out--end of turn. A test run would have revealed the problem, but it wasn’t to be.

This time, tobor (my main competition) had stepped things up, and finished with an excellent time of 1:02. For the second time, he didn’t make the hoop, but if he had made it...that would only be a 6 second difference. Now my supreme confidence was melting. What if he could still go faster? What if he finally got the hoop? I knew my car was capable of really fast runs, but without being able to set it up properly, I might not make it.  I went to lunch with a feeling of doom.

I got back from lunch, and while the raffle was going on I decided to try more test runs to dial-in my waypoints. I was quickly told that I would not be able to practice, because it was unfair. It was still at least another 10 minutes before the start of the final round, and there was nothing going on around the start line. I pleaded my case again, and was allowed to do a few more runs.

Now, however, there would be a wait of about 30 minutes between the start of the first heat and the final 8th heat where I could do no more practice runs. This wouldn’t be so bad except that the sun had finally come out, and things were warming-up nicely. Now, my negligence in not temperature-calibrating my gyro was starting to haunt me. Would this cause a slight change in the angular rate, causing some skew? I would find out soon enough.

Add to my worries, that the barrels had been moved and the arc was positioned a little differently. I knew my run was doomed. Maybe, though, tobor would once again miss the hoop. Or maybe his car just couldn’t go any faster.

So, as the final heat started, I had a pit in my stomach. My car got right off the line this time, and navigated the first turn nicely. But, as it sped down the straightaway, it passed the hoop just to the right. That was it. I couldn’t beat my other score without making the hoop, so the run was virtually over. The car navigated the next two corners and was on the final straightaway, when it smashed into one of the islands that stick out in to the parking lot. It broke a front suspension arm, but it didn’t matter. It’s day was already over. Meanwhile, tobor had indeed navigated the hoop--of course. It worked it’s way around the course at a good clip, but somehow it didn’t seem so fast. As it came around the final corner, a gaggle of spectators in tow, I was still hopefully confident that it hadn’t beat my 26 second time.

But, apparently my biological clock isn’t so great. 55 seconds was the reported time...and making the hoop, that was a final time of 25 seconds...one second faster the me...really? REALLY? Did he have to make the hoop on  *that*one*run*? REALLY?? That was the moment I was dreading. I felt like Laurent Fignon in the final time trial of the tour de France. I saw it coming from mile away, and was helpless to avoid it.

Minuteman was easily capable of victory. It could navigate the course faster than any of the cars there--I would say probably faster than any that have run it...so why didn’t it win? For various reasons. But first off, I have to congratulate Scott of team tobor. Well played sir! Your fusion of multiple sensors using DUAL kalman filters was rock solid. You finished every heat and clinically marched to victory with each successive attempt. Great job!

So why do I make the bold claim that minuteman was capable of victory? Well, it’s just fast and stable. It can go faster than 25 mph, and it goes straight to every waypoint without hesitation. It doesn’t hunt around or veer off course or miss waypoints. When the waypoints are properly set, it will burn through the course in under 30 seconds. But, being capable of victory, doesn’t guarantee victory.

Minuteman, unfortunately, required a lot of setup and expertise to use. It was difficult to know where to set the waypoints to avoid overshoot and/or spin-out.  Also, I never got around to temperature compensating the gyro, a fact that will haunt me for some time.

In the end, I have to concede that maybe mine just wasn’t the best system. Maybe dead reckoning is just too imprecise to be successful. Maybe it just requires too much set-up and testing, and is too prone to operator error. Or, maybe I just shouldn’t have slacked-off all March and April--I should have made all the little refinements that I never got around to. That’s a lot of maybes. One thing for sure, though, is that you won’t see me next year with a GPS-based vehicle!

Thanks, sparkfun, for organizing this event. I saw a lot of kids and teenagers there that were eager to get involved. Hopefully this sort of activity will inspire future generations to be as technologically innovative as generations past.

Also, as a note, roadrunner finally got a successful run of 1:18 on his last heat, putting him in 4th place overall. This was faster than any of the winning times from past years. I can vouch that a year ago, he was basically starting at zero on how to get an autonomous vehicle running. So, if you’re on the fence about competing next year, just do it. Get an arduino and an R/C car and some sensors from sparkfun, and go for it. It will be worth your time.

I've been working on this quad for about three weeks. I based some of the frame design on the arducopter. The flight was done with the ardupilot mega+gps+compass in stable mode. The start was a bit disappointing at first, but it was soon resolved and possibly caused by a faulty RSSI indicator. As can be expected, it's way more stable than the tricopter. The only required nudges are throttle and where the quad is going. Soon, I'll test GPS Hold mode and a mode for navigation that I put in there. I removed some of the arducopterNG code and added some OSD telemetry code to interface with an OSD board I'm finishing.

More info about the build and some close-up pictures:

http://www.radialmind.org/projects/quad

Excerpt from "Capitol Hill Brief" from ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association), Apr 25, 2011

"Call to Action: Support One Level of Safety ALPA Pilots Urged to Participate in the Legislative Process

Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Both the House and Senate bills have provisions related to the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the NAS. The House version is of concern because it mandates a deadline for integration of UAS into the NAS and does not make accommodations for safety oversight. ALPA’s position is that no UAS should be allowed unrestricted access to public airspace unless it meets all the high standards currently required for every other airspace user. The House provision is a step backwards and does not promote One Level of Safety". "
 (Bolding mine, DB)

Actually, they are completely wrong. The House Bill does indeed have provisions for safety oversight, 2 in fact, the Miller and Shuster amendmments passed. Seems they didn't even read the Bill. Hope they fly better than they write based on this erroneous and msleading propaganda message.

Here is my new solar airplane (the previous version is here). 

As before, it uses the Parkzone Vapor's radio and motor, plus five Powerfilm solar cells.  In parallel with the solar cells, I include a tiny 20mAh lipo battery to keep the radio happy.  However before I hook up the solar cells, I make sure that there is not enough juice in the battery to run the motor (no cheating).

The wing is a vast improvement over the previous version.  It is stiffer torsionally, has more span, more area, and a better elliptical planform.  The wing and tail are covered with mylar from one of those emergency survival blankets.

Here are some specifications:

Wing span: 35in (89cm)

Wing area: 165 sq in

Total Weight: 42g

Last Saturday was the first calm and sunny day all year (Seattle).  Although conditions were not perfect (low sun angle, a bit too windy), I still managed to sneak in a few flights (see the video below).  I think with the right conditions, this airplane could fly for hours.  Finding a day with the right conditions might be challenging, though.  It is often very calm early in the morning, but the sun is too low.  By mid-day, when the sun is high, thermal activity tends to kick up random gusts.  I'll keep waiting for that perfect day... 

First off, a big thank you to the hardware and software developers of the APM autopilot. Without it I wouldn't have been able to pull off a working autonomous system in such a short time. Thanks as well to Jack Dunkle for helping me out with a late encoder addition.

A couple months ago I saw the SparkFun AVC announcements and decided to enter. I bought parts early, but didn't get it all working right until the end. Here are all the details on my entry, for anyone interested.

Hardware

• Traxxas Rustler VXL
  • Reasonably fast RC car straight out of the box. I probably could have saved some bucks and gone with the non-VXL (brushed motor) version and not known the difference. Came with a 2-channel RC receiver/transmitter pair.
  • I thought about switching out the included 8.4V NiMH battery, but it ended up being more than sufficient.
• 5V switching regulator
  • The Traxxas ESC puts out 6V so an external regulator was necessary. This one died a unfortunate squealing death the week before the competition and I actually ended up replacing it with a simple LM7085T.
• ArduPilot Mega / OilPan IMU
  • The APM was a no-brainer given that electrically it does everything I needed, and there are code libraries for almost all the sensors I was using. I'm naturally lazy and this was clearly the path of least effort.
  • I actually didn't end up using the IMU (except for magnetometer roll/pitch correction), but that's okay since I'm hoping to repurpose this hardware on a quad.
• SkyLab SKM53 GPS
  • This was the first thing I purchased (bought a GPS, had to build a robot around it). It uses the standard MediaTek MT3329 module. In retrospect I should have gone with the module + adapter from DIY Drones.
• HMC5843 Magnetometer
  • Not much of a choice here.
• US Digital E4P-100-079-HT Encoder
  • A couple weeks before the competition I panicked and thought that I needed a wheel or drivetrain encoder (probably not true) and so I added this on the motor shaft the Tuesday before the competition.
• Maxbotix LV-MaxSonar-EZ3 Rangefinder
  • My code gets data from this, then disregards it and drives into walls. Ultimately I decided that there wasn't enough time to get this up and running in a way that wouldn't be a liability. So, my obstacle avoidance ended up being careful waypoint placement and a bit of luck.

Software

My code runs three loops, nominally at 100Hz, 10Hz, and 1Hz. Here's what each one does.

• 100Hz
  • Check for user input (autonomous mode or emergency stop). Since I only had a 2-channel transmitter, I mapped the extreme steering limits to these inputs. Also turns off autonomous mode if GPS fix is lost.
  • Update the DCM. I pretty much blindly copied this from the APM software. The magnetometer needs roll/pitch values for calculating the heading.
  • Calculate motor velocity (counts/sec) from encoder change since the last 100Hz loop. The encoder itself is read by pin change interrupts. I found that I had trouble monitoring high speeds (~150000 counts/sec and up), but it might have been a side effect of the monitoring code, since I think the encoder-reading code is less than <10 instructions per interrupt. That's blazing though, since 100000 counts/sec is about 25MPH on my car.
  • Control the velocity with a PID controller. The encoder lets me do closed-loop control on the throttle input to the ESC. In retrospect this probably wasn't necessary.
  • Update the servo outputs, or relay the inputs from the receiver if in manual mode.
• 10Hz
  • Update the indicator lights (A = autonomous, B = GPS fix).
  • Read the latest data from the GPS, compass, and rangefinder.
  • Calculate distance to the target waypoint.
    • <4m, slow down in preparation for steering.
    • <2m, increment the waypoint index (waypoint achieved).
  • Calculate distance to the last waypoint.
    • >4m, speed back up.
  • Calculate the absolute heading to target waypoint (GPS data only).
  • Calculate the heading error (absolute heading - compass heading).
  • Scale the steering output linearly to the heading error. This is pretty crude, and might have caused my trouble in the 3rd race.
• 1Hz
  • Spit out human-readable debug information over serial.

And that's it! I tried to do some fancy stuff with the rangefinder, detecting obstacles approaching at close to vehicle speed (stationary obstacles straight ahead) and then making the car swerve to avoid them. It worked too poorly and so I took it out, since I figured it would probably hurt more than help.

The last little bit is dealing with GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude). I converted them immediately to Cartesian coordinates on a plane. In a small area, this works very well. I had two sets of conversion factors, one for Pasadena and one for Boulder.

Compass mounting calibration was key for getting this to work. My method was setting a waypoint, pointing the vehicle toward the waypoint, and changing an offset parameter until the heading error was close to 0.

I was able to avoid the barrels and get the arch bonus by careful waypoint placement to minimize the effect of GPS error (waypoints far apart). Also, I was lucky.

SparkFun AVC

I came to Boulder Thursday night without working throttle/steering controllers and no waypoint code written, but I managed to work it out Friday morning and afternoon, testing in my friend's apartment's parking lot. Friday evening I tried to write obstacle avoidance but scrapped it and slept instead.

Saturday morning I got to SparkFun a little early and set up my waypoints (7 of them), and ran some test runs. I made it around about half the time, doing better after I altered the steering trim to eliminate a leftward (and water-trap-ward) drift.

• Race 1
  
  • At Turn 1, I got tangled up with another competitor. My robot achieved its waypoint, turned sharp, and lodged a steering wheel between the other bot's drive wheel and chassis, stopping us both. This was unfortunate. I think SparkFun has a great picture of this.
  • I tried to complete the course anyway, but the GPS data seemed to be poor and I had to hit the emergency stop to avoid going into the pond.
• Race 2
  • Right after Race 1, I moved my GPS module to a different spot and carried my car around the course, watching the steering. Things seemed to be much better, but it's also possible that the improving weather helped just as much.
  • I also got paranoid about the pond and added some code to reduce the speed on that stretch, reducing the possibility of jumping the curb and giving me more time to activate the emergency stop.
  • The race went great, I made it through the arch and felt quite good about things when I made it to Turn 2. It seemed like my car was going slow, and I realized that I didn't add code to speed back up after the pond. D'oh, that's what I get for mucking around with things. I ended up doing most of the race at 60% desired speed.
  • Right before Turn 4 I went straight through the biggest pothole on the course (filled with water), but the electronics stayed dry and I made it across the finish line at 1 minute, 25 seconds (0 minutes, 55 seconds after the 30 second arch deduction). That put me in second place, behind Team Minuteman at 26 seconds post-deduction.
• Race 3
  • Having recorded a good time in Race 2, I went all out, getting rid of the pond slowdown and doubling my speed parameter.
  • Something went horribly wrong and right off the starting line I headed for the curb, hitting that before going berserk and crashing into a stroller off-course, breaking my right front caster block and bearing carrier.
  • There are two things I can think of that might have happened.
    • My crude steering controller is unstable at high velocities (most likely).
    • The first waypoint somehow got marked as achieved, and the car started going for the second waypoint.
  • The car wasn't drivable without spare parts I don't have, so I missed out on the mass run.

I ended up with 3rd place and $100, which is much better than I expected. Congratulations to Team Tobor and Team Minuteman, from what I've read, heard, and observed, they were both running very slick systems. Thanks to SparkFun for putting this competition on, I'll definitely be back next year!

We had a very successful flight on the Foamaroo prototype yesterday.  The Finished airframe came out at 2 lb 11 oz complete with 2200 mAH battery.  It was windy yesterday with 15 know winds and the Foamaroo handled the conditions very well. 

After a short trim flight I was able to launch the plane with a single handed toss and was happy to see that it would climb out wings level with no input on the transmitter.  I did several launches and landing as well as flight at different speeds and am very happy with how the plane flies.  Roll and pitch response is very good and the speed range is great. 

There is a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgJFJqckloM&sns=em

Jimmy

Here are videos from my maiden and second flight. First one ended with a bad crash on a garden house, my bad I didn't realize how much space I needed to fly it for the first time. The second one isn't complete as my girlfriend forgot to pack her memory card and we couldn't capture it all. On the second one I managed to control it in circles much higher than what you see in the video, but you'll have to take my word for it ;)