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I published some of the images of this project already on myPage. Actually I wanted to copycat the Swiss army drone scout 95, but I changed the tail design during the build phase. I started with a Google SketchUp drawing I made, but as I changed the design it's not actualized. I used a Clark-y profile.

The particular thing is that the rear landing gear is not on the body but on the wings as on the scout 95. I tried to build all really solid. I tested the lading gears hitting it with a 1 pound hammer. This bird has to land in rough unknown terrain. I estimate the TOW around 15Kg. I hope flaps and airbrakes will allow me to land not too fast.

I will use APM, but I need to manage much more communication systems (GPRS and Wi-Fi) in addition to an xBee868. So I will have a proxy processor to manage the APM (I guess an Arduino Mega). Redundancy is mandatory, as I want to get a license for experimental flight out of LOS here in Switzerland. I have already build an own power box that manages 4 batteries in 2 power circuits. One for avionics and one for rc rx, servos and ignition. A stand-alone GPS/GSM Tracker can shut-down the engine and start a fail-safe sequence. Here I still am looking how I can figure out if the APM has crashed or the plane has lost all communication to the ground station (an completely autonomous is not allowed. Even the army cannot fly w/o a data link to the drones) 

The propulsion is a 2.stroke gas engine. Now it's a 30cc but I will go for 40 or 50cc.

My roadmap is to take it in the air in late spring as normal rc plane and test the flight features. APM and avionics will be tested o other airframes till I'm sure the system will be reliable. I will update this blog with some images more soon.

Actually I work on the FPV system that will be active for close and mid range flights. I will post this as a separate project.

Hello DIY Droners.  

Please allow me to introduce the "DIY Drones Projects" Google docs spreadsheet.

Many DIY Drones members would like a place to lookup the details of successful DIY Drones projects completed by fellow members.  Unfortunately, the structure of the DIY Drones site does not allow us to build any kind of online respository.    That's where the "DIY Drones Projects"spreadsheet comes into view.  It's goal is to provide an additional resource for members to use while planning their next DIY Drones project. 

The concept is simple. Members who have successfully assembled and flown their UAV project craft are asked to share details with the community via an on-line form. At Chris's suggestion, the form will utilize the "KISS" approach and will provide as many drop-down selection choices as possible to minimize the time it takes to complete the questions.

When the form is submitted the results will be available to the community as a planning resource.  Ideally the results will be available as a raw download or filtered using available reports. We'll be able to see trends, determine common configurations base upon project platform type as well as other useful information.

Here's the kicker... I've build the form and spreadsheet, but we need need project details. If you have had success with your project, please take a few minutes and complete the "DIY Drones Member Projects". The results will be assembled and made available to members on the site.

Thanks,
Brian

The entire community runs off the knowledge of others, recommending things for each other, building things for each other, coding things for each other. As I am trying to get some code together for later release it came to me that the maths I'd been using to help an RC Groups thread would be spot on for us. I of course posted it but changing it regularly (thanks to new model planes being released) has meant the file has to be uploaded continually to the thread so here is its own blog post. I actually posted an older one on my first blog but as I've altered it somewhat.

The file is nothing special in itself it just collates information and shows the viability of an airframe mathematically (not physically). The maths evaluates the attributes of an airframe to a few existing experiences (the first 10) on how difficult they were to fly this gives values on the beginner safe planes (wing loading). Again advice dictated to motor recommendations, 90w/lb is a base touted value for flight, 100w/lb is claimed to be perfect for gentle flight maneuvers. Spare mass is the mass you can add without the airframe going over the specified beginner "safe" values. The Additions part is to calculate the size of motor once you start adding stuff thats why a battery is first :)

Its certainly not definitive and its certainly not a bible but it should help the first timers or modders looking for a new toy. Just because the maths comes out fine it doesn't mean the plane will. As we have seen some planes are good EasyStar clones with similar specs but space inside them is 40% less thanks to giant walls. Research is your friend I just hope this does a little research for you. Values for the additions are in row 3 so make it bigger and change them if you want (APM is just the basic APM setup - APM + oilpan + MTK).

Feel free to post specs for planes that you want or like.

Data required: Name, Wingspan, Wing Area, Flying Mass

Name: Northrup GlobalHawk

Wingspan: 66ft

Wing Area: 169sqft

RC Plane Data

I think we all like flight?

http://arcticuavs.blogspot.com/ 

As a senior at my high school we are required to complete a senior project prior to graduation. The project can be anything from building park benches to making improvements to the school but it must benefit the community in some way. I have chosen to build a UAV to provide aerial photographs for agencies here in Fairbanks, AK like Fish and Game, city planning, and for public events. I paid for all of the UAV with my Permanent Fund Dividend check and will be able to keep it after the project (most students have to donate what they make).

Next year I will begin my mechanical engineering degree at University Of Alaska Fairbanks and plan to work in the UAV or oil industry after that.

My UAV blog is here and my project web page is here.

Dear Friends,

Holger the Creator of Mikrokopter have setup a new benchmark . We need to work hard to improve our project :)

Great Job Holger , if you have an Multipilot1.0 or MK FC 2.0-1  with navi you can check these new features.

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/multipilot-8-v10

He use on his fly control a 8 bit micro 644p the same of MP10 , the main difference is that he use only native code write in 'C' not use any kind of arduino wrapper ... so the code is very efficient .

The original Navy is based on a str91x the old version developed in 2006  of STM32 micro so with Multipilot 32 we have more power and possibility to break the barrier of 100 mhz in the next near future.

So now with MP32 we have more power available than in Mikrokopter platform , the code from str91x is portable because we can use the same operating systems and tools , but not source code available for Mk Navy so we need to reinvent the code , better , more original and powerfull i hope :)

Check this docs : http://developers.stf12.net/just-another-eclipse-demo-str91x.

All the member of Arducopter team will be recived in the next days the MP32 , so we're ready to start :)

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/multipilot32-1

Best

Roberto

This $200 radio replaces your RC receiver and connects to your RC transmitter. Using the UHF band and higher power than regular RC gear, it's supposed to extend your range to miles. Mostly intended for FPV flying, but has clear application for UAV use, too. 

The manual explains how it works:

Basically, any 4-15 channel radio can work with this system, you just need to find
the PPM signal from the radio.
We can get the PPM signal from the trainer ports for Futaba （ Non-JR ） series
radios. Because the trainer port of JR just output 4-chans PPM signal, so we need to
find the PPM o utput from other places, normally we can get the PPM signal from the
pins of the RF connector

.
You can get all the definitions of the trainer port for most of the popular radios
here.
.
For the radios which have removable RF modules, we can get the PPM signal
from the pin of the RF connector

Available now from BevRC.

For some reason, this weeks Electronics Goldmine flyer had only one dish on the menu: Geiger Counters. Would you like them in the rain or on a train? I have to say though, flying a Geiger Counter is a practical application for small UAV which cannot be accomplished by manned aircraft.

So Kudos in advance to anyone who orders this kit ($149) and logs the results of a fly-over.

http://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectronics.com/?utm_source=Electronic+Goldmine+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eb06d451de-Mar18&utm_medium=email

SSM has a fun physics questions over at RCG: why doesn't a tennis ball fall off his KK quad when he's flying?

Well, I wanted to return a stray tennis ball to some kids playing in the tennis courts at the local park.

So I pick up the ball and place it on top of my Quad. The ball is on an upside down plastic sandwich box (to protect the works), with a very slight indent in it, a couple of millimetres deep, so the ball rolls around and can fall off at the slightest bump.

I take off with the ball on board and fly over the court, expecting the ball to roll off at any second, and fall down to the kids. It doesn't. I rock the copter back and forth a bit. No change on the ball. I increase the strength of the rocking. The ball sticks there, like it's glued. I fly the copter around, turning, stopping and starting. No effect. I zoom the Quad up and down. To and fro. Frantically stopping, dipping suddenly, whamming it into turns. The ball doesn't budge. "What gives?", I think.

I bring the copter back to earth and place a second ball on top, with the first one. The two balls cannot both sit in the indent, and so they're now really unstable. If I carry the copter in my hand, it's hard to keep the balls on top - they fall off really easily.

So I fly the Quad with the two tennis balls on top to a position back over the court. And I do the rockin' and rollin' and shakin' thing all over again - the works. The balls just laugh at this and refuse to drop down to the kids.

In the end, the only way I can get the balls off the top of the copter, inside the tennis court, is to land the Quad. The balls fall off the instant the copter touches down, The boys are amazed.

So what gives? It's something to do with the fact that every time the copter dips in a certain direction, it accelerates in that direction? And this acceleration perfectly balances the inclination, so the ball/s stay centered and don't fall? Even with all that starting, stopping, turning and zooming?

An RQ-4 Global Hawk, a reconnaissance drone, will be used to help survey damage to towns and industrial facilities in Japan.

Recently, GoPro released new firmware for the GoPro HD camera (http://gopro.com/support/hd-hero-firmware-update/). There are improvements and features in various areas, but the one that interested me was the "Live Feed Out" feature, which is the ability to feed VGA video out through the "VGA Out" port while recording HD video onto the SD card at the same time. The "Upside Down Mode" (in case you need to mount the unit upside down on your aircraft) and "One Button Mode" (starts recording as soon as it comes on) also seem like they would be useful for some folks in our community.

I mounted the GoPro on the front/bottom of my custom-framed Arducopter. I tried various methods (more on that later), but in the end, I wedged it into the frame into a velcro sandwich. It's extremely snug, but it will give if it needs to.

I bought a little cable that connects from the GoPro's AV Out port to a 5.8Ghz 100mW ImmersionRC audio/video transmitter. This in turn transmits VGA-quality video in realtime back to my Fatshark 5.8 Ghz Aviator Video Goggles. I'm using the 5.8Ghz so that it wouldn't interfere with my 2.4ghz RC Rx/Tx.

My backyard tests indicate that I am able to transmit FPV video while simultaneously recording High-Definition video onto the SD card. The FPV in the video goggles has a bit static at times (which I understand to be pretty typical for transmitted video), and not particularly bright (when I was flying on a cloudy day), but appears quite useable. The quality of the recorded HD video on the GoPro is excellent as usual. I haven't used it in full, long-distance flight yet, and I'm new to FPV, but it seems very promising.

During this project, I also tried three different micro and sub-micro pan-tilt servo kits from various vendors. My initial goal was to setup a head tracker so that the camera would tilt and pan based on where I looked. I got the electronics and RC aspects of that to work relatively well, but I didn't like the way the pan/tilt unit, even the smallest and most robust one, tended to hang the GoPro out in the open below the Arducopter. I'm not a good pilot, so I was scared that my "landings," which are sometimes more like controlled crashes, would destroy the pan/tilt/camera, so I opted for the more robust protected mounting approach that you see in the pictures. Once I get confident with my flight skills in general, and FPV flying in particular, then maybe I'll mount the tilt/pan and head tracker again.

I've included pictures of the GoPro mounted in the Arducopter, plus the electronics on top including the ImmersionRC transmitter (which is the red and green thing under the battery alarm at the top of the screen). 

I've also included a picture of the new mounting for my sonar, so now it's mounted inside the frame (in the center of the bottom), rather than on the outside like it was before. Also new with this version of my Arudcopter is that I've mounted the ESCs between the two main center plates. I also added a lower plate for the battery, camera, and sonar to attach to (and to reduce shear stress on the vertical posts during crashes). I like the new design because it gives me plenty of cargo room below, but it required me to make the center plates a larger square (5.3" now) and it was a real bear trying to squeeze those ESCs into the little triangle between the arms. In my continuing quest for crash-resistance, I also upgraded the center plates from 0.032" 3003-H14 aluminum to 0.050" 6061-t6 aircraft aluminum. Thus far, it's proven much more robust than the previous versions (in which the aluminum wrinkled a bit during really bad crashes). But now my arducopter is getting pretty heavy. Fully loaded, with the camera, battery, video transmitter, etc., the flying weight clocks in at 1181 grams. It no longer resembles the admirably light and agile DIY-Drones Arudcopter kit as much as it did before. It's more of a flying tank.  :)

Recreationalflyers.org

Thanks to Bill AKA I Love Robotics, the National Recreation Flyers has its own domain name!

Recreationalflyers.org

My vote goes to Bill as "NRF Member of the Month"

Thanks Bill!

Here is a quick preview of my next frame for ArduCopterMega. That is my Tri-Copter frame with the old landing skids (t-rex 500) from first quad frame. I just need to rewire ECS :) And its ready to fly. 

Arms are 15X15mm 1mm thick and 500mm long.

10X4.7 BC2836-11 750KV 30A ESC 4S 3000mah lipo.

Now, development of an actuator for Marcy 1.  After all that static testing against gravity, the restoring force from the air wasn't enough to get the flap to straighten.  She just cocked up like a wing at 45 deg.

Since air exerts less force than gravity, maybe actuating the entire wing with some kind of spring as a restoring force isn't too crazy.


With Vika 1, we had low voltage transients, due to CPU usage at 40Mhz, sending the flight computer into reset.  Brown out voltage of 4.6 was making it reset.  Set it lower & it started working.


Did the same brown out voltage change to a Marcy 2 board we had since 2010 & it also started working.  That board was dead on arrival, last year.  Showed it during interviews & carried it around in luggage, not fearing it being destroyed by man handling, knowing it was dead.  Who knew it actually worked.  The Marcy spirit can't be destroyed.

The goal with the Marcy 2 board is now an autopilot for a cheap, 3 Ch copter, just to demo sonar.  Since these copters only go forwards & backwards, they basically have to constantly turn towards the waypoint & fly towards it.  Real workout for detecting heading.

Since they're extremely weight limited & have a limited number of flights before the brushed motors die, that means leaving it untouched. The best way into the controls is to bypass the receiver's IR signal with our own & use our own remote control.





There it is.  The $25 pink special everyone on RCGroups raves about.  $3 tax.



What's not discussed on RCGroups.



It should be passively stable because it's a counter rotater.

FUGGEDABOUTIT.  It doesn't have a gyro, so it spins & spins.  The controls have a serious lag.  It's no more dynamically stable than a Picco Z.  Forget about hovering over a waypoint.  The control lag kills any chance of substituting a gyro.

So what about letting it spin & using the tail rotor as a cyclic.  The pink copter has a lot more payload than the Picco Z.  It has a 150mAh battery.  To keep the demo under budget, we're back to a photodiode azimuth sensor.


The easiest sonar demo is a Sumo robot of some kind, that roves in a 10x10 ft area.  Even better, make it solar powered.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8992

Wow go now!!!

Status of Project:

Hardware Available and in public roadmap.

I wrote this post for me , for try to understand where this huge project are  going and for all our  developer , user and people that daily ask me a lot of things about It. I hope that this is a simple guide about what we're doing .

Multipilot32 (LYIF)

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/multipilot32-1

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot32-getting-started

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/multipilot-32-power-point

Status of availability:

• In stock 4 pcs.
• Next batch production will be available in second week of april.
• The product is available for developers, OEMs, students.
• The Product is available for end users.

If you want Buy the product contact : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profile/ElisaLonga?xg_source=activity

Supported devices:

• DiyDrones Oilpan.
• PPM SUM Serial RADIO receiver same as used by Mikrokopter.
• Standard PWM ESC.

Upcoming device support:

• Standard multichannel PPM rc radio rx (need library implementation, HW is ok).
• DiyDrones GPS (need porting of library, HW and low level library is ok).
• DiyDrones Magnetometer (HW is ok, need low level i2c library and porting of apm library).
• LN IMU (work in progress).
• LN Navigation Expansion Board GPS, BARO.

Hardware in public roadmap:

• LN Multipilot32 IMU (work in Progress).
• LN Navigation Expansion Board GPS, BARO (work in progress).
• Next Revision of Multipilot32. RTF (work in progress).
• Pico CPU JTAG POD.

There are available two kind of enviroment one for entry level user supported by a branch of Arduino v 018 ide , called VRIde . Another is a complete professional Eclipse enviroment that support make project, upload firmware and debug using jtag functionality.

Available Ide :

VRIde rev 0.0.1

• simple user interface.
• Editing Code.
• Support C/C++ and wiring framework.
• fast editing and compile standard example.
• fast editing and compile standard library example.
• serial terminal interface for debugging.
• using external Demo Flash loader for update firmware to MP32.

Link: http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/list

VROS : Eclipse + GCC Codesourcery.

• Professional Ide editor.
• Support Multiproject operation.
• Support C/C++ language.
• Editing makefile, linker script, asm code.
• Integrated make code: make clean , make all.
• Ready to use VROS 'C' template : ChibiOS/RT .
• using external Demo Flash loader for update firmware to MP32.

Link: http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/source/browse/#svn%2Fbranches%2FRedfox74%2FChibiOS-VROS-Dist

Upcoming revision of ide: (working progress)

VRide rev 0.0.2

• Patch the interrupt vectortable to support high denisty micro.
• Update maple library for support of 4 serial interface , using also the serian interface connected to usb on oilpan.

VRide rev 0.0.3

• i2c support.
• flash bootloader by dfutil using usb.
  • link :http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/source/browse/#svn%2Fbranches%2FRedfox74%2FVRide%2Fbootloader%20dfu

• support for Jtag uploader.
• support for Jtag debugger: step by step debug, variable watching in realtime.
• Vros C++ template and support of MP32 library.

Framework available status of development.

• Virtualrobotix branch of Xduino project for Multipilot32.
• Virtualrobotix branch of Maple library for Multipilot32.
  • link :http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/source/browse/#svn%2Fbranches%2FRedfox74%2FVRide%2Fvride-library%253Fstate%253Dclosed
• Virtualrobotix MP32 VROS Library available for VRide and VROS.
• ChibiOS/RT with official support of Multipilot32.

Firmware available:

• Arducopter NG -> ArmFoxCopter 32.
  • Link : http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/list
  • First Fligh link: http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/multipilot-32-official

Upcoming Firmware:

• Arducopter Mega
• Ardupilot 2.0

Original Thread in the Forum : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot32-vride-and-vros

If you are familiar with the FIRST organization, you know that its filled with great students, mentors and of course robots. I have infact read rumors of DIY drones working with FIRST to develop a quad competition (awesome!). Lots of events around the country are happening this weekend, and I will be attending the three day competition, in Davis, Ca, running from March 16-18th. The schedule is posted here and a description of the challenge is described here.

If you are up to it, you may still be able to volunteer, which is a great way to show off the skills and knowledge you have gained on this website and elsewhere and to network with professionals and industry. Parallax is always there in great force, given its headquarters arent far from the event.Hope to see you there!Shoot me a PM if you would like to meet on Friday.

A digital control system model of the pixhawk quadrotor was constructed in scicoslab along with a continuous model of the quadrotor dynamics (the visual model is an arducopter). The user can input the guidance commands to the autopilot through sliders. As the video shows, the yaw response it not optimal, which also happens in the actual system. Using the mavsim Scicoslab toolbox (https://github.com/openmav/mavsim/) , the model can be simulated and then, once the system has been correctly identified, the dynamics can be linearized. The linear model of the system makes the problematic modes clear and aids in designing an improved controller.

Hey all, over the past two years I've spent a lot of time browsing the DIYdrones website, unfortunantley not really posting anything, but im ready to finally get back into it. The progress that has been made in these two years is absolutely astonishing, and I plan on getting wet real fast.

I'm now in college now, thank goodness, and i brought my interest in UAVs with me. I am studying Mechanical Engineering at Cooper Union in Manhattan, a small, full tuition paid university that has a pretty great engineering program, but lacks research. I worked my a$$ of this past semester and am finally comfortable with the workload thats required of me. I saw this as my chance to meld my college experience to what i actually want to do in the future, that is design and build UAVs. With that in mind I started the Unmanned Development Team this past semester. We have a pretty good pool of members, spanning a wide range of expertise (programming-through to-machinists) and we are looking to get something off the ground in the coming weeks.


To attract other possible members, and also in the interest of simplicity and limited airspace in the city, we started with Quads, while concurrently working on a the design of a fixed wing autonomous platform. The quad is much further along with a finalized design and construction underway.

Since the team is basically playing catch up with the industry right now, we saw the Ardupilot as a nice way to ease into things, and will be using the ArdupilotMega with IMU oilpan on both our initial quadrotor and fixed wing platform.

Frame-Solidworks Render:

The main aim of this design was to provide a modular platform that could accomplish a variety of present and future tasks. The center section is almost exclusively assembled with hexagonal standoffs which can be arranged in any way. There is a large amount of clearance on the landing gear to allow for the attachment of a variety of sensors, and there is a modular rail on top to provide the necessary mounting for other top positioned sensors and cameras.

The frame is primarily Aluminum and Garolite to keep weight down as much as possible maximizing payload capacity. The basis of the design for the center section plates comes from a Mikrokopter frame. The majority of the parts are CNCed and any remaining parts are hand milled in our student shop.

Completed Landing Gear:

I should be updating about the UDT regularly now, but if I stop, someone send me an email to tell me to get back on it.

Im looking forward to see how much will change in the coming two years...

Julian Alvarez

julian.6.alvarez@gmail.com

Mechanical Engineer 2014

Our team should have a website soon, among other things, so stay tuned.