Blogs

There is legislation working through the House of Representatives which as reported by sUAS News allow for commercial UAV /sUAS use of the NAS by 2015. Within this legislation there is however a section (323) which if it remains in the language would require that the FAA to determine if "certain" UAV/sUAS systems could be used in the NAS without having to receive a COA etc. They would it appear require some form of policy / certification / pilot training.

There are no guarantees that this legislation will be adopted without changes or if it will make it into law however it could allow the FAA to establish a more progressive policy to small sUAS in a very short time frame. So let's all remain positive that cool heads and pragmatic thinking will hold the day (I am more positive than I was when I woke up this morning, thanks Gary Mortimer).

I have installed the recommended sonar sensor (XL-Maxsonar EZ4) on my custom-framed Arducopter. Using the ArudPirateNG code, I've been flying with the Altitude hold and it works great. I love it! It allows me to put the quad at the altitude I want, say five feet off the ground, flip the Altitude hold switch on my Tx, and then fly around at will at that altitude. This allows me to practice my yawing, pitching, and rolling without having to worry about crashing into the ground. (Still have to watch out for trees and buildings!). It's very cool. Thank you to the team!

I'm really looking forward to automatic take off and landing in the future, and also obstacle avoidance (using yet to be installed side-firing sensors obviously). I have included some pictures of how I mounted the sonar sensor underneath my quad. I have also included some pictures of the tiny EyeCam camera (made by DraganFly Innovations) that I installed on my arducopter. It transmits video in real-time back to a 9" portable screen and a small video receiver that I rigged up with a battery.

Hi guys,

As promised I've started a port of the Ardupirates code to an "Arduinoless" state that should be able to run on Pipo.

I call it Pipopirate  :)

It's not anywhere near functional but you can check it out on:  http://code.google.com/p/pipo/

Hello everyone,

For anyone interested, there are several job openings available at our company.

We are looking for engineers to work developing prototype unmanned aerial systems in El Segundo, CA. Chosen applicants will be working on a small team building and testing small-scale (RC airplane sized) to full-scale vehicles on a rapid timeline. Candidates should be entry-level or have several years experience. ALL positions require the candidate to be a citizen of the US.

Available positions include the following:

Aero-Design and Structures Engineer:

- Bachelors or Masters degree in engineering

- Knowledge of aircraft and/or helicopter design, stability, and control

- Strong CAD skills, preferably SolidWorks

- Stress analysis experience using FEA tools

- Hands-on abilities including building prototypes, using a variety of tools, and machining skills

Software/Electronics/Robotics Engineer:

- Bachelors or Masters degree in engineering

- C, C++, Python

- Windows and Linux

- Version control (SVN)

- User interface programming (preferred)

- Embedded systems, microcontroller experience (preferred)

- Electronic schematic design and PCB layout (preferred)

Desirable for both positions:

- Strong teamwork and cooperative design skills

- Self-motivated to learn and solve problems independently

- RC/full-scale airplane or helicopter experience

- UAS experience or knowledge

- Strong technical writing skills preferred

- Living near Los Angeles, CA or willing to relocate

These positions are needed immediately. For more information please contact ati.hiring@gmail.com. Please include your CV and any questions. Thanks!

In a newly created AMA safety rule, the AMA refers to themselves as a regulatory agency along with the FAA and FCC.

Quote (bolding mine):
"All pertinent regulations from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) and Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) shall be
applicable."

This new document allows AMA members to have aircraft upto 100 pounds and the AMA BoD already gave them permission to increase the regulated limit to 125 pounds. I bet other CBOs in the USA wish they could make up their own laws.

I will bet dollars to doughnuts that the AMA's nextstep will be to take over commercial sUAS regulations 

Never happen? That is what everyone said about recreational sUAS too.

AS soon as they rake in the $1B from S.223 you think they wont go after another $10B? and have the money to pay off the politicians?

Good luck with that.

Don't worry turbine users, if the FAA bans turbines just join the AMA, they are exempt from laws and allow turbines.

AMA safety rule cited is HERE

I keep breaking my ArduCopter arches, so rather than order replacements, I just laser cut my own through Ponoko. I've uploaded the design, so you can do it too.  Select 3mm clear acrylic, P1 size. It should cost $8.20 plus shipping for the four arches shown above. Note that these are laser cut, not CNC milled, so they don't have the notch on the side that fits snugly on the arms. But they work fine all the same.

Thanks to Sandro Benigno, you can also order a set of five replacement dome rings, as shown here:

All the other parts are in the ArduCopter repository, but need to be converted to SVG format to laser cut. If you see something you'd like to make, let me know and I'll convert and upload it to Ponoko. Most can be laser cut as easily as CNC milled, but in some cases you might need to do a little finishing work, like counter-sinking some holes. No biggie...

UPDATE:

I've added the Main Square:

And the Legs:

And the carrier board:

FCU simple remote display for flight testing.

Sometime I just wanta test specific feature and I don't want to carry a heavy laptop outdoor.

Just for fun.....XD

Here's a short flight after I did a bit of PID tuning.  Flying latest ArduPirates code and still need to tune the hover and position hold.

Senate passes Bill S.223 with recreational sUAS amendment denying FAA authority!

Sponsored by OK Senator Inhofe:

"

(g) Special Rule for Model Aircraft.--

    (1) IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law relating to the incorporation of unmanned

aircraft systems into FAA plans and policies,, including this section, the Administrator shall not promulgate any

rules or regulations regarding model aircraft or aircraft being developed as model aircraft if such aircraft is--

    (A) flown strictly for recreational, sport, competition, or academic purposes;

    (B) operated in accordance with a community-based set of safety guidelines and within the programming of a

nationwide community-based organization; and

    (C) limited to not more than 55 pounds unless otherwise certified through a design, construction, inspection,

flight test, and operational safety program currently administered by a community-based organization.

    (2) MODEL AIRCRAFT DEFINED.--For purposes of this subsection, the term ``model aircraft'' means a

nonhuman-carrying (unmanned) radio-controlled aircraft capable of sustained flight in the atmosphere, navigating

the airspace and flown within visual line-of-sight of the operator for the exclusive and intended use for sport,

recreation, competition, or academic purposes."

More HERE and HERE

Why didn't the AMA let anyone knw they were secretly working to get this passed without anyone knowing?

Sounds llike sneaky sleazy politics to me. But the AMA will instantly gain upto $100 Billion in dues!

No oversight over all that new money either!

I don't trust them and I am a member!

No AMA dues - no flying.

No autonomous systems period

Limited FPV, even an AR Parrot will be illegal to use because it doesn't meet AMA rules.

AMA can change rules at will to ban all FPV! 

This can only be stopped at the House of Representatives now.

Write and call your Representative now or say good buy to all your stuff.

QGroundControl is currently improved on a daily basis along with the efforts to implement a common mission interface for ArduPilotMega and MAVLink. While this is work in progress, I'd like to share some impressions of the new features. Once the next APM version is released, a matching stable version of QGC will be released as well optimally supporting APM. The picture above shows the Google Earth mission interface on Mac OS X, which supports waypoint creation (double click) and dragging. The Windows version is lagging slightly behind: Waypoint visualization works, dragging not yet. I would like to particularly thank our restless beta testers, their excellent feature requests and bug reports really helped improving the usability.

Realtime Linechart Plot: Allows to log data to a CSV file (e.g. for Matlab) and to see how sensors and filters behave in realtime. It includes mean and variance values (second and third column) and you can freely set the window size for the calculation of mean and variance.

2D Map: Perfect for mission planning and computers without the processing power for Google Earth

QGroundControl got now also persistent settings, which means that preferences are stored. Most of the widgets store the last configuration (e.g. which option you checked). You also can rename MAVs, e.g. MAV001 to ALPHA. You can even set QGroundControl to auto-connect your serial link with the last settings on startup. On the protocol side safety was improved by retransmitting lost packets, ensuring now that not a single parameter is lost.

QGroundControl can now also log MAVLink packets with timestamp and replay whole missions. It accepts binary logs (raw data from e.g. serial logs) as well. So you can now run a HIL simulation and view the output in realtime in QGroundControl, log it, send it to a friend or export the data to Matlab. The offline logfile analysis tool (not shown here) allows you also to print 2D plots or create PDF or PNG files from them.

For the brave: There are daily experimental builds that work with the SVN version of APM. They are in general stable, but of course not as well tested as a full release version. The executables for Windows and Mac OS can be downloaded at:

https://github.com/pixhawk/qgroundcontrol/downloads

Since this is still beta software, bug reports and feature requests are welcome:

https://github.com/pixhawk/qgroundcontrol/issues

Sorry for the bad image.

Appears Searching within Forums is not working at this time...NING Support is aware of the issue.

Thanks to member Brad Barnum for reporting this.

Ron

Here's a short video of the maiden flight.  I spent some time after this flight tuning the PIDS and am now waiting on the battery charger and the winds.

It's a Nano Hummingbird!

Nano Hummingbird

Los Angles Times Story

Aerovironment has been working on this since 2006. Under a $4 million contract from Darpa they have a hummingbird drone that weighs 19 grams, flies 11 mph, can hover, fly forwards, backwards or sideways, turn clockwise and counterclockwise and flight time is 8 minutes.

19 grams! Battery, motors, communications, video camera, and hummingbird paint scheme. That's less than 4 nickels in weight.

The pentagon mileposts for this project include hovering in a 5 mph wind, fly indoors and back out through a normal size doorway.

I'm pleased to pass on the news that Martin has launched Build Your Own Drone, a full-featured DIY Drones distributor based in the UK.  They're selling everything from ready-to-fly APMs to components and, soon, ArduCopters. This should be a great choice for people who want faster and cheaper shipping in Europe.

Welcome aboard, Martin!

Position Hold flights at High Altitude with the OptiFlow Tricopter (OFT) v1

Successful high altitude (>100m AGL) position hold tests flights with an optical flow sensor on a Tricopter (OFT) UAV.
Tests flights:
1) Fast climb rate to about 100 m AGL in hold position mode with only the throttle command.
2) At 100 m AGL, a 360° turn has been done (wind 14 km/h from SE) with only the yaw command.
3) Fast descend from 100 m AGL whith the horizontal stabilisation active.

All the tests flights have been recorded with a GoPro HD Wide video camera

More infos at: http://diydrones.com/profile/JeanLouisNaudin

Hi guys,

I've been hard at work making a small, single board hardware platform for stabilization/autopilot purposes.

The board is very small.  Currently it measures 1.5"x1.1" (39mm x 28mm).   It runs a 16Mhz Atmel Atmega328p.

Also, included on board are a 3-axis mems gyro, 3-axis mems accelerometer and a 3-axis magnetometer (no in the picture above).

Input voltages are 5v-16v. 

The board can see use up to 16 I/O ports for PWM (in/out), external modules etc...

There's also a I2C header for external I2C units.

The alpha boards are already running a cut-down DCM code:

I'm planning to implement fist a version of the Ardupirates code.

If you're interested in one of these please drop me a line here or via email (erezraviv@gmail.com)

• Servo extension cables (The stock servo leads are just long enough to get inside)
• Battery connection adapters or new leads to solder on
• Epoxy since there wasn't enough that came with it.
• Power transformer for battery charger (You might not have to pay for that if you get a different charger)
• A five wire balance plug to a four wire plug.

Tools that I have used

• Hot wire foam cutter. I made mine out of chopsticks, a clothespin, 9V battery, a rubberband, and some florist wire. One of the ailerons stuck during movement against the body. 
• Digital Multimeter To check my solders on the connectors.
• Soldering iron and solder
• Pliers

Some elaboration:

My SkyFun came with a Deans connector (the unsoldered part) while my batteries came with a XT60 adapters. My biggest problem seems to be what plug to go with (I like soldering) a compulsive person would get a scale and weigh them. I am going to be lazy and bet on the XT60 gaining a majority so it's time to cut the plug off my SkyFun and get to soldering.

I ended up picking up a CellPro from FMA Direct since HK was out of stock for the US warehouse and I was impatient and I didn't want to spend another $20+ on just S&H. I did buy batteries from HK though since they had them in stock from the US warehouse. The charger however did not come with an AC adapter so I either have to charge from my cars battery or get a power transformer. The other caveat is that my charger is a four cell charger while I only have three cells. What this means is that I have a five wire plug that needs to go to a four wire. Luckily the manual describes the wiring schematic so you can buy your plugs and crimp your own adapter wires.