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Edited, for adding better resolution video (up to 720p).Is the first 3D animation test, for instructional files, from Arducopter Team. Stay tuned! :)
Here goes an hi-res image, showing our 3D ArduPilot Mega, maded for mockup and illustrations.
Does anyone have a good mounting idea for the camera that is sold in the DIYD store? What you see is what you get and not much. No connectors, standoffs, etc. Great image quality though for a 420 line camera.
Shrink wrap, liquid electrical tape, some kind of enclosure, etc. Any help would be appreciated.
Adam
I know some of this has been discussed before, but does anyone want to speculate on how interesting the MS project Natal (now called Kinect) and the rumour that there may be a 3D camera on the new Nintendo DS could be for amateur UAVs?
Would a 3D camera be useful to us? I'm guessing not really on a relatively high altitude (>10m) fixed wing airframe, but perhaps for multi-rotors it would be great. If the 3DS really does contain a 3D camera, it's going to be tiny, and that could be very useful! I'm also building a AGV, and I expect that I'll be in the queue to get a "kinect" come november.
It's E3 this week so expect lots of interesting (and otherwise) games industry related tech releases in the press.
Nintendo 3DS:
http://kotaku.com/5561086/is-this-nintendos-3ds (making reference to this 3D camera from sharp: http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/100512.html)
MS Kinect
Jim
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=4497223845
Use the Google translator.
IMU stabilizer with functions like:
- Auto stabilizing
- Return to Home function
- Auto circle over given position
- Hold altitude
- RC normal flight.
Mode 1: Closed mode: All control of the model plane is determined by the manipulator. FY-21A passes through all RC commands to the model. Full control of the airplane is in the hands of the operator.
Mode 2: Auto balance mode: In this mode, if FY-21AP senses the change of flying attitude, it will give a control gain to amend the plane automatically into a horizontal flying attitude. This is of course for roll and pitch.
Mode 3: Fixed–Altitude fly Mode: For this mode it is just like auto balance mode with the exception that it will also will take the current altitude as the target altitude and maintain this elevation. The operator needs only to control the direction of the plane with no worries as to the planes altitude changing.
Two Special Modes:
Special Mode 1: Auto Return Mode .In this mode, the plane flies to the return point automatically. The system will take the the current altitude (at the time special mode 1 was selected) as the target altitude and keep flying in this height. The plane will then return to the home position and circle around that point in a radius of 120m.
Special Mode 2: Auto Circling Mode. In this mode, the plane will circle its current position. The system will take the current altitude (at the time special mode 2 was selected) as the target altitude and keep flying in this height. The plane will then circle around that point in a radius of 120m
Special Mode off: when the three way toggle switch is in the middle this means the special mode function is off.
These modes are controlled by two separate channels on your receiver.
The FY21AP system consists of:
1. FY 21 AP-Ⅱ
2. FY OSD-Ⅱ
3. FY DL 100A (Current Sensor)
4. FY GPS (10HZ GPS module)
The system is a very good place to start out. It's more or less PnP and very easy to tune the gains. It's not an Autopilot where you can add waypoints, but you can switch into auto circle mode at any given point in your flight and if you loose video signal you can switch into Auto return home.
You can read a review of the system on RCG made by Steve from Canada. Review FY 21 AP
Here you have the FY 21AP manual
It's available here FY 21 AP
I added more code comments as well as brought back the GPS simulator. If you set GPS_PROTOCOL to 5 in your header the simulator will kick in while the plane is in AUTO.
Your throttle adjusts the speed of the plane in the sim while it attempts to hit waypoints. The telemetry will output to the Ardupilot GCS. If you connect Google maps, you'll see that update in real-time as well.
Please note, the throttle still controls the engine, so be careful to disconnect your ESC.
Jason
First set of proto distribution PCB's are out from manufacturingcompany and ArduCopter core team around world are waiting to receivetheir packets for proto testing.
Ok then how to build it and connect it to your electronics??
First users need to put some soldering paste on center traces, this way we can drive currents over 40 Amps. Thickness needed for 30 amp constant currents is at least 0.5 millimeter of soldering paste (like on PCB at center). This is essential otherwise board cannot handle current surges.
Next thing is to solder your ESC +,- wires to the big pads at edge of the PCB. You can also solder Deans connector as shown in PCB at middle on picture above. Please check polarity of your connection.
Below is wiring instructions for whole board along with PCB picture. If user want to use BEC from ESC, they can get +5V from any of those middle pins.
GND pins are always connected to GND. Mid pins are not normally connected to anywhere unless user need to have +5V from BEC. Signal pin goes to FlightController board.
This board can be used also for I2C data bus. If using I2C ESC's. Connect all middle (+) and together, all signal (s) pins together and then bring 2 wires from them to FlightControllers I2C bus. This setup works for example with my modified I2C ESC's.
On board there are few extra holes and holes can be even made more if needed, these holes can be used for example to get raw battery voltage to measure voltage.
Illustration of ESC connection with few Deans connectors, one signal line (yellow) to APM and power input from battery
PCB board kit is planned to have following items:
- 4 x 3 pin right angle connectors
- Needed jumper cables
- 10 - 15cm battery cable
Deans connectors are not included due different users have different requirements for connecting ESC and battery. ESC power cables can also be soldered directly to PCB.
Kit contents can still change before official release, more parts can be found from ArduCopter development wiki pages at https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter_Partslist
Final parts list will be published to ArduCopter wiki after setup is complete.
The bare-bones beginning of the ArduPilot Mega manual is now up. This just covers assembly of the boards and a basic how-to on programming. It's here.
Google Trends for tower hobbies vs. hobbyking
(via here)
We want you to build a robot that completes a trivial task in the most inefficient and laborious way possible. Oh yeah, it needs to destroy itself doing so. Intrigued? We thought so!
Any suggestions on what the most trivial task a UAV could perform in a laborious way is! As I demonstrated at Sparkfun's AVC this year getting a AUV to destroy itself is a simple task - LOL.
A research group from Czechoslovakia has been doing some nice work with ground-based guidance of the Parrot AR.Drone using image processing. From their video description: "This video demonstrates the ability of the AR drone to takeoff and land on a moving vehicle. The ARDrone bottom camera is used to recognize a simple pattern on the moving robot and the drone either howers above or lands on the pattern.
"This video shows a fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle following a short pre-learned path. The quadcopter is first manually guided around by a teleoperator. During the teleoperated flight, image processing algorithms (SURF,SIFT) recognize salient objects from the image of the on-board camera.
Positions of these objects are estimated and put in a threedimensional map.
In the autonomous mode, the quadcopter loads a relevant map and matches the mapped objects to the currently visible ones. In this way, the quadcopter is able to estimate it position with a precision higher than conventional GPS."
(via I Heart Robotics)
Comms problems can happen to 100k$ drones too , even Navy has to face such losses. So choose well.
The Navy lost four submersible unmanned drones over the weekend in the Chesapeake Bay near Norfolk, Va., and is asking the public for help in finding the errant torpedo shaped drones.
Most of the review for it are five-stars, also !
So the MRF49XA we've battled finally got an upgrade. It's the MRF89XA &
it has a 32x bigger FIFO, hardware packetizing, hardware CRC, & now
requires a 12.8Mhz crystal so throw away all your 10Mhz crystals.
Work slowly resumes on neural networks for Marcy 1. This time, just settling for
feedforward prediction of navigation points. Have no confidence in it.
Once again, the problem with any completely artificial intelligence
feedback controller is computing the long term offset.
Now that we're optimizing CPU usage for neural networks again,
discovered if the sonar period is too long, it causes the audio
processing to exceed the cache & slow it way down.
The Aiptek P-HD got its 1st ground video of a difficult takeoff to
400ft & landing. Landing on the narrow slit between the weeds still
takes manual control. Extremely high wind caused pretty crazy navigation
errors on the takeoff.
Kept making demo videos in case someone ever read our resume. Standard
autonomous operations with VicaCopter in HD & very windy conditions.
Autonomous takeoffs, ascents, landings, hovers. Marcy maneuver didn't
work very well on that 400ft descent because of the wind.
The problem with wind is the high angle of attack causes GPS to lose
satellites. She dropped to 7 satellites at 400ft.
Finally, have some more sky writing. The star trails of Scorpio are deliberately visible in the background. It was always conspicuous in all our years of flying. Used to think it was a sickle marking death to anyone who ventured to the center of the galaxy.
The smile inducing technology really killed us in this shot.
So many diydroners are unemployed, it's time to start a group.
We shot a video on this morning. The platform was a depron PolyClub, weather was perfect for this light airplane.
We have 2 camera on the plane, one of camera on tail, other one on right side of plane(45 degree angled to the ground) Side camera perspective is unbelivable and i'm strongly suggesting to watch all video :)
Have a nice weekend :)
Melih
Price: US$ 99.00 (and maybe lower after logging in on the Hobbyking website or if you are a premium member).
For details: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=11656
Making boards of the complexity of the ArduPilot IMU shield takes more than a pick & place machine. It also requires a test jig to verify that every board is working before it's shipped out. Here's a board from the first batch being tested. Those pins inbetween the two red boards are called pogo pins, and they're spring loaded, allowing us to just press the new board on the top to make an electrical connection.
Here's a shot from the side. The board in the middle is running the test code:
This is the one Sparkfun uses for the ArduPilot Mega main board, which they gave us so we could make our own main boards, too. Sparkfun makes the best test jigs and they've taught us a lot. Yay Sparkfun!
The final product! ArduPilot Mega IMU shields getting ready to be shipped out--is there anything more beautiful?
This is the first video of stable mode doing by FoxTeam member Riccardo F.
In this version of software we have this kind of configuration :
Two multiboard :
1 Magnetometer
1 GPS
1 Sonar
1 Barometer (not yet used).
4 IR-Sensor (not yet used).
1) Multiboard need for stability on it there are the our version of Arduimu Quad III ( pre alpha Arducopter firmware). On this board is connected acc , gyro , Sonar ,magnetometer , Barometer and 2° Multiboard.
2) Multiboard / Ardumega have GPS , Rx Radio , IR-Sensor : the software that we intend to mount is an a revision of ardupilot rewritten for Multicopter.
In this code is supported :
- Mixertable , in the video configuration is used a X4 , but I'm testing also X6 Radial.
- I2c Bl-CTR
- Rx-Radio that use a serial protocol . In future application will be possible use directly Xbeepro to recive from pc o iphone the fly command .. :)
- Rewrite a code for YAW control.
In this video is possible to see the first release of JavaGS (Ground Station)
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/source/browse/#svn/branches/riky/ProjectFB-GS
Our target of next weeks will be GPS Position hold , and autotake off and landing.
The link of our repository is :
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/source/browse/#svn/branches/
ricky and redfox74 branch.
This is our update :
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/updates/list
We need help to implement and develop the code , if someone would join to our development or need more information can contact me !
Regards
Fox Team
Roberto N. & Riccardo F. :)
A glimmer of hope for those of you that live in that country with old fashioned rules, the FAA now have a brace of Scaneagles to play with.
