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Tedrocopter Frame

As most of you know, the booms/arms are T-Rex 600 tail booms. I've cut the booms to 33cm and connected them to a 4-way 1/2" PVC connector (from Lowes). Screw holes are drilled 7mm from the edge of PVC connector. The body, which will hold the Arduino Duemilanove and Aeroquad 1.7 shield (amongst other things), is a simple 7" x 3" project box from RadioShack. To connect everything, so far I've decided to use 6-32 threads with lock nut washers - each lock nut has a rubber washer after it to help with vibration. I'm still unsure about the land gear... I'd like the quad to float but I have yet to find anything with sufficient buoyancy.



Pontoon Style (maybe?)



Long legs for aerial photography?



6-32 thread & lock nut to hold PVC to tail booms


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Zhichuan ZCC210N compass

Hey everybody, I'm attaching the code written by me for the Zhichuan zcc210N 2-axis magnetometer compass module. It's cheap, supports I2C interface and spits out data pretty good, including Direction (N-NE-E-SE, ecc) and angle (0-360°). Tested on Arduino pro mini. Frrrrresh.

NOTE I wasn't able to clearly understand how calibration is made. However the compass works fine even without calibration; google "zcc210n datasheet" for further info.

Note2: you have to input your local magnetic declination and deviation angles in the respective tabs for true north correction.



Bon apetit.

79324943

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EM406: busted!

Ciao to everybody, just want you to know that today I finally made my EM406, ArduIMU and Ardupilot work together with a simple trick. From http://seniord.ece.iastate.edu/dec0803/manuals/EM-406%20Product_Guide1.pdf we see that the output baud rate of the infamous EM406 is 4800 bps. Adjusting the code for arduIMU, ardupilot to work at 4800 everything works very fast, ever without the "first time" GPS locking procedure. All right.
The only problem is that one might desire a higher than 4800 output rate. Argh, I am a very newbie to arduino and I am still searching for the solution.



UPDATE!

So, with the help of Hopslink, I finally got it all working.


This made my arduIMU connect with the so-hatred EM406 module without using the NMEA protocol.


If you make arduPilot communicate with arduIMU @ 38400 bps you're really done. That's it.

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3D Robotics

Synchonized/mated quadcopters


From BotJunkie:

"Quadrotors are getting smarter and more talented, but besides surveillance, their usefulness is a bit limited due to their size. Where one little helicopter fails, however, an assemblage of little helicopters might be able to succeed. The Distributed Flight Array is a project from the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich that aims to combine a bunch of different little autonomous helicopters into a big glob of autonomous helicopters. Each helicopter unit has its own motor, computer, and sensors, and can wirelessly communicate with all the other units. In addition to flying, they also have little motorized wheels underneath to let them crawl around the ground.

There are all kinds of ways in which a distributed flight array could be useful. One of the most obvious is heavy lifting… Got something heavy? Call in a bunch of robots to combine and lift it. Got something heavier? Call in a bunch more. If one robot breaks, it’s not a big deal, since you can just swap in another one. The robots are even able to adapt on the fly to keep the entire array stable, so adding and removing individual robots is relatively straightforward. Still, getting the robots to reliably dock with each other in mid air is probably easier said than done… We’ll definite be looking forward to seeing some video of that in action."


[ DFA ]

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3D Robotics

Dancing quads


Another bit of quad goodness from BotJunkie:

"You can do some pretty incredible things with quadrotors in a precision motion capture environment. Angela Schöllig, Federico Augugliaro, and Raffaello D’Andrea from the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zürich in Switzerland have taught a pair of robot helicopters to dance in sync with a techno remix of the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. Why? Well, why not? I imagine, though, that this demonstration is part of a larger research path towards enabling cooperative (or swarm, if you will) behaviors.


The environment that these quadrotors are dancing in is a 10m square box with netting on the sides and padding at the bottom, which allows for crazy moves with minimal risk to either the robots or nearby humans. At the top of the box are eight high speed cameras that are able to provide localization information with millimeter level of accuracy at a frequency of 200hz or greater. This means that you’re not likely to witness moves like this outside of a controlled and besensored space… At least, not until vision sensors and inertial measurement units get accurate enough, small enough, and cheap enough to put on the copters themselves.

[ IDSC ]"

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Stryker IMU SET file

I have been asked if I would mind supplying the SET file for my Stryker. See attached. Please keep in mind if you plan on using this with a differnet AP other then Atto then P and D gains may be way far off. Our scaling factors may not meet eye to eye. I also have added rudders for active yaw dampening.

_________________________________________________________________________________

$1,Mix Enable = 1 ' 0 or 1 allowed. Enable flag for Elevon/V-tail mixing. 0 = FALSE, 1 = TRUE
$2,Mix Servo1 Sign = -1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. If Mixing for Elevon/V-tail is enabled, this is Elevon 1 servo direction
$3,Mix Servo2 Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. If Mixing for Elevon/V-tail is enabled, this is Elevon 2 servo direction

$4,Servo 1 Gain = 9 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aileron, or with elevons it is the aileron component of the mix
$5,Servo 2 Gain = 18 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Elevator, or with elevons it is the elevator component of the mix
$6,Servo 3 Gain = 12 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Throttle
$7,Servo 4 Gain = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Rudder
$8,Servo 5 Gain = 10 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Pan servo, or Elevon3
$9,Servo 6 Gain = 10 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Tilt servo, or Elevon4
$10,Servo 7 Gain = 10 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Trigger Servo

$11,Servo 1 direction Sign = -1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aileron, or for Elevons it is the aileron component of the mix
$12,Servo 2 dirdction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Elevator, or for Elevons it is the elevator component of the mix
$13,Servo 3 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Throttle. 1 would be standard for electronic speed controls.
$14,Servo 4 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Rudder
$15,Servo 5 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aux_1
$16,Servo 6 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aux_2
$17,Servo 7 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aux_3

$18,Servo 1 Upper Limit = 1688 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aileron, or Elevon1
$19,Servo 2 Upper Limit = 1667 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Elevator, or Elevon2
$20,Servo 3 Upper Limit = 1900 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Throttle
$21,Servo 4 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Rudder
$22,Servo 5 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_1
$23,Servo 6 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_2
$24,Servo 7 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_3

$25,Servo 1 Lower Limit = 1350 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aileron, or Elevon1
$26,Servo 2 Lower Limit = 1371 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Elevator, or Elevon2
$27,Servo 3 Lower Limit = 1100 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Throttle
$28,Servo 4 Lower Limit = 1200 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Rudder
$29,Servo 5 Lower Limit = 1000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_1
$30,Servo 6 Lower Limit = 1000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_2
$31,Servo 7 Lower Limit = 1000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_3

$32, Path Angle Max = 30 ' 0 to 90 allowed (in degrees). "Cone" is shown in ASCII art below. Use 0 to disable TruTrak, but 30 is a good value
$33, Path Merge Line distance = 60 ' 5 to infinity allowed in meters. This is the half width of "highway" that we merge onto the line over. See ASCII Art below

$34,Roll Angle Limit = 30 ' Max allowed roll in degrees, from 5 to 40 allowed
$35,Pitch Angle Limit = 25 ' Max allowed pitch in degrees, from 5 to 40 allowed

$36,Steer Proportional Band Width = 195 ' Width (in degrees) to spread proportional control of roll response. 5 to 360 degrees allowed.
$37,Alt Proportional Band Width = 210 ' Altitude window (in meters) to spread proportional pitch response. 1 to infinity meters allowed.

$38,Steer_D = 35 ' Gain factor for "D" dampening term of heading control. 0 to 100 integer allowed. 10 is a good start
$39,Alt_D = 2 ' Gain factor for "D" dampening term of altitude control. 0 to 100 integer allowed. 10 is a good start

$40,MaxRate = 50 ' Max allowed pitch and roll rate of change in deg/second. 1 to 120,000 is allowed (0.01 to 1200 deg/sec)

$41,WP Distance Satisfy = 100 ' For departure WP sequencing, minimum distance (meters) to activate WP for departure. 10 to infinity meters is allowed.
$42,Hold radius = 200 ' Radius (in meters) of holding pattern at end of flight. 1 to infinity meters is allowed.
$43,Hold Direction = 0 ' 0 or 1 is allowed. 1 is CCW flight direction, 0 is CW rotation for end of flight hold pattern
$44,Hold Alt = 125 ' User-specified altitude for the default RTL hold pattern. 25 to infinity meters is allowed

$45,XY TPile Orientation = 0 ' Describes orientation of XY thermopile head. 0-7 are valid. See ASCII art in comments section.

$46,ThrottMid = 1400 ' 900 to 2100 allowed. Initial PWM value for Throttle, user-definable to control ESC arming or not upon boot up.

$47,log_freq = 0 ' Number of 1 second delay intervals between writes to LOG.txt. 0 to infinity is allowed. 0 is 5Hz.
$48,Num_Pulses = 20 ' Number of consecutive good pulses on Aux1 Rx channel required to switch flight mode. 1 to infinity allowed

$49,VoltScale = 51810 ' Conversion factor for analog voltage sensor. Units are number of mV per entire 3.3V analog scale. E.g. 51810 for Atto V1.7
$50,CurrentScale = 92623 ' Conversion factor for analog current sensor. Units are number of mA per entire 3.3V analog scale. E.g. 92623 for Atto V1.7

$51,Plane mass in grams = 0 ' Flying mass in grams
$52,Motor Efficiency Percentage = 80 ' Estimated efficiency percentage of electric motor + speed control. 80 is a good value for brushless outrunner, perhaps 40 for brushed motor.
$53,mAh usage upper limit abort = 0 ' 0 = don't use this function, 1 to infinity means YES and tells the used mAh RTL trigger

$54,Pitot Present = 1 ' 0 = lock throttle in non-RC, 1 = use pitot airspeed control, 2 = use GPS for speed with Cosine(Pitch) corrections
$55,Test Mode = 0 ' 0 = NO, 1 is YES. Causes AttoPilot to start Rx/Servo object, start 50Hz IMU object, and then hold. No GPS startup, no WP loading
$56,Ground Launch = 30 ' 0 = NO, 1 to infinity means YES and hold roll angle to zero until specified AGL altitude in meters is reached after launch in AutoMode


$57,Servo 1 D_Term = 16 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aileron, or with elevons it is the aileron component of the mix
$58,Servo 2 D_Term = 12 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Elevator, or with elevons it is the elevator component of the mix
$59,Servo 3 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Throttle (not implemented)
$60,Servo 4 D_Term = 50 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Rudder
$61,Servo 5 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aux_1 (not implemented)
$62,Servo 6 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aux_2 (not implemented)
$63,Servo 7 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aux_3 (not implemented)


$64,Hold Speed = 60 ' 5 to 255 integer allowed. Hold pattern airspeed target in km/h for when PitotPresent = 1
$65,Min Speed = 50 ' 5 to 255 integer allowed. Min allowed aispeed target for when PitotPresent = 1
$66,Max Speed = 140 ' 5 to 255 integer allowed. Max allowed aispeed target for when PitotPresent = 1

$67,Telem Baud = 38400 ' User can set this to ANY integer from 4800 to 230400. If unspecified, it defaults to 38400 baud

$68,MaxDistance = 10000 ' User-defined max distance (meters) from home to force abort and go to home. Default is 300km, but user can make less

$69,LoiterRadius(1) = 50 ' User-defined loiter radius, in meters. 0 to 32767 is allowed
$70,LoiterRadius(2) = 100 '
$71,LoiterRadius(3) = 150 ' To specify this at a waypoint, make last trigger digit (the 8th one from left)
$72,LoiterRadius(4) = 200 ' set to 1 through 9. To disable, set this trigger to zero (0)
$73,LoiterRadius(5) = 300 ' MUST be used in conjunction with non-zero 7th trigger value, otherwise loiter has LIMITED affect
$74,LoiterRadius(6) = 500 ' and the result would be plane will circle ONLY UNTIL it is line up with next waypoint.
$75,LoiterRadius(7) = 1000 ' T2 field sets the loiter direction. 0 (default) is clockwise, 1 is counter clockwise
$76,LoiterRadius(8) = 2000 '
$77,LoiterRadius(9) = 10000 '

$78,LoiterTime(1) = 10 ' User-defined loiter time, in seconds. 0 to 32767 is allowed
$79,LoiterTime(2) = 20 '
$80,LoiterTime(3) = 40 ' To specify this at a waypoint, make 2nd last trigger digit (the 7th one from left)
$81,LoiterTime(4) = 60 ' set to 1 through 9. To disable, set this trigger to zero (0)
$82,LoiterTime(5) = 120 ' MUST be used in conjunction with a non-zero 8th trigger value, otherwise time has no effect
$83,LoiterTime(6) = 240 '
$84,LoiterTime(7) = 600 '
$85,LoiterTime(8) = 1200 '
$86,LoiterTime(9) = 3600 '

$87,Trigger time interval (2) = 5 ' Specify value between parenthesis for Trigger field 3 (4th from right)
$88,Trigger time interval (3) = 10 ' 0 is no trigger for that waypoint
$89,Trigger time interval (4) = 20 ' 1 is trigger at waypoint only
$90,Trigger time interval (5) = 60 ' 2-5 are time interval triggers, in seconds
$91,Trigger Distance interval (6) = 100 ' 6-9 are ground distance interval triggers, in meters
$92,Trigger Distance interval (7) = 150 ' Time interval allowed from 0 to 32767 seconds
$93,Trigger Distance interval (8) = 200 ' Distance interval allowed from 0 to 32767 meters
$94,Trigger Distance interval (9) = 500 '

$95,Trigger Type = 1 ' 0 is logic controller from servo7 signal line, 1 is PWM servo controller from servo7
$96,Trigger Active = 1400 ' If trigger is logic, enter a 1 or 0 here. If PWM servo driver, enter servo position in microseconds
$97,Trigger Rest = 1600 ' If trigger is logic, enter a 0 or 1 here. If PWM servo driver, enter servo position in microseconds
$98,Trigger Duration = 5 ' Number of 0.2 second time intervals to hold trigger in active state for each episode of the trigger, 0 to 32767 allowed

$99, Roll Expo = 30 ' 0 is no Expo, otherwise 10X units amount to add per 90 degrees attitude.
$100,Pitch Expo = 30 ' 0 is no Expo, otherwise 10X units amount to add per 90 degrees attitude.

$101,AutoLock Distance = 0 ' exceed this and mode is forced into Auto. 0 means disable the feature.
$102,RTL mAh autoLock = 0 ' 0 is DISABLE, 1 is ENABLE. If mAh cutoff happens lock out other modes and go Auto for RTL
$103,PhotoDeadPre = 0 ' 0 to 50 allowed and is number of 0.2 sec intervals (0 to 10 seconds) pre trigger to lock attitude at level and idle throttle
$104,PhotoDeadPost = 0 ' 0 to 50 allowed and is number of 0.2 sec intervals (0 to 10 seconds) post trigger start to lock attitude at level and idle throttle
$105,StopNav = 0 ' 0 or 1 allowed. 0 is continue nav during motor off period of photo, 1 is stop nav and hold flat attitude during photo

$106,Pitot Offset = 21 ' -200 to 200 allowed. Value derived from indoor session of Test Mode (line 55 in this SET). Corrects hardware bias for accurate low airpseed range

$107, GPS Altitude = 0 ' 0 is NO, 1 is YES. Generally DO NOT enable this unless your UAV has hermetic sealed cabin. Pressure altitude is MUCH better

$108, Telem Freq = 1 ' Number of 1 second delays between telemetry updates out from Atto. 0 means maximum which is 5 Hertz

$109, Roll Bias = 0 ' 1X degrees. Put in non-zero value to seed the bias at start
$110, Pitch Bias = 4 ' 1X degrees. Put in non-zero value to seed the bias at start

$111, RC Dampen Roll = 14 ' 0 to 100 allowed though generally don't exceed the D_term in line 57
$112, RC Dampen Pitch = 10 ' 0 to 100 allowed though generally don't exceed the D_term in line 58
$113, RC Dampen Yaw = 35 ' 0 to 100 allowed though generally don't exceed the D_term in line 60

$114, Min_RollRate% = 25 ' 1 to 100 allowed. Is percentage of MaxRate to use when roll error is zero for soft landing on target
$115, Min_PitchRate% = 25 ' 1 to 100 allowed. Is percentage of MaxRate to use when pitch error is zero for soft landing on target

$116, Altitude by Throttle = 0 ' 0 is no 1 is yes. If yes, the next 6 lines need a value
$117, PitchSpeedGain = 60 ' Terminal velocity in km/h with motor off and pitch at -30. 0 to 1000 allowed
$118, ThrottAltGain = 18 ' 0 to 100 allowed. Throttle gain in special case of throttle altitude. Seperate from airspeed throttle gain.

$119, DistNear = 20 ' meters from altitude target. MUST be no larger than DistFar
$120, DistFar = 100 ' meters from altitude target. MUST be no smaller than DistNear
$121, NearB% = 50 ' % mixing Pitch Airspeed when at or closer to target alt than the DistNear value. MUST be no larger than MaxB
$122, FarB% = 80 ' % mixing Pitch Airspeed when at or farther to target alt than the DistFar value. MUST be no smaller than MinB

$######## END OF SETTINGS

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Hi Guys,

Maybe you know, i'm designing FPV electronics but this product not for FPV :)
We are sharing same flight field with gliders,glow and electric planes and most important problems was switches for everyone.
This is why we designed this small circuits


Standard slider type switches are the most important crash reason on glow planes/gliders and they can affect from vibration, dust, oil and moisture.
Ultra Reliable Switch works when only slider switch mechanical off, and you are forcing to close it when switch on. This electronic design uses high power MOSFET for opening the switch and current limit is extremely higher than all mechanical switches.
We are using 20Ah MOSFETs for this small switches and they can handle 100Ah peak currents on hard conditions.
You can use it with your Gliders, Glow planes or Small EP planes.

Features
  • Low Quiescent Current (50uA on 5Volt)
  • Very Low Internal Resistance (0.006 Ohm on 5V)
  • Wide Operation Voltage (2-30Volt)
  • Very High Current Resistance (20A Continuous, 100A Pulsed)
  • Onboard LED indicator
  • Large Soldering Pads
Usages
  • Receiver battery switching for Glow and Gliders
  • Ignition system switch for Fuel Engines
  • LiPO switch for small EP planes (20A Max)
  • Safe Switch for other hobby electronics

65-227-large.jpg


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3D Robotics


Flench reports that the Gaui 330X quadcopter is now shipping. It's advertised for $349. Specs from the product's home page here:




"330X was designed based on UAV , which emphasizes
the advantages are:
  1. Flight Efficiency: Standard Battery
    (2S2000mAh) time of flight for more than 12min, with a high-capacity battery,
    the flight time will be more than 20 min or more
    (available spreadsheet calculation)
  2. Excellent wind resistance: the efficiency and load of propeller are perfectly optimized,
    so the wind resistance will be better than general electric aircraft High stability:
    contains GU344 (three-axis stabilizing system)for the beginner or the FPV flying,
    it is a very stable Vehicle.
  3. Additional payload capabilities: payload up
    to 700g (including battery), can freely install
    cameras and video recorder, and other general
    system.
  4. System Extensibility: can be used with GPS
    positioning system and navigation system on
    330X without any change
  5. Operation mode and flight characteristics with
    the same helicopter, but no complex transmission
  6. Collapsible body design, greatly reduce the damage rate,Which can be repaired
    easily without adjustment."
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3D Robotics

New autopilot system from Art-Tech


Art-tech, a Chinese maker of very cheap RC aircraft, has launched a UAV division and has some new products that could be interesting.


Below are the specs of the fixed wing autopilot shown above. No pricing or availability is given (I've emailed asking for more info) and the website is a terrible broken mess of missing pages and non-working sections, so I assume the product is not out yet. My own experience with Art-Tech is that its products are pretty low quality, but perhaps this new division is aiming higher. We'll see...


Specs:


26.gifIntegrate GPS receiver, three-axis MEMS gyro, three-axis accelerometers, pressure altimeter, inertial strapdown attitude algorithm

26.gifAdopt UBLOX 5th generation GPS receiver, 4Hz output, 35 seconds fast positioning time and accuracy of 2.5 meters CEP

26.gif50HZ inner attitude control, 4HZ outer navigation control. high-precision attitude through to use 32 ARM7microprocessors

26.gifThree Modes Options:

Manual remote control, /Auto balance remote control /Automatic navigation control.

26.gifTwo modes for Ground Control Station:

Flight Course navigation mode / Mouse pointing flight Real-time Control mode.

26.gifWaypoints setting through Ground Control Station

26.gifAuto-return protection after communication interruption

26.gifDistance Automatic photography

26.gifThe ground station software contains electronic map that can change the route and tasks online,real-time semi-autonomous remote control, and can real-time record flight data and play back off-line.

26.gifContains the autopilot power supply voltage monitoring, electric aircraft power voltage monitoring, GPS accuracy of detection and autopilot temperature detection.




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SpaceX Falcon 9 Achieves Orbit!


SpaceX launched its brand new Falcon 9 rocket on Friday and the flight was a complete success! SpaceFlightNow has a great rundown of the whole sequence of events and some awesome pictures to go along with it (including the one above).

You can watch the official video on the SpaceX Website - listen for everyone cheering in the background whenever the announcer speaks. I was lucky enough to watch this launch live from the SpaceX headquarters and it was one of the most exciting and electric things I've ever seen. When there's this much fuel and power involved there's little room for error so seeing it fly away without a hitch was truly exhilarating!

Later when it flew over Australia many mistook it for a UFO : )


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3D Robotics

Updated site policies

[I've just updated our site guidelines. Here's the new text]

DIY Drones is community site focused on amateur aerial robotics. Our aim is be a place where people can learn, teach, exchange and participate in projects and events. We aim to be as welcoming to those just starting as we are useful to experts. Our culture thrives on collegiality, sharing and openness.

We have many volunteer moderators who have admin rights to ban members, delete posts and otherwise do their best to maintain civil discourse and a high signal-to-noise ratio here. They will also encourage good behavior and guide people to get the most out of the site. Here are our policies, which the moderators are charged with enforcing:

1) Civility is paramount. Treat others with respect, kindness and generosity. Some of our most expert members are people who were once total n00bz but were helped and encouraged by others, and are now repaying the favor with the next generation. Remember the Golden Rule.

2) No discussion of politics or religion. This is not the place to discuss your views on the wisdom of military use of UAVs, any nation's foreign policy, your feelings about war, or anything else that is inclined to turn into a political debate. It is our experience that the rules for good dinner party conversation--no discussion of politics and religion--apply to online communities, too. DIY Drones aims to bring people together, and we find that discussions of politics and religion tend to polarize and drive people apart. There are plenty of other places to discuss those topics online, just not here.

3) Ask questions in the discussion forum; inform others in blog posts. Submitted blog posts that are just questions and should have been posted in the discussion forum will not be approved. The moderators may or may not message you with the text so you can repost in the right area. To avoid losing your post, put it in the right place from the start.

4) Blog posts are for informative topics of broad interest to the community. They should typically start with a picture or video, so that appears on the front page on the site and gives a sense of the topic as well as inviting people to click in for more. Videos should be embedded (paste the embed code in the HTML tab, not the Rich Text tab). The post should also include links where appropriate. Don't make people do a Google search for what you're talking about if you can provide a link.

5) The Discussion Forum is for questions and tech support. We prefer to do all tech support in public, so that others can follow along. If you have a problem, please describe your particular system setup completely, ideally with a photograph, and pick the right forum tags so that others can find the thread later.

6) No discussion of military applications of UAVs. This site is just about amateur and civilian use.

7) Do not type in ALL CAPS. It's considered SHOUTING. Posts in all caps will be deleted by the moderators.

8) Absolutely no personal attacks. It's fine to disagree, but never okay to criticize another member personally.

9) Share. Although we are not limited to open source projects, the ones that tend to get the most participation tend to be open source. Don't wait until your code or design is "finished"--post it as it is, and you may find that others will help you finish it faster. The best way to contribute is with your creativity--we love data, code, aircraft designs, photos of UAV projects, videos of flights and build logs. Post early and often!
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I've been a bit careless about updating the blog regularly but here it is finally! I've posted some videos and pics of our CNC cutting some wing molds as well as the antenna gimbals. There are also pictures of the mold layup process, gimbal mechanics and new CNC setup. Please find the full article here:


http://www.projectandromeda.com.au/blog


I've also finished the first revision of the IMU, and written a simple simulator in the GS to figure out any bugs on the Autopilot. I will post some shots and videos of these tomorrow. Also, we are officially an entrant in the 2010 UAV Outback Challenge!






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3D Robotics

HappyKillmore has been doing some tremendous work on solving tricky ArduPilot problems, from integrating the Remzibi OSD to his latest tutorial, unbricking a corrupted ArduPilot.


ArduPilot is meant to be programmed via the Arduino IDE, and comes with a preloaded "bootloader" that allows it to communicate with that software. Meanwhile, the failsafe processor (an Attiny45) is not meant to be programmed by regular users at all (it also comes with the code loaded at the factory).


But sometimes things can go wrong, corrupting either that bootloader or the failsafe code (causes can range from power glitches to cosmic rays!). When that happens, you need a different process to reload this low-level code, and that requires an AVR programmer such as the AVR ISP 2.


HappyK's tutorial is an excellent step-by-step illustrated guide on how to use that with ArduPilot. Highly recommended!

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Moderator

FOX Hybrid 2.0 FOXTEAM AT WORK :)


First test of the new version, significantly increased the efficiency!

Waiting for a good cameraman and telemetry ...



Italian Multi Pilot Group support officialy ArduCopter Project.

FoxTeam initially
supported the project development of Aeroquad, introducing in its branches
to support:
  • I2C - Brushless Controller.
  • Mixertable to support Multicopter +4 X4 X6 X8 configuration.
  • Variable Pitch Quad HG3 project.
  • And finally, the hybrid mid air support aircraft and half quadricotteri.
This is the official repository of our project:
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/
The blog of Alessandor a Inventor of FOX Hybrid : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/video/fox-hybrid-v2avi?xg_source=activity

Here are some videos:


HexaFox:


HG3 Variable Pitch Quad :


Fox Hybrid : similar of Buzz (paparazzi concept) but using our firmware and frame !!

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ABOVE NAPA FINALLY, MARCY 1 SHOTS

GRIP TAPE TERRORISM



So found out the reason for the sudden flip during NAPA flight #1. Noticed on NAPA flight #4 the grip tape was slipping & managed to save her to see the grip tape completely loose on the ground. Unfortunately an attempt to reinforce it with duct tape failed & she crashed hard on NAPA flight #5 with the propellers having slipped forward & with the pilot assuming they were slipped aft, ramming Her into the ground at full power.









Fortunately the new camera mount had enough give to break before the
camera.

The grip tape binding round CF rods to the fuselage loosened in warm
weather & the only warm weather we flew in was NAPA. There was no way
to detect this problem without already knowing temperature could be a
factor. So grip tape is no good. There's a lot of torque on those CF
rods. Double sided mounting tape is the only thing that works, as
stretchy as it is.

ABOVE NAPA

Before the crash, finally snagged the flight which ended in failure previously.
Need another trip for video.






















Some final mane shots before it's cut off. If Major Marcy was just a stranger, we weren't similar ages, & saying we look damn old didn't evoke eternal damnation, fire & brimstone for all time so help us God because of the negativity over Her age, we would say we look damn old, but we didn't say that.


The camera was shooting video this time & got some of the breakup. Unfortunately a few frames were still in the cache when the power was cut. She missed a water tank by only a few feet.

















On to what must be her 10th fuselage.





3 batteries of hover testing.



This golf course is under Air Force control.

Made a 1st attempt at photographing Marcy 1 in flight. Best results
were using F: 2.8 shutter speed: 1s ISO: 400 Flash: 1/16 Focus: 3m
Air Force logo doesn't come out very well.






















There is a way to smile, but it requires looking at something which
makes you fall in love.

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3D Robotics

Magnetometer primer

A nice intro to magnetometers from Sparkfun. A bit basic, but good if you've never worked with one before.

"If you're building an autonomous vehicle or a hand-held GPS (or any other device where direction might be important), a digital compass (sometimes called a magnetometer) is a great little sensor to add to your design. However, if you haven't played around with them much, you might not know which type of compass is good for your specific project (for example, do you need tilt-compensation?)."

We also sell one optimized for UAV/ArduPilot use here.

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Google Earth UAV/FPV Flight Model


In between school and work tonight, I decided to try out the Google Earth flight simulator mode. It looks like the joystick issue I remember it as always having has been fixed in the most recent version, or at least, for the Saitek Cyborg Evo series.

I decided to try modifying the .acf file that configures the "aircraft". This file is located in (Root Programs Folder)\Google\Google Earth\client\res\flightsim\aircraft . I modified the F-16 file to approximate the flight dynamics I usually get when doing my FPV flying wing.

Probably not too useful for autonomous UAV research, but it provides a fair approximation of what flying from the front seat is like without having to actually go flying FPV. Fun for practicing for FPV as well.

The file I modified is this: f16.acf

Just replace the current existing F-16 file of the same name in the folder path mentioned above.



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