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drop in hydrogen fuel cell for UAV's. 300 times more powerful than lithium ion!

Posted by brett binnekade on February 20, 2010 at 6:47am
was browsing the net today and came across this!

WOW i think its amazing what horizon has done!

take a look at the stuff on the their site too. amazing!



Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies latest hydrogen fuel cell release is designed as a drop-in replacement for battery packs used in small electric Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Weighing 4.4lbs (2kg) and storing 900Wh of usable electric energy, the Aeropak can to increase flight endurance by up to 300% over lithium batteries, meaning longer range missions and more energy to run on-board cameras and sensors.

Designed for high-impact and able to operate at up to 22,000 feet (6700m), this miniaturized power system uses refillable dry-fuel cartridges and is scalable (up to "several kilowatts") and customizable to suit different unmanned platforms. The drop-in design should also make modifications unnecessary.

Apart from enabling flights to go further and last longer and the ability to run more power-hungry devices, the Aeropak offers a very low heat signature and and silent, reliable power. Other applications are likely to include powering remote ground systems and as emergency power back-up for larger systems.

Perhaps best known to Gizmag for the fuel-cell powered H-Racer RC car and for its involvement in the radical Hyfish jet-wing aircraft project in 2007 Horizon supplied a hydrogen fuel cell that helped the Pterosoar micro-UAV set new distance records for aircraft of its type.

AeroVironment has achieved also achieved success by marrying fuel cell technology to the UAV platform, setting a new long-duration flight record of over nine-hours with fuel cell hybrid-powered Puma UAS.


here's the origional link: http://www.gizmag.com/horizon-fuel-cell-unmanned-aircraft/11913/

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RADIOS, MAGNETS & MONOCOPTER ATTITUDE ESTIMATION

Posted by Jack Crossfire on February 19, 2010 at 11:30am
Radios were 1 incremental step after another.

USB cable hacking went a long way. Having the USB cable tied in a knot directly over the antenna jammed it. The cable was shielded but probably leaked high frequency energy from Vbus.



Next came moving the antenna outside the remote control. It seems to do better outside the case.



Antenna inside case sucked.





Antenna routed outside case.



Transmitter soldering job.

Next, converted all the receiver antennas to loops. The TRC101 datasheet prefers loops above all others. They're robust enough for 1 radio to transmit on top of a receiver.



The biggest gain came from separating the RF components from the Earth.



Hanging the transmitter in a tree was optimum. Putting it on a tripod was 2nd. The tree hanging was what did it for the 1st boards & it gives the same results with new boards.



The receiving end testing different ground stations.

In summary, we now have

AFC of +15/-15 Fres
receive bandwitdh 400kHz
transmit bandwidth 165khz. It won't work any higher.
86206 baud
loop antennas for everything, isolated from USB cables


The Marcy 1's just don't have as much power as 72Mhz & XBees. 72Mhz with good antennas used to go 600ft easily. If buying replacement 72Mhz antennas, GWS Pico receivers, & crystals isn't your thing, consider tethering manual override to the ground station.

FLIGHT TESTS CONTINUE



Hand launches don't work. Marcy 1 is too unstable. Threw her in the air & she spun vertically until smashing into the ground. Don't tell Major Marcy about this.



A few autopilot flights with automatic takeoff showed Marcy 1 can take off & stay inside a cloud over the sonar but needs attitude sensing to get the precision hovering of a human pilot. A human making constant cyclic inputs can keep her very precisely in position. She's not statically stable enough to hover without feedback.

Faster RPM would make her more stable but that defeats the purpose of the Marcy 1 development program. She's supposed to extend flight time by using slow RPM & throttle pulsing won't work if the RPM is too high.

A magnetometer on the equator can sense pitch easily but not roll. In Calif*, it can sense pitch & roll but only pitch shows up on monocopters. Roll may change the azimuth result.



That leaves 1 thermopile taking 4 readings per revolution, eliminating indoor use. Marcy 1 can be used as a testbed with thermopiles but would have to be rebuilt using a 4' wing, GPS, & barometer for outdoor use.



VIKA 1 RIDES AGAIN


Finally had some Vika 1 flights with the Marcy 1 radios for manual override. Made a mosaic from the 86kbit UARTCAM. The Marcy 1 radios are only reliable enough really close to the ground station, so you're basically tethered.







The only heroines near Silicon Valley are the ones brought in with marriages, so Valentine's day for men is a flying day. We went above the Major Marcy dishes. They moved, probably to support Haiti operations. Drones in the middle east use uplinks in Germany. Drones in Haiti would use uplinks in Mexico or maybe even these particular dishes.



Surprisingly tight position for a 3 DOF IMU. Position gets sloppy if there's a lot of horizontal motion. 7 months & we've never seen Her in real life & probably never will.





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Shmoocon Talk

Posted by Mike W on February 18, 2010 at 7:00am
Two weeks ago I was invited to give at talk at a security conference in Washington DC called Shmoocon. My talk was titled "Build your own Predator UAV @ 99.95% Discount" and was intended to generate interest and expose the information assurance/security community to the fantastic work being done here at DIYDrones.com and elsewhere with amateur UAVs. I demoed my build of the ArduPilot system and brushed through the project briefly. The talk was well received and I hope you all enjoy.

A big thanks to Jordi, Chris, and all the other developers and testers who are pushing the envelope. I hope you find that the talk generated a lot of interest into the field!

Presentation Files Located Here
Talk Video Located Here

(Talk starts at time 1:15)
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Developer

New ArduIMU+ Firmware & Ground Station revision

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on February 17, 2010 at 9:55pm


Hello dear community! I'm pleased to announce a new polished version of the ArduIMU+ Ground Station based on LabView and firmware.

Whats new on the GS:
-Better Look.
-Simple, lightweight, functional and funny virtual horizon (VHLOL).
-Number of satellites used indicator for the GPS.
-Three needle altimeter (in meters).
-Vertical Speed (m/s).
-Compass indicator.
-And more but i don't remember.

What's new on the Firmware:
-Few bugs solved. (Thanks to Doug Weibel and Jose Julio)
-Now supports uBlox NAV-SOL data stream (needed for SVNumber and Vertical Speed).
-Compatible with the new GS.
-Coming soon: magnetometer support.

Note: You need to reconfigure your Ublox GPS in order to enable the NAV-SOL data stream, you can also disable NAV-STATUS because is not needed anymore. If you can't reconfigure your GPS don't worry you can still use the Ground station and the firmware but the vertical speed and the satellites indicator will not work.

Exanple of how ArduPilot uBlox configuration used to be or V1:
-NAV-POSLLH
-NAV-VELNED
-NAV-STATUS

Exanple of how ArduPilot uBlox configuration V2 is:
-NAV-POSLLH
-NAV-VELNED
-NAV-SOL

Note that ArduPilot Code V2.5 and up will also support configuration V2, but you can still use ArduPIlot uBlox Configuration V1, no problem.

ArduPilot Mega will support uBlox configuration V2 only. So you better switch soon. All brand new ArduPilot Ready uBlox modules from the DIYdrones store will have configuration V2 from now.

Because i would like to help everybody switch to V2, If you can't reconfigure your uBlox GPS by yourself i can do it for you (free), you only need to pay for shipping (less than $15 for a round trip with insurance). I also need the email address you used to buy the uBlox GPS from DIYdrones store (Just to verify you buy it from me) and the unit has to be shipped to the same address used when you bought unit. If you got you unit from somebody else i will charge a $5 dlls fee for the service. Please PM me for more information.

If somebody outside the US, would like to help a community member from you area, please leave a comment plus your requirements. If somebody near you contact me i will forward him to you.

All the files including LabView source and ArduIMU+ firmware can be downloaded from here and from the repertory as well.

Best Regards.
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T3

Programmers for the UAV DevBoard

Posted by William Premerlani on February 17, 2010 at 5:30pm

redboard.jpg

UAV DevBoard pilots:

SparkFun is out of stock for both their Olimex ICD2s, which is what I've been recommending to program the UAV DevBoard, as well as their Olimex PICPOCKET, which I do not have enough information right now to provide any recommendations one way or another. SparkFun is discontinuing the ICD2, it is their intent to sell the PICPOCKET instead. Those are out of stock right now. As soon as they get some in, they told me they will test a few with the UAV DevBoard to assure compatibility.

In the meantime, there are 4 programmers that I can recommend, that you can buy from Microchip.

ICD2 - Its around $200. I have used it, it works fine. You will need to buy either an adapter from SparkFun or an adapter from Microchip to go from the RJ11 connector on the ICD2, to the ICSP connector on the DevBoard. Microchip discourages you from buying the ICD2, because they are phasing it out, but it works just fine.

ICD3 - Similar to ICD2. Its also around $200. Its the newer version of the ICD2. I have also used it, it works fine. You will need to buy either an adapter from SparkFun or an adapter from Microchip to go from the RJ11 connector on the ICD2, to the ICSP connector on the DevBoard.

PICkit3 - Its around $45. I have not used it. I have heard of some complaints, but there are reports that it works ok with the UAV DevBoard. It has an ICSP connector, and you can plug it directly into the DevBoard. There are various packages that Microchip offers that include the PICkit3, including a "PICkit3 Debug Express" for $70, but all you need is the "PICkit3 only" package.

PICkit2 - Its around $35. I have used it, it works ok. It has an ICSP connector, and you can plug it directly into the DevBoard. Microchip discourages you from buying this one, because they are discontinuing it, but it works just fine. Really, its the best one to go with.

Here is a link to the information on Microchip's website. If you buy any of their programmers, go with just the bare bones programmer. They offer other packages with various accessories, but all you need is a programmer.

Best regards,

Bill Premerlani

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Neurofuzzy helicopter problems

Posted by Aldo Vargas on February 17, 2010 at 8:22am
In my last post, i had vibration issues, remember??

So, what did i do to resolve that??

- First, we design a better place for the sensor to be, it uses elastic bands, that improve a lot the readings, but we still had glitches on the angles.

- We change from DCM to Kalman, because the performance of Kalman was better, and faster.

- We use a second filter, we implement a simple digital low-pass filter just after the analog readings, it help us to smooth the sensor jitter.


With this 3 upgrades, the angles were pretty acceptable even in max acceleration, ill post a video in a while.

Now i have a new problem...

I was using the training blades, that reduces power by 30%, and i was needing all the power, so, i change them to the good o normal blades, and i did a flight to test them, the results were bad, the helicopter was uncontrollable, very unstable and veryyyyyy difficult to hover.

I proceed to balance the blades, i follow the instructions from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMer3jIm9pA

We manage to balance "correctly" the blades, so i proceed to test again.

The same result....

And a curious data about this issue is that the motor and the battery were very hot after the test flights, veryyy hot, and thats very strange, it never happen with the training blades, i presume that the motor is requiring to much current, and the battery is getting hot because of that, so i think something is wrong with my heli, but i don't really know whats the problem...

I know that i have to make a tracking balance of my blades, but i don't really know how to do it...

Anyone has an idea??



In this picture we see a NI acquisition usb card, that helps us to find the spectrum of the frequency, for finding the correct parameters for the digital filter.

In control news, we are currently designing the neurofuzzy control, and it will take a couple of more days, its a easy task, because we have nice knowledge in that subject, ill post somethig about that later.

But im very stress because i cant make flight tests!!! hahahaha

Thanks!!

Cheers!!!
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Complementary filter demo

Posted by Roy Brewer on February 16, 2010 at 9:30am




This is a demonstration of complementary filters on pitch and roll attitude using 3gyroscopes and 3 accelerometers running on a custom Quadrotor controller board. Filters are coded in Python on the laptop with VPython rendering of spinning 3D cubes. Sensor processing code is running on the ATMega644p-based controller and is written in C. For Python code, see: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpo... For details on the custom Quadrotor sensor board, look here: http://sites.google.com/site/pushpakq...

I know its not as impressive as DCM, but you have to start somewhere :-)

(Inspired by Brian Wolfe's demo- http://www.diydrones.com/video/pic32-autopilot-attitude)

- Roy
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1$ CompuFly USBtoPPM convertor for Developers

Posted by Melih Karakelle on February 16, 2010 at 9:08am
Hi Guys,

I have 5 unit CompuFly for the developers who canpromise to write opensource control software.

My first post was here: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/usbtoppm-generator-for-pc

Price is only 1$ for developers :)


56-205-large.jpg

If you have programming skills (VB, Delphi or C) and you will share your software codes with everyone, this products for you.
Buy it from Here: http://www.flytron.com/56-compufly-u...converter.html

Shipping is $3.5, total price is $4.5

I'm already writing my own software with PC based headtracker and
DirectX Joystick control.
The CompuFly will on stocks for everyone after i finished my default
software.


This is my software test video:



To Developers,
* CompuFly coming with Futaba Square Plug, this deal only for Futaba
users!
* Sample Delphi sourcecode here: http://www.flytron.com/pdf/compufly_sample.zip
* Protocol very simple:
to setting the output channel count:
'SET'+chr(11)+chr(0)+chr(channel_count)

to setting a servo position:
'SET'+chr(channel_number)+chr(high_byte_of_micro_s
econds)+chr(low_byte_of_micro_seconds)

Who is the first?





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Unlicensed Police Drone Grounded

Posted by Sentinel on February 16, 2010 at 7:47am

_47280147_42958475.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8517726.stm

Unlicensed Merseyside Police drone grounded

Police on Merseyside have had to ground their new drone over concerns it was being used illegally without a licence.

Merseyside Police said they had been unaware they needed a licence to fly the £40,000 remote control helicopter fitted with a CCTV.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it needed to be consulted over any use of the drones, that can fly up to 400ft and reach speeds of 30mph.

The force's new drone was used last week to catch a car thief in thick fog.

All unmanned aircraft, not just ones that weigh 15lb (7kg) or more, now have to be licensed to conduct aerial surveillance work after the law changed at the start of the year.

They need CAA permission to fly within 164ft (50m) of people and within 492ft (150m) of buildings.

The CAA said any breach in regulations, which came into force on 1 January 2010, would be "treated seriously".

Bit ironic if you ask me. Its a wonder that NO ONE in their UAS team were aware of the regs?

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Moderator

RC Flight Stabilization and RTH system.

Posted by Robert Krogh (hooks) on February 16, 2010 at 4:03am

Flight Stabilization integrates the tree-axis gyroscope, thee axis acceleration, which make up a basic platform inertial navigation system.

I found this new Thai maybe China Product. Maybe it could have some interest for some in here.

The manual can be found here

I don't know anything about Price.

Maybe someone in here know more about the product.

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Developer

Converting Telemetry for Analysis in Google Earth

Posted by Pete Hollands on February 16, 2010 at 2:30am
Two short videos showing how to analyse telemetry in Google Earth.
I use a python script called uav_log_to_kml.py, which is still fairly rough around the
edges (alpha quality), but is useful. In part 1 I show how to use the script to create a
spreadsheet and Google Earth KMZ File. In part 2, we explore the telemetry in Google Earth.

Converting Telmetry for Google Earth Analysis - Part 1

from Pete Hollands on Vimeo.


Converting Telmetry for Google Earth Analysis - Part 2

from Pete Hollands on Vimeo.


If you are a budding Python programmer, and you also know (or want to know) about KML,
then please feel free to modify the program. Stay in touch.

Further information about this project ....
Photos relating to the UAV Devboard are here.
Photos of the re-build of my Twinstar 2 and incorporation of the UAV Devboard are here.

Happy flying, Pete
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Podcast Episode 16 - David Ankers and Angus Peart launch OpenPilot

Posted by Tim Trueman on February 15, 2010 at 8:30pm
iTunes linksAAC: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330632997MP3: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330633212RSS feedAAC: http://feeds.feedburner.com/diydronesMP3: http://feeds.feedburner.com/diydronesmp3Openpilot website: http://openpilot.orgDavid Ankers: http://diydrones.com/profile/dankersAngus Peart: http://diydrones.com/profile/AngusPeart
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Razor 9DOF HP filter removal (original 16MHz version)

Posted by Mark Whitehorn on February 15, 2010 at 7:00pm

For those with the 16HMz AT328P version of the SparkFun Razor9DOF board who also want to run the DCM based AHRS code, this may be of interest.

First read Jordi's post for the ArduIMU and Razor6DOF boards:

To remove the 3 highpass filters from the original 9DOF board, C1,C2 and C19 are removed and replaced with shunts (or just shorted). R5,R8 and R16 are also removed. Photo below shows board after modification with capacitor locations marked "J" and resistor locations marked "X".



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3D Robotics

Moving DIY Drones documentation to Google Code Wikis

Posted by Chris Anderson on February 15, 2010 at 12:30pm


Following the great example of the UAVDevBoard team, who have excellent documentation on their Google Code wiki, we'll be moving all the DIY Drones product documentation to Google Code wikis for each product.


The first product to move is ArduStation, which has now fully moved to the Wiki. ArduPilot 2.5 is in progress. ArduIMU+, Blimpduino, the LabView GCS and other projects will all move over the next few week.


One of the great things about moving to a wiki is that anyone can contribute to make it better. Right now that's just for project contributors, but we'll be opening them up to all soon.

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Developer

Paparazzi for Linux: A Beagleboard based Autopilot System

Posted by Pat Hickey on February 15, 2010 at 7:58am

Hi all - There have been a lot of great microcontroller-based autopilot projects posted here lately. For our entry into the AUVSI UAS competition, we wanted to build an autopilot system with plenty of power for developing our imaging system. We also wanted to use the excellent Paparazzi ground station. The result was to port the Paparazzi autopilot software to run on Linux, and use a 3.5" single board computer onboard.


The result is a bit bigger and heavier than microcontroller based autopilots, like the Paparazzi Tiny v2 and the Ardupilot. We're using a hand-me-down .60 size trainer for our flight tests, and are moving up to a 10ft wingspan, 25lb plane when we add our imaging system. More news on that system to come in the next few weeks.


Please check out the project website: http://moreproductive.org/autopilot/


- Pat Hickey, Rutgers Autonomous Aircraft Team

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HobbyKing headtracker

Posted by CrashingDutchman on February 15, 2010 at 12:00am
Hobbyking has come out with their, as far as I know, first headtracker. Or, as they call it, the 'Advanced Head-Movement-Tracker Gyro'. Price is US$ 54.95.

XGY1000%282%29.jpg


There is detailed information on the website, I only post some of the specifications here.
Power: 8V to 12V DC power supply. Some
transmitters, especially those FUTABA ones, can supply power directly by trainer
connector. (ex. T9Z, FF9C). Some transmitters cannot supply power to X-GYRO, for
example 14MZ and 12FG. The simplest solution is to use an extra battery forthose RC transmitters. The connector is already included in package.
Size: 25mmX35mm
Weight:20g
Range for measuring: +-90 degree/second rotational speed movement.

There is a thread about this item on rcgroups.com

Edit: A review by BlueAngel2000 of this product can be found in this thread.
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Introducing OpenPilot

Posted by Angus Peart on February 14, 2010 at 11:03pm

openpilot_logo.png

Introducing OpenPilot - Open Source UAV Platform

OpenPilot is a next generation Free Software autopilot for small UAVs, including multi-rotor craft, helicopters as well as fixed wing aircraft. It aims to takes the best features of all current enthusiast autopilot systems and combines them into a simple easy to use package. Simplicity does not come with any compromises either, with no hard-coded settings, a complete flight plan scripting language and other next-generation features, OpenPilot is planned to be an extremely capable UAV platform.

400px-OP-Front.jpg

Key Features:

  • Fully Open Source Free Software
  • Custom built powerful hardware using High Density STM32
  • 8 RC Channel Inputs for PPM (No converter needed)
  • 8 Servo Outputs using standard servo connectors
  • I2C, CAN & PWM ESC Support
  • Micro SDCard for settings and logging
  • State of the art AHRS
  • Implements the open UAVTalk Protocol for GCS compatibility
  • Cross Platform Ground Control Station & Set-up tools
  • Cross Platform Firmware Development

OpenPilot is a Open Source community project and there are many ways you can get involved.

For developers the project has two sub-projects, you can get involved in the Flight Software Development which is the embedded firmware written in C or with the Ground Control Software Development which is written in C++ using the Qt application framework.

Links:

OpenPilot Wiki

OpenPilot Forums

OpenPilot Store

IRC:

There's always developers in the OpenPilot IRC channel which is #openpilot on freenode.

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3D Robotics

DIYDrones Podcast/Livechat with Angus Peart tonight at 9:00 PM PST

Posted by Chris Anderson on February 14, 2010 at 6:43pm
Free video streaming by Ustream

Tonight we'll do podcast #16, which everyone here is welcome to participate in by listening to the chat live above and commenting and asking questions via the DIY Drones chat function. We'll be starting at 9:00 PM PST and will probably go about 40 minutes.

This week we'll by joined by Angus Peart, who is about to release a very exciting new product that he's hinted about here. I can't tell you more than that, but this is one not to miss.

As always you can subscribe to the podcast here. Tonight's livecast will be recorded and available as a podcast by Tues of the next week.
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Developer

Ardupilot testing

Posted by Jason Short on February 13, 2010 at 3:23pm
Hi all,

Testing Ardupilot 2.5 from Jason Short on Vimeo.



Here's a video of testing today. I had a flawless run of the T3 round two course. Everything was looking good. I'll post the code today on the repository.

Some flight notes. I completely remove the I term (by setting it to zero) for Roll and Pitch which helped tremendously. I went from highly unstable turns to nice smooth ones.

Altitude hold seems to have a slight oscillation for me. You can here the motor go up and down as the plane pitches up and down slightly. Any thoughts for dampening this out?

I reduced the loiter radius to 20 meters which the plane doesn't like. It tends to do figure eights around the home position. I'll increase that to 30 next time.

I'll post the code tonight.
Jason
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