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3D Robotics

DIY Drones authoring tools upgrade to rich text entry

Posted by Chris Anderson on February 4, 2010 at 9:30pm

If you're posting a blog post you'll note that the formatting tools are now much more powerful, allowing for WYSIWYG text and photo entry. No excuse for not having photos, videos and other eye candy! (Seriously, it's a very good idea to start your post with a relevent photo, which hugely increases click-through rates).


The same rich text authoring tools are available in the discussion forum.


This is a good moment to remind everyone about the difference between blog posts and discussion forum posts. Blogs are for information of broad community interest. The discussion forum is for questions, calls for help and n00b whimpers. The blogs are moderated, and we'll delete posts that are not appropriate before they're published. The discussion forum is not moderated before publication, but we may nuke spam or wildly off-topic posts if they show up.

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Acromaster as UAVDevBoard platform

Posted by Riccardo Kuebler on February 4, 2010 at 11:30am
Hi,

here are some experiences with Bill Premerlani amazing UAVDevBoard on a Multiplex Acromaster.




Here is a video that shows the impressive ability of this device with Ben Levitt pattern stabilization firmware:

UAVDevBoard stabilized Acromaster from Riccardo Kuebler on Vimeo.



The plane, base components:

Acromaster with Apache 30/14T AR
ESC Castle Creation Phoenix 45
Lipo 4S 3600mAh
Propeller APC 12x6
Servos 4x Hitec HS81MG
ACT S3D 2.4GHz 4+2 RC rx

IMU upgrade:

UAVDevBoard
Oilpan
Ublox
Xbee Pro
A123 2S 1300mAh

Here is the options.h file with my actual settings:

options.h

Here is a spreadsheet with the commented history of the settings:

Logbook Acromaster.xls

This is a great work from all the developers and programmers (hardware: Bill Premerlani, Tom Posey; firmware:Bill Premerlani, Adam Barrow, Adam Bellchambers, Pete Holland, Ben Levitt; Aerobatics stabilization firmware: Ben Levitt; and all the fantastic rest of the team).

Best regards,

Ric

1st edit 7.2.10:
link added for autopilot devices, video embedded
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Project Andromeda update - CNC Machine and sponsors

Posted by Nima K on February 4, 2010 at 12:45am

We have been working very hard on the CNC machine and it's almost finished. The machine will form a vital part of our arsenal leading up to the competition. We will use it to create our launch/arrestor systems and also the molds for the airframe.It is in working condition at the moment but we just need to clean it up. The spindle needs liquid cooling so we've been busy trying to sort out an adequate pump and reservoir to facilitate that.Another urgent matter is end switches. We had a close call the other day where due to various unforeseen reasons the Y axis slammed itself into the X axis. This was during testing so we weren't actually machining anything but it was very scary nevertheless. I didn't realize how quickly the axes could move if uncontrolled. Owing to this incident, I also ordered a nice perspex shield to place in the gap below the X axis in case we break some milling bits. We are definitely not turning it on until we've got all these precautions in place.In other news. Project Andromeda has its first sponsor! Advanced Circuits from Colorado, USA have generously sponsored us and are going to make the PCBs for our autopilot. We have been with those guys from the beginning and the experience has been great.There is a full article on the CNC machine on the Project Andromeda Blog if anyone is interested in further reading. There are also some more pictures in the gallery.
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Seattle Space Needle scale-model "Airframe" & Quad-Rotor Helicopter "Powerplant" 'makes it so'.

Posted by Gary Thomas on February 3, 2010 at 11:42pm
That Post Title's pretty much it in a vital new treasure-chestnut shell .....Imagine/Visualize:[Top portion of] Seattle Space Needle "Airframe" in scale-model formNew extended range fuel cell, liquid hydrogen and 4-electric quad-motor "Powerplant" is in the middle of ....That is allJack Frost Nippin' @ Your LH & LOX Nose ...Help me honor the memory of our 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who was very much alive & well in 1962 when the Space Needle Building was first dedicated at the '62 Worlds Fair.Space Needle Quad-Rotor R & D Club now forming! Call now. Help me verify that my new phone # is on:Try( 3 0 4 ) 8 6 0 - 8 5 4 2. Anytime 24/7P.S. - I'm about 5 hours freeway distance from Washington D.C. Let's say we go lobby the coal state U.S. Senator R.C. Byrd !WaHooo!
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Its Alive!!

Posted by David Ankers on February 3, 2010 at 5:30pm
There will be a load more talk about this project right here on the DiyDrones Podcast on the Feb 14th. This code was working a while back but we finally got around to making a video.The hardware has changed a little bit since then but only to expand the power options and a couple more features, 8 servo inputs, 8 Servo outputs, SDCard, USB and lots more. Its a totally community driven project, the hardware will be cheap (revolutionary cheap) because we are doing this for fun, it is very high quality and very powerful. This tiny 4-layer board is awesome and the AHRS is out of this world.
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3D Robotics

Arduino grows up--multithreading and an OS

Posted by Chris Anderson on February 3, 2010 at 1:53pm

Arduino's extraordinary popularity has made it the focus of innovation for hardware and sofware hackers everywhere. The result is that they're wringing a suprising amount of performance out of a 16 MIPS chip:. Here are two recent advances: --"Easy multithreading on Arduino with Concurrency Enjoy programming microcontrollers, but frustrated about how difficult it can be to get them to do more than one thing at a time? Well, then you might be interested in Concurrency, an open source programming language and environment specifically designed with multithreading in mind. That means you can write programs that do multiple things at the same time, without interfering with each other. Of course, you could achieve the same things using a stock Arduino with some crafty coding or timer interrupts, however using a purpose-built language such as this could be a great way to get your feet wet in threaded computing. Check out their website for source code and Creative Commons-licensed tutorials!" [From Makezine] --An Arduino Operating System "Pyxis OS is an operating system developed for the Arduino. It has been designed to allow Arduino users a greater level of freedom and capability than they currently have. Chief among Pyxis' list of features is its built-in ability to run compiled programs directly from a microSD card. Pyxis can switch between these programs and run as many as you can fit on your card. The Pyxis programming language not only allows you to take advantage of many of the commands you're used to when developing for a standard Arduino (such as pinMode, digitalRead/Write, analogRead/Write, delay and more) but also expands on them with built-in LCD functions (such as drawLine, fillEllipse, etc). In addition to using the Pyxis programming language you can access, modify and control the Pyxis OS directly from the Arduino environment. Libraries give you access to powerful abilities that are simply not available without Pyxis. For example, create a Textbox, Button, Progressbar, Combobox, or Checkbox in a single line of code and let Pyxis do all the work of tracking the object and updating the screen for you!"
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Podcast Episode 15 - Tom Pycke and Gluonpilot

Posted by Tim Trueman on February 2, 2010 at 4:03pm
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/diydronesmp3Gluonpilot website: http://gluonpilot.comArduPilot 2.5 testing photo set (referenced by an audience question): http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttrueman/sets/72157623199524559/show/Sorry about the late post, I was very sick last night.
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Under Wing Pan/Tilt

Posted by Mike W on February 1, 2010 at 1:00pm
Mounted the ServoCity.com SPT50 Sub-Micro Pan & Tilt with two Hitec HS-55 servos and a SuperCircuits.com board camera (one of their inexpensive B/W models) to the underside of the Easy Star wing, directly under the wing spar in the removable block of foam. The camera is secured using hot glue which does a surprisingly fine job of holding it in there, yet making removable possible without lasting effects to the board or pan/tilt mounting plate. Also, I'm using Servo Stretchers (also from Servocity.com) to adjust the limits and extend the travel of the servos.Could improve the design by using shorter servos (so the camera is closer to the wing), and by covering the camera board but remember not to add too much weight. I didn't find it difficult to balance out the wings with the added weight on the left wing, but I can only imagine how an unbalanced plane would do if you got it up in the air.Cost:$19.99 SPT50 Sub-Micro Pan & Tilt2x $13.99 HS-55 Sub-Micro ServoOptional: 2x $19.99 180* Servo StretcherTotal: $88 w/ Servo Stretchers, $48 without.Enjoy!-Mike W
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Developer

Ardupilot 2.5 Release Candidate

Posted by Jason Short on January 31, 2010 at 9:30pm
I was finally able to test 2.5 over the weekend and added a few tweaks to the code.
Here's what I hope is the final release.

As the new Manual gets formatted, you can view it at: http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/wiki/ArduPilot25
Until the content is finally moved over the 2.4 manual is still a great resource.

Ardupilot_25_RC2.zip

Bonus - If you look check out the Waypoint_writer_25.pde file in the test suite, you can upload relative waypoints. This isn't supported in the config tool yet.

Jason


UPDATE -
A lot of people were having trouble with the GPS code and LEDs. I reworked the GPS parsers today to iron out some things. They were nothing that would interfere with flight, but I highly recommend using this new version. I've also added the ability to scale down your plane's roll based on airspeed. This should help planes that turn faster when they go slower. We may tweak this a bit in the future, so I'm looking for feedback on it. Note you can always turn it off in your header file with this line:
//6-4
#define AIRSPEED_TURN_P 1
see the header file for more instructions


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3D Robotics

DIY Drones live chat/podcast with Tom Pycke tonight at 10:30pm PST

Posted by Chris Anderson on January 31, 2010 at 10:10am
Free video streaming by Ustream Tonight we'll do podcast #15, 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 10:30 PM PST (late hour to accommodate a European guest) and will probably go about 40 minutes. This week we'll by joined by Tom Pycke, the Belgian inventor of Gluonpilot, a very cool IMU-based open source autopilot that should be available in the next few months. We've written about it here and here. Tom's one of the smartest people we know on autopilot technology, and we've learned a ton from his his postings and progress in the past. Now he's going to release something we can all use. Tune in to hear more about it! As always you can subscribe to the podcast here. Tonight's livecast will be recorded and available as a podcast on Monday.
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A nice home-made UAV on the way

Posted by FPVaddict on January 31, 2010 at 9:30am
Hello everybody,congrats from a newbie on this superb website.For those interested in home-made UAVs, I am creating something similar to the Shadow 200.

This is the project :

And this is the current status:

For more information and lots of pictures, check my (french) blog http://oeilvolant.blogspot.com/.I hope it will provide you with some ideas.Critics welcome.Bye,clear skiesMichel
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3D Robotics

Turning optocouplers into servo amplifiers

Posted by Chris Anderson on January 29, 2010 at 11:30pm

If you're using the UAV DevBoard with Futaba equipment or any other modern RC gear that outputs servo voltage of less than 3v, you're going to need a servo amplifier (also known as a booster or buffer) so the autopilot can reliably read your signals. You can buy one from a commercial supplier like FMA for $15, or you can use our dual optocoupler and save yourself $10 for each pair of servos you amplify. Out of the box, our optocouplers are designed just to clean up the RC signal, which is handy if you've got RF noise messing with your RC system. But if you solder two rails on the board (shown below), they become a very effective two-channel servo amplifier.

Make sure that the "input" side goes to the RC receiver and the "output" side goes to the servos or UAV DevBoard, like this (servo option shown):

When you're done, the servo amplifiers will take any input voltage and output a healthy 4.8v. Here's my scope data, from a Futaba FASST 2.4 Ghz system. Before amplification:

After amplification:

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Moderator

Septentrio to Release the AsteRx3 Compact GPS/GLONASS/Galileo Receiver

Posted by Gary Mortimer on January 29, 2010 at 10:00pm
What GPS lock problem..... AsteRx3-OEM-W.pngSeptentrio will start shipping its new AsteRx3 receiver in the first quarter of 2010. The AsteRx3 is, a compact multi-frequency GPS/GLONASS/Galileo, and Compass-ready receiver designed for integration in demanding precision positioning, navigation, and automation applications such as land and maritime survey, machine control, UAV payloads, and others.Providing simultaneous access to legacy and modernized GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo signals on L1, L2, L5, E5a, E5b, and E5 AltBOC, AsteRx3 is a compact and future-proof original equipment manufacture (OEM) receiver on the market, the company said. The receiver has a range of features, collectively known as GNSS+ . ATrack+, Septentrio’s patented Galileo AltBOC tracking, provides low noise tracking and multipath resistance for Galileo’s most advanced signal. LOCK+ tracking guarantees tracking stability under high vibration conditions.The advanced multipath mitigation algorithm APME has been extended for use with the modernized signals, and provides multipath mitigation especially for the predominant and harmful short-delay multipath. AIM+, Septentrio’s Advanced Interference Mitigation technology, protects receivers against in-band interference, and allows users to identify the interference in a “spectrum plot” view. These innovative tracking algorithms are complemented with RTK+ for extended RTK baselines over 50 kilometers as well as faster initialization.“With the evolution of GNSS systems, more and more users demand the possibility to prepare for the benefits these new signals and systems bring,” said Peter Grognard, managing director of Septentrio. “AsteRx3 exploits the capabilities of these signals with our latest ASIC technology. As AsteRx3 is one hundred percent plug-compatible with AsteRx2 and AsteRx2e, the AsteRx family is ideal for system integrators to build solutions which perform optimally with signals available today, which can be migrated to new signals and systems seamlessly tomorrow.”http://www.gpsworld.com/professional-oem/news/septentrio-release-asterx3-compact-gpsglonassgalileo-receiver-9467
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3D Robotics

"Living With Robots", an excellent 8 min documentary from Honda

Posted by Chris Anderson on January 29, 2010 at 1:58pm
From BotJunkie: "Honda was also at Sundance to screen a wonderful 8 minute documentary called Living With Robots, which is totally worth watching simply because of how well it sums up so many of the issues relevant to robotics today and in the near future: Honda’s got it exactly right: the biggest hurdle to overcome when it comes to the future of robotics is not technical,but rather an issue of public perception. At the end of the video, Mark Rowlands says “whatever robots turn out to be, will largely be a function of us, and the decisions we make.” This is an excellent point… If we have concerns about robots, it’s important to acknowledge that those concerns generally can’t, by definition, be about the robots themselves. Rather, we must understand that robots are a reflection, or perhaps more accurately a physical embodiment, of human desire, and it’s those desires and how we act on them that need to be examined. So if there are issues surrounding things like, oh, I don’t know, military robots, we need to recognize that military robots only exist because of human conflict. They’re not terminators, they’re not out to get us, they’re there because we made them and decided that they were important and necessary. This doesn’t answer the question of whether they’re a good idea or a bad idea, but the point is that you can’t look at robots as something separate from the human experience."
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THIS WEEK IN AEROSPACE

Posted by Jack Crossfire on January 29, 2010 at 10:30am
A MATERIAL THAT BONDS TO PLASTICAfter years of JB Weld, Cyanoacrylate, & epoxy failures, someone in China finally invented a material that bonds to plastic: SHAPELOCK You might even bypass the shipping costs by driving to Sunnyvale & getting it from this guy's house.http://shapelock.com/Heat it to 150F & it permanently sticks to plastic, allowing repairs to ever broken T-Rex landing gear. It can also be hand molded into arbitrary shapes. Skip the makerbot & use Shapelock to make camera mounts, sensor mounts, antenna mounts, battery holders, carbon fiber joints, fuselage brackets, servo mounts, maybe even motor mounts.Apparently it's equivalent to teflon & can be drilled & tapped. Our main use would be carbon fiber joints & propeller guards.PROPELLER SURGERY

Grinding the 3x2's down to 2.5x2's got them to last 20 minutes instead of 10 before breaking. 3x3's ground to 2.5x3's haven't broken after 30 minutes. The 2S 800mAh battery has a 10min flight time. Got used to the power management to the point where she feels like a slowly responsive copter. Unlike a normal copter, release cyclic & she sort of stabilizes in a hover.She's extremely unstable dynamically. Throttle derived attitude control doesn't seem enough for any tight position hold. She's not likely to stay inside the sonar radius on autopilot. May just put a uBlox on her & retire her.An RPM governer would be nice. Tried a simple PID loop & realized the RPM is too slow & requires too much variation to get very far. An RPM governor works best for constant, fast RPM.Got some long exposures showing position changes in no wind.

SONAR DISASTERSHaving sonar & telemetry on separate boards ended up busted. Sonar can't use laptop beacons for synchronization if the sonar & radio ground stations are on separate boards.Tried using the laptop clock but there's too much latency. The idea with clock synchronization is to broadcast a beacon from the laptop to every microprocessor to get the clock differences.With that, the Marcy 1 ground station was triple busted & we had a joyous time reverting hardware to Vika 1. It would have been better to give the Marcy 1 radio its own microprocessor & have it communicate over UART with the Vika 1 ground station.Fortunately synchronization with Marcy 1 radios works much better than XBees. The XBees added random latency.Properly calibrated sonar gives decent results.

After some sonar flight tests.

Nicely bent from water landings.MARCY-1 FIGHTS THE WINDGot some progress against wind by reducing RPM to get more horizontal thrust. Minimizing RPM gives more horizontal force at the expense of instability. Unfortunately the radio connections are real lousy & lost contact in the end. Not sure if it's having telemetry & remote control on 900Mhz or the use of dipole antennas.THROTTLE INDUCED BANKThis one shows changes in angle of attack caused by Marcy 1's throttle modulation algorithm. Not much bank because she's bolted on a test stand & also because throttle modulation doesn't cause much banking.The magnetometer derived azimuth is sloppy but flyable. The problem is modulating throttle to bank changes the RPM.Now some long exposures showing the extent of throttle induced banking.

Getting clearer that the single PWM monocopter is a lousy indoor sonar demo because of the rotor diameter & the instability required for single PWM control. A large GPS guided monocopter which spins just fast enough to stabilize pitch yet maximize horizontal thrust might work outside.

Went through many ideas for Marcy 2. A partially fabricated single fan with servo controlled vanes was busted on efficiency. A large monocopter that converts into a flying wing was busted because the CG has to change. Steve Morris did that with a clumsy tractor mechanism. Transforming aircraft certainly aren't new.A compact tri rotor using Vika 2 parts is gaining popularity for Marcy 2.M.M.M.Made a slideshow of our early flying photos with real Major Marcy Music. Apparently 1 other human in the world used Major Marcy as a username on a music service so how could we resist making a video. Maybe it was a Jack Crossfire reader.
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Developer

a 3d printed object in metal!

Posted by Randy on January 28, 2010 at 5:02am
Over the christmas holidays I got fired-up by Chris's posts on the makerbot...I didn't got out and buy one but I did give google sketchup and shapeways (www.shapeways.com) a try and designed this very complex (sarcasm) brace: http://www.shapeways.com/model/77738/simplereinforcement12.html.And then it arrived in the mail today and looks just it should. So here's a picture of it on it's own, and then with it's twin brother on my helicopter. Of course, did the heli really need it? Probably not..but it was fun making it anyway.You'll notce it's slightly bumpy but besides that it feels like normal stainless steel to me. It cost $25 including the shipping but it took almost a month to reach me here in tokyo.

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