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UAV pilots course. Popular Science reports.

predator-sensorball.jpg

A dozen aspiring pilots at the University of North Dakota can't wait to never get off the ground. Following a shifting military strategy that calls for more and more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) supporting troops on the ground, U. of ND is offering the first four-year degree for UAV pilots hoping to take the sticks in a field expected to swell to a $20 billion industry over the next decade.http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/u-north-dakota-offers-first-four-year-degree-uav-pilotingHow does it affect you at DIYdrones I wonder????Well it means the FAA will have a civilian qualification to ask for when you ask to fly commercially in the future perhaps? Europe is beginning to slowly pull ahead in allowing commercial UAS in regulated airspace, not far not high at the moment, but its starting.Airlaw changed in the UK in December and no doubt similar things are happening in other parts of the EU.I was thinking about adding a post about SOP's we are currently writing ours for UK and RSA, should DIYdrones Ardupilot users not have standard operating procedures that follow good practice and encourage safety??
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3D Robotics

Here's an interesting lifting body design for a MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) by Theiss Aviation. Its autopilot uses thermopiles, so you won't be using it indoors. From Robot Living: "The new model TIC costs around $6,000 and can potentially be launched from the trunk of a car. It contains chemical as well as biological sensors and could also be outfitted with a small color camera. These vehicles are designed to fly in ventilation shafts, tunnels, small quarters and even dense woods. Using a 72 MHz radio, the TIC has a range of 1.5 miles and can be run in basic radio controlled mode, auto assist mode or completely autonomously. Theiss Aviation is now seeking to sell these aircraft to police departments, search and rescue crews or other emergency personnel. Unfortunately the FAA seeks to treat these tiny craft just like regular planes. The owners of a TIC must register the aircraft with the FAA and give 60 days notice of flight plans to the FAA." Here's more about Shawn Theiss, from Fortune Small Business, discussing the regulatory problems for UAV entrepreneurs. We should have him on as a podcast guest! From FSB: "Here's what every TIC owner must do to be certified: submit detailed drawings of every part of the plane, wait three months, answer any FAA questions, then wait another month for a registry number. Finally, the tiny drone must be cleared to leave the ground by FAA officials every time it flies. For drones, most flight plans must be filed 60 days ahead of time. "The size of the unmanned air system doesn't matter," says Alison Duquette, an FAA spokesperson. "Any size could pose a danger to private or commercial planes." Also, officials point out, the TIC is too small to be tracked via radar. Critics argue that the agency is being squeamish about a technology that would help public safety more than harm it. "Small unmanned planes are not rocket science," says Dave Nestic, entrepreneur in residence at JumpStart TechLift Advisors, a Cleveland incubator that studies the propulsion market. Theiss, stymied in his bid to sell to anyone but the military, is still fuming. The FAA is "not aviation-minded," he says. "It's regulation-minded."
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Hi Guys,I just finished this new IMU. :DIt is a new year gift for myself and i will use it on the project of my univercity(analysing the forces on the automobile chassis).img_0221.jpgIt's including LPR530AL(pitch and roll) , LY530ALH(yaw) gyroscopes and MMA7260QT triple axis accelerometer with analog output.This IMU's name IMUnext and i designed a controller board too that called IMUcon. I will test it in first days of 2010 and i'm plannning to using it for Airplane, Helicopter,Quadrocopter and camera mount stabilisation.img_0210.jpgIf you planning to design your own motion control system, please contact with me on this thread.Product link is: http://www.flytron.com/50-imunext-6-degrees-of-freedom-imu.htmlThanks for readingMelih
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Hi Everyone,This is last project of this year :DI designed USB to PPM generator, this device generating PPM signals like TrainerBox for your Transmitter.This mean, you can fly with your PC joystick or your own software based autopilot(if you can develope your software)This is my test joystickimg_0236.jpgThis is USB PPM generator device's insideimg_0237.jpgThis is genrated 9 channel positive PPM signal(it can generate negative also)img_0238.jpgAnd this is finished product's outside. It is similar size with USB stick and including 1.5 meter cable for your transmitter. I will sell it with compatible plugs for Futaba,Hitec, Jr, Multiplex, Sanwa, Airtronics, ESky.img_0239.jpgFeatures;
  • DirectX Based Joystick interface
  • 9 channel PPM generator with compatible all RC Transmitters
  • Cunfigurable PC based driver software for all joysticks or keyboard features.
  • Point of View stick suport for looking around without headtracker(like simulation games)
  • External plugin support for PC based autopilot applications
  • Compatible with all Windows versions
I'm working on software alreadyThanks for readingMelih
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3D Robotics

I had a great day today testing MatrixNav 2.0 on the UAV DevBoard, and part of the pleasure (along with the excellent performance of the autopilot) was my new cheap EasyStar substitute, the Dynam Hawk Sky. Basically it's an EasyStar clone, but with ailerons (yay!). Even better it comes in a $110 ready-to-fly kit that includes everything. You get the plane with brushless motor, prop, servos and ESC already installed. You also get an 1800mah 11.1v LiPo battery and AC charger. It even comes with a 4-channel RC radio (FM sadly, and since it's just 4 channels, you'll have to replace it with 5 channel or better RC gear to use an autopilot). It would cost you at least $200 to assemble the same around an EasyStar.

Even better, the motor is plenty powerful enough, so you won't have to replace it the way you do with other Chinese RTF kits, which are often underpowered. Like the EasyStar, the Hawk Sky has loads of interior room in the nose, thanks to the elevator and rudder servos being outside under the wing. Below you can see my setup. The RC receiver is in the back of the cockpit, under where my EM406 GPS module is mounted, and the battery is in front. That leaves loads of room for the UAVDevBoard, and you could easily fit a camera in there too.

How does it fly? Pretty well! It's not quite as inherently stable as the EasyStar, which you would expect with an aileron plane, but otherwise it's quite similar in performance. My only complaint is that the motor, on a plastic pylon, is noisy, since the plastic doesn't dampen vibrations the way the foam-mounted EasyStar's motor does. I may end up trying other props to minimize that. The plane is made of EPO foam, not Elapor like the EasyStar, so perhaps it won't handle crashes quite as well. But at this price, that's not much of a concern. Given that I've got two EasyStars, why am I flying the Hawk Sky? Because having ailerons is MUCH better for autopilots, especially IMU-based ones like the UAVDevBoard. If you've been wanting to get an EasyStar but were put off by the price once you added a brushless motor upgrade, or just wanted to upgrade to a plane with ailerons, the Hawk Sky is very worth considering. It's got all the anytime-anywhere appeal of the EZ, handling any kind of terrain with its hand launches and short belly landings. And because it comes already assembled with everything you need, it's faster to get into the air. Highly recommended! BTW, we've discussed the plane before on DIY Drones here.
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Developer

JR/Spektrum 9Ch for only $249 dlls?!

If you want the most reliable technology with the possibility to add a 2.4Ghz signal booster for long distance missions well... That will cost you around $600 dlls plus shipping and tax!! (without the booster). But.. You can get the same by buying this Turnigy 2.4Ghz that is COMPATIBLE WITH JR MODULES for $69.99. Yes that right! You can just buy the Spektrum module for JR and you are done! You will have 9CH plus the possibility to mod it for long distance range and the best 2.4Ghz technology on the market .If you only need 7CH just buy the Spektrum version that includes the 7CH receiver (cheaper), all for just $179 dlls.Also exist many other super cheap options for the 2.4Ghz (you only care about the wireless technology no the radio itself, the transmitter box is just a bunch of potentiometers and switches converted to PPM, except in helis) just to mention some other cheap options like the Corona 2.4Ghz with 8Ch's or the X8. In both scenarios you can still plug the booster.Important Note: Spektrum and JR are the same company, you can use Spektrum receivers with the JR 2.4Ghz transmitters and vise versa. I heard that Spektrum is just the test bed for new technology's (like 2.4Ghz they were the firsts), when the product or technology become really mature they switch it to JR brand.
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3D Robotics

Jordi spent the holiday well, laying out the physical ArduPilot Mega board. The last bit of this process is the routing of the traces, which will ultimately determine the size of the board. In the picture above, you can see the progression as the board gets smaller and smaller through each revision, finally ending up with the release candidate ("RC"), shown next to the current ArduPilot. It's surprisingly small, despite us using a much larger core processor with twice as many pins as the current Atmega328. The main chips you can see in the board printot are the Atmega1280 (main processor), an Atmega168 for the PPM conversion/failsafe, and a multiplexer chip (failsafe). You may not have realized it, but you've been watching much of the ArduPilot Mega development already: The IMU, which is modular and will plug on to the top of this board, is functionally the same as the current ArduIMU+ and will use the same code. If you already have an ArduIMU, we will release an adapter board that will allow you to use it so you don't have to buy another one. But the custom ArduPilot Mega IMU will also have a differential pressure sensor (airspeed) and an onboard FTDI chip and USB port so ArduPilot Mega will have native USB support (hurray!). If you're not using the custom IMU board, you'll be able to program ArduPilot Mega through the usual FTDI cable, like regular ArduPilot. The core ArduPilot Mega code will be built on the current ArduPilot 2.5, but with extensions for the new functionality that comes with 2-way communications, more memory and eight channel control. We'll also be adding more powerful mission scripting and event triggers, now that we have so many spare I/O pins and channels. The PPM/failsafe circuit is based on our current 8ch PPM board. The result of all this parallel development is that ArduPilot Mega will move pretty quickly now that we have a release candidate board, since so much of the tricky stuff like the IMU is already done, tested and mature. I'd predict a release in March or April. FYI, the board is also build for expansion, and one of the four serial ports will be available to expansion boards, as will several I2C/SPI pins. So, for example, adding magnetometer, absolute pressure sensors (altitude), or ultrasonic sensors could be an option.
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T3

UAV flight: New Year's Day 2010 Wrocław, Poland from Krzysztof Bosak on Vimeo.

New Year's Day seen from above.Unfortunately very dense fog, flight altitude 150m at the edge of visibility.Fully automatic amateur UAV custom-equipped with all necessary protections like automatic parachute etc.Total flight time around 30min.Due to very bad visibility had to tilt the camera down,causing missing most of the fireworks (they were all around), but thanks to look-down setup at least something was visible on the ground.Of course Sony Webbie is light but not a pro solution for shooting at midnight at 150m distances in dense fog.The colours are real, most of the city lighting is reddish.Temperature was around 0C, occasional freezing droplets of rain with snow (another reason to tilt the camera down, it landed with thin, shiny layer of ice on the wings).
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EZ* fly in May 14-17 2010

A lot of people on the EZ* forums are coming to my fly-in here in NM on May 14-17.I would like to invite all the DIY Drones to join us as a lot of you use the EZ* as a platform.160 acres, nearest neighbor 2 miles, nearest town 3.5 miles.2 n/s e/w dirt runways with no trees too close. (crop circle runways !)Plenty of RV/Tent space and good hotel/motels in town.Draw X on state of NM and fly-in is at center.For more info, email earl@uphi.netEarl in snowey NM (6" in 2 days)

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THIS WEEK IN MARCY 1 AVIATION

USB WORKS!

After 3 weeks, finally got USB on the 18F14K50 to work. Turns out the load capacitors on the crystal need to be symmetric. Asymmetric traces worked with everything else except USB.Also 4 U assembly language freaks, some of the USB registers are not in the special function register access bank so you need BANKSEL calls.HOME MADE RADIO WORKS!Next came getting the radio to work on flight hardware. It was a hard battle over 6 months but full duplex radio with MRF49XA, USB, & miniaturized Marcy 1 boards finally started working. This is truly a ground station you could put inside a phone. 50Hz & 40kbit each way still appears to be the maximum as with XBee.Be sure to set the analog modes & tristates on all the SPI pins because SPI doesn't even generate interrupts if they're not set properly. Start out at 9600 baud & work up to 86000 from there. The FIFO on the MRF49XA has to be flushed before switching from transmit to receive mode. Switching from transmit to receive required writing an extra PMCREG | 0x0020 not in the reference software.Also, it doesn't byte align so you need to communicate in fixed packet sizes & reset the sync code scanner between packets. This shows how unoptimized XBees are for the sake of convenience. You could do better by skipping byte alignment, packetization & just sending a continuous stream. This would require always keeping the FIFO full.Currently the Marcy 1 radios are running at 86207 bps. The maximum is 344827 bps.HOME MADE RADIO RANGE TESTHow bout a range check for these home made radios?

Ground station & aircraft boards in the field.

Aircraft board hung up for range testing.

Roving ground station.The Marcy 1 radios seem superior to XBee PRO 900's. They fade gradually like 900Mhz yet don't go as far as the XBee PRO 2.4Ghz. Signal is useful up to 600ft but can reach 800ft if the antennas are carefully aimed. 800ft is the limit of the golf course. This is full duplex of course. Suspect range increases as the modulated bitrate decreases.Marcy 3 could easily use a dual frequency, full duplex radio made out of dual MRF49XA's. It would get longer range by resending until bandwidth saturation. A single 18F14K50 can control 2 radio chips.FYI, the MRF49XA is pin compatible with the TRC101 & SI4421. It's a licensed, dirt cheap, standard design.DEATH OF 72MHZThe 72Mhz RC transmitter has a bleak future. A new $20 receiver is required for Marcy 1's ground station before we can even spin up the engine. The antenna is always going to wear out & need replacement. 72Mhz recently dropped out on the golf course.There isn't much advantage to a wireless RC transmitter anymore. A wireless connection for manual flight is fragile & completely useless for indoor vehicles. You can't really move far from the ground station because you need telemetry. A tethered transmitter wouldn't need batteries & recharging. Any commercialization would require a tethered transmitter. Signal quality from a wireless RC transmitter is 1 too many pieces of telemetry.Unfortunately, the money was already spent on more 900Mhz radios & it would take nonexistent money to now go back to a wired RC transmitter.

The answer is no. You can't solder with photoresist still on.

While Marcy 1 waits for 900Mhz ground station radios, Marcy 2 continues fabrication.

The last of the parts packed into the 900Mhz RC transmitter, Marcy 2 flight computer, & RC receiver. Hoping the 900Mhz can function without a balun in receive mode because baluns are a real pain to build & we suspect they reduce range.FINAL THOUGHTS ON 2009It was a tough year like all odd numbered years. While still our hope to someday bring in a real live Air Force heroine to add a little more realism to the Jack Crossfire blog, it doesn't seem likely. Still grateful to have fought back & gotten on better terms with the AF than we were in September.In 2010 we have a breakthrough aerodynamics concept Marcy 1 & a tail sitter Marcy 2 budgeted, assuming the boss gives us any time off.
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Waiting to test new EZSTAR landing code!

Here in Boston, we have snow and wind. Not good for testing landing code. I hope to have some time in a few weeks to test and post the results of my new landing code. The old landing code can be seen in this video. Unfortunately coming in for a single approach like this has the EZ-STAR touching down at 28mph, and taking about 800 feet to land. The new landing code which I flew a few weeks ago does it in 300 feet.The new idea is to circle in a radius of 125 feet, exit the loiter once the plane has descended to roughly 40 feet altitude, deploy flaps, and use throttle to control altitude while holding a fixed angle of attack. This worked 4/5 times for perfect touchdowns at 15 mph!! The 5th time crashed because the battery died unexpectedly. (I ignored the low battery alert so that's my fault.)I know some of you out there argue auto land is a waste of time, but I like the idea of my plane having a failsafe that will take it to the nearest waypoint and land. Imagine what happens if a dog pees on your ground station! Things like this do happen, and autoland will save you.
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3D Robotics

Sparkfun has just released an "9DoF" Razor IMU board ($125) with an Atmega328, three flat gyros, a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis magnetometer (no GPS input). This is basically similar to the ArduIMU+, but designed for indoor use or other places where GPS is not available or desirable. Because the Atmega runs at 16 Mhz, it's Arduino compatible. We've been working with them on this board, and will be converting the ArduIMU+ code to work with it soon; it will be available on the Sparkfun site and here. Stay tuned!
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T3

Testing of the CHR-6D IMU and DCM in a quad-rotor

For those of you that have a CHR-6D IMU, I thought that you might be interested on the testing I have done on a quad-rotor. I basically took the open source software that comes with the IMU and implemented Bill's DCM algorithm on the on-board STM32 MCU. Then I interfaced the IMU with the quad-rotor controller (I had this done a while ago) and was able to have a fairly stable flight. It is not perfect but definitively usable. To reduce the effect of vibration on the sensors I had to encapsulate the board in gel.More information and the DCM source code for the CHR-6D can be found at:http://vrhome.net/vassilis
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Developer

Community Help: Magnetometer Board Design

I have dumb and obvious question (this is the cover my ass step) but i would like to hear the opinion of everybody. I really need it.This is the picture of new magnetometer for ArduIMU V1 and Flat version or any platform. It uses the HMC5843 and i2c translator that make it compatible with 3.3V and 5V uControllers (jumper selectable), that also works as a booster in case you are planing to mount it far, far away from the main board like the tip of your wing (for disturbing magnetic field reasons). It also has build in power regulator (only used in 5V applications) and my new invention: breakaway holes (yellow arrows). Can be also soldered directly to the ArduIMU Flat in case you want an small design. The next picture is an example of the breakaway holes:

The new ArduIMU flat batch will have this breakaway holes too!My PROBLEM is:If you look into the first picture you will see a huge 100uF capacitor (red arrow) next to the magnetometer (blue arrow). Do you think it will have a big impact on the magneto? I know that you have to calibrate the magneto to get it used to the ferro "i don't what" around it, that would be enough?Another angle:Luckily capacitors don't work like inductors LOL.Any help will be much appreciated (PLEASE!!). ;-)
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