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Tomorrow night (Sunday) we'll do our regular podcast, 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.
This week we'll by joined by Gerardo Iglesias from VectorNAV, talking about their $500 VN-100 IMU+AHRS (shown), which is described as the smallest and lightest in the world. Other themes include:
--The latest on the ArduIMU+
--Tim finishes his extended Kalman filter sim code!
--Favorite blogs posts of the week
--And whatever other cool stuff comes up!
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Posted by Tim Trueman on November 7, 2009 at 4:30pm
Here's an example of how to get data from the simulator: http://gist.github.com/228998It has everything you need to treat it as a virtual IMU. This was instrumental in getting my extended Kalman filter running (to be open sourced soonish) and I hope you find it useful too!(I'll do an updated version that shows you how to control the plane in X-Plane from your code.)
I was wondering what kinda of extra instrumentation would be required to use the ArduIMU as the autopilot for an autonomous aerial vehicle. I was also interesed in the benefits of the IMU vs. the thermopile concerning takeoff and landing from water, and if the water would in some way confuse the standard Ardupilot because of the temperature of water vs. that of the ground.
Read more…3D Robotics
Found on Makezine: "Servodatabase.com, which lists RC servo specifications and provides user reviews, a comparison engine, and various forms of sorting."
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THE C328 LIVESAfter 3 weeks of hacking, the C328 started producing decent results. Your main problem if you intend to control it from a computer on the ground, using Xbees, is getting the UART to work reliably. It needs a real clean signal & short cables to work at 115200. Initializing it still takes several power cycles & 20 second delays. Decided 320x240 is the best compromise between resolution & frame rate.We use a microcontroller to generate ACKs locally but generate every other control code from the ground.
Fuggetabout dual 2.4Ghz Xbees for telemetry & video. They interfere even when on different frequencies, spaced 2 ft apart, using wire antennas. You're still stuck with 900Mhz for video. While no radio combination is completely interference free, got good results with 2.4Ghz for autopilot & 900Mhz for C328, even when they're right next to each other.Set the 2.4Ghz for broadcast mode, 0 retries. Set the 900Mhz for addressed mode, 3 retries. We use 2.4Ghz for flight control & 900Mhz for video.Even though the C328 allows video capture, we have never used the captured footage. It just sucks too much. The C328 has a rolling shutter. We use a main camera recording to flash & the C328 as a preview camera.The perpetually out of stock rangevideo.com has drastically reduced the prices of 900Mhz video. If you have the licenses, he ever stocks anything, & you don't mind buying analog video capture hardware, it's now a better deal than a C328 + 900Mhz XBees.Have a tail rotor rebuild.
1st crash damage since becoming Major Marcy enabled was this tail rotor during the roof crash.Took a 400ft timelapse on Halloween while the rest of you were partying.This video shows the key steps in stabilizing.For the timelapses, we use 1 battery to aim with the C328 at 33m. Last month it was 32m. Now it's 33m. Then program the heading into the flight computer & burn another battery to shoot the footage fully autonomous at 120m. Until better radios come along, those 120m flights need to be as autonomous as possible.
In flight preview on the C328.FLIGHT COMPUTER RESETSNext, rediscovered if the servos are not powered & the flight computer generates PWM, the servos may act like short circuits & cause the flight computer to reset. Not an issue on standard autopilots, but VicaCopter has 2 power circuits. 1 circuit powers only the flight computer so U can get GPS locks. Her flight computer doesn't generate servo PWM unless the transmitter is on.PROPELLER CRACKSFinally, discovered cracks in our GWS 12x6's. They were drilled 1 size too small, threaded on the shafts & probably had too much stress. Important safety tip. Drill big enough so they glide on the shafts.
Posted by Jack Elston on November 6, 2009 at 12:35am
Two friends and I created the game of Pac-Man using iRobot Roombas to showcase our Networked Unmanned Aircraft System Software. The project website contains videos, explanations, and all of the code we used:http://pacman.elstonj.com
Posted by Wendi Smol on November 5, 2009 at 5:00pm
Cutting of corner reinforcements. They will be glued into the fuselage to allow the rounded bottom shape without loosing the strength of side and bottom connection.
Start of the inlet duct for the fan.
Inlet duct ready cut.
Trimming of fuselage front with hot wire. If the temperature of the wire is high enough it cuts through the PU glue without too much of a hitch.
First try to shape the fuselage. I have to revert to the sharp knife for the time, because I damaged my nice power supply for the special corner cutting tool.
Fuselage with the two main bulkheads. I used a selfmade sandwich foam/glass because I just had it. Naturally one can use 6mm (1/4") plywood for those. The wing stumps are still to be made.
Position of fan
Behind the fuselage is the UC blanc which I still had from another project.
View from the tail end. The bulkheads are not glued yet.
Indication of how inlet ducting fits in the fuselage.
This would seem to be the same power profile as the RC radios - with trans capabilities.As it is "Wireless USB", it should be fast enough for first person video in digital modes.http://dkc1.digikey.com/us/en/ph/unigen/juno.htmlRead more…
I recently got SparkFun's 6 IMU board and played with it a bit. Basically I connected Arduino and Razor 6DOF board and ported DCM code. Code is ArduIMU v13 but just made to work with Razor board. I am not sure what to think about gyros on that board as it takes them a while to "warm-up". Below you can see run from cold start for over an hour and "zoom' on first minute or so (just raw ADC values). On the link referenced above, you can see same data plots for both gyros and accelerometers.
I also modified ArduIMU Labview code - mainly that "cube" is within main window rather then separate one. I haven't compiled the code but whoever has LabVIEW should be able to run it (developed with version 8.5)
Posted by Jordi Muñoz on November 4, 2009 at 2:00pm
Hi there, finally is here and includes many improvements thanks to Doug Weibel. Try it out! here.-Coordinate system has been corrected.-The gyros are now in order X,Y and Z.-Extra LED status, including no yaw correction (Yellow), GPS fix (Blue) and Gyro saturation (Red).-Improved Ground Station, with Labview 8.5 files and executable for windows.I also add some boards to the stock here. I have to increase a little bit the price because i'm really getting nothing. Also the demand is so high that i can't keep them stocked (more demand = higher price)...Thank you a lot for your support!
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Hello,I was yesterday at AIRTEC 2009 in Frankfurt.Germany not understood , this will be a great market of the future !Only a few exhibitors have come to Frankfurt.
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Posted by Scott James on November 2, 2009 at 10:00pm
How's this!Just when you are running out of apps for your iPhone.Could be good to drop the Wife off to work while I watch TV in bed! :)Check out the story here.CheersScott
Posted by Paul Mather on November 2, 2009 at 4:32pm
In my testing trying to get the ArduPilot to work with Remzibi's OSD, I'm starting to notice that the serial output of the ArduPilot is intermittent at best. For the most part, I show the blue GPS lock led, but it does turn on and off for no reason on occasion.Has anyone studied the ArduPilot source enough to know how much additional processor power is consumed with the ArduShield connected? I have two ArduShields (both "old" ones) and neither will return more than about 3% of the GPS data being sent to it.I'm using my GPS Emulator at 38,400 and I've varied the Hz from 1 to 10 with no significant change in output. All of my testing is working absolutely fine without the ArduShield attached.Anyone got a guess?
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Reverted back to 2.4Ghz & got the footage which previously ended in a roof crash. Right click & you'll find a menu option called "View Image". Click on View Image to get a full 8 megapixel view.
Pointing towards San Francisco.
Pointing towards NASA.
Pointing towards Fremont. VicaCopter is itching to crash on 1 of those roofs, you can be sure.
Integrated 41 frames to defeat the haze. Since we haven't corrected the lens aberration with this camera, can only integrate a small part of the image.
The nose was actually centered on Onizuka Air Force base, where Major Marcy is believed to be until it closes in 2011. Then She's leaving the area & we're probably going to get depressed & quit flying again.
Had the C328 on 900Mhz for live preview. The video from the C328 was awful as always but good enough to aim.
The 2.4Ghz bitrate dropped out, but at least was recoverable by rotating the antenna.Information on the aircraft is on vicacopter.com.The image stacking software is on heroinewarrior.com.
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