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3D Robotics

Blimpduino now available in an "all you need" kit

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 19, 2009 at 9:30pm

We've now released Bilmpduino with the option to get the RC kit, LiPo battery and charger all in one. The only thing you need beyond that to have a fully autonomous or RC-controlled blimp is helium from a party balloon kit (available at Target or any party store). The RC gear is a 4 Channel 2.4Mhz transmitter and receiver from Hobbyking and the LiPo is a very small and light Rhino 460mah unit. The included charger is a Turnigy 2-3 cell balancing charger with 12v leads for car use. The total package, with the Blimpduino kit, RC unit, battery and charger is $155.99 or just $109.90 for Blimpduino with the battery and charger (you supply your own RC gear). You can buy it here!
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3D Robotics

DIY Drones live chat/podcast Sunday night at 9:00pm PST

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 19, 2009 at 6:00pm
Free video streaming by Ustream On Sunday night we'll do our third 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 and will probably go about 40 minutes. This week we'll by joined by Jordi Munoz and will discuss: --The new Ardu IMU --Bill Premerlani's progress with the UAVDevBoard --Some other products we have planne --Coolest posts of the week --And whatever other cool stuff comes up!
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UAV Altitude Record

Posted by Geoff on September 19, 2009 at 4:39pm
Hi all,Just wanted to fill you in on a small UAV altitude record that was just set (still unofficial at the moment) using an autopilot similar to the ones discussed here. Here's a story about it: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/september14/airplane-self-pilot-091809.htmlThe record attempt was made by a group of graduate students who took a course this spring in the Aero/Astro Department at Stanford University. I was the teaching assistant for the course. This year the goal for the course was to design a small UAV to beat the remote control altitude record (~11, 000 ft). There were four teams of 4-5 students that had 10 weeks to go from a blank sheet of paper to a successful vehicle. The autopilot and propulsion system were provided, but the teams had to write their own control software and design/build the vehicles. The only sensor allowed was GPS (+ an barometric pressure sensor for the record attempt).At the end of the class in June we had a flyoff where the teams had to demonstrate their vehicles by repeatedly climbing between 50 ft and 400 ft (to stay within FAA regulations). All four team succeed in demonstrating greater than 10,000 ft of cumulative altitude gain. A few students continued working on the project over the summer, culminating in a world record altitude attempt a couple weeks ago at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.The altitude record attempt was for an autonomously controlled electrically powered UAV weighing less than 5kg, FAI Category U.2a Group 2. The news article gives a good account of the record attempt flights. The record altitude was 2177 m (7142 ft), which ended up being limited by winds aloft, not battery energy. Only about 40% of the charge was used getting to the record altitude.Here are some pictures of the airplanes and the autopilot/GPS boards.

I designed and prototyped the autopilot for the course early this year. It uses the dsPIC30F4011 microcontroller and the uBlox LEA-5H + sarantel helical GPS antenna (basically the same as is being sold now, but in a slightly larger footprint). The xBeePro or xBeeProXSC is used for commands/telemetry. RC controller commands are read by the custom ground station software using a transmitter-to-USB cable and sent over the xBee to the airplane. This software based failsafe was not ideal, but it was the lightest option. The autopilot has inputs available for other sensors (thermopile, IMU), they just weren't integrated for the class and there isn't any software written to handle them.If anyone is interested I should be able to post a BOM, the board files and the autopilot/ground station software, but it likely won't be supported at all since we are working on a smaller/lighter design to replace this one.-Geoff
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DIY Drones order arrived today, now time to get to work!

Posted by isobot on September 19, 2009 at 1:33pm
Like many DIYers, I have way to many projects going on at once. Not sure how or why this is so but it always happens. This being Saturday I figure that I can dedicate most of the day to finishing my airframe.List of things to do:1. trim wing foam, use lightweight spackle to fill the defects.2. go thru my collection of heat shrink covering to see if I have enough yellow to cover the wings, with red for a wing tip.3. Cover the said wings in yellow on top and red on bottom, two colors really help with the visuals at a distance. (is the plane banking towards you or away from you?) The right wingtip will be red also for the same reason.4. Rough out a new Pod fuse, just got a Sony Webbie HD cam which will go in the nose. Need to figure out where to put the ardupilot and gear. With the twin boom set up the servos are in the wing so plenty of room in fuse with no constraints on how far forward or rearward equip. can go. The pods are carved EPP and can be built to suit each payload.5. weigh everything! I really need a better all up weight estimate, I am afraid my outrunner motor will not be up to the task. I would like to fly next week end so have to order a larger one if it is not.6. Document todays build, I always forget to photograph the builds so will try and be better with this project!My airframe is based on the Polly Pusher, which is based in part on the E-Cat. I think these designs have a lot to offer for UAV use. The Polly Pusher is constructed out of a $5 Walmart Glider and coroplast. Inexpensive, simple and anyone can build it. I use EPP for the Pods, more crash protection than EPS but I have a flying wing made out of the walmart glider (EPS) and it has withstood much abuse, five years and it is still flying! Check out acesims.com for more info and directions on how to build.
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Tune and Trim a Magpie

Posted by Pete Burnight on September 19, 2009 at 11:16am
I just finished setting up my Magpie AP airplane to use the ArduPilot UAV controller, and used a fast and easy way to setup the PID and trim values.I made a ground station that can send new trim values up to the plane while it's in flight. That made trimming easy - only took two flights to get it straight, level, and stable.

The ground station consists of an ATMega168 running the code, an XBee pro for the radio transceiver, a box full of buttons, a rotary pot to adjust values, a serial LCD for the display and a 1700 mah NiMh battery.The ArduPilot code was changed to put many of the adjust and trim constants into EEPROM settings and code variables so they could be changed, and stored on the fly as tuning progressed.The ground station allows me to send up new PID values (Kp, Ki, Kd, Min/Max) and trim settings (roll_trim, pitch_trim) as well as any other variables I'm adjusting (Fly_by_Wire_Roll_Gain, Fly_by_Wire_Throttle_Set_Point, etc)

The ArduPilot code only required a small change to add the code required to receive the messages from the ground. (The GPS was removed, and the XBee on the plane was connected to both Rx & Tx for send/receive to/from the ground station during the trimming process)

The commands from the ground are very simple. I only send one value at a time. ( Roll_Kp = 0.3 ) The ground station controller uses a Menu system to scroll thru the various commands available. Each screen shows the variable being adjusted, it's current value (sent from the plane via the std ArduPilot Print_Data sequence) The rotary pot is used to dial in a new value. Once the value is set via the pot, one of the red buttons is pressed to actually transmit the command to the airplane. The code in the plane sends back an "ack" and the ground station beeps 3 times to signal a successful transmission of the data to the plane. That way I KNOW the new value is in place. I can also confirm the new value via the display - the aircraft is always transmitting the current values - and these show up in the ground station display in real time.Using this ground station to up-link data to the aircraft made setup and trimming a breeze.In general, here is the sequence I followed:1. Do ground testing of the UAV control stuff - test the sensors to confirm control surfaces move in the proper direction when tilting the aircraft.2. Get the aircraft flying under manual control. Adjust and trim for straight, level flight.3. Switch to "Fly by Wire" mode and watch what happens.(Be ready to quickly switch back to manual control)Does the aircraft dive?, climb?, Roll?, wobble?, Stall?, all of the above?4. My aircraft oscillated about the roll axis, and wanted to dive.I knew this meant the roll PID was set too high, and the pitch trim was off.5. I decided to work on the roll values first.- I turned off the pitch PID (by setting pKp and pKi to zero.)- I turned off the roll Ki (set it to very low: .04), so I could first tune Kp.Oscillations mean Kp is set too high. The PID is overshooting it's mark.There are some good articles on tuning PIDs.The current EasyStar Kp value was 0.7. I started dropping by 0.1 to 0.6, 0.5, and at 0.4 the oscillations stopped. I took manual control of the airplane, placed it in a steep roll, and turned on the AutoPilot. The plane immediately righted itself, and returned to almost straight flight. Increasing the roll Ki to 0.1 brought the aircraft to a more stable level position. (adjust Kp for quick, gross response without oscillations. Adjust Ki to fine tune the setting)6. I needed to adjust the pitch trim. The aircraft wanted to dive.I turned the pitch PID values back on (Kp = 1.3, Ki = 0.7)The current trim setting was zero. I sent up the value pitch_trim = 10. From manual straight and level flight, I switched into Fly by Wire mode, aircraft immediately dove. Back to manual control. Sent up the value pitch_trim = -10. Entered Fly by Wire, and the aircraft was flying straight and level.I had been hoping I could read the pitch & roll data real time during flight via the ground station, but I kept getting radio interference during flight, and unreliable radio connection while the aircraft was overhead. We had to glide the aircraft low and slow (no motor) near the ground station to send up commands.

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Developer

AttoPilot XYZ Horizon Sensors Available!

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on September 18, 2009 at 12:00pm
Hello, for those waiting for the XYZ now is the time! I stock some units yesterday and they are almost sold out but i will add more this weekend.Sorry i had to increase the price, the stock market for those IR sensor is low and i was unable to get them with the same price as before, actually the price increase of each sensor was just like 2.10 dlls, but that's enough to increase price up to 13 bucks per unit! DAMN! Otherwise everybody will have to wait undefined time.http://store.diydrones.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SE-0002-01
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T3

UAV search&rescue flight with onboard camera, real sound

Posted by Krzysztof Bosak on September 18, 2009 at 5:00am

UAV search&rescue flight with onboard camera, real sound from Krzysztof Bosak on Vimeo.

The video shows production prototype that has made around 10 flights.It is able to fly T3-2 Butterfly pattern at around 400s (deadline Oct 4th!!!),might be much faster after putting more lead on the nose and trimming the elevator (15min and a few trials).BTW I would like to sell this plane.It features FLEXIPILOT LITE proto, which has the same functionality as FLEXIPILOT, buthas no pitch and roll gyros (bank angle automatically reduced to 40deg), has minimally worse damping in pitch during inclement weather, no status LEDs (only flight ready LED, but it doesnt matter much as teh plane is integrated).It has narrower fuselage than easystar but glides VERY nicely, a lot of potential for heavy lift (some 300g+).http://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-advantage-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-features-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-installation-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-navigation-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-triggers-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-weather-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-osd-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-brochure-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-command-set-en.pdfhttp://www.aerialrobotics.eu/flexipilot/flexipilot-software-en.pdf

I would like to sell the complete tuned plane for 950EUR, personal sale, full support on autopilot and future adjustments,you need RC receiver, lipo3S and camera in order to fly.The plane is also featured here:http://www.vimeo.com/6638706kbosak@box43.pl
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T3

AileronAssist versions 1.7 and 1.8 released

Posted by William Premerlani on September 17, 2009 at 3:30pm

09038-1_i_ma.jpg

UAV DevBoard pilots:This is an update of a previous post.I deleted version 1.6 of AileronAssist firmware and released version 1.7.The reason is that I noticed that the firmware fail safe does not work in version 1.6. Although the commanded return to launch will work just fine in version 1.6, loss of signal return to launch does not. If you turn off your transmitter, and if your radio does not have a fail safe, its not going to be pretty.If you are using a radio with its own fail safe, it does not matter whether you use version 1.6 or 1.7 of AileronAssist. But if you might ever use a radio that does not have fail safe, you should use version 1.7.Previous versions of AileronAssist are fine. It is only version 1.6 that is affected.I never noticed it before, because I no longer use radios that do not have built in fail safe.Also, version 1.8 of AileronAssist, with waypoint processing, was just released. It supercedes both version 1.6 and 1.7Best regards,Bill Premerlani
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100KM

Open airframe

Posted by crystal garris on September 17, 2009 at 11:06am
Dev photos for Open Airframe , an open source airframe i will be publishing based on THE EZG

download?file_guid=218&view=inline

download?file_guid=217&view=inline

download?file_guid=216&view=inline

download?file_guid=215&view=inline

MADE OF:balsa , plywood ,1 EZG kit ,CF tail boom and a couple 2 litter coke bottles for the clear plasticthe holes along the side are for mounting modular equipment racks that can slide in from the top.
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Robust GPS Antennas (not modules)

Posted by Scott Plunkett on September 16, 2009 at 1:01pm
As many of you know, I have been looking for and even doing some development on some GPS modules. I met this vendor today who makes the most robust GPS antennas I have ever seen - Quad Helix 30db gain active antenna with built in SAW and LNA you can take a hammer to it, and it will just keep on tracking - awesome! The key is the mold-over they are using, it can take a real pounding, and with an O-ring could form a weather-tight seal to the airframe. You could just mount antennas on each of your airframes and only ever buy one actual module - but seriously, I have no affiliation with them.http://www.jimdgrayassoc.com/index_files/STUBBY_PRO.htmThey are pricey, but you'd only have to replace one destroyed complete unit to justify the price. Just thought you guys might be interested. We have already placed our first order.
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ConfigTool v1.4.12

Posted by Paul Mather on September 15, 2009 at 6:30pm
I dropped the "Beta 4" and changed it to just v1.4 revision 12 = 1.4.12.This version has a bug fix to try and address users with locales using "," (comma) as their decimal points. Please let me know how it works. It also includes Jordi's 48 waypoints fix.Download Here: ConfigTool.zipArduTool143.gif
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Depron Fuselage for Easystar Wings.

Posted by Peter Meister on September 15, 2009 at 3:30pm
Guys.I love to fly the easystar with different configurations, different autopilots, different FPV setups. Etc..etc..etc..But with the worldwide shortage of multiplex easystars as seen on towerhobbies - having been on backorder for well over 3 months, I figured it was time to do something about it. Thus, my project was born. Build a fuselage out of 6mm Depron, exactly the same dimensions as the easystar with the ability to take the plug in wings from the easystar and put them right on the airframe.Project Goals:1. Fit the easystar wings perfectly2. Exact same dimensions so the aerodynamics are no different3. Modular, able to add different payloads easily through hatch.4. Easy to template for mass reproduction.Here is what I came up with, and man let me tell you it works like a charm. Each Aircraft frame cost me less then $ 5 USD in depron. I buy my depron from rcfoam.com for those who wish to do this themselves.Plane is built with Hot glue gun. So construction of entire frame takes less then 1 hr from cutting to assembly.Here is the finished product:

I will post more pictures if you wish to see more angles.Elevator is 6mm EPP as is the rudder, that way its very rugged and I use packing tape on the bottom of the fuselage to keep a smooth landing surface and protect the depron from dinks on landing.Its super easy to make these, and all I did was mimic the same fuselage concepts as the easystar employs. This one is a front engine one, I have a rear engine one as well and the frame is built to use a pusher in the mid-section just like the easystar or a front mounted engine with folding prop.I am also finishing one with 2 engines, a front mount and rear mount all in one. Just for the heck of it, its only $5 USD in foam to try it :)The one above has been flown with ardupilot 25 times so far, and also serves as an FPV plane utilizing my velcro on all in one video system.$ 1 USD in depron for that one. Here is a photo of it...

If you need extra fuselages for different flight scenarios, then try scratch building them with depron. All you need is a long ruler, and a cutting board and glue gun. Gear added by your own tastes. 6mm depron sheet, 1 sheet will do 1 fuselage with enough left for parts.Cheers,-Peter
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Developer

New Confiq. Tool: Now supports up to 48 waypoints!

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on September 15, 2009 at 11:00am
Finally i figure out the problem that was limiting the number of waypoints on ArduPilot. The issue was in several parts (Confiq. tool, Ardupilot code and Atmega328 fuse bits). Anyway is ready (i guess) and you can download the Confiq. Tool from here:Release.zip (Note that this Confiq. Tool is not HappyKillMore approved yet ;-) )The latest code for ArduPilot can be found here:http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/About the fuse bits i guess SparkFun is using the same configuration used for the Atmegas168, and the Atmega328 is different. When i was trying to debug the EEPROM and tried to dump it with the ISP and it was clear (only 0xFF's). Then i checked the fuses and I discovered that the EEPROM protection was enabled and the Bootloader protection was disabled. So i guess some ArduPilot's will fail overtime and you will need to reprogram the Bootloader. Why? Because when you don't protect the bootloader section (the one used to upload the firmware via the serial port) may get corrupted in some scenarios. I will notify about the problem.Before posting this i took a brand new ArduPilot, i ripped off the pink plastic bag and i read the fuses, and yeap the same issue:

[UPDATE]: The official realease of the Cofiq Tool is here
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Developer

Navigation algorithm for wind drift

Posted by Jason Short on September 14, 2009 at 11:30pm
I've been putting together my own UAV and live in SF so I'm always flying in high winds. Not over SF of course...I built a simulator in flash to hone my algorithm, but I wanted to put it out there to see if anyone had any suggestions. My idea is to basically calculate the optimal position, drift from the position and create a new virtual waypoint to target using a scaled version of the drift vector. It works well, but it does tend to hunt when turning into the wind. I could limit the offset of the virtual waypoint which should help a tad.Here's a link to the Flash Sim. (Requires Flash 10)Here's the Source with updated code to address wind better than the original.Click the image to run the Flash simulator:DriftComp.png
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Educational and advertising vessel (drone)

Posted by Tomtom Express on September 14, 2009 at 4:39pm
I am talking to a Science Museum about constructing an unmanned boat to navigate a waterway. It would be a fun way to introduce this sort of automation to the public. As this waterway is surrounded by trendy shops, bars, restaurants and condos, we are also thinking of doing advertising using LED and/or LCD displays to promote the science center. At night, there is very little traffic. The little traffic there is is from one or two ferries. For navigation, I am thinking of a GPS, of course, and ultrasonic range finders to avoid collisions. Any comments are welcomed. Thank you!
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Developer

Experimental Futaba Fasst based stabilizer and failsafe

Posted by Jason Short on September 13, 2009 at 2:30pm
I've been needing a simple RTL for my Easy Star based FPV system, so I bought the ArduPilot. Unfortunately, as Chris pointed out, the ArduPilot code doesn't handle the Fasst's way of setting an out of range PWM signal to be detected by the Ardupilot.So, last weekend I decided to start writing one from scratch specifically for my radio ( 7C 2.4GHz) and I flew it successfully today at Candlestick point in some decent 10mph winds. Things went so well I even had the plane deadstick landing on it's own in decent wind without toughing the controls. Here are some details...version .1 Features:- Auto-calibrate IR sensors, no Z used- Auto-calibrate Stick limits- Stabilization with proportional mixing - no thresholds- Futaba Fasst 2.4 failsafe detect through throttle- Plane will circle when in failsafe and maintain a 40% throttlenext up:- GPS code integrated from Ardupilot- proportional mixing for navigation mode when in autopilotApproach:To start I wanted to have full control at all times with the sticks, full resolution, and no dropped PWMs(@ 50Hz) from the receiver. I hooked up the 3 channels in from the radio to the ardupilot (I had to add a wire for throttle in.) Then I set up an interrupt to watch for ch1 to go high. After that I start timing the cascade of channels with a custom timer function. I also output the throttle while simultaneously watching for a failsafe. This all happens in approximately 3000-6000 µs.Next I read in the IR sensors, scale the input and apply a proportion of about .65 to them. Then I look at the ch1 and ch2 stick position to see how much pitch and roll to apply. Each channel calculates a mix independently and uses that mix to influence the final position. This way I can fly fully stabilized though I'm fully in control.For example:45° to 27° = 100% to 0%< 27° = no stabilizationFor failsafe, I currently just tilt the rudder slightly to the right to do a gentle turn. Next I'll add in the navigation code for RTL capability.Next week I'll hopefully have the RTL functionality in the air for testing. If you try this code out let me know how it works for you.Use:The code is self explanatory, and some wires need to be added to the AruPilot HW.You need to aim each IR sensor window at the ground and sky before each flight (or reset!!! be careful!!!)You need to move the rudder and elevator sticks with each reset to set the servo limits.Download XFPilotJason/
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