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3D Robotics

DIY Drones chat tonight (Sunday) at 9:00pm PST

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 13, 2009 at 11:00am
Free video streaming by Ustream Tonight we'll do our second 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 discuss: --The new Ardu IMU --Various trials and tribulations --Airframes! (new, planned and experience with existing ones --And whatever other cool stuff comes up!
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What would you pay for the ultimate GPS solution?

Posted by Scott Plunkett on September 11, 2009 at 8:31pm
I have been looking around for some time for a good GPS solution that fit all of my needs, had great compatibility with other components (without a ton of work on my part) AND gave me the features / performance I have been looking for…guess what – I found very few, and when I found them they were usually out of stock! So, I decided to look into putting together my own. I have the board designed, parts sourced, and a design/ fab house on board to help me make it happen. I am waiting on a final BOM (Bill of Materials), Logic Test, and DFM review before I will know what the actual parts / production cost is – but it got me wondering, so…I am looking for feedback – trying to determine whether or not anyone would want the following, and what you’d be willing to pay for it?GPS Module Specs:Ultra High Sensitivity–148dBm (Cold Start Acquisition)–165 dBm (Navigation)Low power consumption: 75mW @ 3.3V10Hz Fix RateNMEA protocol (default speed: 9600bps)WAAS/EGNOS support22 Tracking Channel – 66 Acquisition Channels (Best in Class)Cold Start (out of the box): 34s typ.Warm Start: 33s typ.Hot Start: 1s typ.Protocol: NMEA 0183, @ 9600 baudSensitivity:Acqusition (cold):-148dBm - Re-Acquisition:-160dBm - Navigating/Tracking:-165dBmPower Drain: (3.3V): Navigating: 1 fix/s: 75mW typ. - Backup state: 15uW typ.Active Sarantel GeoHelix Quadrifilar antenna:Right-hand circular polarized, 3.3 V, 50 Ohm, SMT mounted directly to the PCB board, +25 dBic Gain and operating temp between -40 and +85 degrees C, weighing 8.4 gramsOnboard Data Logger Specs:The data logging component incorporates the LPC2148 ARM 7 Processor with USB, battery charging, and microSD support. This allows use of the OpenSource SparkFun LPC2148 USB bootloader for fast and easy modification of the datalogger firmware without using a programmer. The logger employs a USB mass storage stack to appear under any operating system as a flash drive. Logs are created in FAT16 format on the micro-SD media and can be downloaded quickly over a USB connection by dragging and dropping the text files from the device. The microSD card can also be removed and inserted into a card reader to download the logs. Board comes with a JST connector to be powered from a LiPo battery or other power sources. If you choose to use separate LiPo batteries for GPS functions, the unit has a built-in charger to charge batteries off USB. Additional pins available for logging of additional information (temp etc. with add-on boards and firmware modification,,it is OpenSource baby!)Ships with 2GD microSD card and SD Card AdapterAdditional Board-Level Specs:Board has outputs from both of the GPS antenna UARTs, and data can be found on TTL (Raw GPS data for telemetry, I2S, and a connector compatible with the output from the EM406a GPS (ArduPilot Compatible – no adapter board required) An additional output is provided for sending data to a compatible OSD system (RVOSD compatible – plug and play.) A small rechargeable battery keeps the GPS config and datum on board for quick fixes.Please keep in mind, a comparable data logger is $60 dollars (although we could go cheaper if we dumped the microSD card slot and USB connectivity, but I love the elegance of this solution) and a comparable, but lower performing UBlox GPS unit is between $90 and $100 depending on where you buy it, if you can find it.So now with all that said…what is it worth?
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Developer

ArduIMU V2 Demo (Video)

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on September 11, 2009 at 1:00pm

I have to be honest; i tried to kept this project as a little secret to void people waiting for it, so i have plenty of time to prototype. Not to mention that everything was running very slow because the school and we were moving the business to another location.I would like to give special thanks to Chris Anderson, Nathan Seidle (from SparkFun) and specially to William Premerlani, we've spent a great time together trying to adapt the code into Arduino Environment, a great experience for me (absolutely). Thank you Bill!The ArduIMU V2 is intended to be used for learning and general robotics, also will set the starting point for next incoming IMU based ArduPilot's (at the end of this year) and lot more! The code is based on the very well known Arduino Environment and is Open Source (of course!).The hardware consists on 3 axis accelerometers/gyroscopes, dual power regulator (3.3v and 5v), GPS port, an Atmega328@16mhz and a lot of status LED's.The code uses Direction Cosine Matrix code (By Bill Premerlani) and some other stuff extracted from ArduPilot (developed by me). You can read more about DCM here.The mass production is not clear yet, but the sensors can be purchased now from SparkFun or from our store. For now i will assemble just a few boards (ready to use) and sell them the next week (controller board with sensors) for around 100 bucks, sorry... For around $99 dlls. =) But being honest i will have to increase tiny bit the price to keep the DIYdrones store alive! Moving the business was kinda expensive.About the boards color, i will kindly ask Nate to change the color to blue because I'm unable to match his red (mine is more like orange). All the incoming boards from us will be blue anyway. =)The code will be released next week with the hardware. Please be patient. Thank you!Here is a demo video:
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Moderator

OWL: UAV / FPV platform

Posted by Robert Krogh (hooks) on September 11, 2009 at 2:30am
A new platform "OWL" will soon be ready for small RC UAV / FPV flying.

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The plane will look like this:

The model are made in glassfiber and balsa:More info on the OWL will come in the near future!A new Platform based on the Multiplex Alfa 2100 are on the Drawing board.Modified as a pusher.Wingspan 2.1MVery stabel platformGood for payload.

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Calling all Houston, Texas Members (and surrounding areas)

Posted by Blair Davis on September 7, 2009 at 10:16pm
I would really like to start a "Houston Chapter" If there's one out there, sorry for stepping on anyones toes and if you provide some contact information I would Love to join you organization. But if there are any houston members out there that would interested in meeting and talking about development and/or working together on a few projects then I welcome you to contact me so that we can set something up! I believe that my contact information is listed and available, however if it isn't then please leave a comment and i'll be in touch shortly. And, just in case here is some of my contact information. Bldavis@graphicswerkz.com; or text me at 832-704-6212. Thanks and I look foward to hearing from all the Houston (and surrounding area) members. Thanks again!
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First Podcast episode is up! (Update: added iTunes links and show notes)

Posted by Tim Trueman on September 7, 2009 at 2:30am
AAC: http://feeds.feedburner.com/diydronesMP3: http://feeds.feedburner.com/diydronesmp3AAC has chapters so you can skip around and see what's discussed where as well as having embedded artwork/metadata that MP3 doesn't support.It's a test/pilot episode so it's a little rough around the edges. And it's long—nearly 62 minutes (I started editing out all the glitches and gave up; there's a lot of them).Suggestions, feedback, comments and ideas are welcome.EDIT: iTunes links are up!AAC: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330632997MP3: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330633212Show NotesPhotos of the NASA Ames field trip from several people: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/nasa-ames-excursionArduPilot + OSD: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1102975ArduPilot IMU boards:http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9372http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9373Magnetometer tilt-compensation algorithms: http://www.magneticsensors.com/datasheets/sae.pdf
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6DOF IMU from Nunchuck and Wii Motion Plus

Posted by automatik on September 6, 2009 at 5:48pm
This is somewhat OT, but it could help someone just starting out...Nunchuck controller has three accelerometers and Wii Motion Plus has three gyros which makes a nice combination for 6 DOF IMU platform. People have been able to communicate with these devices before, but in order to talk to both of them you had to make an additional board ( it's slick solution though). I played with it while back, and figured out a way to acquire data from Nunchuck and WM+ via pass-through port and without extra board...i finally found some time to do a quick write up. Code provided in the above link is just for communication example and nothing else (i.e stabilization, Kalman, etc.)
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3D Robotics

DIY Drones chat tonight at 9:00pm PST

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 6, 2009 at 3:00pm
Free video streaming by Ustream [UPDATE: The above was for the live chat; the recorded podcast is here] We're planning a weekly podcast, and will beta test it this evening with a tech experiment which everyone here is welcome to participate in. This week we'll discuss: --The NASA Ames field trip --The first round of the T3 contest and the start of the second round --ArduPilot updates and the roadmap --AttoPilot test experience with EasyStar --Tips and tricks for airframe selection and integration --And whatever other cool stuff comes up! The mode is that two or three hosts will run the weekly discussion (which will last about 30 minutes) and record and edit it for a weekly podcast, which you can download and listen to anytime. We'll plan to have a guest interview each week but won't have one this week since we're mostly just testing the technology. At the same time the DIY Drones chat will be open so you can type questions in real time while we're talking. You can listen to the Skype chat in real time here. (also embedded above) Today your hosts will just be me and Tim Trueman, who has kindly volunteered to set up the technology and do the editing. But we are looking for a third host, so people who are interested should PM me.
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3D Robotics

DIY Drones uBlox modules now available!

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 4, 2009 at 8:00pm

The awesome uBlox 5 GPS modules are now available in the DIY Drones store! From the product description: The powerful GPS is based on Ublox 5 chipset and the Saratel helical antenna to maintain sat lock from any angle. Includes uBlox adapter and comes pre-programmed for ArduPilot. Features * u-Blox 5H chipset * Sarantel omni-directional Geo-helix S-type active antenna * Real 4Hz Refresh rate * Fifty channels * Supports UBX, NMEA and USB&NMEA * High immunity to RF interference * Firmware upgradable * Includes 12" cable with EM406 connectors on both ends. The cost is $109.90, which is a bit cheaper than buying the module (if Sparkfun ever gets it back in stock) and the necessary adapter and cable separately, and these these come pre-programmed for ArduPilot, saving you a huge hassle involving making a custom connector for you FTDI cable and messing about with uBlox settings in their utility. It's designed to plug straight into the ArduPilot's GPS connecter--plug and play! When you switch to this GPS, remember to change the configuration file so ArduPilot knows! //1-7 #define GPS_PROTOCOL 2 // 0 = NMEA, 1=SIRF, 2=uBlox
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NASA Ames Excursion

Posted by paul hubner on September 3, 2009 at 1:30pm

I was fortunate to be a part of the DIYDrone trip to NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) yesterday at Moffett Field in Santa Clara. We were treated of wide variety of conversations with NASA's UAV professionals including Chad Frost, our sponsor for the day. (Thanks Chad and everyone else @NASA!). For those who couldn't make it, here is a little writeup of the excursion:

3689324597?profile=originalChad began by leading the dozen of us through security checkpoints to the 'escort required' side of Moffett Field and the UAV hangars. The first stop was a commercial UAV platform, an orange Calaban heli airframe, customized with an array of mission video and scanning laser sensors (in addition to the flight related sensors). Interestingly it used a PC running a tweaked Linux as the top layer managing OS. Sensors (ie GPS, 3axis accs, etc) were running in their own environments and feeding the outer loop(s?) system. The ground station(s) were housed in a trailer and received realtime updates from the UAV. Check out the imaging of us standing in front of the heli!

Next stop was a the largest research platform that Chad is working.

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The Sierra frame has flow 41 times, 11 with payloads. It was just returned from Norway (No, it did't go off course!) doing some atmospheric science.


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We were next shown a 41' wingspan Swift glider that is to be retrofitted with an electric motor and converted to a UAV. It should be able to take payloads up to about 220 lbs in total toward their goal of learning about green efforts in the UAV arena.(See my album for the spec sheet) Last we saw a 1/3 scale Piper cub that is being worked on to research dynamic adjustments of control surface, unless that was another one of the many other projects and offices we crashed.I was pleased to meet a sampling of the DIYDrones.com members too. I think we all learned quite a bit from NASA and each other and our projects. More pictures are in albums under:

I know I've left out a ton of detail (like Google's Dornier Alpha) so please comment on you experiences below and post links to your pix.

Thanks again to Chris and Chad for getting this together. The next time a field tip that comes up, I recommend you jump on it.

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T3

My autopilot

Posted by Andrus Kangro on September 3, 2009 at 7:00am
I received request to publish more information about my "custom" autopilot, used for TTT contest, so here it is:My autopilot current version is 4. It all started when I received Welleman pic programmer & experiment board as Christmas present (to be honest, it was selected by myself). My initial interest was to make my sailplane turns more efficient and for that I needed to hold wings always crossed with gravity vector.Initial autopilot (V1) was built around 16f627 pic controler and the only thing it did was to use Parallax dual-axis accelerometer for controlling ailerons; rudder and everything else was under manual control. V2 autopilot used pic16f870 chip and added airspeed measurement (using mpxv5004dp sensor) and attempted to regulate sailplane speed by controlling elevator (it also had MPX4115 sensor for altitude measurement, but it was not used at this stage) . When I upgraded my RC-equipment to 2.4G and receiver inputs started to come in parallel groups, then 8-bit PIC did not manage any more and I upgraded autopilot core to dsPIC30f4013 (autopilot v3), adding also GPS to it. As I struggled to understand, what was actually going on inside autopilot during flights, then I attempted to add SD-card logging into autopilot, but faced memory shortage issues on 30f4013. So I upgraded autopilot core to 30f6012 and current version of autopilot (v4) was born.V4 hardware has 3 revisions, I'm using currently revA, but there is also one board of revB ready and its clear by now that there will also be revC. revA has 10 digital change notification inputs (8 for receiver and 2 for accelerometer, all used), 8 analog inputs (gyros, battery voltage, current sensor, 2 pressure sensors - 6 used currently) and 8 servo outputs(5 used), serial port for GPS/2x16 display and SPI port for SD-card. RevB has 14 digital inputs (change notification or input capture), 8 analog inputs and 8 servo outputs, 2 serial ports (for gps and terminal/radio modem), SPI for SD-card and i2c for (future)electronic compass + 3 led's. RevC will change location of some inputs/outputs. I attached Eagle schematics for revision B board here:apv4.sch.Is my autopilot inspired by UAV devboard - no, its parallel development. However, I would probably use UAV devboard, if it would have more powerful chip, much more inputs/outputs and SD-card on board. I'm also looking forward to implement cosine matrix transform in my software like in Matrixnav (waiting for gyros to arrive at the moment). I sometimes browse through Paparazzi and Matrixnav and other firmwares in order to get ideas and avoid inventing bicycle - however, I find it much easier to understand what others have been doing, if I have been working on topic myself also at least to some extent. So, I will keep inventing my own wheel also.As my goal was never to hold wings level with horizon, then there are no IR sensors, although they can probably be connected to vacant analog port if needed.What I've done with my pilot so far: the progress has been very guick since I got SD-card logging working. Once gyroscopes got involved, then direction control started to work reliably as well. My target was to make my sailplane to hunt for thermals and come home automatically and I succeeded on that: current autopilot can control plane speed, altitude and direction and can bring it home if I order it to. It also detects thermals and circles in them, attempting to shift circling center closer to stronger lift area, while making sure that it does not drift too far from "home". During best flight it used engine only for climbing into altitude and the plane stayed up thermalling for one hour without needing to turn on engine again (then I had to leave and took plane down). Thermalling is problematic in my area due to closure of the airport, so I can not do any altitude records where I usually fly. But, if there is suitable weather during some weekend and no family activities, then I plan to drive to G1 airspace area (this is reserved for sailplane flying) and see, how high it really goes....TTT competition is good stimulus for improving autopilot software and algorithms, I'm looking forward for next round. At the end of it I will probably have wp navigation mode with altitude control done via elevator and speed via motor, also navigation accuracy should be greatly improved. Better control over plane (especially when cosine matrix transform is implemented) will help me to make better thermal turns also, so its all very positive what is going on here.
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T3

Altitude hold for UAV DevBoard

Posted by William Premerlani on September 2, 2009 at 2:26pm

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UAV DevBoard pilots,I am putting the most recent releases of MatrixNav and AileronAssist back on line. I briefly reverted to the previous releases while I investigated a system issue that I just ran into.I just bought an EasyStar, ready to fly, with radio, servos, ESC, and radio already installed. I did some flying with MatrixNav. Most of the time it worked fine, but once in a while there were problems that popped up at random. Once in a while the firmware believed the radio signal is lost, and reverts to return to launch mode. Sometimes the elevator will work in only "bang-bang" control mode, responding to manual control by going either full up or full down. Typically, the problems arise at random, after about 10 minutes of flying.After some investigation, I discovered a system issue that a few of you have already run into. It turns out that low battery voltage will cause a "brownout" situation for the CPU. It turns out there was a problem with the ESC. Although the CPU did not reset, some of the hardware configuration registers reverted to their default values. This will cause the firmware to think the radio signal is lost, and it will go into return to launch mode. This will happen with any of the releases of MatrixNav or AileronAssist.When I have some time, I will take a closer look at handling low battery voltage.In the meantime, be sure to use good batteries and a quality ESC.Best regards,Bill PremerlaniAltitude hold is now available as an option in the most recent releases of the control and navigation firmware for the UAV DevBoard, MatrixNav1.7, and AileronAssist1.6. Both are available from the UAV DevBoard home page.The altitude hold function has been tested by both Sid and myself. According to Sid, it is "precise".During my tests, AileronAssist was able to hold my Goldberg Endurance in a turn at a 45 degree bank angle, at constant altitude, for 30 minutes.Next, I am going to implement waypoints.Best regards,Bill Premerlani
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Custom airframes and other parts direclty from CAD - www.nwuav.com

Posted by Alexander Graham Dick on September 2, 2009 at 12:00pm
I am new to the DIY Drones community and UAVs in general but have a lot of experience producing durable parts made directly from CAD data. When considering the DIY Drones site I noticed there is some great resources for electronic components but what if someone wants to design and produce a stellar airframe or other custom parts? Has anyone dabbled in CAD and considered producing their own parts in nylon without a mold???My company NWUAV (www.nwuav.com) has produced custom airframes as well as shrouds, intakes, brackets, etc for industry and I thought, why not for hobbyists too? If you can design it in CAD, we can build it! Any complexity with walls 0.020" and up (note: best to design 0.040" and up for any load bearing feature). Our parts are flying on thousands of planes. If anyone has some interest, let me know! You can send your CAD files to alex.dick@nwuav.com.
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The Ultimate Modular Open Source Auto Pilot

Posted by Scott Plunkett on September 1, 2009 at 3:38pm
I have spent a lot of time looking around at all of the different models of autopilot from the simplest Arduino implementation to the most complex solutions in the $10K range. The thing that most of these seem to lack is modularity. I'd like to see the community come together to develop a "Main Board" and then a bunch of additional add-on components that are designed to work together with the appropriate code. As an example, say I want to start out with a simple main board, thermopiles and a gps, but them later decide I don't want the thermopile anymore and I want an IMU based system, and acoustic rangefinder for auto-landing - but wait, later still I want a system with a laser rangefinder, onboard video for FPV, and I want to log the data from a bunch of the components...obviously, I'd be throwing out a lot of hardware every time I wanted to learn more or upgrade. So how about it?? Who is in? I'm kinda liking the name ModuPilot..
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