When I try to run the config utility it comes up with "the application failed to inialize properly(0xc0000135)"Also the ground station wont run as this comes up withThe VI is not executable. the full development version of LabView is required to fix errorsI have downloaded and installed the two items Chris mentioned in the manualAny ideas?Paul
Read more…T3
Well I completely removed the stock Y-UFO electronics (except for speed controllers of course) and am now doing all the mixing and stabilization with the PicPilot. Here is a pic of the install.
It's been too windy to fly outdoors so I've been doing what testing I can inside. I have a little instability at the moment. The Y-UFO will begin to oscillate in sort of a circular motion reminiscent of a coin being dropped on a table. I'll try to put up a video soon. Part of the problem might be ground effect as I'm only about 6 inches off the ground, but I'm looking closely at all the sensor data to see if everything looks as it should. I thought I'd share one of the plots that demonstrate the filtering effect of the DCM. This plot compares the unfiltered Y acceleration data with the seventh element in the DCM Matrix. Both terms essentially represent the sin of the roll angle.
The plot represent me holding the Y-UFO lightly and rolling it approx. 20 degrees one way then 20 degrees the other. This plot shows one of the advantages of using gyros. If you attempted to filter the Accelerometer data to be as clean as the DCM data you would introduce considerable delay or lag to the signal. This lag would then limit how fast of a perturbation the stabilization loop would be able to remove. Since the DCM is integrating the rates instead of position (essentially what the accelerometers are giving you by virtue of the gravity vector) the noise is reduced by the magnitude of the sample freq. Before the rate has time to integrate to a significant position, it reverses polarity and begins to cancel itself out. Of course huge amounts of rate noise or extremely slow sample times would start to be an issue. For slow lumbering airframes the accelerometers by themselves would probably be fine, for faster airframes not so much so.During this test I start out with the three motors turned off. When I began to throttle up that's when most of the noise showed up in the accelerometers (and the gyros, but because of the above mentioned filtering effect the noise is not apparent in the DCM data.). All indications are the noise is simply vibration from the three motors, but I'm looking closely at the data to make sure it's not EMI/ power supply noise.One thing worth noting is this level of noise/vibration is not having an adverse effect on the ST LISY300AL gyro I'm using for the Z axis rate sensor ( the other two axis are covered by an IDG 500 which was not expected to have vibration issues). I do have the PicPilot isolated through three layers of foam tape. Maybe that's enough to mechanically filter out the higher frequencies that will give the LISY300AL problems.Let me know if your interested in seeing more plots such as this from time to time or if I'm just filling up the server with useless data. It takes a few minutes for me to format things for posting, but I don't mind if others find it useful, and there's always a chance that someone will have an observation that helps me get over the next hurdle or problem I'm struggling with as well.Brian
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Hi everyone , today i travel across France to watch the Paris air show 2009 celebrate the 100 anniversary of the expo.Here is the picture , most of all are Uav of course :
I am download NE test code in micro controller of ardupilot & then calibrate the FMA copilot in setup mode.But when i am exit from set up mode & then again power on , rudder servo work fine but elevator servo not woking.I use only elevator & rudder servo.Button setting of FMA copilot(CPD4):Button 1: ONButton 2: OFFButton 3: ONButton 4: ON
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Here are few status updates:
--With the launch of the 2.2 code, the manual and the expansion board kit, we now have what we consider a pretty stable and complete commercial product. Development on ArduPilot will be more incremental from here on, with minor code changes and feature additions and no planned hardware changes. That should allow everyone to get the current version working and adapt it for different aircraft platforms, which we now support with custom settings files.
--We will re-release version 1.0 (the navigation-only autopilot) as a cut-down version of 2.2, using the latest code and GPS module support but without 2.2's stabilization code. It's designed for cars, boats and for those who want to use the FMA Co-Pilot for stabilization. The new version will be called 1.1 and should be out in a few weeks.
--We will discontinue support of all other code versions. If you're using 2.0 and 2.1, they will still work, but we won't be improving them and we won't be able to support you if you're having trouble. For those with the green (168) board, 2.1 is the last version of the code that works. That's totally compatible with our ground station and setup utility, so you should still be in pretty good shape. But if you want to keep evolving with the project, I suggest you upgrade to the red (328) board.
--We should have the thermopile sensor situation sorted out in a few weeks. We hope to be able to sell XY and Z sensors at a very competitive price then. Stay tuned.
--Our development resources will now shift to the next generation of ArduPilot, which will be based on an IMU expansion board, and ArduPilot Mega, a "pro-level" autopilot built on the Arduino Mega architecture. We are targeting the IMU expansion board at less than $100 (including code), and ArduPilot Mega will be around $50. Combined with a good GPS module, we are hoping to be able to release a very capable 6 DOF IMU-based autopilot for less than $200 around the end of the year. As with everything else we do, they will be open source, so the actual manufacturing and sales of the autopilot will be by third parties.
--We're working on loads of other products for the DIY Drones store, including an OSD, more sensors and perhaps some "all in one" kits, up to and including aircraft.
--We'll also sell a premium version of the Blimpduino kit that comes with LiPo, charger and 2.4 Ghz RC equipment.
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That's right, Nintendo's Motion Plus addon is out, and inside is a 3 axis, 16 bit gryo (well, a 2 axis gyro and a 1 axis gyro). Which is way better than the 2 axis, 10 bit one I was expecting. Communicates via I2C and costs less than $20. This could be pretty revolutionary for hobby IMUs. Coupled with a Nunchuck, its a 6DOF all digital sensor for $40!Details on the innards and protocol here.For the moment, it seems that you need to switch between the Motion Plus and the Nunchuck via a somewhat complicated method. Can't just read them both from different addresses. Hopefully that will be resolved when people better understand what's going on inside it.There's also some mention of it being able to run at two different sensitives toggled by some i2c command. And possible temperature compensation (they did this in software, only using the gyros?)Eventually I'll write some arduino code for the Motion Plus, but there are probably lots of you out there who could do it better/faster, so by all means give it a go!PS: Anyone know about progress on adapting the DCM method to ardupilot/arduino?
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Ready to make the first flight test with our nanoAHRS. Servos are connected to nanoAHRS and standard receiver are connected by PPM to nanoAHRS. All channels are downloaded in realtime through Xbee PRO.jlcortex
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This is my latest modification of the EasyGlider to coincide with the official release of Ardupilot 2.2.I call her the “EG 2.2”. The last modification, found here,involved increasing the fuselage volume but this is a little more ambitious and includes standard tail conversion to an inverted V-tail, moving the motor to the rear in a pusher configuration, moving all servos to the control surfaces and extending the nose by two inches. The nose was extended to get the CG set without having to add nose weight and to make room for the larger autopilot and data logger.The booms are made from collapsible fishing pole segments and house the elevator cables. The elevator servos are joined with a Y connector that contains a reverser for one of the servos. The ailerons are joined with a simple Y connector.She had her maiden flight yesterday and she flies fine. As soon as the new Ardupilot and shield arrive, I’ll get them installed and restart my flight tests. I’m predicting much better success this time since there will be throttle management and I have a better feel for how the code changes effect flight.
The Parallax Propeller autopilot I have been building is almost ready to test ! Here is a few pictures. Good thing I put 3 electronics bays in this 7 foot monster. There is a LOT.GPS6DOFPressure/Altitude module2 servosMONSTER motorUltrasonic ground sensor900 Mhz cameraOSD on propeller board6 Channel RC RxXBee TransceiverIf anyone here is going to the Parallax Expo West June 26,27 in Rocklin CA ...I will be there hopefully with the B2 monster.Oh...one more thing. I don't know how to fly RC planes so I hope the AP knows it's stuff !
And it has big changes, including;-The support of the protocols Sirf III, NMEA and UBX.-Separated header file to easily setup multiple airframes (instructions inside the zip files).-Compatible only with ArduShield (battery voltage, pressure sensor and GPS auto shutdown).-And many more minor fixes.The new GroundStation 2 and ArduPilot 2.2.2 can be download from here:http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/downloads/listDon't forget to read the user manual (in beta):ArduPilot ManualRemember: Is not easy but also not impossible! Enjoy Fellas!
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I know this is a bit risky to propose a new platform for a UAV, but I think it could be a very good platform.The system are slow, stabel, won't brake if a crash should happen, easy to operate, ok payload.How about having ArduPilot installed on a RC Paraglider.I hope you all can se the opportunities with this kind of systems.See more here RC ParagliderI hope to here some comments from the creates.
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We should be releasing the 2.2 code early next week. In the meantime, here's a beta of the official ArduPilot manual. Corrections/comments/wishlist and other feedback in the comments here please!
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Just recently I have had a few odd problems when using Google Reader to view the "Everybodies Blog Posts - DIYDrones" feed. The last 7 posts to go on the feed (from Fred and Den) have had after them about 100 links after the small body of text. The ads (I think that's what they are) seem to have no relavence to the post. The posts themselves seem pretty unconnected with the DIYDrones theme but it is an open area so I don't mind. Could someone test to see if they have had a similar problem when using Google Reader with this feed.
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Well at least for a couple minutes and six inches off the ground. Read on!
First a little about the platform. I decided to start out on my Y-UFO since it was built up and ready to go. This is a fun little Tri-Rotor that has about a 10 -12 min run time and can easily lift my autopilot plus a small camera. It has built in rate stabilization for all three axis and a mixing function to drive the three motors appropriately for Roll, Pitch, Yaw and throttle commands (ie no computer radio needed). The stabilization works, but falls short of Cat's Meow status.I decided to start out small and take over Yaw stabilization with the PicPilot and add Heading hold at the same time, leaving the Y-UFOs built in electronics to handle Roll and Pitch Stabilization and mixing. In this mode, the Yaw stick on the transmitter changes a Heading Command variable. The heading loop then generates a rate command to point the craft at the desired heading. Any deviation from this commanded rate is considered an error and is taken out with the stabilization loop.Not knowing if there would be stability problems, I decided to stay low to the ground almost dragging the skids much of the time. Well things basically work, but I had some signs reversed and needed to tweak some gains. I'm getting heading information from the magnetometers, and there appeared to be some interference from the motors - which is completely expected. The interference didn't appear to be terrible though, causing a 15 to 20 deg heading variation depending on throttle. There was also an occasional high speed "glitch" in the heading most likely coming from the stabilization loop (perhaps gain a little high, or perhaps some vibrations approaching the resonant point of the gyro - I didn't spend much time doing proper mounting of the autopilot as can be seen by the pictures) .My next step was to log a bunch of data during the flight and see if I could tell what was going on in better detail. Unfortunately at that point I hit a setback. My Hitec Eclipse 7 decided to take a dump. It now always reports the battery voltage as 15.5V and either doesn't transmit anything or somewhat random pulse width commands.Despite the setback, I'm happy with progress. I took the hitec apart hoping to find an obvious blackened part I could replace but no luck, so I ordered a new radio. In the meantime while I'm waiting for the radio, I received some magnetic shielding material I ordered so I'll be making a small shield for the motors that hopefully will cut down a bit on the interference. I'll also go ahead and write the mixing and stabilization functions so I can completely bypass the stock electronics in the Y-UFO.Aside form recovering from hernia surgery the past few days, that was my week. I was bested by my 10 year old during a Ninja fight while attempting my patented triple somersault couch hurdle five point palm exploding heart technique. The only thing that exploded was my gut.Thanks for looking,Brian
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G'Day all,On checking some legislation for entry to the 2009 Outback Challenge I noticed that ACMA are amending class license 2000 to specifically exclude the use of video under the provision for telemetry transmitters. (OSD telemetry)The reasoning given doesn't make any logical sense to me, I'd appreciate a review by one of you more technically savvy DIY Droners on the validity of the reason for the change. Quoted below-Quote - Telecommand transmitters are used to transmit signals to initiate, modify or terminate functions of equipment at a distance. Telemetry transmitters are used to automatically indicate or record measurements at a distance from the measuring instrument. To prevent interference with other devices telecommand and telemetry transmitters operating under the LIPD Class Licence must not exceed EIRP limits as outlined in items 25, 26 and 27.Telemetry transmitter classes should not be used as high power video senders, nor can higher power telecommand channels be used for transmitting computer programs. To carry out such activities would require a breach of the maximum EIRP limits stated. ACMA therefore proposes to include a limitation on the use of telemetry and telecommand transmitters, to prevent the use of these items for sending video or software downloading. - End QuoteWhy would transmission of video require a breach of the specified EIRP power of 1W?In my view ACMA shouldn't be making rules for the sake of it and should have a reason for the modification. If there have been real interference issues I'm sure they won't mind producing the reports.Aust based FPV flyers feel free to review the change at http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311727 and send your comments to - regulatorydevelopment@acma.gov.auSUBMISSIONS ON THE CHANGE CLOSE 15 JUN 09
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Jordi's released a new product in the store: a shield expansion board kit that includes everything you need! Just $47.50.
Includes:
--Shield board with airspeed sensor
--Pitot tube with silicon tubing
--Connectors
--Cables to connect IR sensors
--RC cables
--A reset button
--A "bind plug" to jumper the board for field calibration.
This is a great deal!
[BTW, we hope to have the sensor inventory situation sorted out in a week or two. I think we've got a good solution that will ensure enough affordable sensors for everyone without any more interruption.]
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