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My foamie UAV

Posted by Sarel P. Wagner on May 6, 2009 at 4:17am
Well took the first steps to UAV heaven :) Havent flown in over 20 years..... So there, this will be a challenge, or rather maybe a few (or plenty) of them.Got the Easystar yesterday, a few odds and ends, upgraded to a brushless motor etc.... will take a few pics as I go along :)
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Flying Fox autopilot

Posted by Zik on May 5, 2009 at 11:02pm
I've been working on an open source autopilot for a while now. It's not finished yet but it's getting close. The board is quite small - about the size of an ESC - and weighs 10g.

Features:* Plugs directly into any R/C receiver - up to nine control channels.* Can control up to ten servos.* Combined GPS/IR leveler board makes installation easy.* Barometric altimeter.* microSD card for flight plans and data storage.* Fully open source software. You can improve it or change it however you like.* Easily reprogrammed via USB with no need for a special programmer.* Powerful on-board flight scripting language.* Optional radio link to the ground.* Optional 9-axis IMU.* Many expansion options including I2C, SPI, etc.* Powerful ARM7 processorBy the way this is an open source project - not a commercial project - so please don't ask me for release dates or free samples!The autopilot software is at:http://code.google.com/p/flyingfox/My original (kinda old) build thread is at:http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734791
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T3

Pic32 Autopilot Layout Done.

Posted by Brian Wolfe on May 5, 2009 at 9:13pm
I should have boards in about a week and a half. I'll order up parts tomorrow.Here's a pic of the top side and the parts list.UPDATE: I added a link to the updated schematic. The main changes to the original are adding an altimeter and airspeed sensor and switching from the Freescale MMA7260 Tri axis accelerometer to the Bosch BMA145. The Bosch is lower cost while having better noise and accuracy specs.Brian

Pic32 Auto Pilot Parts List.xlspic32_autopilot_schematic.pdf
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T3

AileronAssist for UAV DevBoard is launched.

Posted by William Premerlani on May 5, 2009 at 5:20am

Endurance.jpg

Flight testing of "AileronAssist" is complete. This is the firmware that I had in mind when I started out. It controls ailerons and elevator to stabilize neutrally stable aircraft and performs return to launch. I was able to use it to fly a Goldberg Endurance with some confidence and ease. This is an aircraft that I crashed 5 times last summer. I have finally soloed with it, though most of the credit goes to "AileronAssist", to Paul Bizard, and to everyone else who has helped me so far.Above is a picture of my Endurance, with the electronics mounted on top with velcro, just like I tell everyone else not to doThe firmware and documenation is available on the main page for UAV DevBoard. For those of you who have the board and have tried MatrixNav, the next step is to try AileronAssist in a neutrally stable aircraft. I think you are going to like it. Its smoother and more precise than I ever imagined it could be.The weather is good today, I am going to get out of here and go do some flying.Best regards to everybody,Bill PremerlaniPS For those of you waiting for restocking of the UAV DevBoard, the first board off the production line is on its way to me. When it arrives, I am going to do thorough flight testing with it before releasing it. I will make an announcement.
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About to get in. Easy Star vs. Twinstar II

Posted by Ryan on May 3, 2009 at 8:36pm
Hello,I have known about this community for about 10 months and have been waiting until I have time to get into this stuff. I will be a Junior in the fall at the University of Michigan as an electrical engineer and just finished this semester.I got into RC aircraft about a year ago when I got a Belt CP helicopter. In November I also got a Slow Stick to get into fixed wing. Right now I am looking at the Twinstar II and Easy Star and am looking for any input regarding these platforms. I live on a small lake, and whichever I choose I plan to build into a seaplane. Is it feasible to have a water-based AP/UAV platform, or am I just wasting my time with this idea? I have several LIPOs so I will definitely go brushless right away. The main reason I am looking at the Twinstar is its very large surface area and it seems to have a large fuselage for gear. Once I get the new platform up and ready for the water, I will probably start working with the Ardupilot. I am also open to any other airframe suggestions that would be good for water.It has been interesting watching all the developments here over the past months.Thanks,Ryan
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Moderator

First testflight UAV Seagull 2200

Posted by Robert Krogh (hooks) on May 3, 2009 at 3:00am
Yes the first testflight is over, and the seagull 2200 are still alive.I planed a small 5 waypoint route on a open area near Aalborg, Denmark.

After calibration on the FMA sensor I was ready to give it a try.After a little manual flight I pushed the auto button on my remote CH 5.. So far so good. The plane started making bit of rocking with the rudder - after a sec or two the plane gets stabel and just holding the course... hmmm.. Not navigating as it surpose to do. I tried about 5 times to se if there are any sign of showing just a little navigation for the first waypoint. But just a straight path.

So what might be the problem?If I try "flying by wire" without the gps I have one very weak control over the rudder and elev.Anybody out there! anybody.. :-(Here is the function on the board... It looks right to me.
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IR sensor calibration

Posted by yogesh on May 3, 2009 at 12:15am
Hi all,We are using the thermopile sensors to estimate attitude of our airplane. The problem is that the paparazzi wiki mentions a nonlinear relationship between the angle and the voltage. Therefore, we can't use it unless we calibrate it experimentally and find the values for different angles and store them in a table. However, that would be cumbersome. It would help greatly if there was a mathematical relation or a lookup table between the voltage and angle, but so far we haven't been able to find it. Any ideas on this?-yogesh, aravind
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Ardupilot cooked

Posted by John on May 2, 2009 at 4:00pm
I want to power my ardupilot and attached xbee 900 pro separately from my Rx, due to the current drain imposed by telemetry and GPS. I have an 1800 mAh lipo 3s on board powering video so I figured to tap into there (although inefficient , I know) instead of adding another low voltage battery to the rig .So, I soldered the batt jumper on the ardupilot board, made a deans to header cable and thought I was OK to go. But when applied to the battery terminal, an instant fire ensued (picture attached)! I figured it was a short, but turned out not to be. Input V too high?It can take up to 15V, so I'm told, but haven't seen/heard of anyone taking it up past ~7 V. Id like to grab the data sheet anyway. The voltage reg is imprinted with 'k850', but I have yet to find a sheet based on this info alone. Has anyone used a 3 cell? Any info would help. Im fairly sure I did not make a rookie mistake here but at the same time, im not suggesting a design or production flaw. Just want to make this work without toasting another board.

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How to connect a Sparkfun FTDI board to the ArduPilot

Posted by jaron on May 2, 2009 at 8:00am

This might be obvious for you but as an electronics noob it took me a while to figure out how to connect the Sparkfun FTDI Basic Breakout board to the ArduPilot. The different naming of the pins confused me and of course I thought I'd blow up everything if I connect it the wrong way.ArduPilot pinsGND = GroundVCC = Voltage of the Common CollectorGRN/DTR (green) = AutoresetTXO = OutputRXI = InputVCC = Voltage of the Common CollectorCTS = Clear To SendBLK/GND (black) = GroundFTDI board pins (-> ArduPilot)GRN/DTR -> GRNRXI -> TXOTXO -> RXI5V -> VCC (unused)CTS -> CTS (unused)GND -> BLK/GND
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Flying guide dog ... Just for fun

Posted by Ho-Chung Chang on May 2, 2009 at 3:45am
It is just a concept from Labrador Retriever guide dog. I used a ducted fan to approach my ideal.There were some structure problem at first type (1st picture). It can fly, but not stable....Orz.So I had modified the designed and moved fulcrum to the center-up of ducted fan.(2nd picture). It can fly well by the controller.(3nd Picture)

I put 2 IR sensors for obstacle avoidence. but I bought wrong type that can't provide enough sensing range....#$%^&*...Orz
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My aircraft under testing.....

Posted by Ho-Chung Chang on May 2, 2009 at 3:00am
It is my RC aircraft, it have been under testing to approach lower power consuming and longer fight range.We have used 10000mA@14.1V battary. and hoped to fly over 90min in 10km range(With Datalink). XD

My partner have used the "FMA Direct Co-Pilot" to stabilize the attitude of aircraft first and guidance via GPS. but the Co-Pilot easy beinterfere with environment and weather. so I have tried to replace Co-Pilot+GPS system by GPS/INS data fusing algorithm via PIC32 or dsPIC30F uC and IMU components.
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3D Robotics

Air Force insists on pilots flying Predators. Result: more crashes

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 1, 2009 at 10:39pm
From Defense Tech: "I can understand having a close-tethered "man-in-the-loop" for weapons releases or snap recon taskers, but my reporting on automatic landing systems leads me to believe that there's no reason whatsoever to have pilots landing drones from Nevada (or wherever else they're remotely piloting those drones) every time. Colin reports in his interview with outgoing AT&L chief John Young that the Pentagon purchasing czar was miffed that the Air Force declined to retrofit their Predators with autonomous landing systems. He cites dozens of crashes that might have been avoided had the service embraced the system. Young's spokesman, Chris Isleib, later sent an email to reporters slightly changing the numbers. "Since 1994 the Air Force has procured 195 Predators. 65 have been lost due to Class A mishaps," he said. Isleib added that of the 65 mishaps, 36 percent are laid at the door of human error and "many of those attributable to ground station problems." About 15 percent of the total was destroyed during the landing phase, Isleib clarified in his email. The Army, on the other hand, typically uses ALS for their Warrior drones and has a lower casualty rate, Colin reports. Is this a direct causal relationship? I'm sure there are mitigating circumstances and opinions on the matter with some of the mishaps. But it seems to me a needless attempt to cling to the Red Scarf mentality of a service that's evolving more and more into a digital force of systems operators than the swashbuckling zoomies of yore -- and that's really not a bad thing at all.
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3D Robotics

Another autonomous blimp

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 1, 2009 at 10:15pm
Another autonomous blimp, this one clearly modeled closely on Blimpduino (right down to the same Lego parts for the vectoring servo--hey guys, how about a callout?) but using a PIC chip rather than Arduino's ATmega. Also a simple IR-based remote, rather than RC. Major DIY plus points--the Colorado State team who designed it built their own IR beacons. But because they built it on a breadboard rather than a custom PCB, they're way overweight for the envelope, hence all the extra party balloons!
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3-D on the cheap!

Posted by rad man on May 1, 2009 at 7:30pm
While searching on my second favorite blog site, I stumbled upon a commercial 3-D printer for under.......$70,000? nope $30,000? wrong again! $3,000? WRONG! for under $1,000 the average Joe can now have his or her own 3-D printer! Unlike traditional 3-D printers which melt layer after layer of expensive nylon the CupCake CNC machine extrudes layers of HDPE or ABS plastic! The only negative I see out of this machine is the extrusions are about 1/2 of a millimeter instead of .1 millimeters. Then again I would be willing to sacrifice a little bit of detail for a lot of savings! Now if any part of your UAV breaks then all you have to do is "print" a new one! here is the website to the wiki (www.wiki.makerbot.com) and to the store(www.store.makerbot.com). Also there is another website called "Thingiverse" (www.thingverse.com) which is basically a youtube for all the "things" people create in CAD programs! This project was inspired by a project for affordable printing called all machines a RepRap machines, but this machine is a RepStrap which means it can actually print out a RepRap machine. (www.RepRap.Org)IF THIS IS A RE-POST LET ME KNOW! ill remove this if it is.

3470638785_12ddbdc7a9_o.jpg

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Moderator

UAV Seagull 2200

Posted by Robert Krogh (hooks) on May 1, 2009 at 12:30pm
Now my Seagull 2200 are ready for first testflight. I have uploaded the ArduPilot_EasyStar_WP code on the board so I "hope" it can make a testflight so I can optimize here and there...The seagull 2200 is a very stabel mashine modified with a stronger motor and a bigger prob.

Offcause I will post opdate on the comming up testflight and changes on boardcode for this model. Hope to make some videodokumentation also.I have one problem with the pre test- I installed the FMA sensor just like instruction. But when I point the nose down the pitch also going down.. so I need to reverse the settings. I'm using code 2.0 and not the new 2.1How to do?
Find more videos like this on DIY Drones
Here is the solution:In the 2.0 code, try this:Reverse IR sensor-old code-return constrain((int)(((infrared0-511)*90)/max_ir),-60,60);new code-return -constrain((int)(((infrared0-511)*90)/max_ir),-60,60);Reverse IR sensor pitch-old code-return -constrain((int)(((infrared1-511)*90)/max_ir),-60,60);new code-return constrain((int)(((infrared1-511)*90)/max_ir),-60,60);Just reverse the sign in front of "constrain".
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UAV Playground 1.2 - An approach to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Posted by jaron on May 1, 2009 at 11:30am

The UAV Playground is a collection of software components I've written in Java. They extend the Processing Development Environment (PDE) with some functionality that can help you to simulate and test different aspects of UAVs. You can as well use the UAV Playground library outside of the PDE in any Java application.UAV Playground and all the Software it is based on are freely available. The distribution and the source code can be found on the Open Source project page at code.google.com/p/uavplayground.The whole project is a work in progress and will be extended as I work on the exploration of UAVs. I'd appreciate if you leave me a comment or even better contribute to the project.Features- object oriented- modular- extendable- freeHow to use it- install the Processing Development Environemt (PDE)- download the UAV Playground distribution and follow the installation instructions- [install the FlightGear Flight Simulator (optional)]- have a look at the sketches (examples) and browse the api documentation that is included in the jar fileA very basic example- connects to the flight simulator- displays the current altitude and airspeed

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The UAVsim example- controls the flight simulator via virtual joysticks or...- controls the flight simulator via a PID processor (basic autopilot)- displays various data

Additional examplesUAV Playground - NMEA to KMLUAV Playground 1.1- New GPS NMEA data import via a network connection to FlightGear- New GPS tracking in Google Earth via a HTTP connection to the UAV Playground

3689310658?profile=original

UAV Playground 1.2 [Update] (download)- Completely rewritten autopilot now supports waypoint navigation
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Solar Falcon first attempt with ArduPilot and Nunchuck Acc

Posted by dincer hepguler on May 1, 2009 at 5:30am

my first ground test with APv1 was full of problems. till last summer i am working on my hand made airframe. finished the plane and solar wing is connected and tested. system works well, i tested it for 55mins until my radio battery drained.system: 35 mhz 6 ch radio (because im planning to use 900mhz x-bees for telemetry and 2.4ghz video downlink), solar wing with ailerons, planned to use APv1 on throttle and rudder. stabilization on ailerons and elevator with a hand made system consisting of a Nunchuck accelerometer connected to another Arduino clone and a working software adapted from the work of Andrea Salvatore. first attempt with a Diecimila which worked well but clumsy and heavy. next try was with a Funnel IO which is very small but connections too weak, especially battery connector disconnects often. last try was with an old Ardupilot BetaV3 board used as an Arduino clone which proved as the best alternative.Apv1 connected, throttle on input1 rudder on input2 ctrl on ch5. APv1 software uploaded flawlessly by Arduino IDE.when ESC connected everything looks fine. power led is on, Mux led is ok when engaged via ch5, rudder moves when toggled, GPS lock led is solid within seconds.problem issues:1- when AP is engaged via ch5 rudder moves and throttle is on for a few turns and then spinner stops. when disengaged, problem persists, spinner stops after few turns although stick at full throttle position... possible cause: not enough power for brushless motor?.. although the solar panels are connected to support battery with 1.2Amps... not a problem when AP board was not in the system...2- loss of signal simulated by shutting off the radio. Mux led and status led is blinking. AP moves rudder and tries to apply some throttle, spinner is on for a few turns and stops. the elevator moves down immediately (that is weird because it is not connected to AP)... possible cause: rf intervention to receiver which has lost signal... thank god the plane is not in the air...any suggestions and help will be appreciated... i can provide some pics and video...
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Developer

ArduPilot: New Attiny FailSafe Firmware V1.6, now with RTL in case of R/C signal loss (Beta)

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on April 29, 2009 at 5:29pm
The latest ArduPilot Fail Safe firmware V1.6 includes a state of the art system to detected if we have glitches or bad signal, triggering the RTL and avoiding undesired "Remote Resets".How it works?Well, the first part is just a low pass filter that works only when switching to autopilot, this prevent undesired toggles to autopilot mode when the signals becomes "noisy" and also avoiding undesired resets (the system mistakenly thinks you are toggling the switch).The second parts is a "Valid Pulse Width Checker", this is a very simple code that will increment a counter every good pulse received, if the system receive 75 valid frames (by default) it will thrust the commands we send through the remote control, otherwise will trigger RTL, and reinforces the prevention of undesired "Remote Resets" caused by noise.Of course the latest code could be found in the same place as always, here.The Attiny has been tested only on ground with my 72mhz Futaba and two different receivers, after confirmation i will remove the beta tag, and i will try convince Nathan to flash it on the SparkFun boards, in the meantime you can try it with your AVR programmer. ;-)Whats next?Well right now I'm working on the new ArduPilot firmware code name "Hybrid", will support NMEA, SIRF , uBlox UBX and VENUS 10HZ GPS protocols, on the same code, and you can switch between them by just changing a single variable, bad news, only works on 328. =P
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