Comments

• 

  Michael Johnston February 18, 2013 at 7:42pm

  Not really what you are after with a case - hence posting here rather than on your other thread.  Would a backpack be a part solution?

  http://vimeo.com/57026747   

  Plenty of FPV pilots use backpacks - some really tidy designs. such as this recent one.

  http://forums.openpilot.org/topic/17944-13ghz-backpack-ground-stati...

  I'm using a case for my FPV ground station but don't intend to put the copter in it.

  MJ
• Tim Wilkin February 17, 2013 at 4:28pm

  Mmm... that's a potential venue with good scenery for our next meet up... might be a bit windy, but perhaps an early morning start might give us some stable air?
• 

  Michael Johnston February 15, 2013 at 1:15am

  I was flying Arducopter 2.9.1 last weekend Tim - on APM2 with on-board Mtek GPS.

  Nothing poorer / better to my untrained eye..... and the copter did come back. The functions required of the machine may not have been all that onerous.

  MJ
• Tim Wilkin February 14, 2013 at 11:22pm

  Hey Dave (A),

  Did you end up trying 2.9 firmware yet? How did it go with the new vibration damping foam?

  Has anyone else upgraded yet and if so, what are your experiences?
• Developer

  Philip February 11, 2013 at 4:57pm

  Hi All, 

        a word of warning if anyone wants to try the Hobby-king/cirrus All in one board

  I tried this out, first flight was great, RTL worked well, moved it to a brand new Air-frame (Bixler 2), and launched with it set to manual mode.

  5 seconds after launch, all control surfaces went to full deflection, throttle went to full, and the aircraft hit the deck hard.

  Solution, I have a new Bixler, and a 3D robotics Ardupilot 2.5 (genuine) to put in it.

  I will also be running a physical bypass on the RC gear to ensure I have full manual control if required for the next test flight.

  Unfortunately due to the extent of the damage, I cannot do a real investigation to find out what caused the issue, if anyone has seen this sort of issue as well, let us know, so we can trace it down.

  looked to me like the MPU has reset itself, watchdog maybe?

  If it is a fail-safe that is programmed, other than the full throttle thing, it worked well to ensure the aircraft did not run away :)

  Phil

  Ballarat
• Adric Landman February 11, 2013 at 2:16am

  Thanks guys for organising this I had a great time.  It was great to learn from you guys and hopefully I will be flying next time I see you all again. 
• 

  Michael Johnston February 10, 2013 at 7:55pm

  Good success and learning yesterday guys.

  With respect to the next challenge.... I'm working on straight down aerial photography as the next project with the Flamewheel quad.  A handy how-to intro for UAV photography can be found at

  http://conservationdrones.org/hardware/

  scroll down to the section about cameras.

  Stitching of photos can be undertaken using dronemapper or Microsoft ICE amongst others.

  And Tim - the link to the landing gear is

  http://www.centuryheli.com/products/productdetail.htm?prtnm=HWC2008...

  MJ
• Tim Wilkin February 9, 2013 at 7:56pm

  So, just back in from the field where the 2nd Melbourne group fly-in was held at Deakin Uni's Burwood campus...

  We had 9 along for the fun, of which 3 were my colleagues/students. It was good to meet new faces (Matt, Adric and Karl) and catch up with David A and Michael again.

  The objective for the day was autonomous flight and we had several copters achieve this goal, so well done to the team. We learned a lot from the experience, including a few interesting things about what happens when you mix a quadcopter, a 25 kph gusty wind and autonomy. Thankfully everyone took a flying quad home, although there was some field work for 2 quads. Dave provided what I think was the most spectacular crash (a cartwheel) from loiter mode that went awry (we're still trying to work out what caused it). What was was so amazing was that the only damage was a broken prop... that 3DR version C frame is "robust"!

  We did manage to capture some video from the day, including a jelly-like capture from one of my auto flights. My micro-HD video just isn't up to the vibrations put out by the j-drones frame/motor setup.

  On that note though, I had previously had a lot of problems with loiter/alt-hold which my investigation put down to vibration. Some decent damping (in the form of earplugs deployed as APM mounts) and performance of APM 1 (rev 1.6) running 2.8.3 firmware (iirc) was quite impressive. In a gusty wind it was able to hold a loiter inside a 3m radius waypoint for some time. If you haven't set up your APM with vibration damping, I highly recommend it!

  We also had a quick discussion at the conclusion of the day and the aim of the next meetup will be aerial photography/vision/fpv and sometime around mid-march... more details to come.

  Thanks to everyone that came today and made it a very enjoyable day and congratulations to those (including me) that achieved their first fully autonomous mission with their copter.
• Tim Wilkin February 2, 2013 at 7:49pm

  I think it's definitely the Prahran area... I worked there for several years and you got used to the "types" that floated in and out.

  Perhaps it's a sign though, that people are so blaze to new tech now that someone holding an over-sized electric egg beater and grass cutter is just "normal"?
• 

  Phil Gordon February 2, 2013 at 4:01pm

  True Dave. Lived in Prahran for years mate so I know all about the nature of people.