Author Topic: RC Quadcopter  (Read 11914 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline skillz21Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 311
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #25 on: February 12, 2016, 10:28:35 am »
Ok guys, i have so far been mind blown at how much people are willing to help me. OK so i did  a bit of research about RF modules they are cool and all but... i would need another arduino (or something similar) for that and that means more code. i was wandering whether i could use a Bluetooth module. is saw a video where someone changed the color of an led by writing in text on an app on their phone. is there any chance that i could do almost the same thing?( not exactly the same.) i want to make like an easier interface (like arrows instead of typing in text.) any app that i could do this with? in my opinion i think this will be much simpler if i could do it(would it not be?). anyway i am looking forward to hearing your advice about this!

Thanks! ;)
 

Offline Rerouter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4694
  • Country: au
  • Question Everything... Except This Statement
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #26 on: February 12, 2016, 10:52:08 am »
Work on one thing at a time... android phones is another language, but what you would likely have seen is an emulated com port through Bluetooth, after all Bluetooth is just wireless serial that can drop packets,

As for one or multiple arduinos, it comes down to how well you write it, No matter how you approach it, you will likely need a form of PID to keep the thing stable, now one thing to know is that the normal uno does not support floating point natively, so its slow to run, there are ways to run approximations much faster, but there is some heavier math behind it,

As for your inputs and outputs, like a previous poster said, get familar with the timers and counter peripherals on the micro, and let them do the heavy lifting,

My own attempt started on a due, simply because it was much faster,

In both cases (uno and due), the IMU and PID didnt fill or overload the single micro, but like many before me, i started to stall out from lack of not seeing immediate results infront of me,

I've attached what i had, not sure how much of it is useable as i abandoned it some time ago, but see if any is helpful, pretty sure i went a bit overkill on the self cal,
 

Offline skillz21Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 311
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #27 on: February 12, 2016, 11:31:02 am »
Work on one thing at a time... android phones is another language, but what you would likely have seen is an emulated com port through Bluetooth, after all Bluetooth is just wireless serial that can drop packets,

As for one or multiple arduinos, it comes down to how well you write it, No matter how you approach it, you will likely need a form of PID to keep the thing stable, now one thing to know is that the normal uno does not support floating point natively, so its slow to run, there are ways to run approximations much faster, but there is some heavier math behind it,

As for your inputs and outputs, like a previous poster said, get familar with the timers and counter peripherals on the micro, and let them do the heavy lifting,

My own attempt started on a due, simply because it was much faster,

In both cases (uno and due), the IMU and PID didnt fill or overload the single micro, but like many before me, i started to stall out from lack of not seeing immediate results infront of me,

I've attached what i had, not sure how much of it is useable as i abandoned it some time ago, but see if any is helpful, pretty sure i went a bit overkill on the self cal,
OK so why cant i just tell the arduino that is controlling the quadcopter to rise up one level when it receiver the serial data through the Bluetooth module?
 

Offline skillz21Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 311
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #28 on: February 12, 2016, 11:39:11 am »
Wait a sec... Just from memory, is a PWM pulse an ON/OFF pulse(similar to the one generated by a NE555? Or am i just stupid?
 

Online Mechatrommer

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11534
  • Country: my
  • reassessing directives...
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #29 on: February 12, 2016, 12:30:10 pm »
duh i guess what he meant a flowchart graphic based ide in an android smarphone, is there even a place like that in here? :palm:
Nature: Evolution and the Illusion of Randomness (Stephen L. Talbott): Its now indisputable that... organisms “expertise” contextualizes its genome, and its nonsense to say that these powers are under the control of the genome being contextualized - Barbara McClintock
 

Offline skillz21Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 311
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #30 on: February 12, 2016, 09:04:34 pm »
duh i guess what he meant a flowchart graphic based ide in an android smarphone, is there even a place like that in here? :palm:
excuse me? I don't understand. so do you mean that I can't get a graphical interface on an android phone? just clarifying my last question, so is a PWM pulse an ON/OFF pulse?
 

Offline bxh

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 32
  • Country: gb
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #31 on: February 12, 2016, 10:23:28 pm »
When you say you want to do it yourself, to what extent are you referring? Over the past few years I've worked on different components of a typical multicopter, starting with a DIY flight controller electronics and algorithms and moving through to the DIY ESC. I did it all for the experience, and definitely wouldn't recommend it if you just wanted to get something in the air.
 

Offline FreddyVictor

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 164
  • Country: gb
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #32 on: February 12, 2016, 10:27:35 pm »
if you want to start with simple elctronics, then this controller is effectively an arduino with gyro+accelerometer plus correct pins for ESC's, Receiver etc

this can be programmed using Arduino IDE and flashed the usual way (as Aduino Pro 16MHz 5v)
it's call MultiWii and there's alot of code available - not all good tho'  :-X

it's a good learning exercise and can be made to fly reasonably well.
It does have it's limitations which you will find out as you go along
 

Offline Audioguru

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1507
  • Country: ca
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #33 on: February 13, 2016, 12:06:04 am »
I bought a quadcopter for $25.00 and it has 6 gyros and includes the 2.4GHz RF remote controller and Li-Po battery. It flies fine. I does not have a camera.
I would not want to spend a couple of years designing and building one.
 

Offline skillz21Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 311
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #34 on: February 13, 2016, 01:35:18 am »
I did a bit of research on flight controllers, I have been really interested in the Openpilot cc3d. I watched a few videos on it. I saw once where a person had a  Taranis to control it. I had a look at it online and it was a bit costly ($50AUS minimum). My budget is around $30. I don't want to go over 35. any info on any flight controllers that I can use that I can buy for under $25?(Including controller, and I think it will take around $5 for the frame. I can make one with an Arduino, but the controller problem...
 

Offline skillz21Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 311
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #35 on: February 13, 2016, 02:03:02 am »
I bought a quadcopter for $25.00 and it has 6 gyros and includes the 2.4GHz RF remote controller and Li-Po battery. It flies fine. I does not have a camera.
I would not want to spend a couple of years designing and building one.
I have not found any quads for under $40 where i live. anyway, i do not want to buy one. the problem with quadcopters and helicopters that you buy is mainly the battery it rund out pretty fast( I know its only with some of them but with the ones i have bought, its always the same.) anyway the main point of me making this is that i can change the way it works anytime. and also the pleasure of it. i'm going to have to do this-> |O a few times through my build. but in the end it is so cool when you get to fly it and think, i built that!
 

Offline RobertBG

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 126
  • Country: us
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #36 on: February 13, 2016, 05:24:16 am »
There's been quite a bit of very good advice so far but I think you dont quite grasp how complex of a scratch build this can be ;) and I'm not trying to be a prick.

What I'd suggest is a kit like Flite Test sells for example,choose your parts,get it flying and then reverse engineer it in a sense.Build the ESC's,controller and so on.

This way you'll have a flying copter to compare and test each part on along the way and if one task is too much at the time you'll still have the other parts in  flight ;)
 

Offline Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #37 on: February 13, 2016, 05:32:27 am »
... just clarifying my last question, so is a PWM pulse an ON/OFF pulse?

Yes.

PWM - Pulse Width Modulation.  You just change the 'on' time - like this:



And, yes, it's the sort of thing the NE555 can do.
 

Offline FreddyVictor

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 164
  • Country: gb
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #38 on: February 13, 2016, 09:26:56 am »
I have not found any quads for under $40 where i live. anyway, i do not want to buy one. the problem with quadcopters and helicopters that you buy is mainly the battery it rund out pretty fast( I know its only with some of them but with the ones i have bought, its always the same.) anyway the main point of me making this is that i can change the way it works anytime. and also the pleasure of it. i'm going to have to do this-> |O a few times through my build. but in the end it is so cool when you get to fly it and think, i built that!

you need to just re-adjust your expectations here, you won't be able to build a quadcopter for $40 or less
the cost of 4 Electronic Speed controllers (ESCs) plus 4 motors plus frame plus all the other bits'n'pieces (battery, connectors, wire, Tx, Rx) needed will easily blow that budget
making your own always costs more ....
 

Offline crispy_tofu

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1124
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #39 on: February 14, 2016, 02:10:27 am »
you need to just re-adjust your expectations here, you won't be able to build a quadcopter for $40 or less
+1, you could probably only get toy-grade for that price...  :-[
 

Offline Teledog

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 194
  • Country: ca
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #40 on: February 15, 2016, 07:07:36 am »
Interesting threads..

Tried a DIY myself..printed out a quad on the 3D printer, got a controller, motors, ESCs & yada -yada ..
Gave up after it spontaneously(?) attacked me... several times ..(and bloody parts to prove it)

Know what's fun?
A CX-10!!
The dog goes crazy for it....won't hurt a flea..AND.. it's only ~$20
« Last Edit: February 15, 2016, 07:09:32 am by Teledog »
 

Online Mechatrommer

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11534
  • Country: my
  • reassessing directives...
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #41 on: February 15, 2016, 07:45:18 am »
Tried a DIY myself..printed out a quad on the 3D printer, got a controller, motors, ESCs & yada -yada ..
Gave up after it spontaneously(?) attacked me... several times ..(and bloody parts to prove it)
probably because that you bought a crappy controller, be it you code yourself, the quad may kills you, so you know the dirt and dust of building an controller algorithm..
Nature: Evolution and the Illusion of Randomness (Stephen L. Talbott): Its now indisputable that... organisms “expertise” contextualizes its genome, and its nonsense to say that these powers are under the control of the genome being contextualized - Barbara McClintock
 

Offline Kilrah

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 1852
  • Country: ch
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #42 on: February 15, 2016, 09:20:22 am »
My budget is around $30. I don't want to go over 35. any info on any flight controllers that I can use that I can buy for under $25?(Including controller

You're dreaming wildly there.

The cheapest you could do is something like using one of the Chinese toys that have open source code that has been written for it:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2278850

Still the quad with its remote will already near or exceed your budget, and you still need to buy the required programming and configuration interfaces, which while cheap will set you back another $10 at least.

Any custom build will shoot straight above $100.
 

Offline crispy_tofu

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1124
  • Country: au
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #43 on: February 15, 2016, 09:36:34 am »
Know what's fun?
A CX-10!!
The dog goes crazy for it....won't hurt a flea..AND.. it's only ~$20

Oh look, another person who flies the CX-10!  :) :-+
 

Offline Skimask

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1433
  • Country: us
Re: RC Quadcopter
« Reply #44 on: February 22, 2016, 03:02:43 am »

Oh look, another person who flies the CX-10!  :) :-+
Never seen one of those before.
Just ordered 2.
I didn't take it apart.
I turned it on.

The only stupid question is, well, most of them...

Save a fuse...Blow an electrician.
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf