i see. A quadcopter is great
i see. A quadcopter is great for taking photos. Some one on diydrones has made one.
I can’t remember what its
I can’t remember what its called, but theres a really intense UAV competition using helicopter, gps waypoints and navigation. I’ll look around and see if I can find it again, but it might be able to give you some ideas.
This project is very
This project is very awesome! I’ve been silently stalking it for a while, but I just decided to speak up. I’ve very excited to see this project in action and I must say, it’s very inspirational. Keep up the good work, and the excellent video updates! 
ok updated and yes i hit the
ok updated and yes i hit the edit button multiple times so you may get multiple emails but i needed to fix some typos.
Absolutely Cool
I have been wanting to do a UAV myself and like your video documentation of the project. Keep up the good work. I saw another UAV project recently where the the designer used (of all things) a Wii controller that had high res accererometers and gyros in it. He said that the controller was cheaper than buying the individual sensors.
yes i have seen many use
yes i have seen many use those gyros. They are cheaper than buying indivual ones at like sparkfun.
I love UAV projects! They
I love UAV projects! They are so beautiful and excitting things! Do you use some filtering algorithm (like Kalman filtering) ?
I’m not sure with the
I’m not sure with the filtering, but you can check out the code at http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/ which is open source. Did not see use of kalman filter the 1min i browsed it now. Anyhow, the guy who wrote most of the code has also demostrated use of kalman filter on the DIY-Drones webpage at some earlier point.
Neat UAV!
Great UAV project! Hope you have time to work on it once the semester is done. I was looking into these myself, before I got smitten by the DIY CNC machine bug. There’s more on DIY Drones now than there was in July-August when I was researching an EasyStar UAV, so maybe someday the EasyStar UAV will be within even my abilities. Great Project! -John
Great idea!
But can you make a video of it flying
yes, i had put the idea in
yes, i had put the idea in the closest around that time and now what they are doing is really great. I am going to re start this project. Trust me i wont give up till it works.
I am definitely looking
The videos are also great. Seeing others’ configurations, I get a better idea what I might need to build my own. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more! Once I have a hobby budget again for an EasyStar and an AMA membership I’d like to get out to the Whittier Narrows RC airfield (CA, USA) and try to fly something with a payload. It’s great to see LMR in the air. -John
ps – When I was plotting my own, I figured that autonomous operation wouldn’t be too easy. I planned to learn to fly, then hook up the sensors to a data logger, and fly the plane while logging the control telemetry to the servos and the sensor telemetry from the sensors. By observing correlations and typical ranges that the sensors went through, I’d have a better idea of how to write the control algorithms. Then I’d probably cheat and copy someone else’s control code and tweak the parameters to match my sensor observations. I think I read on this page that neither of the two crashes were due to the control system, but once the EasyStar is flying again, it might help to observe the sensors first before turning control over to the autopilot. Just my 2¢.
the crash was not due to the
the crash was not due to the autopilot because luckily it wasnt in. I was just controlling it normally. What we came to conclusion is that the motor needs to be restrained more. The motor, we believe, went into the plane on take off.
Side note: have you heard about the new arduMega and the imu sensors they will be using? The ardumega is really going to be a beast. They do have the arduimu sensor but it isnt made for the ardupilot. So Early next year they are making a sensor for the ardupilot, a imu version. I think i will upgrade to this in the future when it comes out. Plus they have this guy doing a complete rewrite of the code and making it more understandable with more notes. - we do need lmr in the air.
Ardumega pilot sounds like a big board
ArduMega pilot sounds nifty, but hopefully it’s smaller than the full-size arduino Mega, or it will fit in only the largest planes (maybe I should google the arduMega before I speculate on the size…). I haven’t heard about the new sensors – I just noticed lots of new posts. One of the autopilots I researched was the Paparazzi pilot – with an ARM-12 processor I think, which allowed more complex algorithms, and a separate Atmel or ARM microprocessor for interfacing with the GPS (so that the real-time systems wouldn’t be bogged down parsing GPS text). I think the Paparazzi must be overkill for most hobbyists though. For the Mega, the IMU must require some more brains than the thermopiles (and won’t require a clean horizon, which is good for folks who have hills and mountains), so it looks like the ArduMega will be smarter than the ardupilot. With the need for real-time processing, I wonder if autopilot applications would be a great XMOS project.