Blog Posts Across DIY Drones

SMD BlimpDuino board, assembled

All the necessary components for the… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on July 4, 2008 at 10:24pm — 1 Comment

New Lego Mindstorms NXT servo controller board

As cool as our Lego Mindstorms… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on July 4, 2008 at 4:30pm — No Comments

C Compiler for Parallax Propeller Chip

The BASIC Stamp and Arduino aren't the only microcontrollers out there. The… Continue

Posted by James Ross on July 3, 2008 at 4:11pm — 2 Comments

Stanford quadcopters rock!

We've enjoyed watching the development of Stanford's…

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Posted by Chris Anderson on July 3, 2008 at 1:00pm — 3 Comments

Award Winners from the 2008 AUVSI Competition

Joe Brennan, the com… Continue

Posted by James Ross on July 3, 2008 at 6:11am — 1 Comment

2008 AUVSI UAS Student Competition

The Sixth Annual Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition was held on June 18-22, 2008 (see competition website). There hasn't been much buzz generated on the internet about the competiti… Continue

Posted by James Ross on July 2, 2008 at 6:12pm — 1 Comment

Arduino GPS shield with SD card logging.

I saw this yesterday over on the Make blog. Adafruit has come out with a new Arduino shield which looks excellent for UAV usage. The shield has support for several gps modules, and can log data to an SD card.

Even with the GPS and SD card, there are still 5 digital and 5 analog IO op… Continue

Posted by Cory on July 1, 2008 at 7:37am — 1 Comment

Package galore, VPL, ideas, and thanks

No, i didn't look down, when i said that, i promise!

Yeah, that was waiting for me when i got home friday night. I've been getting atleast a package a day now, with more to come. In one of those packages, was a box. In this box, from Electronics Goldmine, had this->

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Posted by Genesis Factor on June 30, 2008 at 8:25pm — 4 Comments

UAV videos on Engineering TV

Engineering TV has a bunch of UAV episodes up, including the Berkeley Aerobot Team and the Hybrid Systems Lab a…

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Posted by Chris Anderson on June 30, 2008 at 6:24pm — No Comments

Diy Drones at Maker Faire! (on popsci.com)

Yes I know we (as in all of you guys) were there but popsci.com happens to have a picture of a diy drone at Maker Faire so enjoy! Continue

Posted by rad man on June 29, 2008 at 6:15pm — 5 Comments

Most Bang for Buck?

Your opinion is welcome... Regarding our common goal of getting UAVs into the air doing the job they are tasked to do, what starter kit provides the most bang for the buck? Basic Stamp (usb) or Ardunio Starter Pack? Did anyone start with either of these two setups? Were they worth it? Were the included 'projects' teach you anything worth while? Do you recommend one over the other? Is there another starter kit that you'd recommend instead of either of these keeping around the $80.00usd range?… Continue

Posted by Brian on June 29, 2008 at 2:33pm — 2 Comments

Our next ArduPilot: the dual-core ArduPilot Pro!

Our main entry-level… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 28, 2008 at 8:00pm — 9 Comments

The problem with neural networks

This, from the always interesting Jack Crossfire blog, is the smartest observation on neural networks and genetic algorithms I've seen in ages. Excerpt: "In our last experience with neural network feedback, the feedback always headed towards 0. That one used straight back propagation to predict cyclic from attitude change. That fiasco has cursed all future investments in the radically different genetic approach. The genetic ap… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 25, 2008 at 10:44am — 3 Comments

CropCam user pushes for FAA exemptions

Farmer Uses Unmanned Eye in the Sky to Maximize Crops… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 25, 2008 at 8:00am — 12 Comments

First boot, and first problems lol

My computer has booted up, and is running Win2000 (ram restrictions made it the OS of choice, XP can be used, but maybe later, and with some trimming) and i will be working on servo control and figuring out why my usb decided to reboot the computer when i plugged in the Parallax Servo Controller. Yeah, i'm having issues with the drivers as the Boser site doesn't seem to like linking things. I have a picture of first boot i need to upload on photobucket, as well as a picture of the computer. I wa… Continue

Posted by Genesis Factor on June 24, 2008 at 11:00pm — 5 Comments

Materials list and basic Plan of Action

In one fell swoop i've bought almost everything i need for this project. Hoorah! This means its time to post because, well, too many people are in the dark. Since i already did the Goals List in the last one, this will be the materials list This plane will use solid wireless broadband to accomplish the goals of flight control uplink and video and sensor output downlink There will be no receiver. The reason for this is that i will be well out of range of most, if not all radio transmitters. If i… Continue

Posted by Genesis Factor on June 24, 2008 at 10:30am — 8 Comments

Autopilot Board

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Posted by Achal Agrawal on June 24, 2008 at 6:40am — 9 Comments

Microsoft Virtual Earth now accepting DIY aerial imagery

Cool news from Microsoft: its Google Earth competitor, Vir… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 23, 2008 at 8:52pm — 9 Comments

Is GPS good enough for altitude hold?

In our quest to create the simplest and cheapest autopilot available, we're debating whet… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 22, 2008 at 11:00am — 12 Comments

UAVs for profit.......or development

As many of you know, the price of commercial UAVs are through the roof . Right now is a great time to sell your uavs. They're cheaper than commercial uavs so they will sell easily to anyone who wants a UAV. The point I am trying to make is not for prophit but for devlopement. So we can make bigger, better, and more powerful UAVs. Continue

Posted by rad man on June 22, 2008 at 7:30am — 7 Comments

XBee price increase

XBee Pros have been raised from $32 to $36. Feel like a fool for not buying more at $32, although the direct store still has some. Still have 2 $32 modules from last year. The higher priced model is the XBee ZB ZigBee PRO Series 2 supporting "more dense mesh networks". Maybe it even has Techron to clean your speed controller. In 5 years these obsolete modules will be $65. Should buy some paperclips. The next bull market is paperclips I tell U. The good news is a new 900Mhz module has appeared… Continue

Posted by Jack Crossfire on June 21, 2008 at 5:55pm — 1 Comment

Review: new Arduino Nano board

Gravitech has now released a new Arduino board,… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 21, 2008 at 4:30pm — 4 Comments

Its been 8 months since my last post and i'm back to UAVs again. this time i have project funding, s…

Its been 8 months since my last post and i'm back to UAVs again. this time i have project funding, so money will not be as big of a project halter as it was with the last one. I am still learning Stamp BASIC programming. I've spent my time learning to fly the heli though. I intend to use a propellor board as my heli's main processor. However, the Prop board leaves a lot lacking. I am into SBCs and big computer calculations, not these microprocessor mini codes. Therefore, when i won a nice Boser… Continue

Posted by Genesis Factor on June 21, 2008 at 12:02am — 3 Comments

How can we make IR beacons with unique IDs for Blimpduino?

Jordi and I are slightly stuck at the last part of our… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 20, 2008 at 10:30am — 20 Comments

Colored diagrams of Icarus

Maybe this will help with the visualization process Red = propellers Blue = Electric motors Yellow = Flight surfaces Gold = Flight control surfaces Light Gray = Helium Envelope Dark Gray = Cradle, Electronics houseing, and Hull Green = Cameras Top View

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Posted by Jake Lancaster on June 17, 2008 at 10:22am — No Comments

best way to read a servo signal on arduino

the atmega168 on the arduino has a timer1 which has input capture capability (see this application note and datasheet for atmega168 for details). using it, it's possible to do the pulse timing in completly in hardware (no errors, no jitter), and having a interupt readout the measured time. here's the code: unsigned int serinp[8]; //servo… Continue

Posted by quix-fz on June 17, 2008 at 6:20am — No Comments

UAV Snipers

Saw a post to this on John Robbs blog that is now funded by DARPA. The white paper pdf that Sagetech published on this can be found here. Continue

Posted by Richard on June 17, 2008 at 3:56am — 3 Comments

Icarus designs

Top View

Front View

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Posted by Jake Lancaster on June 16, 2008 at 9:50pm — 2 Comments

Perhaps I spoke too soon about the iPhone and UAVs

Command a system of UAVs remotely from an iPhone's web browser, regardless of what…

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Posted by Chris Anderson on June 16, 2008 at 1:00pm — 5 Comments

simple VTOL airplane with vectored thrust

I just ran across this on Yann LeCun's blog - Yann is a professor of mathematics at NYU, a leading authority on neural networks, and an R/C enthusiast. This is a conventional airframe with two sets of vectored motors (similar to what we're doing with the blimps). Yann reports that two rotors turn clockwise and two counter-clockwise on a diagonal. Stabilization and control is accomplished with a combination of conventional gyros and channe… Continue

Posted by Howard Gordon on June 16, 2008 at 10:00am — 2 Comments

Icarus

Hi Well, this post is about a pet project i've been cooking up in my head for the past few months, but have lacked the tech knowledge on how to go about it much more than a few diagrams on the computer and my own imagination. What i've been wanting to build is a hybrid of a semi-rigid blimp and helicopter, with a long length of flight time, good manueveribility, but with speed similar to a RC plane. My first idea was a blimp with their long flight times since very little power is needed to keep… Continue

Posted by Jake Lancaster on June 15, 2008 at 7:30pm — 4 Comments

A beginners code for autopilot: simple PID and sensor inputs

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Posted by Geetesh Dubey on June 15, 2008 at 10:27am — 6 Comments

How to pull a 50g turn at 300mph and not lose speed

this is a polar cord file of three different airfoils , SD6062 7.5%,RG15 7% and FX791217 operating with a 7.5 in cord at 300mph the FX is the clear winner Continue

Posted by wayne garris on June 13, 2008 at 10:00pm — 20 Comments

ArduPilot: New Thermopile Boards!

Those of you following along with the… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 13, 2008 at 10:00pm — 19 Comments

New version of FMA Co-Pilot system coming

FMA just announced that a new version of their FS8 flight stabilization system (this is the thermopile-based Co-Pilot integrated into a RC receiver) is coming in the fall. No details on what will be different about the new version. In the meantime, you can buy the old version (FS8CPI) while supplies last for $149.95. Call the FMA Sales line at 800-343-2934 (phone orders only). Picture of the old one follows:… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 13, 2008 at 7:28am — 1 Comment

How to get a COA

well the best way is to find a university interested in uav research , and make your self available to do demos, you usually have to foot the bill yourself but its a great foot in the door. also call your local government services . the trick is to get in with a major university or a governmental agency . after that its really between them and the FAA .but one thing everyone has to understand is that this is serious stuff , our A-3 retails for $75,000 . every time i fly i understand that peoples… Continue

Posted by wayne garris on June 12, 2008 at 4:39pm — 15 Comments

UAV damage tolerance

in case this hasn't made the rounds: damage tolerance Continue

Posted by Aaron Weinstein on June 12, 2008 at 2:00pm — 5 Comments

So much for the iPhone Autopilot

Engadget points out that the iPhone developer SDK terms of service ban the use of it for "autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft...".

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Posted by Chris Anderson on June 12, 2008 at 9:55am — 2 Comments

DIY Drones in the San Diego Union Tribune

A big story today in San Diego's newspaper about DIY Drones at the AUVSI conference. Excerpt follows: "'Do-it-yourself drones' create buzz at S.D. convention … Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 11, 2008 at 6:30pm — 10 Comments

RoboGames this weekend in San Francisco

This weekend RoboGames returns to the Bay Area. It describes itself this way:

"RoboGames is the world's largest open robot competition (even the Guinness Book of World Records says so!) We invite the best minds from around the world to compe…

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Posted by Chris Anderson on June 11, 2008 at 7:41am — No Comments

Five things I learned at AUVSI today

Wandering the amazing show floor at AUVSI in San Diego and talking to engineers there today with Jordi (s… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 10, 2008 at 10:30pm — 6 Comments

New BlimpDuino board, now surface mount and RC compatible

The DIY Drones autopilot board factory is in full swing. We've got another cool board for… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 9, 2008 at 7:30pm — 9 Comments

first blimp concept

I'm trying to create a blimp with ~50" envelope that can follow a moving target (a person) in a large open area with presumedly standing air conditions. going to plan this around the arduino board Initial worries are: -the velocity of the target (this can be controlled to some degree, ie: area has distractions) -lag time of blimp will play a big part. Am thinking of integrating a buffer zone around target. -tracking system. I'd like to use active RFID (… Continue

Posted by Aaron Weinstein on June 9, 2008 at 3:30pm — 4 Comments

A simple demo of how to read RC signals and drive servos with Arduino

Most autopilots have the ability to read signals from a RC receiver and drive servos. For instance, in the case of ArduPilot, we read the current throttle setting when the autopilot is engaged (so we can maintain that setting, although we'll later nudge it up and down to maintain altitude) and we drive the rudder servo and ESC. In the case of BlimpDuino in RC mode, we read the throttle and left/right commands from the RC receiver and translate them into commands to the motor drivers (the vectori… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 8, 2008 at 9:30pm — 12 Comments

Introducing the All-in-One Mux Servo Controller board... By Me

Due to my last failure with the MUX V2, i publish the complete and improved version of my Open Sou… Continue

Posted by jordi on June 8, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

How to hack the PPM signal from any receiver (Futaba) with Arduino

Intercept the PPM signal is the best way to obtain all the channel… Continue

Posted by jordi on June 8, 2008 at 1:12pm — 3 Comments

How do you set up a gps navigation system for a UAV?

what i was trying to do was to put some sort of transmitter inside my plane, and while in flight, it would transmitt my UAV's position to some sort of monitor which would show its position on the map. this way i would know exactly where i am while flying by a FPV( First Person Viewing sys.) or something similar. hope this clarifies my system description. if you know how to set this up, please help, thanks Continue

Posted by Tom Sozzi on June 7, 2008 at 6:14pm — 1 Comment

New ArduPilot boards

We're making good progress on… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 6, 2008 at 3:00pm — 9 Comments

Indigenous autopilot using AVR atmega16...from a rookie pov..hehe..

im here trying to make my own autopilot using an AVR atmega16..shhh its slow cuz many ppl out there r using least 32mhz... but as a beginner i really cant afford anythin else...i hav am collecting the stuff but i was wondering....the IMU i hav spills out all readings including temperatures....what r these temp. for?...do i need them to make the autopilot....and if any1 has any suggestions regarding a KALMAN FILTER...cuz i am going to apply a kalmafilter to each and evry reading 1 by 1...s… Continue

Posted by Geetesh Dubey on June 6, 2008 at 1:38pm — 5 Comments

Twin motor setup

I've been contemplating about different platforms that could be used that, to me, seem a little more UAV'ish, but I've noticed that I have not ran across any twin motor setups within this site. I've poked around quite a bit, but certainly have not read every page posted. Is there a reason for not utilizing twin setups? Is it simply a matter of scale and payload to flight-time payoff? It seems to me that a few very good possible setups include: OV-10 Bronco http://www.nitroplanes.com/yetwenovb… Continue

Posted by Brian on June 3, 2008 at 8:30pm — 5 Comments

New BlimpDuino test platform (now with RC!)

After I added… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 1, 2008 at 11:30pm — 5 Comments

ArduPilot: first board built

We've got the physical… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 1, 2008 at 7:30pm — 20 Comments

Gyro versus IR

Hello All, I'm definitely a beginner here and have not got much beyond tossing my EP plane into the air with cameras, but hey you got to start somewhere. Tons of ideas, but not much physical work. I first stumbled across this site while I was on assignment in PR. I found a lot of cool sites regarding homebuilt or armature built UAVs, this one is the best! Since November I've frequented this site often, reading and learning. I'm excite about the new board that Chris has posted information on and… Continue

Posted by Brian on June 1, 2008 at 1:30pm — 9 Comments

uBlox5 the enabling technology

uBlox 5 is an enabling technology as far as navigation is concerned. We're going to see amazing things in cheap autonomous rotorcraft because of it. Optical flow may actually be knocked out by uBlox5 & the former complexity required to damp velocities is gone. Have 2 videos of the uBlox 5 controlling position in the wind. This is of course, totally electronic stabilization without flybar.

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Posted by Jack Crossfire on June 1, 2008 at 1:30am — 3 Comments

PID Controller In Layman's Terms

Don't let that image intimidate you. It's not that bad! I was s… Continue

Posted by James Ross on May 28, 2008 at 9:57pm — 10 Comments

Unmanned Planes to Explore Hurricanes (USA Today)

Adding on to work documented by Chris here, check out today's article in USA Today entitled Unmanned Planes to Explore Hurricanes. Credits: USA Today and NOAA. A few key quotes (some links added)... "It's going to be a revolution in earth system monitoring," said… Continue

Posted by Ben Truscello on May 27, 2008 at 7:00pm — 3 Comments

How to add vectoring thrusters to a blimp

As those who have been following along with our "…

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Posted by Chris Anderson on May 26, 2008 at 10:00pm — 8 Comments

Has anyone here successfully built and flown a Paparazzi autopilot?

Judging from this thread, Paparazzi is a complete nightmare to implement, despite the new availability of pre-built boards. The insistence that it has to run under Linux doesn't help. I have huge respect for the technical accomplishments of the Paparazzi team, but it sounds like some all-important hand-holding for regular folks has been lost along the way. [UPDAT… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 25, 2008 at 1:30pm — 8 Comments

Good news on the regulatory front--and a lot of questions

Dave Perry from UNAV writes in with some news: "UNAV has… Continue

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 25, 2008 at 9:30am — 9 Comments