Advice for UAV/Drone Project

Projects General Guidance
1

Ok I want to work on a UAV project. I currently have and fly a hubsan x4, drone about the size of a dessert plate. Its pretty nice and thats what I would shoot for, but with 2 very important refinements as I have come to find out from experience:

  1. Altitude lock or stabilization. The feature that tells the drone to stay at a certain altitude.

  2. GPS navigation. Id love to be able to give it coordinates so that it could lift up to a certain altitude, navigate to 2 or 3 points and then return home.

So I was advised ArduPilot but quickly learned it is no longer Arduino-compatible. As per their site, they have moved on to bigger and greener pastures in the realm of flight control and navigation.

I've done a little research and understand I need a flight controller, ESC to control rotor speed, a power distribution board and sensors that connect to the flight controller to feed it information.

I have found these options and wanted to clear up any misconceptions I might have as well as ask for suggestions as to what components to buy.

  1. I understand these are flight controller boards. From what i understand it can control up to 8 motors (i only need 4) and it has all the updated sensors (). But Im concerned because it states "it can be uploaded with the MultiWii project"? Does this mean I cant program it via Arduino IDE?

MULTIWII
http://www.robotshop.com/en/mwc-multiwii-flight-controller-uav-w--pins-arduino-compatible.html
http://www.robotshop.com/en/mwc-multiwii-flight-controller-uav-w--soldered-pins-arduino-compatible.html

and this one has a frsky telemetry inverter? Is that for the altitude control?

NAZE
http://www.robotshop.com/en/naze32-acro-multirotor-flight-controller.html

Finally there are the KK controllers like:

KK
http://www.robotshop.com/en/kk-black-board-flight-controller-kit-uav.html
http://www.robotshop.com/en/kk215-mini-multirotor-mini-flight-controller.html

  1. I found these ESC with connectors:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ABU63BS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A95RK4VGGKEOU

  2. Frame + FC + PDB
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CU322C8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2XF141M1BI6ZG

They all seem to have the MPU6050, the accelerometer and gyro sensors. But then I found this:

  1. Its a complete kit which has; MultiWii FC, GPS & BT Module

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-MultiWii-Flight-Controller-Bluetooth/dp/B00H7W7HPU?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_5&smid=A3OKQ1PMPIPWYS

  1. So with the GPS nav module like in the kit (#4), I wouldnt need the electronic compass module like:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UUSQ3SK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_9?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A28RI4FXFS5SV8

  2. In the end I also foud this one on Amazon:
    http://www.amazon.com/LHI-Controller-Side-Pin-Connector-ARDUPILOT/dp/B00YH1WPTM?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_10&smid=ABHM9R5FW478J

So my questions are, which items do I absolutely need?

  • ESC with connectors ($25 for 4)
  • PDB ($7)
  • flight controller ($25-multiwii, $20-naze, $35-kk,$37-lhm-ardupilot)
    which all total about $65-$69

or

-hobbypower kit for $61

And which flight controller would best fit my project?

2

I use the Naze board it can accommodate many rotor configurations up to 8 rotors.

it can be interfaced to a gps module.

I use mine on a quad which is flown aggressively for about 5 minutes and the gyros take some effort to topple with the latest version.

I know of none that perform altitude hold well.
At about 3 m height ultrasound works ok for autoland.
GPS is useless for this.

Barometric pressure works sort of ok at higher altitude.

These questions would be best asked on a quad/drone forum where the members have more experience.

Boards like the NAZE or 3D have had most of the work done, starting from scratch could be formidable,

Arduino with shields for magnetometer plus altitude plus gyro could be heavy.
Dedicated boards have everything on board.

Marciokoko:

  • flight controller ($25-multiwii, $20-naze, $35-kk,$37-lhm-ardupilot)

From memory the $20 NAZE does not have the magnetometer and barometer on board.
That option was around 32 per board last i looked.

Marciokoko:
and this one has a frsky telemetry inverter? Is that for the altitude control?

The telemetry transmitter is to receive telemetry from the drone to the transmitter, battery volts etc.

3

Can I move the thread?

  1. So I do need the board with sensors, the esc and the pdb?

  2. The fc would need the accelerometer, gyro and gps navigation module to navigate way points. But the barometer would for the altitude hold?

What's the magneto meter for?

4

Marciokoko:
Can I move the thread?

I meant that these questions are probably best asked on a different forum.
This forum is a good one to ask questions for arduino related problems not necessarily drones.

Marciokoko:
What's the magneto meter for?

Compass, magnetic direction.

Marciokoko:

  1. So I do need the board with sensors, the esc and the pdb?

ESC electronic speed control are for the motors.
They are seperate from the control board and are specified depending upon the motors you are using.

5

But do I still need the compass if I have gps?

6

Marciokoko:
But do I still need the compass if I have gps?

GPS gives position not direction.

If drone moves you can extrapolate direction from movement and following change of position.

From a fixed position you cannot 'point' it in a direction though.

7

Ok Im trying to decide between:

This first package:
http://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-MultiWii-Flight-Controller-Bluetooth/dp/B00H7W7HPU?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_8&smid=A3OKQ1PMPIPWYS

Which includes:

-Flight Controller Board (which is ATMEGA compatible)
-GPS Receiver & Nav Module (for waypoint navigation)
-BT Module (for radio communication I guess)

but would require:
-Barometer for altitude hold
-PDB (like the one included in the frame:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CU322C8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2XF141M1BI6ZG)
-ESC controllers (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B6OMX7G/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AGAPEEYYP9AEK)

========================

The second package:
http://www.amazon.com/LHI-Controller-Side-Pin-Connector-ARDUPILOT/dp/B00YH1WPTM?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_10&smid=ABHM9R5FW478J

which I understand brings the -GPS navigation module & receiver for waypoint navigtaion, right?

but would require:
-Barometer for altitude hold
-PDB
-ESC

========================

The third package:

I would need to add:
-GPS navigation module & receiver
-PDB (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UFK8VJ2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A37EFSP4QP9HL5)
-ESC

Im confused by the terminology but as far as I understand;

The first package & second packages have fc board with gps waypoint navigation and even bt radio communication (in the case of the hobbypower kit) but no barometer for altitude hold. And I would need the barometer/esc/pdb for both.

The third package has teh barometer hold but no gps waypoint navigation.

Any recommended uav drone forums?

8

Mission Planner does still work with arduino. I had a Mega ADK plugged in when I brought up Mission planner and it loaded the code into the Mega.

Lidar is in high demand now and is excellent in altitude hold up to about 150 meters and 40 meters over water. There is a waiting list but you can pre order. About $250 USD.

Sonar is another way but distance is much less.

Barometer is fair but you can have problems with changing weather conditions.

Without GPS you can't have waypoints easily.

I have found the ArduPilot for about $30 USD. For another $20 you can add GPS. The ArduPilot has all the other sensors and can be connected to other things like Sonar , Lidar, retractable landing gear, and other.

PixHawk is like the Arduino also. The libraries can be found on GitHub for all and more.

Mission Planner or APMPlanner2 can load the latest firmware and help you to configure your drone if using the ArduPilot or PixHawk. ArduPilot latest version was 2.8.

http://copter.ardupilot.org/ardupilot/index.html is a link to a lot of good information and is now 100% open source.

9

Depending on your GPS altitude is not fine enough for flying close to the ground without crashing. some units are as much as 5 meters in error while some have higher resolution maybe a meter, and fine movement is not detected quick enough so inertia, compass and gyro are all essential to detect fine movement.

The barometer should be covered with breathable foam, gauze or something to work like a windscreen to keep air turbulents for giving you bad readings.

By adding a distance to ground measurement you can insure your altitude hold and also this can be used to keep you within the law concerning the maximum altitude giving you a warning when you are flying too high.

Currently, I have limited experience with a Blade 350 and I am hot real happy with the controller or stability and the flight time is way too small.

I will be buying several 250 RTF racers with FPV very soon and I will be ordering the parts to build a large Hexacopter somewhere between 650 and 1000. Working on the thrust to weight, power consumption, prop size and pitch, center of gravity, picking out the most perfect fit of controls, gimbals, cameras, radio transceivers, software and batteries requires a lot of research and calculations. I think I can build something with as much as a hour of flight time. Plans are for 4K video, Flir camera and autonomous flight.

I know the work has been done but the Pricing is way out of line for me. I think I can build the ultimate for twice the cost of the FLIR camera with foldable arms and retractable landing skids.

The FLIR uses are almost unlimited but the resolution is poor for my pocket book. 640x480 should be good for seeking poachers, predators, wild hogs, looking for sales leads in selling roofing, siding and insulation, and for fire and rescue efforts.

10

Nasa:
Lidar is in high demand now and is excellent in altitude hold up to about 150 meters and 40 meters over water. There is a waiting list but you can pre order. About $250 USD.

Can you say where from please ?
I ordered one 2 yrs ago and they are still out of stock.