I have been wanting to make an arduino controlled foam aeroplane. It would be controlled by 2 joysticks and a few buttons. However i do not have a way of transmitting information from one arduino to the other.
I will like to fly my plane from my bedroom ACROSS TOWN meaning the transmitter and receiver would need to have a mighty range (town is about 4 roads away). It needs to be able to transmit information like, button 1 pressed, joystick value ... and the other arduino will need to pick up the data and tell the plane to go left, right etc.
It will NOT be communicating in line of sight as well. I live in a BUSY BUSY city so remember that to.
I am only 14 and im not a programming genius so bare that in mind when answering my query. I dont mind spending a decent amount (eg. Max £150) but i would like the cheapest option - Im not rich. Remember, i would like to keep things as SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. Make sure the terms you use aren't to complicated otherwise i will struggle to understand you.
Thankyou for reading my post, I am looking forward to your answers,
Michael
I will like to fly my plane from my bedroom ACROSS TOWN meaning the transmitter and receiver would need to have a mighty range (town is about 4 roads away).
Real numbers work way better than "mighty".
In some towns in America, 4 roads away is about 1000 feet. In others, 4 roads away might be 20 miles.
It will NOT be communicating in line of sight as well.
Trees, wooden buildings, and concrete buildings all result in different amounts of attenuation of the signal. "Not line of sight" tells us practically nothing.
I live in a BUSY BUSY city so remember that to.
I see. So, the buildings, trees, etc. keep moving. I'll try to remember that.
I dont mind if its legal or not, it should be legal though, but dont worry I wont go aroung harming people. Ill make sure that my plane is well out of the way of people.
DMKL:
I dont mind if its legal or not, it should be legal though, but dont worry I wont go aroung harming people. Ill make sure that my plane is well out of the way of people.
In the US, it is illegal to operate a remote control vehicle if you can not see it.
What, exactly, will the Arduino be doing that can not be done with a standard remote control?
Admin needs to close this thread as what the op is proposing is illegal in so many ways. What we (the RC community) don't need is another idiot causing bad press.
To the OP - read up on the CAA rules about not flying line of site, proximity to buildings and people and congested areas
Again read the CAA rules and regulations. What you are doing is illegal and you (or your parents if a minor) will be fined and could face a possible prison sentence
Theres a big hill in my park (its more of a field to be honest). Ill sit on top of the hill and fly it around the field. There are many many thick tress though but ill still be able to see my plane.
There will be alot of electrical inteference because of the buildings around the field(eg. 4g, radio, WifI) so bear that in mind. And ill now be flying it over about 0.5 miles though (Its a big field) because i will be now flying it in the field.
Just how do you intend to get that data to you? Don't expect the same radios that can transmit a few bytes of data from the Arduino to the airplane (or the Arduino on the airplane) to be able to stream video data, too.
So I would probably say that you are trying to tackle too much too soon.
My suggestion would be to set a series of smaller goals on the way to your end goal.
For example, play around with some rx and tx units (I have been working with NRF24L01+), get communications working, and then try to control a plane in a small setting. It is much easier to increase range if you already have a working platform.
No offence im not a thicko,
My whole fpv system is completely different and is not using the arduino.
My actual question was that i needed to send information between two arduinos over a 0.75mile radius without my plane being in a line of sight. And there would also be lots of electrical imteference (eg. 4g connections, radio signals, WiFi etc. because the area around the field i plan on flying my plane in is surrounded by many brick houses.
The art in giving a good answer requires you to read the whole thread properly.
Yh i have experimented. I just cant find a suitable module for what I now want to do, thats why I came in to this forum hoping that someome may know of a good module or how I could accomplish my goal.
No offence, as much i your trying to help (I do appreciate it), i didnt come here for a brainy guy to tell me the law. :
you should look at the ardupilot project and those that linked to or followed it, though primarily used as a flight controller for multirotors, the project also covered waypoint, IMU, two way command and telemetry etc
You need radio modules that will operate over a legally-approved frequency for model control, which likely means 2.4GHz or 35MHz. I don't know of any off-the-shelf modules that you can use with an Arduino. Something to consider - there's a standard of RF modules that plug into a range of RC transmitters called JR Transmitter RF Modules; you could try researching those and see if it's possible to interface one to the transmitting Arduino. You can then use a matching serial receiver on the model to get the signal data out. This if how the flight controllers for multi-rotors work.
Now, that all being said-and-done, there are the practicalities of achieving controlled flight. Without some degree of sophisticated flight controller (think GPS, magnetometer and 3-axis gyro), it's really hard to achieve autonomously controlled flight. When we're flying standard RC using a transmitter, we're constantly correcting for the conditions and the flight of the model. Any control system needs to have low-latency, in order to keep a model stable in flight. Then, at some point, you've got to land, which is the trickiest aspect of all (we have a saying: "Take-offs are optional, Landings are mandatory"). If you're not doing that control work using a pair of joysticks, you're going to need a mighty smart systems to do it all for you.
Please, though, take heed of the legal complications. You must maintain a line-of-sight view of your model whenever it's in the air (or, if you're flying FPV, you must have a competent observer next to you who is responsible for watching the model). You have to be able to take manual control at any point (to avoid an accident). The CAA have a whole load of regulations. Despite most people considering them toys, the CAA class model aircraft as any other type of aircraft (with some specific exemptions). Learn the regulations; these people have sharp teeth and the rise in reported drone-related incidents is causing them to pay special attention to what we're doing.
I hope that's of some help. I'm keen to see you have fun with your experiment, but it'll be an expensive one; us well-practised modellers typically crash our expensive machines fairly regularly. How about starting with something easier, like cars? You'll start off from the major advantages that they can't fall as far and the CAA have no jurisdiction over them!
Just saying, i dont plan on doing an automous flight. I plan of flying in a line of site but from a far far distance with many electrical interupts and trees blocking the radio communications. Also ive already done remote controlled cars, automous cars, bluetooth controlled cars, all cars, so im trying to take it to the next level.
Still though im planning on reading and researching what you told me.
Juss saying, im not sure how to ( But I'd like to ) be able to use the frsky transmitter somehow with my arduino. You know of a way?
