Yesterday I received my motors and battery unit. Unfortunately the controller for the motor isn't shipped yet, so I cant do anything with the motors yet, this really sucks! I want to play with it!
Anyway, now I can start designing the frame since I couldn't find any accurate size description of my motors :D. Also just added some latest things to my schematic for the hardware (check it out!).
First off I thought to build all units (like Gyro, Acceleration, Barometer, etc.) on separate modules, but this will increase the PCB costs since there is a one time tooling cost. So I decided to do all the modules at one single PCB, but I will place lots of test pins so modifications can still be done afterwards.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
KeaDrone (!)= Dead?
My first idea was to make a simple, small and cheap helicopter flying with self designed hardware. When the hardware arrived and I did some tests with it, I soon came to the problem that small/cheap helicopters can carry very less weight vs flight time. At most I could get 7 minutes of fly time, really boring.
However the first experience with gyro's and accelerator meters were great :), so I didn't do it all for nothing.
Now I've set my mind to quad-copters. They can are easier to build and easier to control. There is also a lot of information and parts that can be used. There are even some well developed quadrocopters in a open source matter that can already follow predefined GPS coordinates.
Anyway, I decided to build my own frame and hardware electronics. The reason that I build my own frame is because I want the frame out of PCB (FR-4) material. In my opinion many quadrocopters on the net are build with heavy weight materials. I think that if I build the frame of PCB, I can save a lot of weight and it will be very easy and cheap to reproduce parts.
The downside is that I do not know how the strength / resonance will be, but I`ll soon find out with my first prototype. I will use 3.2mm thick FR-4 material.
For the electronics I will use an ARM from NXP. They have an great IDE (Eclipse based) and are really affordable tools. And besides that, ARM Cortex series are getting that cheap, that a generic micro-controller (PIC/Atmel) isn't very interesting anymore. Especially if you take a look to the added benefits (better IDE and great speed).
So this it for now. I will (slowly) continue developing in my spare time and hope that I can show something real cool soon! See the hardware PDF's in the repository for more information about the currently IMU that is being developed.
However the first experience with gyro's and accelerator meters were great :), so I didn't do it all for nothing.
Now I've set my mind to quad-copters. They can are easier to build and easier to control. There is also a lot of information and parts that can be used. There are even some well developed quadrocopters in a open source matter that can already follow predefined GPS coordinates.
Anyway, I decided to build my own frame and hardware electronics. The reason that I build my own frame is because I want the frame out of PCB (FR-4) material. In my opinion many quadrocopters on the net are build with heavy weight materials. I think that if I build the frame of PCB, I can save a lot of weight and it will be very easy and cheap to reproduce parts.
The downside is that I do not know how the strength / resonance will be, but I`ll soon find out with my first prototype. I will use 3.2mm thick FR-4 material.
For the electronics I will use an ARM from NXP. They have an great IDE (Eclipse based) and are really affordable tools. And besides that, ARM Cortex series are getting that cheap, that a generic micro-controller (PIC/Atmel) isn't very interesting anymore. Especially if you take a look to the added benefits (better IDE and great speed).
So this it for now. I will (slowly) continue developing in my spare time and hope that I can show something real cool soon! See the hardware PDF's in the repository for more information about the currently IMU that is being developed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)