Sunday, October 13, 2013

The TriCopter Maiden Flight

Yes it fly's ...and crashes :-(


I completed a maiden flight last weekend.
The first thing I learnt is the tail servo has to work the opposite way to what you would think.
The rear roter needs to tilt the opposite way to your rudder(Yaw) stick.
            #define YAW_DIRECTION -1
Then recalibrate the throws so the servo doesn't try to travel to far.
           #define TRI_YAW_CONSTRAINT_MIN 1025 // Captured from Mw-WinGUI
           #define TRI_YAW_CONSTRAINT_MAX 1990 // Captured from Mw-WinGUI
           #define TRI_YAW_MIDDLE 1500 // Later adjustment with TX trim
The strange thing is after correcting the YAW direction, the TriCopter developed the dreaded tail roter oscillation. This is a vibration loop starting when the servo twitches on power-up (or any bump to the aircraft) gets picked up by the MultiWii board, sends a correction to the servo and that movement is transferred through the frame starting to whole cycle again. I read a lot of forums and following  information found there I fine tuned the Yaw PID sitting reducing the problem. The final solution appears to be trying another servo or revisit the airframe design. I think the lack of rigidness in the landing gear I fabricated has something to do with it as well.

Other Points
1) Balancing props both off and on the motors is critical (Plenty of video's on YouTube)
2) Set up your TX as Acro with all the Starting points at MAX (+- 100% or more)
Completed the following set with props removed!
3) Calibrate you ESC's, as in Max/Min/Stop (The simple process was not very successful so I've ordered a programming card but eventually would like to flash them with Simon K code)
4) #MinThrottle setup is also important for "panic" decent and board arming. I set mine up so throttle trim needs to be at minimum for Arming (But I can disarm from AUX switch 2)
5) Check pitch and roll are not reversed both with Mw-WinGUI and with motors running.
6) Calibrate the Gyro/Accelerometers
7) Ensure the Barometer has wind and sunlight protection. The 1st piece of foam I used was not dense enough and the Baro output on the MwGUI graph as all over the place.

The 2nd flight

This was much more successful. In ACC mode, after some trimming level flight was achievable.
Enabling BARO and MAG resulted in a beautiful bank toward power-lines and a main road. I panic killed the throttle resulting in a crash. This only collapsed one sife of the fram and broke the props showing how resiliatne Daves design is.
Waiting on new props.........

Screenshot, pictures and hopefully some video to come!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tri-Copter Wildfire Monitoring Project

So the Hobby King MultiWii 328P wont fit in the Atom

Also I've found a fixed wing platform has longer flight times is not practical for quick launch - incident surveillance and video play back as a multi-rotor aircraft. So inspired by some amazing You Tube video and news articles, I've started building my first multi-rotor.
I chose at tri-copter for two reasons:
1)  Price. One less motor and ESC (Electronic speed controller) makes a surprising reduction to the build cost, even with the addition of a required tail rotor steering servo.
2) Unobstructed camera view. The "Y" configuration has the front rotors angled out 60 degrees either side of the forward facing camera.

I have used the proven design of  David WindestÃ¥l AKA: RCExplorer of  FPV to Space and back fame.
So far I have almost completed an adaption of his Version 2.5 to use to learn the tricks and skills required. Then later I plan to use it as a platform to test telemetry, GPS interfacing, camera stabilization and RF video linking.

The central frame

Parts arrived from Hong Kong

Step 1 of the steerable tail rotor assembly

Step 2 of the steerable tail rotor assembly

The finished product.

Close-up of the electronics mock-up

Close-up of the electronics mock-up
Since these photo were taken the rest of the ESC have been installed, props have been balanced (inc. spares) and the camera pod has been removed. (It has to fly before I think about cameras)

I still have to order the batteries which a refrained from doing until all the assembly is completed.
Thus removing the temptation to try and fly before all pre-flight work and checks are done (I know myself to well) Plus the addition foam landing skids and a some kind of cover for the vital electronics.


Watch this space for the completed vehicle, static flight testing and the maiden flight videos.

In the mean time..  between work, household chores and Rural Fire brigade activities. I have started planning and gathering parts for the MKII version. This is will use the "Coffin" style center frame

 to accommodate an APM 2.5 + to have the power to utilize the Mission Planner software for fully autonomous flight. (Way-points, follow-me, auto-land and all the cool things the done with two more zeros on their price tags do).  Carbon fibre spars and possibly a Go-Pro Hero (If Henry is confident in my piloting skills or I can afford one by the time its finished)


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Great Android App for Rural Firefighters (and any other first reponders)

Fire Alert 2

I know this is a little off topic but as  a Volunteer Rural  Firefighter, when I'm not playing with electronic gadgets or working. I had been looking for a way to have custom sounds (siren) for the SMS's sent to dispatch us to fires. Every app I tried that did this had balloons, em-icons, colors and never worked properly. Fire alert 1 and 2 are written by a German IT guys that also is a Volunteer Firefighter so he understands the need for this type of app.They can be found on Google Play and are free and with no adds.
Read more at http://www.b4exit.de/index.php/en/firealert-2
This is how I set it up:


Trigger 1:
Settings TAB (The Cog)
Name: FIRECALL (or whatever you like)
Trigger (Sender): 7014 <Firecom> (Yours may be different)
Trigger include (Subject/Body): FIRECALL
Set a sound and colour of your choice
(I used Red and a siren sound I downloaded)
 Sound TAB (The Speaker) 
Volume 100%
Sound in silent mode. Enabled
Text-to-Speech  Enabled
Vibration: Long Vibrate 
Play Sound once: Disabled 
Duration: 10 sec 
Alert Screen TAB
Full screen (animated)
Notification Bar: Enabled 
Turn Screen On: Enabled 
Dim Screen (Saves Battery) : Disabled 
Duration (Screen): 50sec
Use Flash-Light : Multiple Long
Duration(Flash-light): 60 sec 

Trigger 2:
Settings TAB (The Cog) 
Name: STOP (or whatever you like)
Trigger (Sender): 7014 <Firecom> (Yours may be different)
Trigger include (Subject/Body): STOP
Set a sound and colour of your choice
(I used Green and an internal sound)
 Sound TAB (The Speaker) 
Volume 100%
Sound in silent mode. Enabled
Text-to-Speech  Enabled
Vibration: Long Vibrate 
Play Sound once: Disabled 
Duration: 10 sec 
Alert Screen TAB
Full screen (animated)
Notification Bar: Enabled 
Turn Screen On: Enabled 
Dim Screen (Saves Battery) : Disabled 
Duration (Screen): 50sec
Use Flash-Light : Multiple Long
Duration(Flash-light): 60 sec 

Trigger 3:
Settings TAB (The Cog) 
Name: TURNOUT (or whatever you like)
Trigger (Sender): 1st Officer
Trigger include (Subject/Body): GO
Set a sound and colour of your choice
(I used Yellow and a different siren sound I downloaded)
 Sound TAB (The Speaker) 
Volume 100%
Sound in silent mode. Enabled
Text-to-Speech  Enabled
Vibration: Long Vibrate 
Play Sound once: Disabled 
Duration: 5 sec 
Alert Screen TAB
Full screen (animated)
Notification Bar: Enabled 
Turn Screen On: Enabled 
Dim Screen (Saves Battery) : Disabled 
Duration (Screen): 50sec
Use Flash-Light : Multiple Long
Duration(Flash-light): 60 sec 






  For both the wildcard search should stay turned off and the field Trigger exclude (Subject/Body) should be empty. 
Of course all triggers should be active, but all other settings you can setup as you want.

I you want to test you have it set correctly, temporarily set the sender to a friends number and get them to send you a message with the key word/s you are using for a (Subject/Body)trigger.

If you are really having trouble you can contact the author or even myself .

Monday, July 8, 2013

Atom and the #16 Key Chain Camera

Over the weekend I tried to fit the Hobby King MultiWii 328P board to my HK Atom and there no way it will fit.
I then decided it was pointless because without ailerons proper fight stabilization will not work (I found a few post regarding MultiWii without ailerons and aparently there is some custom conf.h code with a Easystar option)
Not a big deal, just an excuse to buy a Bixler or similar.





Due to the shortage of information on the Airlane mode on the Multiwii I'm leaning towards the Aduplan/pilot for my fixed wing project. Due to distances to "go fly" in the short term I think I'll venture into relm of Multicopter for a camera platform.

This will also work because the HK TX/RX I bought to start off with is not on "THE LIST" (Although ACMA type approved)  I cant use it at the clubs.
So promotiong the hobby is done with an elitist attitude of if you cant afford $600+ Futaba and $300+PA club fee's you are not welcome.

Anyway enough of that.. The other activity over the weekend was: I stuck a #16 key chain camera on the atom ..Stupidly under the wing stub... So I went out for the maiden flight (On prvate property with the land owners permission) Three perfect launches, each resulting in a beautiful right bank and into the ground. The last hit split some foam so instead of messaing around any more I went home and glued the damage and relocated the camera like I had seen other do.

I can highly recoment the #16 keychain as a entry level 720 DVR, the video quality is complarable with  from a $100+ Jaycar device which was larger and did not have video out.
The best info about the 808 key chain cameras is here.
I bough mine from Ebay digitaleleonline-yuanbin  which took about two weeks




















Saturday, July 6, 2013

Hobby King MultiWii 328P Flight Controller w / FTDI & DSM2

The latest toy in the Man-Cave is this little beauty.
Credit to:



This board has plenty of features at a very reasonable price (Cheap) BUT the is a good reason for it. Its like the boards were from a prototype production run. There are missing tracks and incorrect pin labels. Many ports are named incorrectly, some PINS CPU are wired incorrectly or not at all. To quote Google translated Tungsten: "Even the Broken Played Software is not fault-free - including the functions for measuring voltage and signal LEDs are not enabled". See Tungsten's pictures and mods further down

Introduction.

Before diving in with Tungsten's modifications (Below), I download Multiwii 2.1 GUI and installed it, unpack your Hobby King MultiWii 328P Flight Controller w / FTDI & DSM2 port and connect it up to your PC (I was doing this before to couier had cot back in his van) . 
The board actually comes with a USB to mini-USB cable thats of reasonable quality but no cables to hook it up the controller and the receiver
The USB chip is FTDI so you shouldn't need to download drivers for any of the later widows versions.(I didnt for Win7 64)
MultiWii software for X-copter is preloaded but I'm told a bit buggie but good enough to check the board I bought works and have a play. Fire up MultiWiiConf_2_1.exe, select your COM port (It will likely be a high number depending on the USB port on the PC you have used).  Click [Start]  and you should see a number of coloured lines running accross the white window, wiggle and swivel the board around all the axis. For each movement you should see changes in the coloured lines and corresponding movement of the Pitch, Roll and Compass indicators (plus the little stick figure quad copter will move). To check the barometer (The square tin witht the pin hole) blow gently across it and the line corispondiing with ALT should dive to the bottom of the screen (This is why you should attach a piece of foam over it when you „Go LIVE“)

Getting started

First you should load new MultiWii 2.1 software, since  the included software cant be trusted. Below is links to a few turn-key loads. (More to be added mine included)
  • Tungsten's Multi Wii 2.1  X-Copter with battery monitoring. (You need to complete his modifications for all the features to work)

Using the  Arduino software Stop your snickering Jacob

Not being a total noob I managed to download the software and set the com port (Hey I knew it from playing with the Multiwii Conf software). Then the wheels came off.  So I posted this in a few places:
Guys I've just taken delivery of one of these boards and plan to use in in Airplane mode (Later for a quad) I'm a complete noob so some of these questions muy be ready stupid. I been reading up everywhere and anywhere about multiwii etc (Steep learning curve)
www.flugwiese.de has some really helpful info and I plan to make the changes to the board he metioned.(Just need to grab some kynar wire)
This is where I came unstuck, looking at his config zip fle, do I change/generate (MultiWii Platform Config tool) my own config.h file.
Then using Arduino Sketch software add that and the balance of his files and complile?

Other dumb questions
is there any way to backup the config on the board before I take the plunge?
Under Tools->Board What selection is the Atmega328P (In 1.0.5 there are 7 choices metioning the 328)
Under Tools->Programmer what do you select for the direct connection via USB.

Nada ! It was like I was using invisible font. (In the radio and electronics forums the Mod will move your post to the kindergarten section or after a few flames some kindly sole will take pity on you)
Then after much Googling, I found this little peal of wisdom courtesy of Mr majek  (Dont you just love blogs)
 "choose Tools/Board/Arduino Pro or Pro Mini (5V, 16MHz) w/ Atmega328"
  Ah-ha! One step closer.
Another tip from majek's blog, dont open a .h file go the biggest ino file in the case of Tungsten's ZIP file that was MultiWii_2_1_HK_Board_V3.ino and hey presto I have a whole bunch of Tab's. As I plan to use the board in a foamie first, I went back to Google looking for Multiwii Airplane Config.h …...Multcopter, X-Copter, Quadcopter, Hexcopter Tricoper and even Bicopter.
  
Tungsten's modifications (after tweeking Google translate)
Solder a thin wire from pin 12 of the CPU to pin D9 (labeled BUZ on the board).
Then cut the track from D9 (BUZ) to D9 (Confused yet? BUZ is actualy D8 and we are making it so) Note the yellow line in the figure below.


Those who wish can also wire the pin A3, which is not necessary, however, because the V_BATPIN has been redefined according to the software provided above to A7. Then the additional 2.54 solder connectors to the pads A7, A6 and D8 (formerly D9) can also used

 

Modified table from majek's page

Atmega328 pin and description
Arduino pin
HK’s controller pin
After Tungsten's mod
1 (PD3/PCINT19/OC2B/INT1)
D3
AX4
 No change
2 (PD4/PCINT20/XCK/T0)
D4
ROL
No change
9 (PD5/PCINT21/OC0B/T1)
D5
PIT
No change
10 (PD6/PCINT22/OC0A/AIN0)
D6
YAW
No change
11 (PD7/PCINT23/AIN1)
D7
AX1
No change
12 (PB0/PCINT0/CLKO/ICP1)
D8
unconnected
D8, (BUZ/D9)
13 (PB1/PCINT1/OC1A)
D9
D9, BUZ/D9
D9 (Motor)
14 (PB2/PCINT2/SS/OC1B)
D10
D10
No change
15 (PB3/PCINT3/OC2A/MOSI)
D11, MOSI
D11, J5-4
No change
16 (PB4/PCINT4/MISO)
D12, MISO
PWR, UN4(***)/D12, J5-1
No change
17 (PB5/SCK/PCINT5)
D13, SCK
J5-4, led D4
No change
19 (ADC6)
A6
UN2(***)/PSE
No change
22 (ADC7)
A7
UN1(***)/BAT
No change
23 (PC0/ADC0/PCINT8)
A0
A0
A0
24 (PC1/ADC1/PCINT9)
A1
A1
A1
25 (PC2/ADC2/PCINT10)
A2
A2
A2
26 (PC3/ADC3/PCINT11)
A3
unconnected
N/C lable now A3
27 (PC4/ADC4/SDA/PCINT12)
A4
SDA (*)
No change
28 (PC5/ADC5/SCL/PCINT13)
A5
SCL (*)
No change
29 (PC6/RESET)
RESET
J5-5
No change
30 (PD0/RXD/PCINT16)
D0, RX
AX2, DSM-S(**), USB
No change
31 (PD1/TXD/PCINT17)
R1, TX
AX3, LCD
No change
32 (PD2/INT0/PCINT18)
D2
THR
No change

(*) – pins SDA and SCL are connected by 5V to 3.3V level converter
(**) – this pin is also connected to jumper J1 which connects DSM2 port
OR USB interface.
(***) – pins named UNx are pins without names (on old version of board, new one has labels near all pins). On right row there are pins: …AX3, AX4, UN1, UN2, BUZ, PWR, LCD, UN3. On bottom connector there are pins: … A2, UN4, D11,…
Header J5 haven’t header soldered.
Led D1 indicates that main 5V voltage is applied to the board.
Led D5 is connected after 3.3V voltage regulator.
Leds D2 and D3 are connected to FTDI chip and indicate USB uart activity.
And one
warning: this processor have only one serial port, DSM2 input uses it, so it’s not possible to connect receiver to this port and at the same time use usb interface for configuration! 
  •  I've read some stuff about using I2C for the GPS, Ladyada I think (Gunna have to try that !)

 Tungsten's X-copter Guide

To install the FC board in the copter, complete following:
Terminals
RX
D7
AUX1 (switch for stabilization)
 D12
AUX 2 (for switch position control) channels 5 and 6 of the receiver can be connected.
D6
YAW
D11
Connections to the receiver to control of the motors as per the MultiWii Copter X-diagram.
D3
D9
D10
D2
Power
D4
CROSS
D5

D6
HEIGHT = PAGE

(Here designated as common area fliers).
 
If you would like to monitor the voltage of the flight battery, so soldered to a voltage divider consisting of a 51K resistor and a 33K resistor to the central power distribution of the copters between plus and minus one. The center then goes as a single wire to the terminal A7 of the board. (See diagram above)
TIP: If you can not get 51K
resistor, then simply use a 47K and a 3K9 resistor in series.
         51K (47K and 3K9 in series) and 33K

To signal the under-voltage, a bright LED is then connected via a resistor (180-330 ohms), which begins to blink when the battery voltage drops below 10.7 volts on pin 8. The LED and resistor are soldered to a connector and plugged directly into the board.
Now the board is ready and a successful application should not stand in the way.
Another note in conclusion: The printed on the board in the upper right corner arrow points forward in the direction of flight of the copters. Please install the board correctly.

Notes from Majek   

To properly compile I had to get source from MultiWii_shared and rename directory to MultiWii.
Once opened sketch MultiWii.ino, there should be multiple tabs with included files. In this version there is enough to modify config.h: uncomment #define HK_MultiWii_328P and copter specific options (for me there were TRI, MINTHROTTLE and SERIAL_SUM_PPM for CPPM output from FrSky receiver).
I flashed it with this firmware without any problems using only usb cable and above configuration (this board already has flashed Arduino bootloader).
Update 2013.04.27
I ordered another one and it looks like a little different version. At least it has all labels near pins, so I updated table above. Additionaly it has soldered pin header on ISP (programming) pins.


Useful links to other sites on this board: 


The PI is Shelved


Well guys I've been super slack and not posted anything for a while.This does not mean I haven't been playing.

The 1st Raspberry PI has been relegated to along term project for a long term project to build an incident control inf a case for the Rural Fire Brigade. Incorporating 3G mobile data, UHF and VHF radios, touch screen in the lid, with mapping software, situation report logging, email and drone telemetry.( More on this soon)
The 2nd Pi is running XBMC happily abet a bit slow. I have a Rockchip Quad core TV dongle to replace it soon as I fine tune it operation.
I.E. Remote that will work with Android for the grand-kids games and control XBMC to the wife's satisfaction. ;-)
Then I am thinking of re-tasking it as do-all car computer,,,, MP3 player with SDHD, SDR TV-Radio tuner, Satellite navigation and either one way or two way OBDC-II.  (We can dream)