Tri-copter

[Sam Flint]

Where would be the best place to get the parts, or might a
bi-/quad-copter be better? and any sites with advice?

Sam

--
Sam Flint
flintfam.org/~swflint

[Travis Smith]

rcgroups.com is a good forum to read on the subject.

Are you interested in a high performance model for aerobatics, a first person view UAV type, or a compromise?  What is your budget?  Do you want to build one yourself, or buy a ready to fly?

Travis

[Sam Flint]

DIY, UAV type, and $200-ish.

Sam

> Are you interested in a high performance model for aerobatics, a first
> person view UAV type, or a compromise? What is your budget? Do you want to
> build one yourself, or buy a ready to fly?
>
> Travis
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Sam Flint <harmon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Where would be the best place to get the parts, or might a
>> bi-/quad-copter be better? and any sites with advice?
>>
>> Sam
>>
>> --
>> Sam Flint
>> flintfam.org/~swflint
>
>

--
Sam Flint
flintfam.org/~swflint

[Travis Smith]

Your best bet then is to take your time, read up, and then buy off of a site like hobbyking.  Keep in mind that you can buy something like the Parrot AR for around $300, ready to fly.  Having spent a crap ton of money on a quad, I can tell you that the Parrot probably would have been a better bet for me.  Still, if you want the experience of building one yourself, custom can be fun.

Its also frustrating as hell if you just want to fly.

Travis

[Sam Flint]

I need a custom control system, ie one that uses a /dev/USBttyx device
and commands so i can work with it in perl.

--
Sam Flint
flintfam.org/~swflint

[Jay Hannah]

On Aug 29, 2012, at 7:58 PM, Sam Flint <harmon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I need a custom control system, ie one that uses a /dev/USBttyx device
> and commands so i can work with it in perl.

Perl! Woot!! lol

Omaha Perl Mongers: http://omaha.pm.org

If you get Perl running any aircraft please let us know!! :)

j

[Kevin Fusselman]

It's "use Copter::Pilot qw{OhGodDontCrash}", right? :)

[Travis Smith]

You're probably going to be extending your new hobby into the far flung future taking such a route, Sam. 

Even the head tinkers around here have skipped the step of programming their own tricopter...let alone using a non standard language for the task. A lot of boards are based on the arduino language, for instance. 

-Travis

[Sam Flint]

no, the copter would use arduino, the controls would be in perl, with
tk. And i'm a member of the perl mongers list

--
Sam Flint
flintfam.org/~swflint

[Travis Smith]

Well, you've found my limits. Best of luck.

-Travis

[David Knaack]

Sounds interesting, what sort of setup are you planning? Autonomous with on-board control? Autonomous with ground-based control? How are you thinking of getting telemetry back to the ground station for control planning? Will you have video feedback as well?

[Sam Flint]

Autonomous, and controlled with ground based control, mostlikely i'lll
use video feedback with a tiny grayscale from adafruit, and'im looking
at rf stuff, and might go with an xbee.

Sam

--
Sam Flint
flintfam.org/~swflint

[James Harr]

This guy has a decent parts list:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqHwqWaw1o4

Doesn't include the TX/RX system in the build. I highly recommend the Turnigy 9x (US is normally mode 2) loaded up with the er9x firmware. I'd also pick up a smaller receiver. That 8ch receiver is overkill and takes up "a lot of space".

--
^[:wq^M

[David Knaack]

Does that TX include a trainer port or other external attachment that would allow a computer to send control commands?

[Sam Flint]

Like i said, i must beable to treat it as a tty, or use an arduino to do so

--
Sam Flint
flintfam.org/~swflint

[James Harr]

It does have a trainer port. I haven't been able to find out what the protocol is like, but serial seems likely since it's just an atmega under the hood.

Unless you're an experienced flyer, I'd probably get a controller and learn to fly by hand first. Even with the stabilizer board, it takes a little bit of controller work to maintain a hover. You will need to know how to fly before you make a program to fly. You'll also probably need to tweak the flight platform as you build stuff and having a controller is super handy.

--
^[:wq^M

[David Knaack]

Looks like the trainer port is, as is typical, just the PPM signal. There's probably hardware/firmware out there to do it already, but it probably wouldn't be difficult to rig up an Arduino to receive whatever commands you wanted to send and generate the PPM output for the trainer port.

Is the Turnigy 9x firmware source or replacement source available? It would be cool if USB/serial support could be directly added.

As for knowing how to fly before doing it with a computer; well, that depends on how good your feedback and machine learning code is :)

[Jay Hannah]

On Aug 30, 2012, at 8:01 AM, Sam Flint <harmon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> no, the copter would use arduino, the controls would be in perl, with
> tk. And i'm a member of the perl mongers list

Freaking awesome! Would you present your stuff at an Omaha Perl Mongers meeting?

Also you might find this helpful:

Hardware Perl Mongers:
http://hardware.pm.org/

They're a bunch of Perl/Hardware/Arduino guys. We dorked around with a bunch of Arduino stuff all week at YAPC::NA 2012. :)

Sam++ :)

j

[James Harr]

er9x is on google code. There's another fork of the code, but that one is by far the most popular.

--
^[:wq^M