Gluonpilot

Hi all,

As the new smaller GP soon is here, I decided to continue my attempt to make a really small UAV or MAV.

Earlier this summer I managed a 49 cm wing to fly well with camcorder onboard but now it's time to go really small

I read Tom's thesis about constructing a MAV and it was a good source of information.

As a starting point I just quickly made up a wing out of the outer pieces of an Eppfly wing. I will look for other solutions also, so this is just a first test.

While waiting for the GP2 I will also start looking for really light equipment like motor, ESC, servos etc.

Here's a picture of the first candidate - 16 grams without equipment... Target should be around 60-70 grams...

/Björn

I guess it is really hard to predict how it will fly!

If you are interested I can send you the aluminium shapes I used to cut out the wing of my thesis. You only need to hot wire and a chassis to hold it.

The downside might be the CoG. We used a front-mounted motor to get a good CoG, but it was fragile on landing...

Here a smaller version of the same wing layout. It flew very good! We even put a camera in that one!

Retro-gluonpilot, 5 years ago
http://tom.pycke.be/mav/86/autopilot-ph ... controller

Yes, it will be very interesting to see IF it flies...

Thanks for offering to send the aluminum shapes. Before I ask you to go through the trouble could you please link to your thesis again - I lost it in my harddisk crash this August...

I will go for a pusher configuriation if possible - to save the motor and to allow for a camera.

Nice to see your blog entry - wow, you have come far in 5 years...!

The tiny GPS you recommended arrived today - really small!

Now I am just waiting for ultra micros servos, motor and ESC...

/Björn

Is it really 8gram? The website says 4?

Tom wrote:Is it really 8gram? The website says 4?

You are right! 4 grams - it was the Flytron GPS that weighs 8g incl breakout board...

The reason why Istarted with Gluonpilot: micro aerial vehicles:
http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/000/9 ... 001_AC.pdf

(google translate)

Still trying to find time to put the gluonpilot in this 25cm MAV

Tom wrote:The reason why Istarted with Gluonpilot: micro aerial vehicles:
http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/000/9 ... 001_AC.pdf

(google translate)

Still trying to find time to put the gluonpilot in this 25cm MAV

Thanks a lot for the link!

I will happy to try and do it for you...

/Björn

I just got this nice little breakout board from 3Egadgets in SIngapore. It turns out they have a complete breakoutboard with GPS for 57 SGD (about 36 EUR) which is not too bad. Total weight with the board 6 grams (4 grams just the GPS).

I have still to hook it up to the Gluonpilot but in the GlobalTop PC Tool it worked nicely with good reception indoors.

/Björn

Hello Björn,

Is this weight without the battery? How long does it take to acquire a lock (cold start)?

Tom wrote:Hello Björn,

Is this weight without the battery? How long does it take to acquire a lock (cold start)?

Hello,
TTFF was rather long (10 minutes+) but I was indoors and hot start was of course quick. I think we definitely need a supercap or battery, The weight of 4g is without battery so I am expecting 5 or 6 grams total for the 3Egadgets GPS with extension board. I will post exact result when I have got the battery!

This GPS works fine with the Gluonpilot - I just needed to set the startup baudrate to default 9600.

/Björn