Getting Anxious!

[asifjahmed]

Hello Everyone -

I am anxiously awaiting my Gluonpilot board, so am just ranting here on thuis forum!

I am really looking forward to receiving the board so I can begin my quadrotor implementation!

Tom - if you have any updates please post them here.

Thanks

-Jamie

[Tom]

Hi Jamie,

I'm anxious too! Unfortunately, as this is a project startup and I'm still learning everything about batch production, there have been some delays. I was hoping myself to have everything by the beginning of December, but this isn't going to happen. Let me explain why:
- Thanksgiving in the US caused 3 days delay.
- Sending with fedex from the US straight to Bulgaria was a bad idea: fedex can't do the customs themselves there. So it had to wait for some governement office to do the clearing. Delay: 9 days.
- The assembler seems to be really busy this end of the year. Delay (so far): 5 days
- Upcoming Christmas holidays. Delay: approx. 2 weeks.

All this to explain that my timing was way too optimistic... Let it be a good lesson for myself We need to keep in mind that all this is a learning process, and it will go better every time!

Thanks again everybody who has faith in this project! We will get there, but I'm afraid it will be January 2010 instead of December 2009.
On the bright side: the configuration code & windows configuration application and a lot of other coding will be done by the time the modules reach you. Prepare that quadrocopter or UAV frame

Tom

[asifjahmed]

Thanks for the reply, Tom. I just need to learn to be patient

I have a quadrocopter already up and running using an arduino and Sparkfun 5DOF IMU board + an IDG500 (mounted vertically, for yaw). It isn't the most stable but I can manage. Video:

http://s449.photobucket.com/albums/qq21 ... G_0359.flv

http://s449.photobucket.com/albums/qq21 ... G_0141.flv

Currently I am only using gyros for stabilization - therefore I do not have auto-leveling (which I REALLY want!)

I am also anxious for you to begin your quadrocopter build, as I am optimistic that you will do a great job, and I can learn some things from you! (not to mention borrow some of your code )

Best regards,

-Jamie

[Tom]

Hi Jamie!

Great video! What kind of motor/esc's did you use? I was planning to buy some cheap ones at hobbycity, but I don't know if the esc's are good enough (linearity?) and can handle update rates over 50Hz...

I must say your quad flies more stable than expected with only the gyroscopes. The yaw should be more stable with the gluonpilot (better gyro), and hopefully absolute stability will be possible with the accelerometers. Optional an I2C magnetometer can be attached, but I didn't have time yet to experiment with that.

Tom

[asifjahmed]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Those are KDA 20-22L Hacker style motors and Turnigy 18A ESCs used there - all from hobbycity.

I must report that today while testing the quadrocopter in my basement (i have been flying for awhile down there), I sustained a laceration on my finger and had to get sutures! These things are very powerful - be careful!

I saw your blog entry today regarding your GUI gluon configuration tool - looks great!

Are you using Visual Studio .NET to build this tool?

Thanks!

-Jamie