What do I need?

Justin Romaine

We Skratch King Productions is trying to bulid our own UAV and we our looking at your basic stamp Microcontrollers to make a RC plane have an AutoPilot but I am asking to make sure of what i need or etc... We all ready have a GPS Recver so And Im looking at the board with the 4 R/C Servo Connection ports but its the Board of Eduction. But The problume that Im seeing is that how can I beable to making were it can download flight plane's wirelessly as its in the air and with out having to trun the board off or resting it or is it possable or would i have to go out and buy the boards that are made for that kind of stuff thanks Justin m Romaine

Franklin

You could help by posting your plan for connecting the parts you have and explain what you expect the UAV to accomplish. You can send commands to the stamp wirelessly but you can't reprogram it. I would recommend the propeller chip over the stamp since you are new to all this as it is a more powerful platform.

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- Stephen

Mike Green

Although you could probably do something like what you want with a Stamp, it would be very limited in its capability. A Stamp is pretty busy just controlling 4 servos and probably would have trouble handling the data from the GPS receiver at the same time. You could get around that by using some kind of external servo controller like Parallax's PWMPAL or ServoPAL, but I'd suggest something like the Propeller instead which is much more powerful and could easily handle the workload.

You would not download anything other than a few parameters for the autopilot like a new heading, new altitude, and rate of change or time to new settings. You could use a multichannel R/C link to supply that sort of information or you could use any of several types of data transceivers. A lot depends on your range requirements and power budget. Since R/C aircraft control is really line-of-sight, it doesn't take much power. A 900MHz xBee Pro transceiver (www.digi.com/products/wireless/point-multipoint/xbee-pro-900.jsp) would work fine up to a couple of miles. This would also be able to transmit diagnostic data back to you on the ground.

Post Edited (Mike Green) : 3/14/2009 5:07:30 PM GMT

SRLM

Take a look at DIYDrones.com. They have a guide on how to make a BS2 autopilot, and lots of other information.

Justin Romaine

Well I have looked at what you have posted and I have fond one thing on a website that I will be getting it looks great but all so looked in the the propeller boards that you were telling me about and I have talked to my electronic department and they have also looked over Parallax's website and told me to order the Propeller Professional Development Board and they told me that would be my best bet now would there be anuther board I should go with if so please let me know and price isent a problume it's just i rather build my own then go out and buy one someone else allready bult Now I am looking for a ground control program if you could help me there as well please feel free. my E-mail is Justin.Romaine@skratchkingproductions.com
Thanks

SRLM

Somewhere on google code is some autopilot stuff for the prop stick. You can get the PPDB for preliminary prototyping, but it's certainly too large for a flying prototype.

Justin Romaine

Now if I use the Propeller Control Board it shold do the same as the other board but smaller because as I waslooking today I say that it is 9" Wide and I am going thru the UAV messerments even thou its wing span is 72" the body is not wide enuff to suport the other board but I have been reading the propeller control board and it seems perficet for what i need. small all ready has the GPS Receiver Socket and 7 Servo Connectors and 12 Aux I/O Connectors many more. would that be too small for me to run an auto pilot from.because the board will have a GPS Receiver tachometer input it will have a modem on it to send out the signal. So far 6 servos and that's it. there will be a smaller light microcontroller for two servo's for the back door. to open and close them. It will be like a c-17's back doors were there will be a top to open first and then the lower door will drop down. it will be controled by its own program. Now I have noticed that on the Connection Assignments that for I/O Pin 30 & 31 are TX and RX and as im looking at the Connection Diagram I do not see the I/O 30 & 31 Were would that be or would I have to get an extra Breadboard. Now Im not sure if the Modem will work with the board yet im looking into that but Im wondering how the the TX & RX Transmeiters would work if I had to use that as the Receivers and the Transmiters. thanks Justin M Romaine

SRLM

Prop pins 30 and 31 are Tx and Rx for when you download a new program from the computer (via the prop tool). Generally, they're also used in conjunction with a serial object to provide debug. On the propeller, pins 0-27 are general purpose, 28-29 are EEPROM, and 30-31 are usb serial connections. All pins can be used as general pins once the prop is running.

I still think the Control Board is too large and heavy, but it's your call. When I get around to building an auto pilot, I'll be using the prop-stick on a custom PCB that will also hold stuff like accelerometer, gyro, gps, RF, etc.

Justin Romaine

well if you don't mind what type of board is that? Not trying to take your build if you dont want to tell me because of that what you want to build. Now if you would like a can give you my cell and you can give me a call andd we can talk a little bite more over the phone it would be a little bite easier. The bad thing is for me is that I dont know what it all ways or any thing like that. So it is hard for me to tell but all so if I can't get anything smaller I will just have to build the plane larger so I can hold the wait. because i am all ready putting in larger engines to hold a little bite more Im trying to upgrade as much as I can and I am so great full of you helping me here.

SRLM

Prop Stick

The carrier board you can make in something like eagle (and use something like BatchPCB.com) or expressPCB. If you use BatchPCB they can cut it to any shape that you want. Either way, you can customize which sensors you want and mounting hole positions and the like. For prototyping (in flight) you can use a soldered breadboard like the kind radioshack or GadgetGangster.com sells. BTW, GG will be getting some nice prop boards in at the end of the month, you may want to try them out.

Don't worry about 'idea theft', at least from me. I haven't even begun on my UAV project yet, and probably won't get a start until the summer when school lets out...

The advantage of a smaller (and lighter) board is that you can have a lighter plane, leading to longer flight times or a bigger payload.