Visitor brought fascinating things to Parallax today (quadcopters!)
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,401
Today was a really exciting day at Parallax because we had a visitor that demonstrated their Propeller-based control system on three different quadcopters. Al Ducharme of http://www.hoverflytech.com/ showed us how their HoverflySPORT and HoverflyPRO can be used on a variety of quadcopter designs ranging from small single-piece designs to larger, heavy craft. After Al saw the laser cutter, router and milling machines it was only a matter of hours before our team produced our own quadcopter frame from their drawings. Now, how many Spektrum DX8 transmitters will we need to buy?
Hoverfly's plug-and-play control system is configured by a simple PC program where the user identifies connections, number of motors, gain, etc. Their primary business seems to be on the higher end - large 10-30 lb copters that carry video cameras and other surveillance equipment. Of course the same control board can fly a little 12" system just as nicely. Provided you can make a quadcopter with some vibration protection their system will fly it well.
I'm sharing a video [video]http://www.youtube.com/embed/6INyDZykWZ8[/video] and a couple of photos below. You'll see from the video how people get drawn out of the office by the quadcopter demo.
Thank you Al for making our day truly interesting!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Hoverfly's plug-and-play control system is configured by a simple PC program where the user identifies connections, number of motors, gain, etc. Their primary business seems to be on the higher end - large 10-30 lb copters that carry video cameras and other surveillance equipment. Of course the same control board can fly a little 12" system just as nicely. Provided you can make a quadcopter with some vibration protection their system will fly it well.
I'm sharing a video [video]http://www.youtube.com/embed/6INyDZykWZ8[/video] and a couple of photos below. You'll see from the video how people get drawn out of the office by the quadcopter demo.
Thank you Al for making our day truly interesting!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Comments
Jim...
I tried, Jim. Hopefully you will be here too since you are "InCA".
@Microcontrolled - once you start rolling trough college we should arrange an internship at Parallax. I can imagine that you'd be right at home with the machines and electronics in the office.
Ken Gracey
Hoverfly's business model is oriented towards people who need to get their copters flying, not those who wish to learn how to program Propellers to interface with gyros, GPS, accelerometers and electronic speed controls.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Ken,
I already have my ticket, hence my question about UPEW. But it may be an expencive weekend. When I told my wife that I was planning on going, she said "Great! You can drop me off at Thunder Valley"... I guess that we each have our hobbies...
Jim...
I wonder what the range is on a charge?
Jim, we'll have a quadcopter flying around at UPEW.
You can also drop off your wife at the Galleria shopping mall. It will be less expensive than than Thunder Valley.
Ken Gracey
Cool..
I want to add one of those to my "collection."
Paul
Paul, this will be a first time adventure to a UPE for you. We will be very fortunate to have you as a guest at Parallax. Quick tip - make your reservation at the Rocklin StayBridge Suites on Lone Tree. This hotel is literally 2-3x nicer than the nearest competitors. With it's tidy and clean rooms, complete DIY breakfast with fruit, proximity to Parallax and a happy-hour gathering space you'll be very comfortable.
Ken Gracey
For the first time in my life I seriously cannot think of anything I'd rather do. Imagine: Machines, Electronics, Propellers, Sensors, Parallax......... does it really get much better?!? :-D That would be so awesome!
I suppose with a combustible fuel engine, you might be able to get longer flight times and heavier lifting but the problem would be fuel leakage that some of the engines have and electromagnetic interference that the sparkplugs give off.
A few years ago I tried using a cox 0.020 and a mabuchi dc motor I had lying around.
the first problem was trying to machine an adapter to drive the motor.
the second was the short life span of the bearings because of the high speed that the little engine ran at.
I'm not saying an apu like what I tried to build is impossible,just that is going to be some work involved in order for it to work well.
The pic is my second attempt using an O.S. MAX 0.15CV with a flywheel/coupler meant for use in an R/C boat.
-dan
They have lots of rf relay equipment aboard remotely piloted
vehicles...even complete cell systems that are in a very small
and lightweight package. You could add something like that or
a wideband rf translator to a quad copter.
I suppose if you had really thin, strong wire you could tether
the copter to the ground and feed power to it so it could stay
up a long time. Instant radio tower :-)
You could make up a small package containing the quad copter
and the tethering wire, rf package and a roll out solar array w/batt pak for
power....it would be very cool. Could probably be done for less than
2k$ The thing could stay up 24/7
Of course a fisheye downward looking high resolution camera would
add a lot to something like this... They have nice software that gives
you a perfectly normal image from a distorted fisheye type video feed.
When you get to deal with people who eat, breathe and live in such a specialized interest like this I'm always interested in how they've made all the mistakes, chosen or designed just the right parts after lots of experimentation (or R&D), and that they're very open to sharing. For example, ask Al "what's the best camera to mount on one of these?" and they'll quickly move you down the right path "for recording, transmitting, or telepresence flight, for personal or entertainment use?". I answer "just for recording, personal use" and in two seconds I learned that the plain and simple winner is http://gopro.com/products/?gclid=CKD5uYHLragCFUgbQgodohdQHQ. Unless I knew that I'd be putting a Flip on one of these.
I bet these guys have a huge pile of motors, ESCs, propellers, radios, aluminum, carbon fiber, and anything else they might need in their shop. This is not an inexpensive interest, BTW. Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with our tech support and review their needs to build a couple of these quadcopters in time for UPEW.
Ken Gracey
Hey Chuck, that's another good application. A parallel application is in law enforcement. They'll happily fly a $20-30K quadcopter into a situation well-before placing an officer in danger.
Ken Gracey
And that Oscilloscope that Holly posted could be worn as a watch and delivering tactical information to officers on the ground with one of your Xbee devices:
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?131135-Miniature-scope-whatsit...looks-like-fun
Staybridge booked, car reserved, flight payed for. Looking forward to being there!
Anyhow, propeller based quadcopters may just be the thing to get me back into RC aircraft (and autonomous). This thread definitely has my interest and then the news article on Sparkfun about the CrazyFlie is pretty awesome a well. Can't wait to see more at UPEW.
Propeller Board
Wii Nunchuck & MotionPlus
Digital Compass
6 Sharp IR Sensors
2 MCP3204 IC's
Spinneret
Lorex IP Camera
Planex Wireless Router
Russian Cold War Geiger Muller tube
and of course, 4 motors, 4 ESC's, and 4 batteries
Everything works and functions correctly. I am still in the process of tuning and filtering to get more stability out of it. If I get it tuned in by June 25th then I will bring it (I still may bring it even if it's not stable enough to fly alone).
The main thing I would change is the frame, as our frame design isn't very efficient. We estimated around 10 minutes of flight time.