I don't know the status of the Open board, but there are physical differences between it and the Sport. The Open board has a range of pins exposed on a small prototype area whereas the Sport doesn't break out any additional pins. The boards are functionally identical aside from that, and Hoverfly doesn't make any code available for the Open, so it's not nearly as open as the name might suggest.
I don't know the status of the Open board, but there are physical differences between it and the Sport. The Open board has a range of pins exposed on a small prototype area whereas the Sport doesn't break out any additional pins. The boards are functionally identical aside from that, and Hoverfly doesn't make any code available for the Open, so it's not nearly as open as the name might suggest.
They also don't appear to sell the Open board themselves. At least it isn't listed on their web site.
I was on the verge of giving away my Elev-8 since I never seem to find time to work on it but the proposed recipient rejected it so I'm now looking at replacing its broken motor and getting it flying again.
Jason: Are you planning on making available a board to run your software?
The only other parts are a handful of resistors and a row of header pins to interface with the ESCs and R/C receiver. I haven't done any SMT soldering or real production level boards, so it would take me a decent chunk of time to get to a point where I could deliver them reliably.
My biggest issue recently is finding motor / prop / mount combinations whose vibration is low enough that it doesn't mess with the sensors. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy some "expensive" motors, instead of using the cheap Chinese ones.
The only other parts are a handful of resistors and a row of header pins to interface with the ESCs and R/C receiver. I haven't done any SMT soldering or real production level boards, so it would take me a decent chunk of time to get to a point where I could deliver them reliably.
My biggest issue recently is finding motor / prop / mount combinations whose vibration is low enough that it doesn't mess with the sensors. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy some "expensive" motors, instead of using the cheap Chinese ones.
Does this vibration problem happen with the Hoverfly board as well? Don't they use the same chip? I guess I was looking for a PCB that might have more sensors on it. Can your software handle 6-dof or 9-dof IMUs maybe like this one:
They do use the same chip. Hoverfly's board has the same problems as mine when using my software. Their software seems to do a better job of filtering, but it's still not immune - any decent amount of vibration will affect flight performance.
The software I'm working on right now uses an updated version of my DCM code which uses a gyro / accel combo, and will eventually include the compass as well. I actually have the code performing the self-leveling, but vibration is causing the accelerometer to "skew", which is making it unstable. It's getting there, but I haven't solved it yet. Once I have that behaving I'll add the compass.
I'm slowly getting ready to make another attempt at flying my Elev-8 kit after replacing a motor that I broke during a previous failed attempt. I've gotten to the point where I need to make sure all of the motors are rotating in the proper direction and that means I need my battery pack charged. Unfortunately, the instructions that came with the charger aren't really clear. There are lots of warnings that the battery could catch fire if charged with the wrong settings but nothing that says how to determine the appropriate charge current. In fact, the charger manual says to check the information that comes with the battery but that doesn't say either. My battery is a Sky Lipo 4400mAHh 30C battery. Can anyone suggest what charging current I should use?
I usually charge at 1C. So, 4400mA. Don't forget to get a lipo sack as well. Most RC stores carry them.
Thanks! What does the term "1C" mean? Also, what is the purpose of the lipsack? Is that a safety measure in cases something happens while the battery is charging?
David the sack is to protect for fire in case somethings wrong with the battery such as it was dented or banged real hard. 1C means 1 times the current capability of the battery.
David the sack is to protect for fire in case somethings wrong with the battery such as it was dented or banged real hard. 1C means 1 times the current capability of the battery.
Wow! I just watched the video on the lipo sack web site. How common is this? I guess I should charge my batteries in the garage or even outside. It looks like even with the lipo sack there could be considerable smoke damage if this was done indoors.
I usually charge at 1C. So, 4400mA. Don't forget to get a lipo sack as well. Most RC stores carry them.
Agreed. 1C seems to be the norm for RC LiPos.
HobbyKing has some LiPos available at their US warehouse. The shipping is much less expensive (and faster) when buying from their US warehouse. The vast majority of my batteries come from HobbyKing.
Here are a couple of LiPo tools I think are really useful. Battery Monitor- Lets you check the voltage of each cell quickly (erco gave me my first one). Battery Low Voltage Alarm- This make flying much more enjoyable since I don't have to keep worrying if my battery has enough charge. It also allows me to fly longer since I don't have to error on the safe side and land while I'm sure the battery isn't too low. I usually watch the LEDs on the alarm and land when one of the red LEDs turn on.
If you physically damage the battery or do not have your charger set properly (over charging) these things can happen. With that said I have to admit I have never used a LiPo sack. But I do not leave a battery charging unattended and make sure that it is set for the proper battery type, # of cells, and charging current. I would use LiPo 3 cell, balance charge at 4.4 amps if your battery is 11.1v.
I've never used a LipoSack either but I do always use a charge balancer while charging LiPos. The charge balancer monitors each individual cell in the pack and sends the data to the charger. It will also ensure that the cells are all charged equally.
Balance charging is one of the best ways to safely charge your LiPo. The LipoSack is a good thing to have around not only for charging but for any transportation of your batteries.
Wow! I just watched the video on the lipo sack web site. How common is this? I guess I should charge my batteries in the garage or even outside. It looks like even with the lipo sack there could be considerable smoke damage if this was done indoors.
I have to chime in on this one.
A good friend of mine, Lou, who has some ten years experience in flying strictly electric RC aircraft had something fail while he was charging some of his batteries. Lou admits that he had gotten lax in safety. One evening he had placed some of his batteries on to charge. Later he heard the charger beep signaling that the charge had completed but failed to remove the batteries from the charger. About 1am, he was awakened by smoke alarms. He ran into his hobby room and it was full of black smoke with the batteries and everything else ablaze on his workbench. Luckily he had several fire extinguishers and was able to keep the fire contained until the fire department got there some eight minutes later. After the firemen did their job, he as standing in the gutted room with the fire chief. The fire chief saw the depleted fire extinguishers and commented that he probably would have lost his house had he not of had them. He also commented that this wasn't the only fire that they've responded to in the last month that was caused by batteries failing while being charged. Lou ask if there was that many people flying RC aircraft. The fire chief responded no that they were normally caused by batter powered tools being charged.
My friend had his entire hobby room destroyed with several very large and expensive electric planes along with having to have his entire upstairs redone because of all the smoke damage and having to have a good part of his down stairs cleaned for the same reason.
By orders of his wife, he now charges his batteries in a large metal box placed in the middle of his backyard which is where is also stores his batteries.
So to answer your question, charge your batteries where if one of them does catch fire, that the fire will do no damage. Because as far as I'm concerned, it's not a matter of 'can' your batteries catch fire, it's just a matter of 'when' your batteries catch fire. Keep this in mind and you and your home should always be safe.
I was given the honor of assembling and flying the ELEV-8 kit here at MAKE, and it was a blast. I just published our Make Project on the build, so please take a look and let me know if any changes/additions need to be made. We still need to add a few photos, but I think this will be a good resource for ELEV-8 owners.
Thanks to you all, I'm now completely obsessed with the world of multirotors, and already have one of my own in the works…
I was given the honor of assembling and flying the ELEV-8 kit here at MAKE, and it was a blast. I just published our Make Project on the build, so please take a look and let me know if any changes/additions need to be made. We still need to add a few photos, but I think this will be a good resource for ELEV-8 owners.
Thanks to you all, I'm now completely obsessed with the world of multirotors, and already have one of my own in the works…
Eric
Eric.
Welcome to the forum!
Nice write up and great pictures. I'm sure they will be a great help to some nubbies.
I think it is important to say why you should extend the heatshrink, rather than say there is no reason not to.
Great suggestion! This is what I changed it to: "One thing that you should do differently than I did is extend your heatshrink all the way to the end of the female connectors. This will insulate the connections from each other, preventing a short and possible crash."
Let me know if you spot any other errors…this was my first experience with a multirotor, and frankly, RC is general, so don't be shy.
Okay, I have another - step 9. You could add the word "any" here: ... simply unplug any two of the three connectors and switch them ...
You mention that you are using a Spectrum and an Orange "radio". It would be more accurate to call it a receiver. The radio (transmitter or TX) is what you hold in your hands, the receiver (RX) is installed in the quad - I am sure you know that since you call it a receiver elsewhere.
I'm having a hard time finding anything else to change.
The best choice of words here is clearly "receiver". "Radio" is actually not the transmitter or the receiver. A transmitter transmits radio waves and a receiver receives them. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio) Still, the vast majority of people would consider "radio" to be synonymous with "receiver" and not "transmitter". This is probably because almost everyone is on the receiving end of radio. That thing you turn on in the car or on your kitchen table is "the radio". There are a few exceptions. For guys like GFO and I (hams), when we say we're "getting on the radio", we're probably talking about transmitting.
I'm trying to reassemble my Elev-8 kit after replacing a motor that I broke on my last attempt to fly it and am starting to wonder if part of my problem was steps skipped during the initial assembly. I'm at the point of mounting the propellers on the motor shafts and noticed that the hole in the center of the propeller is larger than the shaft of the motor. The propellers come with some small rings to adapt them for different sized shafts so I found the one that fit tightest and tried using it when installing the propeller. However, the ring is not big enough to fit over the base of the motor shaft. It fits over the threaded part of the shaft but not the unthreaded part below that nearest to the motor. Should I allow the propeller to sit on top of this unthreaded part of the motor shaft or should I drill out the ring so that it will slide down over the unthreaded part of the motor shaft?
The fact that I didn't use these rings the first time I flew my Elev-8 might be part of the reason that it flew so badly. The propellers don't stay centered on the motor shafts without the rings.
Anyway, should I attempt to drill out the rings or just let them sit on top of the unthreaded part of the motor shaft?
Anyway, should I attempt to drill out the rings or just let them sit on top of the unthreaded part of the motor shaft?
No to both. It should fit tight against the bottom of the shaft. Don't drill it out unless absolutely necessary. There may be a small bit of flashing on the inside of the ring that you can gently remove to make it easier to fit. When I install the props I force the propeller down the shaft until it bottoms by turning/tightening the prop nut.
No to both. It should fit tight against the bottom of the shaft. Don't drill it out unless absolutely necessary. There may be a small bit of flashing on the inside of the ring that you can gently remove to make it easier to fit. When I install the props I force the propeller down the shaft until it bottoms by turning/tightening the prop nut.
Thanks! Just tightening the nut with a wrench did the trick. Now the propeller is flush against the base of the motor shaft. I think this may have been one of my biggest problems when I flew the Elev-8 before. I don't think the propellers were tightened down adequately and at least one seemed to be spinning freely when I disassembled the kit to replace the broken motor. I can only imagine the trouble the Hoverfly Sport was having trying to control the copter by spinning a motor shaft that wasn't turning the propeller! Ugh!
I'm having trouble updating the firmware on my Hoverfly Sport. If I run the firmware update utility with my Hoverfly Sport board connected with a USB cable, the update utility doesn't seem to see the Sport board. It doesn't offer it as one of the options on the Select Board screen. I've tried unplugging and replugging the USB cable, reinstalling the driver, rebooting my machine and nothing seems to make it see the Sport board. The board itself works because I'm able to spin the propellers using my remote control and the setup utility seems to be able to connect. Any idea why the firmware update utility would be having trouble? I'm running Windows 7 Pro and the Hoverfly Sport board seems to be connected to COM15. The driver is FTDI 2.8.24.0.
Edit: Another piece of information is that BST seems to be able to talk to my Hoverfly Sport board perfectly well.
Comments
I don't know if the Open board is available to purchase by itself.
Are you aware that the HoverFly sport is pretty much "open" as well? JasonD has open source code that works on it.
I'm under the impression that the Open board is pretty similar to the Sport board in functionality.
I was on the verge of giving away my Elev-8 since I never seem to find time to work on it but the proposed recipient rejected it so I'm now looking at replacing its broken motor and getting it flying again.
Jason: Are you planning on making available a board to run your software?
The only other parts are a handful of resistors and a row of header pins to interface with the ESCs and R/C receiver. I haven't done any SMT soldering or real production level boards, so it would take me a decent chunk of time to get to a point where I could deliver them reliably.
My biggest issue recently is finding motor / prop / mount combinations whose vibration is low enough that it doesn't mess with the sensors. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy some "expensive" motors, instead of using the cheap Chinese ones.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10724
The software I'm working on right now uses an updated version of my DCM code which uses a gyro / accel combo, and will eventually include the compass as well. I actually have the code performing the self-leveling, but vibration is causing the accelerometer to "skew", which is making it unstable. It's getting there, but I haven't solved it yet. Once I have that behaving I'll add the compass.
Thanks,
David
Agreed. 1C seems to be the norm for RC LiPos.
HobbyKing has some LiPos available at their US warehouse. The shipping is much less expensive (and faster) when buying from their US warehouse. The vast majority of my batteries come from HobbyKing.
Here are a couple of LiPo tools I think are really useful.
Battery Monitor- Lets you check the voltage of each cell quickly (erco gave me my first one).
Battery Low Voltage Alarm- This make flying much more enjoyable since I don't have to keep worrying if my battery has enough charge. It also allows me to fly longer since I don't have to error on the safe side and land while I'm sure the battery isn't too low. I usually watch the LEDs on the alarm and land when one of the red LEDs turn on.
I have to chime in on this one.
A good friend of mine, Lou, who has some ten years experience in flying strictly electric RC aircraft had something fail while he was charging some of his batteries. Lou admits that he had gotten lax in safety. One evening he had placed some of his batteries on to charge. Later he heard the charger beep signaling that the charge had completed but failed to remove the batteries from the charger. About 1am, he was awakened by smoke alarms. He ran into his hobby room and it was full of black smoke with the batteries and everything else ablaze on his workbench. Luckily he had several fire extinguishers and was able to keep the fire contained until the fire department got there some eight minutes later. After the firemen did their job, he as standing in the gutted room with the fire chief. The fire chief saw the depleted fire extinguishers and commented that he probably would have lost his house had he not of had them. He also commented that this wasn't the only fire that they've responded to in the last month that was caused by batteries failing while being charged. Lou ask if there was that many people flying RC aircraft. The fire chief responded no that they were normally caused by batter powered tools being charged.
My friend had his entire hobby room destroyed with several very large and expensive electric planes along with having to have his entire upstairs redone because of all the smoke damage and having to have a good part of his down stairs cleaned for the same reason.
By orders of his wife, he now charges his batteries in a large metal box placed in the middle of his backyard which is where is also stores his batteries.
So to answer your question, charge your batteries where if one of them does catch fire, that the fire will do no damage. Because as far as I'm concerned, it's not a matter of 'can' your batteries catch fire, it's just a matter of 'when' your batteries catch fire. Keep this in mind and you and your home should always be safe.
Jim...
I was given the honor of assembling and flying the ELEV-8 kit here at MAKE, and it was a blast. I just published our Make Project on the build, so please take a look and let me know if any changes/additions need to be made. We still need to add a few photos, but I think this will be a good resource for ELEV-8 owners.
Thanks to you all, I'm now completely obsessed with the world of multirotors, and already have one of my own in the works…
Eric
Nice article. Your pictures are great.
In step 8 you say:
I think it is important to say why you should extend the heatshrink, rather than say there is no reason not to.
I would also insulate the motor connectors from each other. As you show in the pictures the bare connectors are in extremely close proximity.
Eric.
Welcome to the forum!
Nice write up and great pictures. I'm sure they will be a great help to some nubbies.
Jim
Great suggestion! This is what I changed it to: "One thing that you should do differently than I did is extend your heatshrink all the way to the end of the female connectors. This will insulate the connections from each other, preventing a short and possible crash."
Let me know if you spot any other errors…this was my first experience with a multirotor, and frankly, RC is general, so don't be shy.
You mention that you are using a Spectrum and an Orange "radio". It would be more accurate to call it a receiver. The radio (transmitter or TX) is what you hold in your hands, the receiver (RX) is installed in the quad - I am sure you know that since you call it a receiver elsewhere.
I'm having a hard time finding anything else to change.
...Tiger
Super cool write up, we are so glad to see you flying! It looks like you have earned your "wings"!
Now we just need to lineup a fly day!
The fact that I didn't use these rings the first time I flew my Elev-8 might be part of the reason that it flew so badly. The propellers don't stay centered on the motor shafts without the rings.
Anyway, should I attempt to drill out the rings or just let them sit on top of the unthreaded part of the motor shaft?
Thanks,
David
No to both. It should fit tight against the bottom of the shaft. Don't drill it out unless absolutely necessary. There may be a small bit of flashing on the inside of the ring that you can gently remove to make it easier to fit. When I install the props I force the propeller down the shaft until it bottoms by turning/tightening the prop nut.
Edit: Another piece of information is that BST seems to be able to talk to my Hoverfly Sport board perfectly well.