Questions regarding ELEV-8 Quadrotor
allan_melvin
Posts: 16
Hi,
Greetings. I am interested to use ELEV-8 Quadrotor for my research. My research is to use the gas sensors that I will mount to the quadrotor to detect specific gas in indoor application. Camera will be mounted to the quadrotor to take the photograph of the expected leakage place. That is practically what I intend to do in my research.
But, I have few questions to raise to the panels:
1) On the quadrotor, where will be the most suitable place to mount the gas sensors? I want to minimise the effect of the wind generated by the rotors in dispersing the gas around. What will be your advise to overcome this issue?
2) Can the coding in the propeller chip on-board be modified? What programming language can be used?
3) I wish to use my Android based smart phone to control the quadrotor. Is there any application available for this option?
Kindly give me some advise on the issues above.
Thank you in advance.
-Allan-
Greetings. I am interested to use ELEV-8 Quadrotor for my research. My research is to use the gas sensors that I will mount to the quadrotor to detect specific gas in indoor application. Camera will be mounted to the quadrotor to take the photograph of the expected leakage place. That is practically what I intend to do in my research.
But, I have few questions to raise to the panels:
1) On the quadrotor, where will be the most suitable place to mount the gas sensors? I want to minimise the effect of the wind generated by the rotors in dispersing the gas around. What will be your advise to overcome this issue?
2) Can the coding in the propeller chip on-board be modified? What programming language can be used?
3) I wish to use my Android based smart phone to control the quadrotor. Is there any application available for this option?
Kindly give me some advise on the issues above.
Thank you in advance.
-Allan-
Comments
You can write your own code if you wish. You can use Spin, PASM (assembly) or C - or Forth or Basic or.....
The control board that comes with the ELEV-8 has only gyros to stabilize the quad. It does not auto-level, what it does do is hold whatever attitude you put it in and dampen control inputs. I do not think that a smart phone is the right tool for controlling it since it needs to be actively flown - very subtle control inputs are required for graceful flight.
What size are the rooms where you want to use the ELEV-8? I've flown mine in our livingroom a couple of times but I usually only fly it outside (because of its large size).
I have some quadcopter links in post #10 of my index. There's a link to Jason Dorie's HoverFly Sport code (open source) there. I also have a link to a smaller quadcopter sold by HobbyKing for $100. The small quadcopter might be a better choice for indoor flight.
If you want to use HoverFly's firmware (which is closed source) you could use a second Propeller board (or other uC board) and pass the RX signals through the second board before sending the signals to the HoverFly board. The second board could then over-ride any input received (such as increasing or decreasing the throttle) by sending a different signal than the signal it had received.
There are lots of different quadcopter control board available. IMO the HoverFly is overpriced for what it does. However I do think the Propeller is a great microcontroller to use to control a quadcopter. I think Jason Dorie used a Propeller Protoboard with a gyro to control his quadcopter. The HoverFly board is an easy way to get a Prop and a gyro on one board. By modifying the code you could add all sorts of features not available in other control boards.
Quadcopter can be hard to fly if one doesn't have experience flying RC helicopters. I strongly suggest getting a flight simulator to learn to fly helicopter/quadcopters.