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hoverfly open board and parralax ultrasonic compatibility — Parallax Forums

hoverfly open board and parralax ultrasonic compatibility

TalaatTalaat Posts: 8
edited 2014-04-27 18:15 in Accessories
Hello,

I want to enable the altitude hold function in my ELEV-8 quadcopter and I have a query:



Does the hoverfly open board is compatible with those ping sensors ?
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Sensors/ObjectDetection/tabid/176/CategoryID/51/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/92/Default.aspx


Thanks.

Comments

  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2013-04-05 07:52
    According to the Hoverfly manual, the altitude hold function uses the barometer sensor on the board to sense altitude and I don't see any provisions for a distance sensor like the PING.
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2013-04-05 12:21
    The HoverFly can use a Maxbotix ultrasound sensor. It wont work with a Ping.

    The HoverFly uses the pulse output (I think it's labeled PWM) from the Maxbotix sensor which most other ultrasound sensors don't provide.

    SparkFun sells the Maxbotix ultrasound sensor described on page 54 of the HoverFly manual.

    BTW, be careful when you try out the altitude hold. My ELEV-8 did a flip and crashed when I tried it.
  • trangertranger Posts: 179
    edited 2014-04-27 17:35
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    ...be careful when you try out the altitude hold. My ELEV-8 did a flip and crashed when I tried it.

    Were you ever able to get it to work ok or did you abandon it after the crash? Did you use the same gain value while in altitude-hold as in normal flight?

    -Russ
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-04-27 18:04
    tranger wrote: »
    Were you ever able to get it to work ok or did you abandon it after the crash? Did you use the same gain value while in altitude-hold as in normal flight?

    -Russ

    I don't think I ever tried it again.

    I think there's a very good chance the error was of my own making. It's possible I had some wires which weren't secured properly and the wires may have passed in front of the ultrasound. I don't recall what the gain setting was. I'm pretty sure I had followed the instructions in the HoverFly documents.

    My HoverFly board (it's the Sport version) is now on my hexacopter, I should try using the ultrasound again.

    I tried using an inexpensive ultrasound module on a small HobbyKing quadcopter but the sound from the small motors interfered with the ultrasound sensor. On the small quadcopter, I had added a Propeller board which read the receiver channels and passed them signals on to the main control board (AVR based). My thought was to have the Propeller modify the control signals based on the additional sensor input. I also used the Propeller to control the LEDs I had added to the quadcopter.

    My plan was to have the Propeller modify the throttle channel's signal in order to keep the quadcopter at a constant altitude.

    I recall someone else on the forum had trouble when attempting to use the altitude-hold feature of the HoverFly board. I don't recall any reports of this feature being successfully used.

    Are you thinking of adding an ultrasound to your ELEV-8?
  • trangertranger Posts: 179
    edited 2014-04-27 18:15
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    Are you thinking of adding an ultrasound to your ELEV-8?

    Yeah... more out of curiosity than anything else. The sensor isn't too expensive and if it doesn't work so well I could use it on another project. ;-)

    -Russ
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