Latest Activity

Bill Bonney replied to Soko's discussion APM not uploading in Mission Planner
"That could have tarnished just from a finger print. Can you get the shot more in focus? It's not related to the issue i mentioned."
1 minute ago
R. D. Starwalt replied to Xander Zoolander's discussion Advantages to types of frames?
"If you like the Hover Things airframe then go with it. As I mentioned previously, there is no one best airframe. Look over THIS build. I consider it to be mostly Type #1 but it obviously had some form of mold used to make the motor arms…"
4 minutes ago
Richard Boyhan posted a discussion

Unable to arm firmware 3.0

Thought I try the latest firmware on my Quad.  I downloaded firmware 3.0.0-rc6 and loaded.  When I try to arm both from mission planner or from my radio, nothing happens.  I erased my APM and then loaded the new firmware, calibrated my radio and leveled the copter.  Is there something new and special that would keep me from arming?ThanksRichardSee More
5 minutes ago
Soko replied to Soko's discussion APM not uploading in Mission Planner
"I noticed on the back side of the board that one of the solder pads is now no longer shiny. "
13 minutes ago
Stephen Berke replied to Stephen Berke's discussion Ardupilot on PX4 + IO won't arm motors.
"Unfortunately that didn't work.  I just re-verified that all the ESCs calibrate with the transmitter just fine and will run the motors without the PX4 in the loop.  I've reloaded the firmware.  I've tried different…"
13 minutes ago

Wiki Ninja
Gary McCray commented on jasonshort's blog post Getting ready for Arducopter 3.0
"Hi Dan, IMU accel numbers of plus and minus 1.5 (in hover) should be fine that is equivalent to 0.15G. Pretty much anything in the vicinity of plus and minus 2 (0.2G) or less ought to remove vibration from being a significant issue. The time will…"
14 minutes ago
Bill Bonney replied to Soko's discussion APM not uploading in Mission Planner
"It's pretty likely that either 3V regulator has stopped or the chip is faulty. But not from the wiring misadventure , you should return it to the supplier for replacement,"
32 minutes ago
Bill Bonney replied to Soko's discussion APM not uploading in Mission Planner
"That would be fine as the wires that matter line up in your case 5V and GND. The other two lines TX/RX won't cause an issue if swapped."
35 minutes ago

Developer
Randy replied to Randy's discussion ArduCopter-3.0 ready for wider use
"Daniel,      Interesting test.  It does look like the 6H (the more expensive Ublox) is performing better than the 6M.          Ublox                 Hdop       Num Sats          6M (cheaper)       2.7         6 ~…"
38 minutes ago
João Victor Fortes Carvalho replied to Dave C's discussion Arducopter Tuning Guide
"Dear Friends, I am having a problem tuning PID trought channel 6, the issue is for example setting min as 0.0700 and max of 0.1400 when I turn the pot of my 9cap it just chooses max or min value, shouldn't it go between those values as I turn…"
38 minutes ago
Xander Zoolander replied to Xander Zoolander's discussion Advantages to types of frames?
"Lets say I used Type #1, is there any way to get the cables and everything to look as clean as #2? I'm too OCD about everything being neat. I understand that #1 is more common and cheaper, but I'll be designing parts and having them custom…"
45 minutes ago

Wiki Ninja
Gary McCray commented on Adam AKAV8R's blog post DJI has officially released the H3-2D Gimbal for $699!
"Actually, it's a very pretty pro looking aluminum mount and it's got that swell (and really expensive) Zenmuse label on the box. I'm sure it's a very nice and functional gimbal, I just don't think I'll be getting…"
47 minutes ago
MasterBlazter replied to Kenobi's discussion Setup videos
"Thank you for doing this. Very helpful."
48 minutes ago
jim C. commented on Jeff Taylor's blog post DIY Samsung Trigger for APM
"very nice"
52 minutes ago
Monroe Lee King Jr. replied to Soko's discussion APM not uploading in Mission Planner
"Thanks for your honesty! I'm willing to keep working! The 2 things that you did that really help was you where honest about the possibility you accidentally damaged the board. And second because you where honest about having a clone, we may…"
54 minutes ago
Monroe Lee King Jr. replied to Dale Charnock's discussion APM Project vs DJI NAZA and WOOKONG
" I disagree. Your entitled to your opinion. Have fun! Happy flying! "
1 hour ago

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Forum

Motors spinning on arming

Started by Steven Tisseyre in ArduPlane 2.x software. Last reply by Randy 1 minute ago. 1 Reply

Advantages to types of frames?

Started by Xander Zoolander in Quad/multicopter frames. Last reply by R. D. Starwalt 4 minutes ago. 5 Replies

Ardupilot on PX4 + IO won't arm motors.

Started by Stephen Berke in ArduCopter 2.x (multicopter). Last reply by Stephen Berke 13 minutes ago. 3 Replies

Arducopter Tuning Guide

Started by Dave C in ArduCopter 2.x (multicopter). Last reply by João Victor Fortes Carvalho 38 minutes ago. 510 Replies

Setup videos

Started by Kenobi in 3DR Radios. Last reply by MasterBlazter 48 minutes ago. 1 Reply

APM Project vs DJI NAZA and WOOKONG

Started by Dale Charnock in ArduCopter 2.x (multicopter). Last reply by Monroe Lee King Jr. 1 hour ago. 42 Replies

Props & rotors Vs EDF

Started by Jon Stockman in Airframe design. Last reply by R. D. Starwalt 1 hour ago. 2 Replies

3DRobotics Eagle Library?

Started by Bob Hern in Uncategorized 1 hour ago. 0 Replies

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Welcome to DIY Drones!


This is the home for everything about amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Use the tabs and drop-down menus above to navigate the site. (About us/Site rules)

This community created the Arduino-based ArduPilot, the world's first universal autopilot (planes, multicopters of all sorts and ground rovers). The APM 2.5 autopilot hardware runs a variety of powerful free UAV software systems, including:

  • ArduPlane, a pro-level UAV system for planes of all types
  • ArduCopter, a fully-autonomous multicopter and heli UAV system
  • ArduRover, a fully-autonomous ground-based vehicle system

I'm new to all this--where do I start?                    Are amateur UAVs legal? (yes)

Examples of civilian uses of drones                   Glossary of confusing terms

Blog Posts

DIY Samsung Trigger for APM

Posted by Jeff Taylor on June 18, 2013 at 5:06pm 1 Comment

20130618_153028

In this post I’ll describe how to make your own cable to trigger the Samsung mirrorless cameras NX20, NX210 and NX1000. We’ll be using an ArduPilot Mega 2.5 to do the triggering but you can use any Arduino or even a soldered push button.

What you’ll need:

  • Any 2 or 3 wire cable – I use a 30cm Futaba servo extender which I cut the female end off…
Continue

DJI has officially released the H3-2D Gimbal for $699!

Posted by Adam AKAV8R on June 18, 2013 at 3:00pm 6 Comments

Well the price has finally been released for the new DJI Phantom gimbal @ $699.00 and comes complete as shown below. The nice features are the ability to charge the GoPro while flying and the ability to output video to your video Tx all contained inside the arms of the gimbal.  Full details …

Continue

Parrot releases GPS module for AR.Drone 2.0

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 18, 2013 at 1:20pm 5 Comments

MAVLink-compatible, which means it works with QGroundControl. All details here. Coverage from Engadget:

Starting next week, Parrot will be…

Continue

Engadget covers AVC 2013

Posted by Joshua Ott on June 18, 2013 at 1:00pm 1 Comment

From Engadget. This last paragraph really sums it up nicely:

And really, for all the prize money and ominous warning signs at the entrance, the AVC is ultimately a meeting space for hobbyists in what may some day become a much larger movement. It's a place to experiment, talk shop and occasionally crash along the way.

Man whose RC drone was shot down over Turkey protest returns to the skies

Posted by Matthew Schroyer on June 18, 2013 at 7:44am 1 Comment

Many of you might be aware of the situation in Turkey, where protests have been going on for longer than two weeks. Some of you on DIYDrones might also be aware that a man was flying a small RC drone above these protests, that is, until his aircraft was shot down by riot police.

I originally wrote about this on sUASNews,…

Continue

PX4FLOW Position Hold Beta and Source Code Release

Posted by PX4 on June 18, 2013 at 7:30am 3 Comments

Our new video shows position hold (the position can be moved on the fly, so its actually full position control) using the PX4FMU autopilot plus …

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ASME Podcast - How Drones Can Help Predict Tornadoes

Posted by S.G. Sutter on June 18, 2013 at 6:30am 1 Comment

ASME presents a podcast on the application of small UAVs in the study of severe weather, especially tornadoes.

Here is the link to the ASME…

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A beginner's experience to the Copter world

Posted by Steve Monro on June 18, 2013 at 5:00am 8 Comments

My dad likes remote control cars. My brothers like remote control cars. I like them too. As a family, we grew up playing with train sets laid out on the family dinner table. As kids we also used to enjoy playing with a “Thunderloop Thriller AFX Slotcar Set” and making things out of Lego. The things that typical boys enjoyed playing with.

So where do I begin with this flying journey? How about this last Christmas. It was the year of… strangely enough remote control…

Continue

Know your sky!

Posted by Monroe Lee King Jr. on June 18, 2013 at 4:16am 3 Comments

I talk a lot about the FAA and such and my concern for our community so I thought I'd give everyone a look at what's going on in the sky from the view of the FAA. Explain some basic things about flight charts and flight planning. 

You can get a look at what's going on above your head and plan better and safer…

Continue
 
 
 

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Contests

Season Two of the Trust Time Trial (T3) Contest has now begun. The fourth round is an accuracy round for multicopters, which requires contestants to fly a cube. The deadline is April 14th.

A list of all T3 contests is here

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UAV news from sUAS News

UAS demonstrates potential of unmanned aircraft for wildfire use

UAS demonstrates potential of unmanned aircraft for wildfire use

Mark Engebretson Owners of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, based in Oklahoma City, were at Possum Kingdom Lake Saturday demonstrating unmanned aircraft that can be used over wildfires. Held at the Possum Kingdom East Volunteer Fire Department, representatives from the Brazos River Authority, Graham Fire Department, Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Office and Caddo VFD attended. Greg Ward, who has extensive experience with Channel 9 in Oklahoma City with video and audio reporting from aircraft, explained some of the capabilities. “The flexibility is endless, you can configure it a number of ways,” he said. The 4.4-pound aircraft can be equipped with forward looking video with a variety of possible lenses, infrared and thermal imaging among the options. He also said there are a number of options for flying the aircraft, from line of sight, to first person with a computer monitor, much like a video game to programming it to specific coordinates. “Flight time is generally two hours,” Ward added. “We’re putting auto pilots in all of these. It can return to the GPS location where it was launched, circles and waits to land.” Jerry Stuckey, the company’s CEO, said the aircraft is made on composite Styrofoam. “If something happens, if it runs [...]

NASA Tests Radio for Unmanned Aircraft Operations

NASA Tests Radio for Unmanned Aircraft Operations

NASA’s communications experts have begun flight testing a prototype radio as part of the agency’s contributions toward fully integrating civil and commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). This particular radio is one of the first steps to provide the critical communications link for UAS pilots on the ground to safely and securely operate their remotely piloted vehicles in flight even though they are many miles — if not continents or oceans — apart. “So far the tests are going well and we’re learning a lot about how this prototype radio operates under various conditions, but we still have much more testing to do on this radio and others that will come,” said Jim Griner, a project engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Currently there is not a great deal of freedom for civilian uses of UAS over our nation’s skies. Police and firefighters, for example, must use off-the-shelf systems and fly under special Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approvals that restrict where and when remotely piloted vehicles can fly. “There are some pretty good limitations on those operations, but the work we’re doing to develop a new command and control radio for the UAS [...]

PSNI on G8 drones: ‘They actually look like big model aircraft’

PSNI on G8 drones: ‘They actually look like big model aircraft’

THE POLICE SERVICE of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have revealed details about the unmanned aerial vehicles or drones they will be using during the G8 summit, which gets under way in Fermanagh tomorrow. As part of an unprecedented security operation at the Lough Erne golf resort near Enniskillen, the PSNI will be operating three of the unmanned aircraft over the next two days to give them an “eye in the sky” view of their operation. The drones will be used primarily for surveillance purposes during the summit and will deliver high quality images to police commanders. The PSNI will have 8,000 officers in the field over a 24-hour period with the existing force supplemented by over 3,600 officers brought in from police forces in England, Scotland and Wales. http://www.thejournal.ie/psni-g8-drones-953869-Jun2013/ Bookmark It Hide Sites

Trimble’s new UAS targets big survey, geospatial projects

Trimble’s new UAS targets big survey, geospatial projects

Holding thumbs that the FAA will come through for them in 2015, Trimble unveils its latest wing. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based, publicly traded (Nasdaq: TRMB) Trimble, with $2 billion in 2012 revenue, uses positioning technologies – GPS, lasers and optics – to focus on applications requiring position or location, including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. Like the X100 but better  Just like its predecessor, the Gatewing X100 – the market’s first commercial aerial imaging rover – incorporates mission planning, automatic field image acquisition and fully digital and automated image processing software. Trimble acquired privately-held Gatewing, a Belgium-based manufacturer of lightweight UAVs for photogrammetry and rapid terrain mapping, in April 2012. The UX5 carries a Sony NEX-5R mirrorless, 16.1-megapixel camera with a fixed focal-length external lens, which has a surface area nearly nine times that of the Ricoh camera carried on the X100, which was already 1.5 times larger than the biggest on the market at the time. The large field of view from the camera allows the rover to cover 50-75 percent more area to enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs. In addition to the increase in flight efficiency, the Trimble UX5 is capable of producing [...]

Washington’s $10B Unmanned Industry

Washington’s $10B Unmanned Industry

By Rick Anderson Tad McGeer, multimillionaire godfatherof the state’s drone industry, was heading home the other day from his office in the rain-swept Columbia River Gorge town of White Salmon when he picked up his cell phone and dialed a Seattle reporter. In an earlier e-mail exchange, the reporter had asked about the growth of drone manufacturing in Washington, and McGeer had written back, “Are you jumping on the hype bandwagon, or do you want to discuss reality?” The hype he referred to was the drone-phobia that hovers over any discussion of unmanned flying vehicles, from the small model-sized planes that buzz Seattle neighborhoods to the multi-ton aerial robots that are used in war and prowl Washington’s northern border. To McGeer’s dismay, the public doesn’t seem to like them much—the airborne snoops fly right up and peek through your window, don’t they?—even though civilian drone use is growing and the Pentagon is expanding its drone air force, including four bases in the Evergreen State. Assured by the reporter that reality rocks, McGeer agrees to call. “I’ve got about a 20-minute drive,” said the 56-year-old Stanford aeronautical engineer, steering towards Hood River, Oregon, across the old two-lane toll bridge stretching three-quarters of [...]

UAV news from Flight Global

Maritime Heron UAV supports European airspace trial

Europe has advanced a project to prove the feasibility of using satellite communications to enable UAS operations in non-segregated airspace ...

Brazilian navy begins UAS evaluation

The Brazilian navy has begun to evaluate two Israeli-made unmanned air systems for maritime surveillance missions ...

Indian air force to launch micro UAS evaluation

The Indian air force is to evaluate several micro unmanned air systems from around 10 companies in early May ...

VIDEO: Eurocopter demonstrates unmanned EC145

Eurocopter has unveiled an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV), based on its EC145 light twin, which has been in development since September 2011.

Israeli F-16 downs another Hezbollah UAV

An Israeli air force Lockheed Martin F-16 has shot down an unmanned air vehicle launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah militants ...

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