[OT] suggestions for a programmable drone on a budget?

[Dmitry Olshansky via Digitalmars-d]

19-Nov-2014 20:42, Adam D. Ruppe пишет:
> I've been kinda wanting to build some kind of programmable aircraft ever
> since watching DConf this year and now I'm thinking about actually doing
> it.
>
> What I'm envisioning is something like a quadcopter that we can program
> to follow a pre-set course. Or something. A fun demo might be to set it
> down in the school's gymnasium and set up a number of waypoints it
> should hit autonomously.

Yeah, be prepared to find good big chamber for it. 3 meters tall at 
least. No ropes or other stuff dangling around! Also catching the thing 
may prove real hard, so soft floors would be awesome.

> So nothing extraordinarily complex, but cool to
> do yourself. (My motivation here is mostly just cuz I think it would be
> cool, but the local school is considering doing some kind of programming
> robotics thing too and I know a guy with influence on that so I might
> pitch an idea to them as a student competition too)


You could start with some existing flight controller + chassis. The 
combo is usually notoriously hard to tune, especially for the first 
time. A good starting option would be to buy a ready to use kit and play 
with it.

Or you can take it all piece-wise with any of OpenHardware/OpenSource 
flight controllers like e.g. MultiWee. Stuff is actually cheap and 
abundant on Chinese hobby stores.

For instance, controller:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__31138__Multiwii_and_Megapirate_AIO_Flight_Controller_w_FTDI_ATmega_2560_V2_0.html

And (picked randomly) simple but fine chassis:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__24291__Hobbyking_SK450_Glass_Fiber_Quadcopter_Frame_450mm.html

4 proper DC motors + 4 power drivers for each + 12 or more of propellers 
(these get wasted real quick at first), lots of extras to wire it all 
up. Make a good damn big red button to shut it down ;)

Then, of course, some remote is in order. Then WiFi/Bluetooth/ZigBee 
etc. to talk with flight controller and program the thing. Well you see 
where it goes from here :)

In any case even with ready-to-go kit buy some spare LiPo batteries, and 
then some more. You can't get too many of these. Also buy good, 
professional charger or you'll risk to see the beauty of LiPo going boom.

15 minutes of flight on one pack is typical number (depends on weight 
and such of course). Charging a LiPo pack takes an hour at charging 
rates I'm really not comfortable with (all the extra heat).

>
> A ground robot would be nice too, heck that's the kind of thing I might
> be able to build entirely myself with a few motors and an arduino or
> something. But a flying drone just takes the coolness factor to the next
> level.

Actually have a quite a bit of experience with land things. Been an 
technician in a robotics lab. Oh, the cool stuff we did on a tight 
budget;) We had one project (a competition) with quadrotor, it was kind 
of cool and fully autonomous. We were inches away from the 1st place but 
had lost :(

>
> Have any off you ever thought about this kind of thing before? Any
> suggestions on hardware or other tips to get started? Also, I don't want
> to spend an enormous sum of money so keep budget in mind too.

Sure thing. I'd love to get back to robotics once I have some spare 
time. In a year or so it seems ;)

As for budget the recipe goes - you either spend some more money or some 
more time. Overall it's not too costly if you don't go fancy with 
sensors, cameras and other cool extras.

-- 
Dmitry Olshansky