The LavaQuad Project Thread

[badfrog]

interesting technology... now just need solar rechargeable lipos for inflight charging!

This will change the way we do things... I won't be surprised to see controller manufacturers teaming up with service providers.

BTW, the FAA is scheduled to announce "drone" laws today. Rumor has it there will be some sort of certification requirement for commercial use, only line of sight in daylight hours with a new service ceiling of 500' AGL. I personally have no issue with a certification requirement (hopefully whatever the requirement, a private or commercial license will "grandfather" the certification requirement!) and if the 500' AGL is accurate, that is an increase. The one that will cause the uproar is if the "line of sight" requirement is accurate... this severely limits MANY commercial applications.

[setishock]

So where are we on this thing?

[xpantz]

Originally Posted by setishock

So where are we on this thing?

Hey Seti
I think it's just a case of Al having too many flying things :-)

He said a while back it was getting back to the top of his todo list.

[Big Island Guy]

Hey Mike, yeah Geoff nailed it. Too little of me, spread too thin. I need to get back to Lavaquad but between being so sick recently, my grandson's Tball (I'm the soccer mom around here ) and being suborned away by finally getting a bird together to haul the thermal cam around, poor LQ's been a bit lonely. My bad, not for long though. I've about got the thermal cam bird to where I just need to fly it a while.

I've got another Pixhawk that's going to go on as the primary controller with the KK as backup. With all the anti "drone" hysteria we've been getting so much unwanted attention, that the only way we're gonna pull this off is a GPS guided, autonomous mission using the video repeater I mentioned above to relay the signal back. There is one alternative to full autonomus GPS and that would be a multi TX bind, with someone near the target ready to hand the bird off to. Since they'd never actually have to touch the bird, the chances of them being detected would be very small. That person then flies the target area before handing the bird back off to the home operator. That would allow much better control of the critical phase of the mission. This was always going to be a challenging mission, especially being at night, but thanks to a few bad apples getting us kicked out of the NPs, it's gonna be way, way tougher now. But, like I said before, I don't give up easy.

[badfrog]

I love the hand off idea... not so much just for lava quad, but just the idea of it is pretty cool!

Brings up another lofty idea... "Flight Across America".
Here is the idea... build a multi for MAXIMUM time aloft (I read last week about some kind of new battery cell predicting hours of power! http://www.suasnews.com/2015/03/3480...ed-multirotor/ )... and we coordinate pilots from the Atlantic to the Pacific!!! It is a lofty idea yes, but how cool would it be??!!
Who wants the desert legs??!!

[Big Island Guy]

I think that if it doesn't already have this ability, Immersion's EZUHF will soon have multi TX binding ability. As you point out, there are many possible applications for it. It may be the best way to get our job done. Of course, that would mean someone would have to join me here for the flight. We've got an extra bedroom. That cross the US flight would be great!

[Big Island Guy]

Pushing along with the project, I've printed a much better case for the KK backup controller. The raft support made it kind of ugly, but it does the job perfectly. Maybe I'll print another one sans raft.


Wish I could have just taken off from where I took this picture last night. It would have been SO easy, but for a few jerks doing stupid stuff that's caused this to be much more complicated. The lava lake in the fire pit is higher than it's been in many decades.

[Big Island Guy]

I couldn't stand the way that the KK's case looked with the raft support I accidentally left turned on, so I regenerated the build code for the case's top without it, a well as upping the temp slightly and dropping the print head speed a little. I really like ABS because it's so strong, but it's a little trickier than PLA. Much better! It worked just as well before, but it was sooo ugly!

I've also been working on another little system that I've just about finished with writing the C code for, to aid Lavaquad in her ability to fly autonomously. More on that when I get it installed.

[xpantz]

Yeah that one does look better. Interested to hear what you've been doing.... is your code to run on the Naza?

[Big Island Guy]

Originally Posted by xpantz

Yeah that one does look better. Interested to hear what you've been doing.... is your code to run on the Naza?

Hi Geoff. Even though the first case was functionally just as good, it was just too damned ugly! I'm way happier with it now.

The project I mentioned is basically an ultrasonic collision avoidance system I've been prototyping on my bench. It works with any controller, by intercepting the RX's throttle and aileron outputs
and modifying the aileron pulse stream as needed before passing it along to the main controller. Think of it as a pre-controller that sits in front of the main one. Right now I just have the C code written to handle PWM, but later I'd like to set it up to be able to pick channels off a PPM stream. Right now I've got it implemented on an Arduino Atmega prototyping board, but I want to port it over to a different, multi-core micro-controller I have in mind. For now though, what I've got should be fine for testing, which I'm about ready to do. Just have to figure out where to cram it in. If this works like I think it will, I'm gonna see about having a friend I know do a small, purposed board. It would be tiny then, suitable for small racing quads. For Lavaquad, it would help keep the bird away from the fire pit's vertical walls.

[Big Island Guy]

Forgot to mention, a tourist was tasered yesterday in the park for getting belligerent when a ranger told him to stop flying his quad. Just what we need eh? This mission could have been so straight forward but for a few jack asses. Now, it's going to involve a four mile round trip and be fully autonomous. All in pitch darkness of course.

[xpantz]

Originally Posted by Big Island Guy

Forgot to mention, a tourist was tasered yesterday in the park for getting belligerent when a ranger told him to stop flying his quad. Just what we need eh? This mission could have been so straight forward but for a few jack asses. Now, it's going to involve a four mile round trip and be fully autonomous. All in pitch darkness of course.

Yes I came here this morning right after I saw that on another site.

http://news.yahoo.com/ranger-uses-st...215856601.html

[xpantz]

Originally Posted by Big Island Guy

Hi Geoff. Even though the first case was functionally just as good, it was just too damned ugly! I'm way happier with it now.

The project I mentioned is basically an ultrasonic collision avoidance system I've been prototyping on my bench. It works with any controller, by intercepting the RX's throttle and aileron outputs
and modifying the aileron pulse stream as needed before passing it along to the main controller. Think of it as a pre-controller that sits in front of the main one. Right now I just have the C code written to handle PWM, but later I'd like to set it up to be able to pick channels off a PPM stream. Right now I've got it implemented on an Arduino Atmega prototyping board, but I want to port it over to a different, multi-core micro-controller I have in mind. For now though, what I've got should be fine for testing, which I'm about ready to do. Just have to figure out where to cram it in. If this works like I think it will, I'm gonna see about having a friend I know do a small, purposed board. It would be tiny then, suitable for small racing quads. For Lavaquad, it would help keep the bird away from the fire pit's vertical walls.

You could probably sell that if it works out. :-)

[Big Island Guy]

Maybe I could. We'll see how it works out. I've put a couple of things in there like a gain control for the pilot to adjust how aggressively it tries to correct and an adjustable 'ignore beyond' cut off point. I'm interested in what can be done with the idea of a 'pre-controller' sitting between the RX and a main controller. I can think of several enhancements possible.

[adept]

I recently moved to Big Island. Let me know if any in-person assistance is required. I can pilot a fixed wing line of sight and am technical enough to assist with most ground station activities.

Also, please see my PM I am about to send, Big Island Guy... I have another personal aerial mapping project on the island I may need some help on.

[Big Island Guy]

Originally Posted by adept

I recently moved to Big Island. Let me know if any in-person assistance is required. I can pilot a fixed wing line of sight and am technical enough to assist with most ground station activities.

Also, please see my PM I am about to send, Big Island Guy... I have another personal aerial mapping project on the island I may need some help on.

Hi! Sorry to be so long replying. I've been totally snowed under with stuff going on, so I've hardly even had a chance to get on. I did get your PM and that's great that you're here and want to do some stuff together. I'm totally down for that. It's 4AM right now, but I'll PM you later today.

[badfrog]

is this project still a project?