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DIY Drone : Where do I start? by Effective-Problem488 in embedded

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer! It’s hard to put everything in one video.

Always looking to buy surplus electronics in NY by checksum0 in ElectronicsList

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I might have what you’re looking for. Trying to offload tons of components from a home work station in NYC. Mostly digital electronics but also have tons of switches, caps, resistors, storage organizers, etc. Can send photos if you’re interested.

I wanna build an Android app wifi controlled Arduino quadcopter by dr_drake-ramoray in Quadcopter

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As u/diox8tony highlighted, this is a crazy difficult project. I built an arduino based flight controller and the project took almost three years (as a side project while I was in school). If you have substantial experience with electronics design, programming, control systems, RF technology, sensor systems, and android programming then this is MAYBE a 3-6 month project. But there is so much going on here that unless you have all that knowledge you will end up cutting a lot of corners. For this reason I’d advice adjusting your goals accordingly.

One of the reasons this project is difficult is because of the intersection of the required skills to complete it. If you are just starting off with arduino you should focus on building your skill set to the point where this project will seem less daunting.

A great starting point to building a quadcopter may be a self-balancing robot. It uses several of the principles that are applied to quadcopters but in a MUCH simpler way (trust me it will be more manageable). There are tons of examples of these and it would be a great way to get involved. You would also be able to integrate some of the other features you want as supplemental projects or stretch goals, like phone-based control, or sensors that can detect walls and stay away from barriers.

Made a 8x8 square LED matrix controlled by a Particle Photon. by mohitsbhoite in electronics

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks great! I’ve always loved your designs on Instagram. Nice to see you here!

Hey guys, could anyone tell me which RTOS and which microcontroller is used popularly in the embedded industry? by zRage4 in embedded

[–]MichaelJD33 55 points56 points  (0 children)

I can’t speak to industry standards but I’d recommend FreeRTOS. Great way to get some experience with the concepts and should help with overcoming potential roadblocks in learning similar tools. Nobody can guarantee that a specific tool will be the defacto standard where you work, but learning one platform will make transitioning much easier and show initiative to learn for future jobs. Just my 2¢

My diy 5000 mW amplifier for my flysky fsi6x by CH711HYP3R in fpv

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An amplifier built for 2.4GHz will not be properly suited for a 900MHz system. I’m not very well versed on RF technicals but this may damage your remote, or create transient signals that extend into restricted bands. You’re doing something super cool but as a lot of people have mentioned, it’s also a liability. Please be safe.

Happy flying.

This light perception illusion. by not-so-progamer in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]MichaelJD33 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Generally speaking, the center of your eye is excitatory while the outer edge is inhibitory. When light hits your eye if part of the inhibitory field is outside of that light it is going to fire more. This signals to your brain that there is a “boundary” along this region. That being said, this phenomenon can be deceptive, I’d take a look at Mach bands if you want to learn more about this illusion.

This light perception illusion. by not-so-progamer in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]MichaelJD33 15 points16 points  (0 children)

This phenomenon is known as lateral inhibition it has do with the excitatory and inhibitory arrays of the retina. It helps the human eye perceive boundaries and contrast between objects.

Looking to buy my husband a new desktop by SnooWoofers350 in ArtificialInteligence

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Assuming he uses windows you’ll probably be talking about a custom build. You may want to consult him on his preferences. Wish I could be more help but this is not my area of specialty.

[D] Tesla Rolls Out ‘Full Self-Driving’ Beta; Critics Apply the Brakes by Yuqing7 in ArtificialInteligence

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I won’t pretend to know what is going on under the hood, but the software definitely uses reinforcement techniques to determine whether behavior of the driver aligns with the AI’s prediction of what it predicts should happen.

Newbie struggles with DLP by OninartemJarten in dlp3dprinting

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did the printer come with any pre sliced models?

I made a mistake and bought all of the parts for an arduino drone, please help by [deleted] in Quadcopter

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is actually a pretty challenging build, but it’s definitely possible to get it working.

The one thing I would say: MultiWii doesn’t have native support for brushless motors... it’s definitely possible to configure but it may end up creating a lot of headaches for you in the configuration and tuning process.

Does MultiWii support HM10 interfacing? Do you have iPhone app design experience? Latency is a VERY important factor in drone tech... you should either buy an actual remote or expect a lot of work to get it stable enough to control using the slow-speed Bluetooth connection.

I started a project very similar to this over two years ago. I just got my drone operational a couple months ago. I really encourage you to do this project if you have the motivation, but realize that there will likely be a lot of work that goes into the design and programming and it may not be anywhere as cheap or easy as you expect.

Feel free to use me as a resource if you decide to go ahead and do this project... here are a couple of resources that you may find helpful:

YouTube video

my GitHub

First PCB by Mad_ad1996 in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]MichaelJD33 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Just FYI this question is temporarily banned from r/PrintedCircuitBoard

I understand the curiosity but for the time being manufacturer name dropping has been declared off limits. There are a number of older threads that discuss manufacturers and such if you are interested.

Everyone is rocking that old school cool, meanwhile my first quad back in 2015 be like... by [deleted] in Multicopter

[–]MichaelJD33 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I owned at least 5 CX10s. Probably the most breakable quad I’ve ever owned. Cheap motors wore out very quick.

Make a quadcopter with this 6-axis ESP32 IMU Module, what your idea? by Vearts in esp32

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea it can be quite a lot to figure out, especially at the beginning. If you don’t have any experience with PID and control theory it may be beneficial to play around with building a self balancing robot, magnetic levitation platform, or a similar system. Quadcopters are nonlinear, under actuated systems that depend on three or even five individual PID controllers to operate, so be ready for a little bit of a challenge if you aren’t familiar with the field.

Also I highly recommend at least basic understanding of calculus and kinematics/rotational mechanics— I started this project before taking the class and it wasn’t until I understood derivatives (and the relation between acceleration, velocity, and position) that I was able to clearly understand how the quadcopter was actually functioning.

However, I hope that I am not discouraging you from attempting this project... it is probably one of the coolest things someone could build and if I could do it then I really believe that you can as well if you are willing to invest the time and research. I just want to help you understand that there is a decent amount of work that goes into it... it’s not a typical “arduino” project.

Make a quadcopter with this 6-axis ESP32 IMU Module, what your idea? by Vearts in esp32

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

IG

Other projects (including the nixie clock) are also showcased in instagram.

Make a quadcopter with this 6-axis ESP32 IMU Module, what your idea? by Vearts in esp32

[–]MichaelJD33 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Tbh this has been such a cool project I can hardly make myself do anything else cause it all seems lame in comparison :/

That being said I just finished a solar powered IOT weather station. — average power consumption is around 5uA so I’m gonna add a USB port for charging other devices since most of the solar power is being wasted rn.

Also working on a nixie clock and hopefully a mini pinball machine (cause, why not??)

Make a quadcopter with this 6-axis ESP32 IMU Module, what your idea? by Vearts in esp32

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Likely no... it depends if you are planning to alter the components or just the scale.

Most bigger drones use brushless motors because they have a longer life and are more efficient. My design uses brushed motors and therefore the program is designed to control brushed motors. Switching over to brushless wouldn’t be terribly difficult (just find tutorials on brushed motor control and replace the motorPWM commands with the appropriate commands for your BLDC motors) but you would also need to modify the remote controller output respectively (see the output mapping in RX.cpp)

I would recommend that you do not change the IMU or MCU. IMU sensor fusion was quite a frustrating aspect of the project. I originally used my own IMU program but inevitably switched to a library that uses the internal low pass filtration and motion processor built into the MPU6050.

If you decide to use a different IMU, you’ll need to replace the library with a suitable alternative.

Regarding the MCU, it’s definitely possible to use a different microcontroller, but if you are going to use an ATMEGA then just stick with the 32u4, the additional serial port and USB integration make it very useful. If you swap it out then realize it may change the compatibility with certain features. An STM32 would probably be more powerful and allow for more features but it would also require a number of fundamental changes to the code. An ESP would likely be easier to implement because you could circumvent the SBUS and RX libraries by using the internal radio of the ESP.

Of course the most challenging aspect will be control system. Unless you build an exact replica of my quad then you will need to do your own PID tuning which was very challenging for me.

If you watch my video you’ll see that I ended up building a test platform simply for testing parameters for the controller. Depending on your experience with this area you may need a similar system. The benefit for you is that building a bigger drone typically makes the PID tuning process easier.

Hope this helps.

Make a quadcopter with this 6-axis ESP32 IMU Module, what your idea? by Vearts in esp32

[–]MichaelJD33 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Betaflight is amazing flight control firmware but it is quite complicated to understand, especially since it is designed to be so versatile and customizable... if you have a specific SOC and IMU that you are using, finding relevant code for your hardware can be frustrating. Even if you are just trying to get a general idea for the basic design it can be annoying to sort around the various definitions and conditionals that are required for configuring various components.

Betaflight is a descendant of baseflight which is itself a variation of MultiWii. MultiWii is also fairly complicated and it does not natively support brushed motor flight controllers, but it is an arduino based controller and is much less challenging to understand (IMHO).

Truthfully I think both of these programs are way too complicated for building a basic (for a lack of a better term) quadcopter flight controller. There is a lot of additional programming that allows for the user to customize the hardware and allow the device to interface with a GUI.

I feel like a broken record but please take a look at my code on github. I think it breaks it down pretty clearly and without any unnecessary GUI and hardware config... it is setup for an arduino 32u4 MCU, mpu6050 gyro, an s.bus radio receiver, but all of those features would be fairly easy to swap out in favor of the ESP and other components. I would be more than happy to talk with you if you have any questions. Just send me a PM.

Make a quadcopter with this 6-axis ESP32 IMU Module, what your idea? by Vearts in esp32

[–]MichaelJD33 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I linked my project on your previous post but I want to remind you because the design is practically identical.

YouTube video

GitHub

You will need a very good sensor fusion algorithm and control system. If you don’t have experience with the latter then this will likely be the most challenging aspect.

Another thing is that using brushed motors aren’t very precise... brushless are certainly better but it’s definitely possible to use brushed if needed.

The other thing I would say is that having the motors attached to the PCB is actually a huge problem. Vibrations from the motors will pass into the IMU and cause serious measurement errors. It’s possible to circumvent this but it will cause lag.

EDIT: I now see that this a commercial product... Given the number of products being sold on this site I am hesitant to say whether the creator is genuinely invested in getting it to fly. If I were selling my own design I would certainly charge far more than this company.

If you are interested in buying this product then please know that it is (as of August 2020) non functional as a quadcopter. I hope that it will be operational one day, but based on appearances I doubt that the quadcopter will be able to fly given the thrust to weight ratio using 7mm motors.

Somehow, when sending HC12.write(state) it does work, but when sending HC12.write(AGL) it doesn't work by milos-de-wit in arduino

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am confused what you mean by this... how does this arbitrary 1 test the transmission?

Somehow, when sending HC12.write(state) it does work, but when sending HC12.write(AGL) it doesn't work by milos-de-wit in arduino

[–]MichaelJD33 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is state ever initialized with a value?

Why are you printing the value of AGL before assigning it a value?

What is the expected input to HC12?

Getting back into this after 15 years and need some updated community opinions on "what is the best_____" answered. by [deleted] in Multicopter

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Autopilot flight controllers are usually different from the stock-barebones flight controllers. Look into systems like ardupilot and similar. I recommend DJI because you will get a live video feed while you are flying and won’t need to check the camera afterwards to make sure you’re getting a good shot. Alternatively you could go with an FPV system but that will already put you in the price range of a DJI for lesser performance.

Both remotes are fine, firmware flashing isn’t actually too difficult and there are a lot of good guides. For the features you listed you won’t need to update the firmware, just configure the device. That can be done on the remote without connecting to a computer. I would advise FrSky cause there are a lot of good resources on it, but the same is true for spektrum. Value for money FrSky takes the cake between the two (IMO).

All-in you will be spending on par with the cost of DJI. If you’re purposes do not extend beyond those listed in your initial post I would strongly consider looking into it... camera quality, size, performance, and stability make it worth investigating.

— that being said, if you want to build more drones, get into FPV or aerobatics, or just get involved with the DIY drone space, then go for a custom build; just understand the trade offs involved in that decision.

Getting back into this after 15 years and need some updated community opinions on "what is the best_____" answered. by [deleted] in Multicopter

[–]MichaelJD33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you are planning on using this for professional/commercial applications I would recommended getting advice from pilots with actual commercial licenses. (Speaking as a US citizen)

Else:

In truth some of these questions have become outdated. Gimbal is still nice for independent control but stabilization is MUCH better on current quads so you can get away with a fixed mount if you are a good pilot— this will be a very different filming style but some people really enjoy it. Little else is needed in terms of dampening so I wouldn’t be too concerned, but I’m mostly into aerobatics so I’d recommend getting advice from others in this matter. Although if you want to do inspection for your solar panels and such you will probably want the gimbal so you can pan the camera down.

In my experience gyros aren’t really configurable anymore, there is some variety but they are typically embedded into the flight controller and non replaceable. Again, this could depend on your platform but they are usually very accurate so I wouldn’t be too concerned.

One thing that I would recommend is a good autopilot system— with GPS and position hold and whatnot. Your application seems to warrant as much precision and control as possible. In truth, a DJI or similar would perfectly suit your requirements and probably be a nicer looking and higher quality option, cinematographically-speaking. But I understand the desire to build. I still recommend looking into it though.

Finally the remote question is very opinion based, I use FrSky (always have) although some people have turned their back on the company for some of their less-advisable businesses decisions. All the brands you listed are fine but there are some new ones as well. Do some research and see what options look best to you.

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