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ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

discuss.ardupilot.org

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Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#5

Post by itgoon »

spiritplumber wrote: post #3

Cool, but what does it do that the HoverflyOpen doesn't already?

I've known about ArduPilot for a long time, never even heard of HoverflyOpen. The only reference I found for HoverflyOpen is this: https://www.parallax.com/product/31500

Comparing that to the ArduBee isn't really much of a comparison. The only advantage I see is that HoverflyOpen currently exists, while ArduBee looks like they are still in the preparing-to-Kickstart phase.

If there's more out there for HoverflyOpen, please share it. I'll admit I didn't dig around much.

ArduPilot is a well-known and battle-tested platform.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#7

Post by khancyr »

gdsdfe wrote: post #6

so is this like the only programmable drone out there? or is this the only one that is open source ? how much something like would cost? anyone have an idea ?

I don't remember what was the price range but it was cheat. I think we speak about it in the end of their talk in the ArduPillot unconference. Check on ArduPilot YouTube channel for their talk.

What is impressive it the integration on this drone : that give a good flight time with low weight. That is a big advantage against current weight based regulation in numerous country. And of course ArduPilot integration give hight capabilities !

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#8

Post by asciimike »

Super cool!

Back in 2014 as a senior project in college we built a quadcopter for the BeagleBone: https://github.com/Rose-Hulman-ROBO4xx/1314-BeagleBone-Quadc...

We considered building the entire thing as a PCB, but it was pretty expensive to build one that size, plus we had concerns about its ability to take abuse (we broke a lot of quadcopters, even with our hastily jury rigged test stand.

Our main constraint was price: I think we set a total of $100 (including the BeagbeBone) for all the components, which included the IMU, a cheap VGA camera, motors, battery, etc. Super proud of the laser cut frame as well, though I bet if we had better access to 3D printers back then we could have printed a frame fairly easily.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#9

Post by chrisdalke »

gdsdfe wrote: post #6

so is this like the only programmable drone out there? or is this the only one that is open source ? how much something like would cost? anyone have an idea ?

The ArduPilot software platform is used very commonly across the drone industry and this is definitely not the only programmable drone available! The ArduPilot site has a list of some ready-to-use drones that have ArduPilot installed: https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-rtf.html.

A lot of the time ArduPilot is installed with a flight computer (separate from the flight controller) which sends control signals inline with the RC receiver and can be retrofit onto an existing drone.

You can also pick up pretty inexpensive kits to retrofit any DIY quadcopter or RC aircraft with autopilot capability. Two examples are the older APM2.8 hardware (no longer supported, dirt cheap) and the Pixhawk PX4 (actively supported, more expensive but still <$200.)

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#10

Post by bri3d »

gdsdfe wrote: post #6

so is this like the only programmable drone out there? or is this the only one that is open source ? how much something like would cost? anyone have an idea ?

No and not even close. Look up Betaflight (racing oriented) and iNav (navigation oriented). Ardupilot is more integration/mission oriented, but it's far from the only game in town.

A small The all-in-one PCB integration strategy is cute, but I really don't think it's a great approach from a crash-recovery point of view.

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