31–40 of 79 posts
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Why would the PCB flex? A quadcopter doesn't have that much of a twisting force being applied to it, no?
Vibration can be a concern with quadcopters especially if the motors and propellers are not properly balanced
Looks cool, it's great to have another good open source ready-to-fly option. I have some concerns about larger PCB quadcopter designs because I can imagine that fatigue due to flexing on the PCB over long-term use could cause issues with the PCB delaminating or solder joints failing. On the ArduBee particularly, you can see a lot of surface-mount components mounted on the arms. I'd love to read more about any lifetim…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I've never built a drone yet but I've tried to do a lot of reading, and I don't understand why everything assumes that you have an R/C transmitter in your hand, and then at some point "throw the switch" and make it autonomous. Isn't the entire point of these things that they fly themselves? That's why we call them drones and not R/C helis, right? Why can't I just click "go" on my GUI, and never purchase a TX? Or can…
They assume you have a transmitter, because a majority of non parrot drone users are flying analog.
Looks cool, it's great to have another good open source ready-to-fly option. I have some concerns about larger PCB quadcopter designs because I can imagine that fatigue due to flexing on the PCB over long-term use could cause issues with the PCB delaminating or solder joints failing. On the ArduBee particularly, you can see a lot of surface-mount components mounted on the arms. I'd love to read more about any lifetim…
Why would the PCB flex? A quadcopter doesn't have that much of a twisting force being applied to it, no?
The actual ultrawideband devices (decawave) are available on digikey for $10-20 each so if a good open source implementation exists, that would be very exciting for hobby robotic makers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would the PCB flex? A quadcopter doesn't have that much of a twisting force being applied to it, no?
Fr4 material is basically fiberglass, and at 1.6mm thick it doesn't take much to bend it if it isn't supported. I think the weight of the motors could be an issue.
Looks cool, it's great to have another good open source ready-to-fly option. I have some concerns about larger PCB quadcopter designs because I can imagine that fatigue due to flexing on the PCB over long-term use could cause issues with the PCB delaminating or solder joints failing. On the ArduBee particularly, you can see a lot of surface-mount components mounted on the arms. I'd love to read more about any lifetim…
Why would the PCB flex? A quadcopter doesn't have that much of a twisting force being applied to it, no?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would the PCB flex? A quadcopter doesn't have that much of a twisting force being applied to it, no?
Fr4 material is basically fiberglass, and at 1.6mm thick it doesn't take much to bend it if it isn't supported. I think the weight of the motors could be an issue.
(While crashing, all bets are off. But way back when I used to fly RC gliders they had a saying "If you build them to crash, they won't fly well. If you build them to fly well, they won't crash.")
Also, it's not like anyone expects thousands of hours of flight worthiness out of a consumer or even semi-pro drone. Sure the military might spec that for their Predator replacement, but most drone hobbyists I know end up with a bunch of perfectly serviceable old drones which they no longer fly because their gear became obsolete well before the mechanics failed irrepariably.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never built a drone yet but I've tried to do a lot of reading, and I don't understand why everything assumes that you have an R/C transmitter in your hand, and then at some point "throw the switch" and make it autonomous. Isn't the entire point of these things that they fly themselves? That's why we call them drones and not R/C helis, right? Why can't I just click "go" on my GUI, and never purchase a TX? Or can…
I don't know where you got the idea that autonomy is why we call them drones. FPV drones are all analog and they've been around a while. They assume you have a transmitter, because a majority of non parrot drone users are flying analog.
We lost that fight a long time ago.
(And I'm not even sure we were "right" to be honest. The term "drone" got used back in WW2 era for radio controlled aircraft used for target practice. There sure as hell were not autonomous... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioplane_OQ-2 )
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I've never built a drone yet but I've tried to do a lot of reading, and I don't understand why everything assumes that you have an R/C transmitter in your hand, and then at some point "throw the switch" and make it autonomous. Isn't the entire point of these things that they fly themselves? That's why we call them drones and not R/C helis, right? Why can't I just click "go" on my GUI, and never purchase a TX? Or can…
Here (.au) I'm technically not allowed to fly FPV (where I'm watching a camera view from the air thru goggles or on a screen) without having another person ready to immediately take manual control who's watching/flying "LOS" (line of sight) and complying with the regular model aircraft pilot rules.
Practically nobody actually does this, but almost everybody holds some form of manual controller and is ready to take their goggles off or look away from the screen and fly the drone manually as a regular model aircraft.
If you _want_ to "just click go on the GUI", at least some of the DJI stuff will allow you to do that. I've got a DJI Spark that I can connect/control via wifi from an iPad, and software that lets me define a mission and just click fly without needing a controller. There's still an advantage to having the controller though, it's radio as way better range than an iPad's wifi, the wifi drops out and I lose the video link (while the drone keeps flying its uploaded mission) at a hundred or so meters. If the drone and the iPad both connect instead to the DJI controller, I'll get reliable video at well over 1km. One other reason I almost always use the controller is I'm much happier launching/landing in tight locations if I fly the last few meters manually. I'll sit on the back ledge of the car boot and land 1m away from the car flying manually, but I don't trust the drone/GPS quite enough to do that, and will always find a fairly large (at least 10mx10m or so if I can) area to let it land in if it's flying totally autonomously.