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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

#41

Post by bigiain »

TooSmugToFail wrote: post #14
bri3d wrote: post #10

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.

> 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. Spot on. However, it's a nice way to lure you into building a quad: just put some motors on, and you're good to go. Fly once, crash, and then go actually build a proper quad.

Small quads generally do remarkably little damage to themselves in most typical crashes. Remember this thing only weighs 102g, and half of that is a battery held on by springs.

In typical indoor use (can't get more than a few meters high, unlikely to go faster than a few m/s), this'll crash way more than one time before it show any signs of damage to anything except the (replaceable) props. (Sure, you won't be handing it down to your grandkids in your will, but it's not as disposable as "fly once, crash, throw it away"...)

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#42

Post by msadowski »

Very cool idea! Looks like something that will allow prototyping automatic indoor flight on a tight budget. The only thing I don't like about the design is that if you break an ESC (or other component for that matter) then you most likely need to replace the whole thing, which won't be cheap.

I wish this had a bit more processing power (or a raspberry pi add on) so that it could run ROS but that would definitely hurt the flight time.

Couple of years ago there was a prototyping board Snaodragon Flight that came with built-in cameras for optical flow: https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/ardubee-a-ready-to-fly-micro.... I think some people here might find it interesting.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#43

Post by luminousbees »

gdsdfe wrote: post #18
khancyr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Excuse my noob question but : what do you mean by integration? And why is it important?

integration of all the different parts on board in a single base: WIFI with ESP8266 WiFi, brushless motors, 4x ESC last generation BLHeli32 with telemetry and DSHOOT up to 2400 -- FlighControl -- IMU -- baro -- compass -- power system with 1 easily swappable Li-Ion 18650 for maximum flight time -- rangeFinder for accurate low height navigation 0-3m -- sdcard slot for Log -- connector for common RC radio and telemetry + connector for all the external add-ons like GPS, indoor positioning system, optical flow, 8 horizontal rangefinder for collision advoiance,... All these hw connected with the Ardupilot features. Furthermore, for small copter its very hard to have good flight time, ArduBee try to have very good flight time, safe and ready for makers to develop, supported by one of the best Open Source project for drone, Ardupilot. It has been developed to be used safely for urban swarm robotics application development, education, creativity!

https://ardupilot.org/copter/

ESP8266 with Ardupilot (telemetry and control) https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-esp8266-telemetry.h...

BLHeli_32 ESC Telemetryhttps://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-dshot-blheli32-tele...

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#44

Post by yalogin »

chrisdalke wrote: post #12

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…

Another? There is one already? Can you please provide info about it?

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#45

Post by luminousbees »

msadowski wrote: post #42

Very cool idea! Looks like something that will allow prototyping automatic indoor flight on a tight budget. The only thing I don't like about the design is that if you break an ESC (or other component for that matter) then you most likely need to replace the whole thing, which won't be cheap. I wish this had a bit more processing power (or a raspberry pi add on) so that it could run ROS but that would definitely hurt…

Thanks! we are working hard on the best protection+landing, searching for the lightest solution and it will be all around the propellers. We use since 2 years its bigger brother (220g) in a swarm system for choreographies with medium acceleration/speed autonomous navigation, during all the intense flying sessions we had quite some crashes but the harm on the board has been very low.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#46

Post by luminousbees »

xtagon wrote: post #28
StavrosK wrote: post #26

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?

Vibration can be a concern with quadcopters especially if the motors and propellers are not properly balanced

Till 1 year ago it has been a great concern, especially for small drone. Now thanks to andyp1per, new Ardupilot dev, we have amazing results with dynamic filtering gyroscope noise, we could even track the mechanical noise peak based on actual RPM or live FFT.

Harmonic Notch Filter in Ardupilot https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-imu-notch-filtering...

new and ongoing development

https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/13121

https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14010

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#47

Post by hamandcheese »

yalogin wrote: post #44
chrisdalke wrote: post #12

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…

Another? There is one already? Can you please provide info about it?

https://www.bitcraze.io/products/crazyflie-2-1/

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#48

Post by TeMPOraL »

bigiain wrote: post #39
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah. There was a time maybe 8-9 years back where at least a section of the hobby tried to push back against the people using the term "drone" for any quadcopter/multirotor, and trying to educate people that only things capable of autonomous flight were "drones", while regular non-autonomous quadcopter really are just RC helicopters. We lost that fight a long time ago. (And I'm not even sure we were "right" to be hon…

What drones are autonomous? The most well-known ones, used by the US military, aren't autonomous, AFAIK. A in UAV stands for Aerial, not Autonomous.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#49

Post by khancyr »

yalogin wrote: post #44
chrisdalke wrote: post #12

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…

Another? There is one already? Can you please provide info about it?

There are also skyrocket drone, lastest serie is also running ArduPilot and most of the code is open both for autopilot and radio system

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#50

Post by DagAgren »

luminousbees wrote: post #46
xtagon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vibration can be a concern with quadcopters especially if the motors and propellers are not properly balanced

Till 1 year ago it has been a great concern, especially for small drone. Now thanks to andyp1per, new Ardupilot dev, we have amazing results with dynamic filtering gyroscope noise, we could even track the mechanical noise peak based on actual RPM or live FFT. Harmonic Notch Filter in Ardupilot https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-imu-notch-filtering... new and ongoing development https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardu…

This was about mechanical strain from vibration.
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