LA ruby conf unleashed!

the good folks over at confreaks have just released the footage of flying robot from ruby conf, so check it out and enjoy!

The blimpduinos are coming!

I just got my hands on the first few blimpduino boards ( thanks to Chris and Jordi over at diy drones) , and damn are they small! After spending almost 2 months slaving away, building our prototype board, its a huge relief to know that I will only have to do nominal soldering this time around, not to mention the weight savings!

The blimpduino wasn't designed to be used with a gondola, so Ive had to make a few modifications.

1: I cut holes in the bottom of the gondola for the IR sensors and sonic range finder, as well as a hole in the side so I can access the power switch.

2: I am soldering several pins to the back side of the board for easier access

3: I am re purposing several pins currently designated for rc in(since we are using the xbee modems for our control interface) for something else... but more on that later.

You spin me right round baby, right round...

So the big day has come and gone, and the big question now is, what is next for rogue one. One of the biggest problems I saw with our demo was that since both motors spin in the same direction, the craft tends to pull HARD to the left at high speed, the only way to remedy that is to find a pair of counter rotating props, so that the rotation will b countered. This will lead to higher top speeds.

The only problem with that plan, is that no one seams to make props that small in a matched set for counter rotation, meaning I will have to go with much larger props, meaning I will have to extend the boom arms, and that the blimp will have a larger footprint.

I'm gonna place and order for a few sets of these http://www.rctoys.com/rc-toys-and-parts/DF-0845CR/RC-PARTS-APC-PROPELLERS.html and once they come in, time to start experimenting.

Weeeee, are the champions, of the worldofarduinouavs!

Just finished our presentation of Flying robot at LA ruby conf, AND IT WENT GREAT! I was worried when at the last minute we had to cut out our IR sensors due to weight and flaky signal. How ever we were able to pull together an autopilot system using the digital compass.

Luckily, I was able to narrowly avoid crashing into any expensive cars at the marconi museum where the event is being held.

Houston, you know the drill.

After thinking the hard work was almost over, we had our first test flight, and well, things did not go well. Our pololu motor controller burned out, and we lost all control over the blimp, luckily, the blimp was tethered and only one motor was spinning so it just flew around is circles till I was able to grab it and yank the battery. So we went back to basics, examining the schematics of the blimpduino which was our model. after rebuilding the power supply, and adding a pull down resistor to the reset line of the pololu, we think we finally have it!

so I have built a new board, which not only houses the improved power supply, but is also significantly lighter, which should help us out if we can get around to installing a sensor suite. soldering perf bard to a little getting used to, but I think its well worth the weight savings for a project like this.

Da bleemp Boss, DA BLEEEEMP!

Its Airborne!!!

To day I filled the envelope with helium, attached the gondola and wham! it floats! Barely! Turns out the envelope can only hold just enough helium to get he basic package aloft, this is without any of the sensors we planed to add. So now we have only a few options, have an envelope made to spec, for about $200, or buy some cheap ass latex balloons and tape them to the sides! that might actualy make for  a cool siloette...

Something awesome this way comes...

Muah ha ha! My creation is almost complete! 

I have almost finished putting together the main board for our blimp! I soldered on the power supply, attached the leads for the lipo battery, attached the pololu motor controller, and rerouted the pins for the motors and servo. All that s left now to get it flying is the connection for the xbee, which I will be adding today.

A few tips for those of you that may want to make your own:

When attaching connectors, like the one I used for our Lipo battery, check to see if the leads are removable, if so don't attempt to solder your wires to them while they are still in the plastic shroud, most likely you will melt the plastic and ruin the connector(I went thru a few myself).

when attaching something like the pololu motor controller, run your wires to the appropriate pins BEFORE you solder on the controller, this will make everything a lot easier to reach!