So I have a ton of interest in drones, planes, rockets, and anything in the aerospace field. The problem is that I have bills and I have devoted my life to my current work in plastics manufacturing so I have not had a ton of time to dive into these projects but hopefully keeping records of the project will keep me accountable. It’s a side project at first that is intended to drive me into a passion directed business someday.
End goal of project:
Flying car to revolutionize transportation.
Current goal of V1:
Build a custom quadcopter with off the shelf, open source hardware. Fly it around the backyard. Understand access to the root telemetry and how the hardware functions.
Status:
Awhile back I spent some time on this project and did some preliminary research. I bought a Pixhawk 6x flight controller due to its deep complexity but open source. I was hoping to get it up and running quickly and just sort of build little mini-projects into the drone to keep inspiration going.
I am just know revisiting but from what I recall, I have the hardware all connected but I could not get it to fly. The rotors would spin but I had no lift or it was unstable?
The biggest question mark I have with it at the moment is the best software to use to upload and pull data from. I believe I have QGroundControl since I have a Mac. It’s not a very intuitive interface and it seems like the system is made best to make structure flight paths and let the drone fly the path. Not really my interest but even if it were, something is working correctly.
Bare with me as I feel like a complete novice but that’s the whole goal of documenting. Below is the hardware on this project:
Hardware:
- Flight Controller: Pixhawk 6X
- Motors: Holybro 2216-920KV
- Frame: S500 V2 Holybro Kit (https://holybro.com/collections/s500/products/s500-v2-kit)
- ESCs: BLHeli 20A ESC
- Propeller: 1045 (300mm length?)
- Radio Control: FrSky X8R
- GPS Module: M8N
Next Steps:
Re-familiarize myself with the system and actually get this thing flying
After Today:
I spent some time re-calibrating and looking over the firmware. I’ve learned that the Pixhawk 6x is the hardwarwe and I can upload firmware for Ardupilot or PX4. I went with Ardupilot from the content creator’s recommendation. Ardupilot 4.5.4 for quad-copters.
Learning
I did not have a telemetry radio which I learned is the best way to control the system through a computer and I believe it would replace the need for the FrSky X8R control so I ordered the SiK Telemetry Radio V3. It’s supposed to have 300m of range which is close to 300 yards. We will see.
Troubleshooting
I had weird safety arming issues where the throttle control parameter FS_THR_Value was not meeting the correct parameters. I moved that parameter down to 910 and it worked. A second safety hardware switch is for the GPS button to be held.
6:00PM Status
I did get motors turning but have not lifted yet since my radio control was dying and I did not have telemetry to control without radio.
Next Steps are to get it to fly in the air later today. I have to wait on telemetry for further programming so now I might look into how the data is coming over and what I can do to make a custom software around it.
One goal with a custom software is to have a 3D visualization and complete understanding of all the firmware parameters and capabilities. If I can add accuracy in movement and then long distance in movement, that would be ideal. I will have to explore on custom configurations so if I can add different propulsion methods, flaps, different sensors, cameras, etc.
I need to learn more about the communication protocols as well. I see AT Commands over certain frequencies but what does this all mean? How can we encrypt it? How can we add redundancies?
7:00PM Status
I did get it flying. Flys pretty nice around the yard. Looking forward to building in automations/etc.