Helicopter/Howard Community College/Fall2012/p3-504-drv

Arduino with accelerameter

Propellers with wires

The gimbal joint

PVCpipes that will connect the stand and the balance board

Electronic Sections Expected

Problem Statement

Build a structure that balances the slope of the Quadcopter PID

Team Members

Daniel

Vincent

Ryan

Summary

During week 0, we picked our project and got assigned to various groups. It came out Quadcopter PID team was filled with Ryan, Daniel and Vincent.

During week 1, We decided to research about how the quadcopter PID works in general. We looked for the materials that last project group left. We got the propellers, wooden boards, PVC pipes, and the Arduino Mega. We got the serial chart worked with the Arduino, and we decided to create the general structure soon.

During week 2, we began to draw up new plans for a different PID testing system that would use a stand that would suspend our balance board with the propellers and PID. We designed the stand and balance board setup using the free student version of Autodesk Inventor.

Poster

Credit to p1-504-anwk team

Story

We basically wanted to find out what the last team who tried to get this project ongoing. Daniel tried to find out how the Arduino and the accelerameter worked. Vincent and Ryan tried to find out how the gimbal joint and the balance board works based on the graphic that last team project created.

Arduino Codes

[_setup_]
port=COM3
baudrate=57600

width=800
height=201
background_color = white

grid_h_origin = 100
grid_h_step = 10
grid_h_color = #EEE
grid_h_origin_color = #CCC

grid_v_origin = 0
grid_v_step = 10
grid_v_color = #EEE
grid_v_origin_color = transparent

[_default_]
min=-1
max=1

[interval]
color=transparent
min=0
max=100000

[RxAcc]
color=cyan
dash = 1

[RxEst]
color=blue

[RyAcc]
color=magenta
dash = 1

[RyEst]
color=red

[RzAcc]
color=lime
dash = 1

[RzEst]
color=green

This is the code that is used in SerialChart that finds about the balance based on the accelerameter We need to find out how this code actually works. This code seems like it's just for the program(SerialChart).

Decision List

Making General Structure of Quadcopter PID

• 
  Calculating the length and width of the base
• 
  After Calculating the length and width of the base, we cut the large wooden board, and here's the base for the structure!
• 
  Hold the base structure and long wood as 90 degrees and nail through it.
• 
  Here's the result.
• 
  Now we add the thin wood on the long wood and nail once at the left
• 
  To make sure the thin wood doesn't come out easily, we nailed it once more at the right

Material List

Product Name	Description	Quantity	Price
Traxxas Front & Rear Half Shaft	TRA5151	2	$7.44
Hacker A10-13L Brushless motors	These are strong, despite their weight and size.	4	~$54.00
Thunderbird 9 ESC	Thunderbird 9	4	$29.95
Arduino Mega	Mega	1	$58.95
Jumper Wires Premium 12" M/M Pack of 10	Male to male	2	$4.50
Breadboard Small Self-Adhesive	5x5 pins or more	1	$5.95
5 DOF gyroscopic sensor	Allows for input of X, Y, and Z accel, as well as X and Y rates.	1	~$49.95

Software List

Arduino Program

Starlino Code

Autodesk Inventor

Time

15 hours

Tutorials

None at the moment

About the arduino

We couldn't really find anything about the arduino. Finding similar programs and softwares were easy;however, those needs additional equipments that will cost money, so we do not recommend them. For the next group, they will need to first try the strarlino code that is above listed, and make sure the accelerometer works with arduino, and then somehow figure out how this can be applied to Quadcopter PID.

About the structure

Whether the next group will use the structure that we made or not depends on their decision. If they decided to use our structure, they need to look at our decision matrix about the gimbal joint, and put the gimbal join with the material we have left and follow the structure, which is located above.

Conclusion

• Make sure you understand arduino and accelerometer before beginning this project. (For codewise, it doesn't have to be everybody in the group, but basic understanding will still help them)
• Research how arduino can be applied to the structure
• Attach the gimbal joint or somehow make another design of the Quadcopter PID
• Find out how to connect propellers with arduino and try to run them.
• Also, figure out where arduino will be put on the structure if using the same structure of the previous group.