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Bisso
Jun 28, 2007, 08:59 AM
Hi,

First of all, I'm really sorry if some of the subjects have already been discussed elsewhere but as you will see, I'm a bit lost and mostly looking for a direction for my research. So please consider those questions as a start point for my future researches.

I've been long interested in PIC developpement and decided to finally take time for this.
As an exercise, I've been thinking lately of building something with spare motors and blades I have lying here and there from dismantled Picco-z
The goal would be to revamp those motors and build (at term) a homemade picco-like copter with a downward facing rotor to control the aft/fore of the heli

The idea is to take those spare motors and control them via a microcontroller, I guess the simplest choice here is a PIC microcontroller
Depending on a given input (IR, bluetooth, anything, choice is open, the simplest is the best, to start with), motors would be running with more or less speed
Reusing parts is not a requirement and I see this project as an exercise.

I've worked witha PIC16F chip once at school (controlling 3 lego technics motors depending on the input of 2 light detectors) but can't remember the hardware we used exactly.

I'm a bit lost here, could someone point me to a kit that would suit those needs?
Does anybody have advices or suggestions?

I'd be happy to make further researches in the directions you could point me out.

Thanx.

Note: constructing or flying the real thing is not the problem here, for nowI just want to have those three motors running on a board for test purpose, I'll figure out what to do next. Also, as a developper, the programming part is not what scares me the most, even if I may have questions later in the building process

Malc C
Jun 28, 2007, 12:25 PM
Uhmmmm... this has echo's of this thread http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=699807

There are several ways of controlling a motor. Simple direct control where you vary the voltage such as in a basic model train comntroller, H-Bridge, and PWM.

If you use google and enter PIC and H bridge or PWM motor control you will find lots of examples on how to drive the motor. The issues come with how you control them, which if you intend to bulid some form of multi rotor craft will have the same problems as discussed in the thread linked to in this post

jeffs555
Jun 28, 2007, 01:05 PM
Uhmmmm... this has echo's of this thread http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=699807

I thought exactly the same thing when I read the title.

Anyway, most of the discussion of the PicooZ is in the "Indoor and Micro Models" forum. There are several discussions of replacement processor boards for the PicooZ and using a downward facing rotor to get control of forward and reverse. Here is one of them. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=671147