Poll NEW! QuadCopter platform - QuadPowered

[bob.titus]

Originally Posted by tend2it

You may want to leave some board room for frame mount holes ... some existing frame makers may have specs for mounting dimensions and board size support.

Also, what about adding LED support? ... a programmable sequencer and different 5V/11V power taps for other external devices like CAMs, FETs for remote Tx control?
--Eric--

good remark, the idea being to use the board as much as possible in order to simplify setup and gain weight.

[lazer155]

Yes led and camera support would be really nice. I will have to buy this board instead of a mikrocopter board because of all the great features you are putting into it.

[S11D336B]

Don't worry guys I haven't forgotten about mouting, but I do think it is a lesser consideration as holes can be drilled in the frame to mount it. How many channels do you want to have for receiving, as it stands I have the capacity to input 7 channels into the board. I can add more if you need them. As far as output we need to be careful here. Connecting with external devices can have an adverse effect on your board if certain electrical requirements aren't met. When you say camera support, what do you mean? What would you like to have happen technically and what would you be trying to achieve with this feature? The reason I ask is that camera support is a broad thing. I can do the following, output a voltage or something like that when you flip a switch. I can not do the following, plug a ccd camera into the board and record the input. What do you want as far as led support? I was planning on placing a single RGB led on the board as a status indicator. Do you mean switching external leds on an off with the transmitter? Sorry for the dely in my reply, I have been traveling for business. I 'll be home tomorrow.

[tend2it]

Originally Posted by S11D336B

Don't worry guys I haven't forgotten about mouting, but I do think it is a lesser consideration as holes can be drilled in the frame to mount it. How many channels do you want to have for receiving, as it stands I have the capacity to input 7 channels into the board. I can add more if you need them. As far as output we need to be careful here. Connecting with external devices can have an adverse effect on your board if certain electrical requirements aren't met. When you say camera support, what do you mean? What would you like to have happen technically and what would you be trying to achieve with this feature? The reason I ask is that camera support is a broad thing. I can do the following, output a voltage or something like that when you flip a switch. I can not do the following, plug a ccd camera into the board and record the input. What do you want as far as led support? I was planning on placing a single RGB led on the board as a status indicator. Do you mean switching external leds on an off with the transmitter? Sorry for the dely in my reply, I have been traveling for business. I 'll be home tomorrow.

I was thinking along the lines of status LED flashing ... take a look at this ... this was the output of the old X-UFO and now the X-3D-BL ... http://forum.xufo.net/bb/viewtopic.php?t=338 ... Or something programmable via your interface to define your own patterns and some static LED connection points on the board. For other LEDs types ... like 5V individual or 11V strips ... http://www.besthongkong.com/index.ph...fb6fe90a0dea33 that can be powered through board power taps/FETs and switched via the TX channels. 5V and 11V power taps for powering low current stuff. Better to have more channels when you need it than less.
--Eric--

[lazer155]

By camera support we mean a place to plug a camera in so it will be powered by the board rather than a seperate source. A switch to turn the camera power off would also be good. If you had room you could make a place to hook 2 servos up for controlling the camera pan/tilt.

[S11D336B]

Originally Posted by tend2it

I was thinking along the lines of status LED flashing ... take a look at this ... this was the output of the old X-UFO and now the X-3D-BL ... http://forum.xufo.net/bb/viewtopic.php?t=338 ... Or something programmable via your interface to define your own patterns and some static LED connection points on the board. For other LEDs types ... like 5V individual or 11V strips ... http://www.besthongkong.com/index.ph...fb6fe90a0dea33 that can be powered through board power taps/FETs and switched via the TX channels. 5V and 11V power taps for powering low current stuff. Better to have more channels when you need it than less.
--Eric--

I will definitely include status LEDs. My original idea was to use an RGB led and have different colors mean different things. RGB leds are cheap and I can probably provide 4 headers for placement next to the motors in additon to one onboard. I do not think we will have room on the new board for additional power reglators without going surface mount. The onboard regulator is 3.3v 500mah In any case I can potientially provide headers that will give you a switch with 3.3v or ground for use with external fets or relays. It is also really easy to implement voltage regulators using project boards from the local electronics store.

[S11D336B]

Originally Posted by lazer155

By camera support we mean a place to plug a camera in so it will be powered by the board rather than a seperate source. A switch to turn the camera power off would also be good. If you had room you could make a place to hook 2 servos up for controlling the camera pan/tilt.

I think that pan and tilt is really cool, but I'm not sure that there really is any added value to outputting that signal from the board. Can you not just plug the servos directly into the receiver from your radio? For camera power, I will definitely include a header that switches from 3.3v to ground output to implement these types of power controls with external fets or relays. I'm not sure most users will get any tangible increase in flight time by turning off the camera. A conservative setup will draw 12-15amps for the motors. a digital camera somewhere around 500mah to 1amp or less. 12amps would give 20 minutes for a 4000mah battery. 13 amps is a 1.5 minute decrease in flight time. Which is certainly tangible. But if you are using a small CCD or CMOS camera the current draws on those are < 100mah. It may be worth doing for digital cameras, but I need to think about how to fit it. I'll need to include a 5v regulator that can handle a few amps. Anyone have any data on what these cameras draw and at what voltage? Perhaps using the internal batteries on a camera and just including a switch to turn it off would be better?

[bob.titus]

Originally Posted by lazer155

By camera support we mean a place to plug a camera in so it will be powered by the board rather than a seperate source. A switch to turn the camera power off would also be good. If you had room you could make a place to hook 2 servos up for controlling the camera pan/tilt.

I don't really see the point of using the board to power the servos when they can be directly connected to the receiver
Unless of course if you are expecting to have some IMU for the camera mount computed by the board

[bob.titus]

so what's up? It's gotten very quiet here...

[S11D336B]

Originally Posted by bob.titus

so what's up? It's gotten very quiet here...

Working on the board. I should have it in hand by the end of next week. And oh yeah the GPS I am planning to use claims accuracy to <2.5M horizontally. Should be nice. Also, I was able to get all the hardware on one board! AWESOME! . New photo attached.

[S11D336B]

I think it was kind of obvious, but because there is so much interest I am fully committed to delivering this board for purchase.

[microkites]

Originally Posted by S11D336B

I think it was kind of obvious, but because there is so much interest I am fully committed to delivering this board for purchase.

do you know aproximate size of finished board?
weight estimate would be nice also
mk

[bob.titus]

Originally Posted by S11D336B

Working on the board. I should have it in hand by the end of next week. And oh yeah the GPS I am planning to use claims accuracy to <2.5M horizontally. Should be nice. Also, I was able to get all the hardware on one board! AWESOME! . New photo attached.

Great news, and yeah, the board looks really packed!
But what about software, have you already thought about it?

[S11D336B]

Originally Posted by bob.titus

Great news, and yeah, the board looks really packed!
But what about software, have you already thought about it?

Software is already written for the basic configuration. I just need to extend it to include the features we talked about. Also it'll need to be updated with the new pins for the new configuration. I don't know if you guys have considered it or not, but I have a no cost solution for 5v power. you can use the BEC on your speed controller. Infact you should have 4 becs from 4 speed controllers plugged into the board . This should get most of you at least a 4 amp capacity! I have included a header which filters the power from the bec and allows you to use it for other things. Conversely, if a jumper is set to the opposite position the header can be used for an input allowing power from upto a 6 cell lipoly.

[S11D336B]

Originally Posted by microkites

do you know aproximate size of finished board?
weight estimate would be nice also
mk

The board is 2.5 x 3.8. Weight of the base board will be almost negligable. I will get a firm weight once I get the assembled board next week.