Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

It Flies!!!!!!!. It had to be "ardrone_048218". Remember to use the " ". I was able to bring it up in a hover. Go up/down, left/right and fore/aft and land. It is very sensitive. I'll be trying lower rates and expo. I'll also flatten out the throttle curve. It doesn't take much off centre to climb. I need the sticks less sensitive. If all goes well, I'll post some indoor flight video this Friday. This is exciting!!. Thanks Mheeli for all your hard work, much appreciated.

Cheers, Brian.

That's quick, congrat! Video please.

As for the sensitivity, I use Ar.Freeflight to set the max values. I played around with max values in Ar.Freeflight. The values below works quite well. You can then further fine tune the exponential values on your Tx.



For the dead zone values. You can edit the value in the user_config.h file to your liking. Towards the bottom where it says "Mid stick dead zone" The higher the values the bigger the dead zone.

Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

Mheeli.

Can I use my flightrecord app to record my flight and use my rc tx at the same time?

I do not have flight record app, so cannot comment. But I used the latest version of Ar.Freeflight in "Unpair" mode. Worked OK for a few minutes then it stopped. Will need to investigate a bit further.

Originally Posted by Mheeli

Next project. UAV Ar.Drone with return to Launch capability ....

Very interested to this project.
I'm seeking for an application with GPS based PID algorithm (send AT commands AT*PCMD to UDP port 5556).
Such application source code can be compiled and run either on YellowJacket or on AR.Drone as both of them are based on UDP Socket programming.

Currently, I'm able to attach a GPS onto the serial port of AR.Drone, and receive GPS NMEA data from /dev/ttyPA0.

The difficulty of the GPS based PID algorithm is: need to know the heading direction and Yaw (need to know the geomagnetic north), so AT*PCMD can be used to guide AR.Drone to the target Waypoint).

Originally Posted by MAPGPS

Very interested to this project.
I'm seeking for an application with GPS based PID algorithm (send AT commands AT*PCMD to UDP port 5556).
Such application source code can be compiled and run either on YellowJacket or on AR.Drone as both of them are based on UDP Socket programming.

Currently, I'm able to attach a GPS onto the serial port of AR.Drone, and receive GPS NMEA data from /dev/ttyPA0.

Welcome to Rc Groups MAPGPS. Your Ar.Drone java apps helped me a lot.

I've written a program that's running inside my other Ar.Drone. The program reads commands from /dev/ttyPA0 and then send UDP AT* commands to the local host of the drone. So it's possible to write a program and read the NMEA from GPS then command the Drone to a fix way point and back to launch.

But we need to be able to manually control the drone at the same time. So this is what I was thinking.

Tx -> Rx -> [Arduino mini with GPS module] -> Ar.Drone serial port.

For the GPS PID , I'm studying some of source code at diydrones.com

Very difficult to understand though. I did not pay much attention to my math teacher at school.

To be able to manually control the AR.Drone at the same time, an alternative is:
Tx -> Rx -> YellowJacket -> Ar.Drone WiFi --\
GPS module -> Ar.Drone serial port ----------\---> on-drone app -> AT Commands processor (program.elf)

The on-drone app will listen on UDP port 15556, and mix the AT commands received from WiFi YellowJacket and GPS NMEA data received from serial port.

It can also use iPhone WiFi control at the same time with aboves:
Setup NAT on AR.Drone to redirect UDP port 5556 into 15556:
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i ath0 -p udp --destination-port 5556 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.1:15556

Originally Posted by Mheeli

That's quick, congrat! Video please.

As for the sensitivity, I use Ar.Freeflight to set the max values. I played around with max values in Ar.Freeflight. The values below works quite well. You can then further fine tune the exponential values on your Tx.



For the dead zone values. You can edit the value in the user_config.h file to your liking. Towards the bottom where it says "Mid stick dead zone" The higher the values the bigger the dead zone.

Do I need to unpar again to get my iPhone to work or just power up drone(no power to rx/yellojacket) and it should connect?

Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

Do I need to unpar again to get my iPhone to work or just power up drone(no power to rx/yellojacket) and it should connect?

no need to unpair to connect from iPhone. Just do not supply power to your Rx/YJ.

After finished flying with your iPhone, just unpair it once to connect with YJ.

A very boring video of the Ar.Drone controlled from an RC Tx. The latest sketch allows the drone to be finely controlled.

Ar.Drone in a garden - Controlled by R/C Tx (2 min 54 sec)

WooooooHooooooo!!!! This thing rocks. I had three 8 minute flights tonight(850 mahs used out of 1300). The first flight was to check various rates and expo. I ended up seting up the drone with Mheeli's iphone settings. I also used full travel on all channels with 30% expo on pitch and roll only. The video is the second flight. On the third flight, I powered it all up and then started my flightrecord app on my iPhone. It connected and I had live video. I hit the record button and took off. It came up in a hover and then landed again. I had no rc control. It didn't like both systems running. I repowered the drone and had a good flight, no probs. I did notice when sticks were let go, the drone took a little longer to get a fixed hover position.

Enjoy the video, it was blast, well spent money, Brian.

RC Parrot AR Drone (8 min 27 sec)

Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

WooooooHooooooo!!!! This thing rocks. I had three 8 minute flights tonight(850 mahs used out of 1300). The first flight was to check various rates and expo. I ended up seting up the drone with Mheeli's iphone settings. I also used full travel on all channels with 30% expo on pitch and roll only. The video is the second flight. On the third flight, I powered it all up and then started my flightrecord app on my iPhone. It connected and I had live video. I hit the record button and took off. It came up in a hover and then landed again. I had no rc control. It didn't like both systems running. I repowered the drone and had a good flight, no probs. I did notice when sticks were let go, the drone took a little longer to get a fixed hover position.

Enjoy the video, it was blast, well spent money, Brian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG-m9iB6yQg

Hi Buffythesaint,

Can i talk you into selling your rc drone?
It would be great if i can get an TX version off the shelf.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

It connected and I had live video. I hit the record button and took off. It came up in a hover and then landed again. I had no rc control. It didn't like both systems running. I repowered the drone and had a good flight, no probs.

That's what happened to me as well. Need a bit more time to look into this.

As for the Drone takes more time to do position hold, can you test with a wider throttle dead zone. I did not noticed it took longer than my iPod to do position hold.

BTW, thank you for your feedback during your mod. I will update the instructions with your findings.

Brian, would mind if I put your video on my first post? Yours really show how smooth the Ar.Drone can be flown by a conventional RC sticks and a skillful pilot

Originally Posted by Mheeli

Brian, would mind if I put your video on my first post? Yours really show how smooth the Ar.Drone can be flown by a conventional RC sticks and a skillful pilot

NP Mheeli. It flies 100% better. It's so smooth now, not jerky like when I used my iPhone. I can try a bigger dead zone. I haven't looked at the config file, but can you adjust each axis dead zone or is one adjustment for all?

Brian.

Originally Posted by Buffythesaint

NP Mheeli. It flies 100% better. It's so smooth now, not jerky like when I used my iPhone. I can try a bigger dead zone. I haven't looked at the config file, but can you adjust each axis dead zone or is one adjustment for all?

Brian.

Thanks.

You can adjust individual axis to your liking.

Originally Posted by FlyingMcCoy

Hi Buffythesaint,

Can i talk you into selling your rc drone?
It would be great if i can get an TX version off the shelf.

Cheers

Sorry, but I'm keeping my Drone. It's flying so well that I don't want to start over. You can fly the drone without an i device. If you had a friend with a phone/pad, you could set it up that way and then fly with a regular rc tx. Once it's setup, your good to go.

Mheeli. Not sure when I'll get to changing my config file. Indoor flying only now, once a week. We have snow now and no way will I fly outdoors with all that WET stuff around. I'm going to install a 72mhz rx and try a test. If that goes well, I will add a 5v camera and 5v 10mw 2.4 video tx, powered from the bec for my rx/YJ. I'm estimating 30g's more. The rc setup will work better for FPV.

Do you have anything in your sketch that will make the Drone land if I lose rx signal(no analog signals to YJ)?

Brian.