I found this over at DiyDrones:


Erez R has cooked up what looks to be a quite capable multirotor controller, basically it's an Arduino if you want it to be, with sensors onboard, very small and lightweight:


MCU: 16Mhz Atmel Atmega328p
Gyro: L3G4200D
Accel - ADXL345
Compass - HMC5843
Input voltage - 5v-16v.
Up to 16 I/O ports for PWM (in/out), external modules etc. (8 PWM out?)
I2C header for external I2C units.
1.5"x1.1" (39mm x 28mm).
6 grams.


Porting of Ardupirates code in the works - Pipopirate:

http://code.google.com/p/pipo/

Get your Pipo ISU here: http://www.eraviv.com/store/page2.html

3-axis following (0 min 20 sec)

I really like the escalating rate of development in multirotors.




Sebastian

Hows that X650 testing coming? Did you put it togeather yet? If so how does it fly?

Originally Posted by Z06 Tony

Hows that X650 testing coming? Did you put it togeather yet? If so how does it fly?

In my opinion it does not fly at all, perhaps the v1.3 firmware will do better but somehow I doubt it.

Please stay on topic, this thread is about the Pipo ISU, feel free to PM me.



Sebastian

Originally Posted by bas10an

In my opinion it does not fly at all, perhaps the v1.3 firmware will do better but somehow I doubt it.

Please stay on topic, this thread is about the Pipo ISU, feel free to PM me.



Sebastian

Hmm everyone elses flies fine. No prob though I will not post about it here anymore.

Sebastian,
Thanks for posting.


Hi Guys,

Some of you are familiar with another project of mine:
http://code.google.com/p/er9x/


I've just started porting. My main goal is to fit all the code into the 32kb limit of the MCU. Currently it looks completely doable.

One correction though. It's not an Arduino. That is, it can be. I can ship it with the Arduino bootloader on it. If you wish you can certainly program it as Arduino but the code I'm porting is to be c++. I feel it give me better control over the code.

Anyway, the repository holds a Makefile. Requirements in windows is to install Winavr.
On Linux you need to install avrdude, gcc-avr, avr-libc and build-essentials.

To compile: type "make" in the build directory.
To program via avrdude: type "make program"
To write the correct fuses: type "makw write-fuses"

Please notice that as of this writing the code is not really ready. Still lots of work to be done. Should be ok by the end of the week though



Feel free to post questions and suggestions.

Erez



Here's a picture of the v1 board. A plastic card for reference:

I don't know what to buy!

The Free Flight IMU or this one?

I just got a Arduino Pro Mini, but maybe the Flyduino is better?

Heeelp!

Isn't the HMC5843 at end of life time and the HMC5883 the HM successor. also hard to get ?

Yes it is.
However the HMC5883 is not yet available and there's no datasheet.
HMC5843 are still out there and they do a pretty good job.


BTW.
I have managed to actually weigh the board. No wonder I had a tough time. It weighs just 6 grams!

Moving right along.

I've finally solved the HMC5843 issue. Man these things are hard to get a hold of!
I haven't updated the code in the repository but I'm very much ahead.

I hope to have a flight video by the end of the week!


The code so far is only 10K and I got most of the heavy stuff in! I think that stuffing all of the AP stuff into the available pgm space is feasible. Just one tiny board - full fledged AP.

The multiplexer will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has worked with ER9x. Very flexible. I'm also working on a ER9x-FRSKY-PIPO pipeline which will allow you to program PIPO through your radio's menu.

Meanwhile here's an early stabilization/tracking test. This is without the compass so I do get some yaw drift. It's annoying but not terribly problematic.

Pipo Gimbal Stabilisation (0 min 19 sec)

Sorry for the video quality. Need to get a better phone.

Almost ready for flight!




Been working very hard to get the first version of the code ready. It's almost done. Just need to write the part where you can program via the radio and complete the PID programming.

The AHRS is quaternion based and works surprisingly well.
I haven't done the AP section yet but there's still a lot of room left for it (I'm currently using 40% of pgm space).



I've had an email asking what's the difference between Pipo and an IMU unit like this: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9623
They are almost the same size (Pipo is marginally smaller) and contain almost the same components.

The main difference is that the SF unit is designed to be an IMU. That is it's designed to plug into a host and give it the data. Pipo OTOH is designed to be a complete system. Also since the SF unit works on 3.3v it can't drive servos and it must operate at 8Mhz. Pipo works on 5v so it can work at 16Mhz and drive servos/esc directly.

The software allows you to design your system very easily without having to recompile and configure via an external program. That makes Pipo very flexible. It can be used in a Quad, a heli, a FPV plane, a camera gimbal... Basically anything that needs to be stabilised with servos.

Anyone familiar with er9x will instantly feel at home with this multiplexer. It's basically the same idea. You have inputs and outputs and you connect them via mixers. Again, anyone familiar with er9x knows how flexible this is.


To all those who ordered a board Thanks!
The boards without the magnetometers will start shipping early March. However, since the HMC5843 are very hard to get a hold of the boards with the magnetometers will ship by late March/Early April. As soon as the HMC5843 arrive.


Erez

Very impressive.

When do you expect the codes will be able to support the additional sensors?
Is it possible to integrate the aditional sensors (GPS, pressure, sonar) on the V2 board?

Originally Posted by erazz

Almost ready for flight!




Been working very hard to get the first version of the code ready. It's almost done. Just need to write the part where you can program via the radio and complete the PID programming.

Erez

Amazing job, Erez!

I hope you can make use of the Pirates' code - and I can't wait to see it fly!

How the heck did you manage to boil it down to 10k???

Thanks Guys,

GPS, pressure, sonar etc... will be incorporated in the coming weeks. You would need to either plug them in to a spare port or to the I2C header that I left open. I have a GPS on the way for testing purposes.

I've spent a lot of work optimising the code. Some I borrowed from Ardupirates, some from Ardupilot, some from other sources and a lot I wrote from scratch. Current loop takes just over 2msec to complete and I have a lot of room left over for AP routines

Now just need to find some 8x4 props....

how much will the full setup cost when yaready bruv?