• The Beginning

    Rhea Rae • 4 hours ago • 0 comments

    This idea goes back some years. Back to the Erle Robotics era, when onboard compute and autonomy on small UAVs really grabbed my attention. I owned a few boards of PXFmini variety and was able to test them with what was then a brand new idea pairing them together the Raspberry Pi Zero W and Rasberry Pi 3B which in all logical theory enable endless possibilities for sensors and data. Well needless to say I was immediately captivated. Even after that path of hardware disappeared, the core goal stayed the same: build a flying system that is not just piloted, but instrumented, observable, and capable of more than manual control.

    Here I am now. 

    -RR

  • Saturday

    Rhea Rae • 5 hours ago • 0 comments

    I finally decided to put the quad back together today. The first test flight on this build went well and that was completely manual. After that I started using the programmed flight learning on the PC, and that is where things went sideways. I accidentally programmed it right into a tree and the whole thing became a nightmare, so it ended up sitting for a while.

    Today I took a few hours and started bringing it back. I installed the motors onto new arms and reconnected part of the system. At this point I still need to pull the FlySky controller from the water drone, connect the battery, and run tests. I will probably do that tomorrow.

    What I like about this build is that it does both. It can be flown manually, but it also has the hardware for autonomous flight through the Pixhawk 6C, M10 GPS, and 915 MHz telemetry. So it is not just a quad, it is a platform for both direct control and programmed behavior.


    -RR

  • Controller

    Rhea Rae • 7 hours ago • 0 comments

  • ESC

    Rhea Rae • 7 hours ago • 0 comments

  • Motor

    Rhea Rae • 7 hours ago • 0 comments