Project MEHA and SEPA

With the creation of this thread, these projects have gone past planning and have been ordered, although this thread won't be updated until I get the first parcel from Hobby King delivered. If you haven't heard what MEHA and SEPA is, you'll want to start here:
http://crennsmind.com/index.php/curr...1-micro-copter
http://crennsmind.com/index.php/curr...with-autopilot

I'd also like to thank the people who have helped fund me to Stage 1 of each project; I've got a few months work ahead of me now, once the parcels arrive. I hope that by the project's end, it's going to be still interesting and educational. Plenty of pictures, videos and code are to come!

I'll also be having fun with collecting sensor data from the aircraft when I get it (who said anything about not putting a microcontroller into the aircraft the moment I got it!) and also learning how to fly (well... if the simulator is anything to go by.... mainly learn how to land xD) the aircraft.

Things required to be able to measure the sensor data:
Microcontroller with enough IO/Interfaces to collect data
A microSD card to store the data
A triple axis accelerometer
A dual (or triple) axis gyroscope

Luckily I have access to all of those things!

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Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA

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:stupid:

Don't forget to follow me on twitter as well!

eh twitter is useless lol

I'd say facebook is useless, but people still use it ;D

The international order which contains everything for MEHA except for the LiPo battery which I'm still waiting for, has finally been packed and shipped to me. Photos to come after I get the package... Also room cleaning is REALLY needed now!

nice!

Went to the post office today, they brought out a large package for me, looking good, it had an EMS label on it, looking very good, it was from Japan..... DAMN!

:pics:

It's here! Just need to take pictures now.

Pictures! Assembly is most likely tomorrow night, I have a PCB to finish. I also have a small issue (not related to HobbyKing) which I'll post about tomorrow.


Additionally, as you can see in the first image, the weight is under 2.5Kg (2500g) so I'm trying to convince HobbyKing to refund me the difference in the shipping cost (in credit to their store, not paypal) because it was 588g lighter than what it quoted me originally. I paid for 3KG of express shipping, and there is a 2.5KG express shipping option which is $6.19 cheaper.

Sadly I can't spin up the main motor until I get the batteries, but I will be able to move the servos around a bit with the help of my desktop :D

nice goodies :D

They're very nice, just I can't play with them until I get this PCB design done, just the problem is, I'm very tired, stressed, and the program I'm using (Altium) is complaining, so I need to fix up a bunch of errors. After that, it should take about an hour to finish it off, then I have a day at uni and some begging, then I get to work on my helicopter!

Well, building this helicopter might be delayed until the weekend because of changes in the design to the PCB which is causing me a headache and problems I didn't need.

As for the small issue, it's related to how wide the frame of the helicopter is, it's quite thinner than I thought, but it's not a major issue. It does mean that I have to use a maple mini initially before I can design my own PCBs.

*watching*

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Originally Posted by crenn

Additionally, as you can see in the first image, the weight is under 2.5Kg (2500g) so I'm trying to convince HobbyKing to refund me the difference in the shipping cost (in credit to their store, not paypal) because it was 588g lighter than what it quoted me originally. I paid for 3KG of express shipping, and there is a 2.5KG express shipping option which is $6.19 cheaper.

Sadly I can't spin up the main motor until I get the batteries, but I will be able to move the servos around a bit with the help of my desktop :D

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Just a minor update, HobbyKing refunded me the difference in shipping to store credit, I wasn't expecting that, so I'm really happy with that!
In some slightly bad news, I've heard that it could be another month before I get the batteries.

Awesome! I've heard good things about HobbyKing customer service. ...well, as long as you're looking to get store credit, that it. ;) Apparently trying to get a cash refund for anything is like pulling teeth.

For the battery, have you thought about my suggestion to get a similar battery in addition? There are some 800mAh and 1200-1300mAh 2S packs in their AUS warehouse for under $10; would at least let you get it in the air sooner. I've also been wondering...do you have any idea what the payload weight for the plane will be? It might be worth getting a bigger battery for that one anyway; I imagine the payload weight doesn't affect the flight of that nearly as much as for the heli, and it might be worth another 100g or so to triple your range.

I was actually thinking about doing that last night, what I'm going to do is assemble the helicopter and see if I need any other tools (like little allen keys) which I don't have. I'm going to assemble it at my uni today during my breaks. I'm looking at ordering from the international warehouse with the cheapest shipping as I don't mind waiting since I need to practice on a simulator some more with my real RXTX now.

What I'd also heard is that if you want a cash refund, you need to have used paypal and file a dispute.

Well, I didn't get a break today, and I probably won't be able to do anything until Monday. My uni project is taking a lot of my time sadly because the uni's open day is on Sunday and I'll be attending that. I'll be updating that thread soon with pictures of the new circuit board I designed and made up after my uni milled the board.

MEHA is mostly built, just now I need to get some spare parts due to broken components, mainly a thread being stripped. I'll post photos soon enough.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crenn

I'll post photos soon enough.

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I hope...

Well, SEPA arrived at my uni today with some 800mAh 2S LiPo batteries (I have to order in the 1Ah 2S batteries for SEPA, but I can test with the 800mAh batteries) and I've assembled it. Like the Firefox EP200, there is pretty much no instructions included with it, however, it's not hard how to figure out how to assemble the plane. The servos are glued in place, so I'll need to work out how to remove them and replace them with the HXT500 servos I bought which are a lot better. But before I fly, I wish to mod the plane slightly, putting in new servos for better control, put in actual hinges for the control surfaces (currently it's just very thin foam holding on the ailerons and elevator, it's asking to break mid flight), adapting the 'cockpit' area to accept my little camera that I bought with MEHA and also to house some of the electronics I'll be putting into the plane. Also properly charge up my cheap NiMH batteries.

So on the shopping list:
Scalpel
Foam-safe Glue
Hinges
1Ah Batteries
Custom PCB to hold electronics
Nerves of steel to cut up a brand new plane
Epoxy and some thin fibreglass

I'll leave these here:



More to come soon.

that first vid would look SOOOOO COOOL in 3D :D

Sadly, I don't have 2 cameras.... and firstly, I really need a better camera! The Samsung HMX-U10 that I use is ok, but it has a lot of flaws. At least it can record in 720p 60FPS or 1080p 30FPS.

Looks good...now get that bird in the air! :D

I'll just leave this here :whistler:

http://www.elenafrancesco.org/old/arduino/baronpilot/

The problem with using an Arduino as the base of a autopilot, you don't get enough performance for it to work well enough. You'd need multiple arduinos connected to each other to get the desired results. It's possible to get it close using a couple of arduinos, but not 1. If you ditch the Wirish libraries and only use C/ASM, then you might be able to get it running fairly well on 1.

In other news, we had a small incident this morning. 2 LiPo batteries were accidentally plugged into each other, I'm currently repairing the batteries due to both batteries needing new plugs. Pictures to come later.

Shocking news!

It was shocking news, I should also clarify that the LiPo batteries were for my university project, not my personal projects. And I wasn't the one who connected them together either.

New blog post on my website:
http://crennsmind.com/index.php/the-...rogress-update

If you've been following me on twitter, you would have seen that I've did a test fibreglass sample with the resin. I've learnt a bit from doing it, but need to do more samples now!

Also, MEHA has it's motor installed, and tomorrow I hope to clean my desk (it's a mess currently) and do the setup on MEHA ready for flight within the next 3 weeks or so. I need to get a simulator ready.

:pics:

Well, more pictures should be coming over the next few days, but even though there aren't many pictures, there has been some movement on my website of late! I've posted a couple of blog posts and also a post for SEPA, there will also be another blog post tomorrow after I've proof read it.