Top advice for starting a build on professional quality boards for AIO Photography Drone?

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Thrice Saitta

Thrice Saitta

New Member
I am a total noob programmer and engineer looking to use drones as a first step in this field of learning while I go to school. I already order a simple JJRC H31 with the 2mp camera as a starter. I will already be making mods(like the FOV & antennas)and working with waterproof resin(at least that is what I think it is). I also am going to get a 3d printer in the next week as well. So, that being said, I am looking to work towards building my first professional-grade ariel drone for photography work.

I want to start with the boards and working with software to print, design, and test the PCBs myself as well as setting up all chipsets. Afer that I want to design the body around that with the 3d Printer.

So that is what I got so far. What do you guys think? I will be posting videos on our new vlog called," The Able 1 Tech". We want to do a podcast as well with it. But all in time. Let me know what you guys think! I need your opinions! Please... Lolz
 
Hey Thrice.............the assembly is a piece of cake, but the major drawback(which I just solved a month after the assembly was complete) is "assumption) the mother of all f***ups. I built an S500 kit and fought with the programming of the APM 2.8 flight controller. I was having difficulty with it wanting to twist as it was lifting off. Would flip and dig. I changed out the mount for my compass/gps module and moved it behind my flight controller. To do that I had to turn my module so that the arrow on top pointed south instead of north(my assumption). I got everything set up and when I went into my flight program software, lo and behold, my yaw was only a couple degrees off instead of 180 to 200 degrees off. So after a month long fight with software, it ended up being mechanical. But I got my first test flights in the dark this morning. Successful test flights. Took off, traveled there and back(100ft out) and landed.
 
dragger201 said:
Hey Thrice.............the assembly is a piece of cake, but the major drawback(which I just solved a month after the assembly was complete) is "assumption) the mother of all f***ups. I built an S500 kit and fought with the programming of the APM 2.8 flight controller. I was having difficulty with it wanting to twist as it was lifting off. Would flip and dig. I changed out the mount for my compass/gps module and moved it behind my flight controller. To do that I had to turn my module so that the arrow on top pointed south instead of north(my assumption). I got everything set up and when I went into my flight program software, lo and behold, my yaw was only a couple degrees off instead of 180 to 200 degrees off. So after a month long fight with software, it ended up being mechanical. But I got my first test flights in the dark this morning. Successful test flights. Took off, traveled there and back(100ft out) and landed.
Click to expand...


I am missing something?? What did the position of the compass GPS have to with the fix. Was it simply the arrow needed to pointed South?? Sratching head here.haha
 
Yeah, it was stupid......................I kept getting a "yaw reset" of 180 to 200 degrees so it would immediately during lift off try to turn and would end up nose down in the dirt.
 
dragger201 said:
Yeah, it was stupid......................I kept getting a "yaw reset" of 180 to 200 degrees so it would immediately during lift off try to turn and would end up nose down in the dirt.
Click to expand...

Soooo, your not sure why it fixed the problem?? Sorry for being dense here......LOL
 
ArmyVet said:
Soooo, your not sure why it fixed the problem?? Sorry for being dense here......LOL
Click to expand...

Actually, Bill............I really don't. But the problem is fixed and I'm a happy camper! And that was the only change, so again I'm "assuming".......
 
dragger201 said:
I was having difficulty with it wanting to twist as it was lifting off. Would flip and dig. I changed out the mount for my compass/gps module
Click to expand...
The APM has a built in compass.
APM2.8 Flight Controller, newest APM version, with Shock Absorber designed
- Arduino Compatible
- Includes 3-axis gyro, accelerometer and magnetometer, along with a high-performance barometer
Click to expand...

And as far as I can tell the GPS must be pointing NORTH (front) for it to work accurately.

As far as your compass the best results you can get the exact declination (which changes over time) for your location. You would enter the number in setup.
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/declination.shtml

Here would be my adjustment.

Dec hamm.JPG

If you have a combined external Compass/GPS module you'll need to take that into consideration in setup.
http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-compass-setup-advanced.html
 
Last edited:
Jackson said:
The APM has a built in compass.


And as far as I can tell the GPS must be pointing NORTH (front) for it to work accurately.

As far as your compass the best results you can get the exact declination (which changes over time) for your location.
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/declination.shtml

Here would be my adjustment.

View attachment 2688

If you have a combined external Compass/GPS module you'll need to take that into consideration in setup.
http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-compass-setup-advanced.html
Click to expand...


Trust me Jackson, after a month of fighting with this, I know that the APM 2.8 has an internal compass. But I'm using the compass that's part of my GPS module. And yes I know it needs to point north but the printed pointer on the cover was backwards for some reason. It's like I said, I gotta different mount, but because of limitation in connector length I had to point that damned pointer south and that solved my problem. I didn't in my wildest imagination think that that pointer was supposed to point anyway other then north. My internal compass has been inactivated by pulling the jumper next to the connectors for the compass/gps module. And direction for the GPS is irrelevent.......it's the compass that is critical.
 
ArmyVet said:
Sooooo, for us dense people, splain what happened o_O
Click to expand...

As far as I can figure it out, Bill, having that external compass pointing roughly 180deg out, set up an instant bias to yaw around 180deg as soon as power was applied..........now I'm saying that not because I'm absolutely positive, but because I made no other changes other then rotating the compass/gps module.
 
dragger201 said:
As far as I can figure it out, Bill, having that external compass pointing roughly 180deg out, set up an instant bias to yaw around 180deg as soon as power was applied..........now I'm saying that not because I'm absolutely positive, but because I made no other changes other then rotating the compass/gps module.
Click to expand...

I think it is time for me to build a kit and have all this fun toooooo!
 
dragger201 said:
First question...........do you have enough hair to spare when you get to the "pulling hair out" stage???
Click to expand...

That is funny and probably so true LOL

Yeah, I am ok in hair department and still have most of my teeth haha. But my dexterity is not what it used to be. Took me 90 minutes to fix a Ham Radio that would have only taken 15 minutes 10 years ago. It is frustrating.....ughhh
 
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