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For the discussion of Sparkfun events such as Free Day, Antimov, AVC, etc.
By trialex
#120354
Are there any build logs for those competing in AVC 2011?

I'd love to be there one day, but in the meantime it's awesome to see the build logs of those competing.
By mtmentat
#121077
Working on it:
mtmentat.wordpress.com

I should have a third post up this weekend; I got the radio in this week, and so will try to get the plane flying by this weekend. After that, gotta figure out the whole "autonomous" bit.

:P
User avatar
By shimniok
#121184
I'm posting my build log to my blog:

http://www.bot-thoughts.com/

The tag for AVC 2011 is: http://www.bot-thoughts.com/search/label/Sparkfun%20AVC (listed in newest first, unfortunately; not sure if there's a way to list oldest first in blogger)

PS: I'm doing a road bot based on an entry level 2wd, electric RC stadium truck chassis. I've got the main microcontroller (mbed) installed on a custom PCB "motherboard" and have GPS and rate gyro installed along with software to interface each.

Lots to do still: compass install and interface, possibly accelerometer, probably wheel encoders, definitely a kalman filter implementation for the various system states, sensors and software for obstacle avoidance (you UAV folks have it soooo easy... next year there better be SAMs to avoid...), and other fun and surprises... what will it look like? will I be able to incorporate machine vision? how fast will it go? will it spontaneously burst into flames? Or just crash and mangle itself into an unrecognizeable gourdian knot of plastic and silicon?

This is fun :D

Michael
By trialex
#121187
Awesome! Thanks heaps to both of you. Hopefully more people will post their stuff.

@mtmentat I am an Aeronautical Engineer and I still wouldn't take on a UAV platform! Kudos! I don't think that using production boards like that is a cop-out in anyway.

@shimniok - Nice homemade PCB! I think my hypothetical entry would be similar to yours - off-road buggy chassis, GPS + gyro + compass to make a pseudo IMU/INU.
By mtmentat
#121561
trialex wrote:Awesome! Thanks heaps to both of you. Hopefully more people will post their stuff.
I am an Aeronautical Engineer and I still wouldn't take on a UAV platform! Kudos! I don't think that using production boards like that is a cop-out in anyway.
You scare me when you say such things! Ignorance is bliss, my friend. The drone's body is pretty much done, which is encouraging. The thing looks so good right now I'm pretty hesitant to fly it, uC-controlled or standard! I don't want to crash several months worth of hobby time!
By trialex
#121569
mtmentat wrote: You scare me when you say such things! Ignorance is bliss, my friend. The drone's body is pretty much done, which is encouraging. The thing looks so good right now I'm pretty hesitant to fly it, uC-controlled or standard! I don't want to crash several months worth of hobby time!
Hey don't listen to what I say; I'm not a risk taker. I like to plan everything out 100%. Case in point, my current project, a high altitude balloon, has been going for a year, and I'm up to rev 5 of the PCB, where as others have thrown an android phone in a box and got it done.

having built many a model like yours, I'd say you probably should be HOPING you won't crash, but I wouldn't plan on it :-) I've definitely come to realise it's the construction of models that is the fun bit, not the flying :-)

Seriously though keep going for it. I'll be cheering for you!
User avatar
By shimniok
#121605
I'm really curious about the UAV thing. Been thinking I will first convert a cheap foam glider to RC, then turn it into a UAV ... some day... maybe for next year.

Anyway... I've got the compass on, calibrated, seems to work ok. Having tons of trouble getting the mbed to log data to the sd card reliably. All this worked well until a couple days ago. Not sure what is going on but it's driving me nuts. It's hard to prototype heading estimation code when I can't get much data to work with.

Actually a lot of things have been going wrong. I bricked my expensive high-zoot GPS module due to a really stupid mistake but fortunately I have another module as a backup that seems to work quite well.

I'm still a ways from autonomous operation... but getting there.

I'm curious as to what the other competitors are up to.

Michael
By kwan3217
#123202
I might as well log/brag here.

I am building a helicopter which is almost certain to win the low altitude competition, except if it is facing another helicopter. I basically just chopped all the electronics out of an existing helicopter, leaving the battery, motors, and airframe. I replaced the electronics with a Logomatic and Arduino-based motor controller, and just got the thing in the air today :D Unfortunately, it is open-loop and still not controllable, but I still have time, right? Months and months, right?

Youtube of test flight
By Greenlight
#123337
I took my car out this weekend for a test run around sparkfun. On one of the first attempts it found the only water puddle in the parking lot and splashed one of our ping sensors and caused it to fail. So we had to make our runs blind the rest of the day. After several hours and attempts it finnally made it around the building without crashing. And just so you guys have something to shoot for, Ill tell you that it made it around in just under 90 seconds.
By Greenlight
#123554
I think at 90 seconds the average speed would be about 6.5 mph
Shimniok, It looks like from your video you will have no trouble beating that speed.
I guess i better see what i can do to go even faster.
By jessejay356
#123579
I hope to have something worthy of a build log some time this weekend. ;) All my parts will be here today! I'm taking Friday off of real work to get something done on my bot! Does anyone know the times of the previous ground winners?
By Greenlight
#123589
jessejay356 wrote: Does anyone know the times of the previous ground winners?
recap of last year

http://www.sparkfun.com/news/351

Team Tobor, 1 minute 55 seconds
Bon Scott, 3 minutes 12 seconds
Autobahn, 3 minutes 14 seconds
Autocrusher, 3 minutes 27 seconds
By trialex
#124028
Thanks to all for the posts!

@mtmentat - Where's the updates :-) ???

@kwan3217 - awesome video! gutsy moves :-)