Book Image

Building a Quadcopter with Arduino

By : Vasilis Tzivaras
Book Image

Building a Quadcopter with Arduino

By: Vasilis Tzivaras

Overview of this book

<p>Quadcopters, also known as quadrotors, are gaining more and more popularity in today's world. With the help of these devices, anyone can have an “eye in the sky” and can monitor any place at any time. You can capture photographs and once a while and perform automated tasks. In this book, you will be informed about all the basic modules and electronics needed to fly a simple quadcopter. You’ll delve deep to create a fully-functional quadcopter quickly with the help of Arduino boards. Through this book, you’ll develop the skills needed to build a DIY drone that can capture pictures and record videos.</p>

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Building a Quadcopter with Arduino
Vasilis Tzivaras
Jan, 2016 | 124 pages
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Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Building a Quadcopter with Arduino
Building a Quadcopter with Arduino
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to Quadcopters
Introduction to Quadcopters
Basic components
Basic categories
Flight dynamics
Applications
Future potential
Comparison with other aerial vehicles
Summary
2
Hardware Overview
Hardware Overview
Radio transmitter and receiver (TX/RX)
Motors and propellers
Electronic speed controllers
Battery and charger
Radio transmitter and receiver
Summary
3
Creating a Frame
Creating a Frame
Market versus DIY
Materials
Frame shapes
Summary
4
Soldering the Electronics
Soldering the Electronics
Bullet connectors
Motors
ESC
Soldering a banana connection
Soldering a T connector
Soldering the PDB
Summary
5
Electronics Installation
Electronics Installation
Motor installation
Mounting the propeller
Installing the ESC
Connecting the receiver
Powering up
Summary
6
Flight Controller Setup
Flight Controller Setup
About Mission Planner
Uploading firmware
Connecting ArduPilot
Calibrating ArduPilot
Summary
7
Flight Instructions
Flight Instructions
Preflight checklist
Motor checks
Securing connections
Transmitter voltage and settings
Balancing the weight
Location and environment
Signal interference
Long distance flights
Unscheduled landings
Summary
8
Cameras and Extra Functions
Cameras and Extra Functions
Camera for photographs
Camera for FPV
Failsafe parachute landing
Servo mechanism
LED strips
Arduino boards
GPS systems
Summary
9
Repair and Maintenance
Repair and Maintenance
Crash analysis
Common issues
Maintaining your craft
Cleaning the motors
Voltage testing
Summary
Index
Index

Uploading firmware

Before connecting the ArduPilot by clicking on the top-right corner, we need to upload the firmware to ArduPilot. The firmware is actually all the blocks and files according to which your quadcopter can fly. The code behind the magic firmware is open source and can easily be found at GitHub (https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot). If you are an advanced programmer, you can join the community and help the ArduPilot flight controller to become better.

You have two options here. Either click on a figure and upload the latest firmware for your quadcopter, octocopter, and so on, or click on Previous Versions. After fetching what is necessary, you can upload a previous (maybe more stable) version of the firmware. But first of all, try to upload the ArduCopter V3.2.1 Quad firmware:

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