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You're reading from  Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1

Product typeBook
Published inDec 2017
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781786469168
Edition1st Edition
Tools
Ardupilot
Concepts
Robotics
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Author (1)
Ty Audronis
Ty Audronis
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Ty Audronis

Ty Audronis has been called a "technology-age renaissance man." Hes a professional drone pilot, post-production specialist in the entertainment and media industries, a highly experienced interactive game developer, and an accomplished digital artist. Hes worked for companies ranging from frog Design to California Academy of Sciences in roles where hes worn many hats. Tys been programming software and games since 1981 (when he was 8 years old) professionally. He majored in Computer Generated Animation and Visual Effects in college (where he won Best Animation for the entire CSU system a Rosebud Award). His music and sound design have been the soundtrack on several major productions; he has also served as a visual effects supervisor on feature films and was the supervising editor and animator for award-winning science visualizations. He has been building drones since the days when sensors and components had to be torn out of cell phones and game controllers. Ty is also a mentor, having taught many interns his skills, and speaks regularly at venues including Interdrone. He also serves on the advisory board for the Society of Aerial Cinematographers and for Genarts (now Boris) Sapphire.
Read more about Ty Audronis

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Implementing Pixhawk

In previous iterations of this type of hybrid, you would need to use PX4 firmware (rather than Ardupilot or APM) with heavy customization. Luckily, the newer Ardupilot firmware versions allow for exactly this type of VTOL (they call it a Quadplane). Obviously, the channels are going to be a little different.

The following diagram shows how all of the motors/servos are hooked up:

An easy way to remember motor rotational directions is that the leading edge of the propellers always turn in toward the hull on a Quadplane. Nevertheless, we marked each motor direction (CW for clockwise and CCW for counter-clockwise).

Test and tune before making the leap

With all of the quad parts on the plane, make sure that none of the quad motors have power, and connections to Pixhawk are severed. You'll want to test-fly (and probably retune) the airplane with the new parts before attempting to use the quad functionality. Make sure you have a successful tuning with the most stable flight possible...

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Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1
Published in: Dec 2017Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781786469168
© 2017 Packt Publishing Limited All Rights Reserved

Author (1)

author image
Ty Audronis

Ty Audronis has been called a "technology-age renaissance man." Hes a professional drone pilot, post-production specialist in the entertainment and media industries, a highly experienced interactive game developer, and an accomplished digital artist. Hes worked for companies ranging from frog Design to California Academy of Sciences in roles where hes worn many hats. Tys been programming software and games since 1981 (when he was 8 years old) professionally. He majored in Computer Generated Animation and Visual Effects in college (where he won Best Animation for the entire CSU system a Rosebud Award). His music and sound design have been the soundtrack on several major productions; he has also served as a visual effects supervisor on feature films and was the supervising editor and animator for award-winning science visualizations. He has been building drones since the days when sensors and components had to be torn out of cell phones and game controllers. Ty is also a mentor, having taught many interns his skills, and speaks regularly at venues including Interdrone. He also serves on the advisory board for the Society of Aerial Cinematographers and for Genarts (now Boris) Sapphire.
Read more about Ty Audronis

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