Making Mini Drones Bigger! Few Problems! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Kedar264
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2016, 06:07:16 am
content: I've This Idea from very long time , Mini Drones are very popular and cheap nowadays so can we convert them into bigger sized drones .Here's My Videohttps://youtu.be/EltCLJGEm5AI've Hacked The (Tiny) Cx-10 Drone and made it into into a Syma X5sw Bigger sized drone it was lot of fun ,too many catches,bit of a learning curve in making drones but still it's kinda cool hack !The last flight i got upto is quiet unstable ,its wobbling back & forthit looks like the the values of motion sensing unit need to be changed , did anybody hacked into these ones please let me know your suggestions !

author: FreddyVictor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2016, 07:24:26 am
content: interesting idea !looks like the P term of thePID control loopis too high resulting in oscillationI'm guessing there's no way to change this on these ?Out of curiosity, whats the other chip on the board ? is it an eeprom or something ? just thinking there might be settings held in itchances are that the settings are hard-coded in the firmwareotherwise, it's a case of either writing your own software or trying to hack the existing firmware (there are tools such as IDA)

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2016, 04:40:23 pm
content: Interesting idea and very well made video. The sound of the propelors was horrible, I am not sure if this is how they really sound or just the way the recording system captured it.It made me want that micro drone, and amazon seems to carry them.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 09:03:32 am
content: Basically you enlarged everything, but the sensor still on the center believing they are a small drone, You can Try the sensor board away from the center on Z board with a support with a size to be determined, On this way changes on the sensor will be multiplied, and maybe can stabilize the drone

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 12:14:15 pm
content: sensor is just a gyro it has nothing to do with linear motion, infact it meant to be at the center, it only to detect tilt and correct power on appropriate motor. even if its an accelerometer it wont make any difference. i agree on PID values ruining away, the only solution i can see is download the firmware out of the arm chip, disasemble it to find where the PID values located, modify and burn away, thats where everybody should concentrate at, otherwise its just hit and miss. or try and error eternally, except a radical and expensive solution such as replace the cheapo motors with special type fast acting and bigger motors to compensate or recorrect PID respond. btw, it will be a luck if the fw is using the classic PID algorithm, not some other unknown and complicated adaptive control algorithm. i see the quadcopter drone is a buzz nowadays esp from china, this tells me something about there must be an open source control SW (leaked maybe) somewhere for this...

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2016, 08:38:44 am
content: I would suggest that you study some math, specially sphere equations

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2016, 10:36:17 am
content: you should go further to angular rate of change, gravitational force in vector analysis and practical application in modern drone, robotics and navigational system design...

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2016, 10:47:40 am
content: With all those studies, you can conclude that the perimeter acceleration and speed is function of the distance from the center, and those 2 factor are direct linked to the PID constants used on drone control,

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2016, 10:53:23 am
content: correct, but if you look the video again, it has nothing to do with linear motion. linear motion is controlled by the joystick... and if you look hard enough again you'll see the sensor is not located at the far end of either the quad arm so to say, to increase the sensitivity?

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2016, 12:18:07 pm
content: The motor reaction after passing the PID control try make a correction action, and this correction action effect on sensor, isn't the same if the sensor is on the center or in a distance from the center, The angular acceleration and speed will be different, and this could compensate the wrong PID constant for the bigger model whos is on firmware, that as already mentioned are inaccessible for any change, it's a mechanical trick to solve a Firmware issue

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2016, 12:19:39 pm
content: Can not be on any arm of the quadcopter, must be on a Z axis coming from center