New here - looking for electronic projects

[slick91]

Hello FT, I am new here, I found the FT channel on youtube and watched many hours of it and also re-discovered Peter and Mr. Steele.

I purchased FT Explorer speed build kit and powerpack B. I am getting a Taranis x9d (open source is very appealing to me) and cant wait to get the rest of my parts in to get this thing up. Interested in building a 5in drone next

I am very interested in both analog and digital electronics as well as programming. I have been a licensed amateur radio operator for several years.

What are some good electronics projects? I can solder SMD and have a 100mhz 4 channel scope. I will probably build me a custom flight controller, osd, and maybe motor drivers.

 

[ElectriSean]

Start with building a quad from available technology, it's enough of a learning curve without designing the components Especially if you're new to flying. It will also give you something to compare with what you build. Not trying to knock your abilities or discourage you from trying, but current hardware and firmware flies really well, after being developed for years. Better to learn on something proven before starting from scratch

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

I'm new to RC but have been in electronics for over 40 years. There are butt loads of directions you can head but generally, I am one to not want to reinvent the wheel unless there is a very good reason. Why solder up an OSD when there is probably a good one out there that you could simply reflash to get whatever thing it doesn't have that you want?
I am happy to just learn RC for now but if I get a hankering to dive into custom electronics I'd guess I'd start doing some custom servo controllers. These new transmitters do a heck of a lot more than they did 20 years ago but there are still places to explore. There is nothing easier to hack than PWM. It is even easier than RS232!

 

[b-29er]

If you want to do some longer range stuff, there's ULRS, which is basically a 16ch long range radio system with mavlink capabilities. Beyond that, most of what you would want to do with electronics can be done with the right parts and an arduino or raspi, so brushing up on some code may be more valuable than soldering skills. The whole ecosystem for RC parts like servos is very much plug and play unless you're doing uber-complex or custom stuff.

As for quads, one of my friends in college tried to make his own flight controller and programming. He was counting the response times in under 1khz, and was apparently getting pretty unstable/bad results. I'm not saying don't try, but i am saying treat a quad running on your own FC like a fan made of kitchen knives until you know if it is working well.

 

[Chuppster]

As a computer engineer many times I've looked into some open source designs (ex, VESC) to see if I could save some money by exercising my soldering skills. Then I do a quick search on Ebay and find that someone else can build them for cheaper than I can, and it doesn't make sense for me to invest the time into a project that someone else can do for less. I scratch my electronics itch at work for the most part, but I love flying, so I have yet to undertake in too much in terms of electronics projects, but mechanical stuff interests me for sure. For instance, we don't have any affordable linear actuators in the hobby. I want to make one someday.

I'd encourage you to find some uncharted realms and explore those! Design a cool gadget that hasn't been designed yet! Blaze new territory! Maybe design a sick new kind of telemetry module for your Taranis, then give me the plans .

 

[Bricks]

What I would like to see someone build is a Lost Plane.....Quad finder that can be controlled by a transmitter switch with it`s own power supply but small enough and light enough for smaller planes and quads, be loud enough you can actually here it from a distance. In many crashes the battery decides it wants to leave and not be part of the major mayhem.

 

[Chuppster]

What I would like to see someone build is a Lost Plane.....Quad finder that can be controlled by a transmitter switch with it`s own power supply but small enough and light enough for smaller planes and quads, be loud enough you can actually here it from a distance. In many crashes the battery decides it wants to leave and not be part of the major mayhem.

It needs to work when out of radio range, because I'm most screwed when I crash in a cornfield. Radio signals don't go through corn too well.

 

[PlaY80]

What I would like to see someone build is a Lost Plane.....Quad finder that can be controlled by a transmitter switch with it`s own power supply but small enough and light enough for smaller planes and quads, be loud enough you can actually here it from a distance. In many crashes the battery decides it wants to leave and not be part of the major mayhem.

Well it can be done . Not for small drone, but for models having 1-2 kg and can take maybe 200g on-board it's easy to include GPS tracking and GSM comunications. . Low voltage modules (>5v) are going to work long after your ESC or flight controller cut the power to motor. LE. 200g is overrated 50g top

 

[Hai-Lee]

If you want to come up with a useful electronic device for RC aircraft then try a GSM based Rx with flight controller that can allow you to control your RC model cross country using your smart phone. GPS tracking and even a return to base/ travel to set point function could be used to overcome GSM dropouts and blackspots. On the Smart phone a position logging function would be great for those planes that dissappear or crash.

Just a thought!

Have fun!

 

[PlaY80]

If you want to come up with a useful electronic device for RC aircraft then try a GSM based Rx with flight controller that can allow you to control your RC model cross country using your smart phone. GPS tracking and even a return to base/ travel to set point function could be used to overcome GSM dropouts and blackspots. On the Smart phone a position logging function would be great for those planes that dissappear or crash.

Just a thought!

Have fun!

Try this : http://ardupilot.org/

 

[slick91]

What I would like to see someone build is a Lost Plane.....Quad finder that can be controlled by a transmitter switch with it`s own power supply but small enough and light enough for smaller planes and quads, be loud enough you can actually here it from a distance. In many crashes the battery decides it wants to leave and not be part of the major mayhem.

These are available for model rockets, I would assume that one of those should work on your planes/quads. Also, if you are an amateur radio operator you can use a directional antenna and VHF or UHF beacon. They also GPS APRS 70cm versions.

 

[slick91]

I'm new to RC but have been in electronics for over 40 years. There are butt loads of directions you can head but generally, I am one to not want to reinvent the wheel unless there is a very good reason. Why solder up an OSD when there is probably a good one out there that you could simply reflash to get whatever thing it doesn't have that you want?
I am happy to just learn RC for now but if I get a hankering to dive into custom electronics I'd guess I'd start doing some custom servo controllers. These new transmitters do a heck of a lot more than they did 20 years ago but there are still places to explore. There is nothing easier to hack than PWM. It is even easier than RS232!

That is a good idea. OSD/composite video is something I am interested in aside from RC stuff and it seems that most flight controllers and OSD systems are actually just clones of each other....I could just pick me one up and reflash it

 

[slick91]

As a computer engineer many times I've looked into some open source designs (ex, VESC) to see if I could save some money by exercising my soldering skills. Then I do a quick search on Ebay and find that someone else can build them for cheaper than I can, and it doesn't make sense for me to invest the time into a project that someone else can do for less. I scratch my electronics itch at work for the most part, but I love flying, so I have yet to undertake in too much in terms of electronics projects, but mechanical stuff interests me for sure. For instance, we don't have any affordable linear actuators in the hobby. I want to make one someday.

I'd encourage you to find some uncharted realms and explore those! Design a cool gadget that hasn't been designed yet! Blaze new territory! Maybe design a sick new kind of telemetry module for your Taranis, then give me the plans .

Not looking for a job...just a hobby I understand about the eBay thing tho, I'm not too happy about the clone and IP theft situation that eBay and banggood promote...

 

[slick91]

If you want to come up with a useful electronic device for RC aircraft then try a GSM based Rx with flight controller that can allow you to control your RC model cross country using your smart phone. GPS tracking and even a return to base/ travel to set point function could be used to overcome GSM dropouts and blackspots. On the Smart phone a position logging function would be great for those planes that dissappear or crash.

Just a thought!

Have fun!

As cool as that would be it is against the law to fly outside of your line of sight. But I think return to base and other sensor guided flying is something that I want to play around with. GPS finders are already available but I think it will still be a worthwhile project.

 

[Hai-Lee]

As cool as that would be it is against the law to fly outside of your line of sight. But I think return to base and other sensor guided flying is something that I want to play around with. GPS finders are already available but I think it will still be a worthwhile project.

Yes it is illegal to fly outside LOS but as a safety feature to supplement the existing RC systems then it would save on property damage, lost aircraft, injury risk to the people under the flight path, and provide a supplementary control system for use in an emergency.

The location portion of the device would be to transmit the downed aircrafts position or last known position to facilitate aircraft recovery

Anyway just a though on what could be useful from one Electronics engineer to another!

have fun!