Devoider

Amateur Aircraft Activist
Hello! I am a new to the hobby... Kind of. I have done lots of autonomous stuff through my college working with some crazy technologies and planes. I have recently taken an interest into racing quads and tri-copters. just ordered an electrohub to see what i can do with it. But, Mostly I was wondering if anyone here is into autonomous systems (Using APM or My Fly Dream or otherwise) mostly I want to see what systems you guys have!
 

makattack

Winter is coming
Moderator
Mentor
Hello devoider, and welcome to the ft forums! I personally have used the apm based hardware and software on both fixed and rotary craft platforms. I know others have used everything from naza2, naze32, multiwii, and even kk2 hardware for flight stabilization or even semi autonomous modes.

It's not the most popular use here, and I think you'll find more enthusiasts of autonomous controllers on diydrones, fpvlab or even rcgroups. Those forums are where I go to for more information in those controllers.
 
Welcome to the forums! I have an electrohub spider quad running a pixhawk flight controller and I love it. It's capable of lots of different autonomous flight modes. I have done a lot of modifications to the standard electrohub (larger motors, custom, motor mounts, custom landing gear, etc.) and the frame has been excellent for all this. It does take some effort and time to get everything programmed correctly, but my quad will do everything my buddy's inspire will do and a bit more for a fraction of the price.

If you haven't flown a quad before, I strongly recommend getting a quad without autonomous functions first. Start with a naze32 on your ehub and once you can fly and understand the way the quad works, upgrade to a pixhawk, naza, or something like that. Autonomy is not a substitute for the ability to actually fly the quad. I've had my pixhawk do strange things and I needed to be able to immediately take control and get it out if trouble. It has all been a result of me setting something up wrong or not understanding parameters fully, but had I not been able to actually fly the thing, it would have ended up smashed or flying away never to be seen again. Painless360 has a YouTube channel that is a fantastic resource for getting the Pixhawk going, so definitely check that out as well.

Good luck as you dive into all this. It's a hobby that will challenge you, teach you, and give you years of enjoyment.
 

Snarls

Gravity Tester
Mentor
Hey Devoider, welcome to the forum! Mak is generally right in that you won't find a lot of autonomous builders and flyers (well not actually flying or else it wouldn't be autonomous) here. The FT forum is more filled with beginners, airplane and miniquad flyers. Autonomous flight is more complex and a niche subject on this forum.

That said, personally I have a custom TBS Discovery build with a pixfalcon (pixhawk) flight controller. I can plan and fly autonomous missions for mapping or other purposes. More often though I just fly with position hold and control where I want to go. You can read more about the build here.

Here is an orthomosaic I made last summer using Pixhawk and Drone Deploy. It is made up of about 50 images taken while autonomously flying a grid pattern.

BeachHouseLowAltS.jpg
 

Devoider

Amateur Aircraft Activist
Such Great feedback! thanks all, i just finished my build of a pixhawk tricopter using the elecrtohub kit...

And it flies wonderfully! i will send pics when i get the chance, it took me a while to get pixhawk working with tri-cop but ones it got working the system worked very well. I had lots of issues with the PID tuning, specifically the P and thus ended up having one crash but other then that it flies beautiful and gets great video!