Re: [Paparazzi-devel] ROTORCOPTER FOR 500g camera

[Simon Wilks]

Hi Rui,

I have been watching this thread with interest as I am thinking of
doing very much the same as you.

In my case I want to use a Sony Nex C3 and the 16mm lens and include a
live video downlink (currently doing this on an smaller quad with a
pocket camera and FlyCamOne HD/transmitter). In my case I am looking
at a payload weight of 900-1100g including the lipo (don't forget
that). I am also going to use a Lisa/L, which I luckily have already.

Here are some details of what I have managed to find out so far.

Camera mounts:
Vary depending on the brand of platform you choose in the end. If you
have simple needs the MK has a selection of relatively simple ones
that don't cost too much. Weight is around 140g with servos upwards.
Droidworx seems to have only relatively complex, expensive mounts and
heavy ones bar one which is moderate in terms of price/weight. Either
way, make sure you get a camera mount that will take the Sony as
cheaper ones seem not to be suitable.

Quad, Hexa or Octo:
A quad is probably not the best way to go. Mikrokpter has a Quad XL
that can take a 1kg payload but you have no redundancy and not as much
lift distribution as a hexa or octo.

A Mikrokopter Hexa XL or Droidworx AD-6 Heavy Lift will do the job.
You may get away with the next model down (Hexa2 or AD-6) if you plan
to use only the Sony. An Octo will certainly fit the bill too. The
XL/Heavy Lift models have longer arms which should bring more
stability than the smaller models.

The discussion around Y6 (tricopter coax) vs Hexa goes on an on but
the high level summary seems to be if you want something portable and
need a large field of view go for the Y6. For more stability the
larger hexa is the better bet as you have more props evenly
distributed around the center. Some think the coax setup causes a
touch more vibrations but opinions on this vary widely.

BL-Ctrl V2.0:
I am sure I have seen a reference somewhere to this being used by
Paparazzi but I would love to hear back from someone who may be able
to confirm this. An alternative is to use I2C to PWM (or whatever it's
called again) if you can find a suitable standard ESC. One nice thing
it gives you is you can set a kind of failsafe mode (ie: throttle
level) should I2C block.

I sent an Email off to one of the Droidworx/Mikrokopter suppliers with
a list of what I think I will need for a Lisa/L driven Hexa. I might
share this here if people are interested but otherwise you can contact
me directly and I will let you know. We should keep in touch anyway
and help each other out ;) If we make some good progress it might be
worth setting up a build log somewhere.

Simon

On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:16 PM, Rui Costa <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> I saw this:
>
> http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/RotorcraftMixing
>
>
> With this information I can use paparazzi for an hexacopter configuration, 
> Right? I will just need to change the SUPERVISION section values.
>
>
> And for a coaxial copter is the same principle too?
>
>
>
> Cheers
> Rui Costa
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 3:19 PM, Rui Costa <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> Than you, I will have a look.
>>
>>
>> The paparazzi will work on such platforms?
>>
>> Is there any disadvantage to use an hexa or octo in a coaxial configuration? 
>> Will paparazzi handle it well?
>>
>> Cheers
>> Rui Costa
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Warmers 
>> <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Rudi Costa,
>>> please look for heavy Mikrokopter at mikrokopter.de
>>> I think a hexa or okto will be nesserary.
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Heinrich
>>>
>>> Rui Costa schrieb:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>
>>> I would like to build a rotorcopter to carry the new Sony NEX-7 camera. It 
>>> weight 291g and the lens about 194g.
>>>
>>> So it has to be capable to carry 500g-600g of payload (camera and mounting).
>>>
>>> Can you help me with configuration ideias? I would like to use Lisa/L for 
>>> it.
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm thinking on one of the next configurations:
>>>
>>> - Quadcopter
>>> - Tri coaxial copter (6 motors total)
>>> - Hexacopter
>>>
>>>
>>> Actual code from paparazzi handles with that configurations? Or I will have 
>>> to program to work with?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>> Rui Costa
>>>
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>>
>
>
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