Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Introduction, Q's about STM32 development

[Martin Mueller]

Hi Prashanth,

could you publish some info on how you sampled the air on board an unmanned 
aircraft? Would be interesting for many others doing science with Paparazzi.

Thanks,
Martin

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Betreff: Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Introduction, Q's about STM32 development
Gesendet: Fr, 20. Jan 2012
Von: Prashanth<address@hidden>

> Dear Jake
> I am physiologist working in a medical school and was keen in understanding
> atmospheric composition including microbial and particulate content. I have
> successfully used the paparazzi autopilot over the last couple of years and
> now have a research project running to measure air composition and also to
> sample air at different altitudes and bring it to the lab for analysis. So
> the short answer is being a microbiologist you can successfully deploy an
> autonomous system to collect your samples, however, there is a steep
> learning curve involved which needs investment of time and patience. The
> hardware and software is quite simple and learnable unless you need
> something extraordinary and the ppz community is ever helpful. To start out
> quick,  get  one of the ppz boards and read the wiki a zillion times and do
> as described and you should be flying autonomously. Once you have reached
> here you can always experiment to suit your needs...
> Good luck
> Prashanth 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On 20-Jan-2012, at 4:20, Chris Gough <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Jake,
> > 
> > I can't answer your questions about using a STM32 discovery board, but
> > I'm curious to see what others have to say about that.
> > 
> > I'm concerned that you are adding a non-critical electronics hardware
> > development component to a project that has more interesting and
> > critical technical challenges. Perhaps it would be more satisfying for
> > you if you eliminated "cost optimisation" (scale-out) to a later
> > stage, once you have demonstrated the nesiscary functionality (prove
> > concept).
> > 
> > I don't think you'll find much waste in the existing autopilot
> > designs, you can get them made in bulk quite cheeply if that's what
> > you need.
> > 
> >> I'm very interested in using UAVs to collect unique biological samples
> from inaccessable
> >> areas like remote areas, high altitude areas, open seas, arial samples,
> etc..
> > 
> > Please elaborate on "collecting biological samples", it's boggling my
> > mind. I've captured samples of soild, sticks and leaves but only on
> > unplanned landings (never collected one deliberately/remotely and
> > carried it home). How did you imagine this working?
> > 
> > Chris Gough
> > 
> > On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 10:34 PM, Jake Stewart <address@hidden> wrote:
> >> Hello Paparazzi list members!  I'm a microbiologist from Idaho (USA).  I
> have a basic electronics background with some experience with RC flying and
> a little bit with Atmega8 programming.  I'm very interested in using UAVs to
> collect unique biological samples from inaccessable areas like remote areas,
> high altitude areas, open seas, arial samples, etc..
> >> 
> >> Your project is amazingly impressive!  So much so that it is pretty
> intimidating to a non-expert such as myself.  I have a few questions about
> where to begin.  I've done a fair bit of reading on the project, but perhaps
> need some advice on getting started.  Feel free to let me know if I'm out of
> line, or reply off-list, or ignore any or all of my questions if it's
> something I should be able to figure out myself.
> >> 
> >> I am currently playing with STM32 VL Discovery boards from ST.  I got a
> handfull of them from Arrow for the insane price of $2.20 each! Link and
> datasheet...
> >> http://components.arrow.com/part/detail/49099771S8561546N7728
> >>
> http://download.siliconexpert.com/pdfs/2010/11/13/7/31/8/620/st_/manual/cd00
> 277245.pdf
> >> 
> >> It's essentially a STM32F100B chip with all the pins exposed on headers,
> on a board with a STM32103 for USB programming support, a couple lights and
> buttons, and with all the voltage regulators and whatnot that you'd expect
> for a simple dev board.  I'm curious what I could do with such a cheap
> board.  I figure that they're essentially disposable for all intents and
> purposes, so no worries about going soldering iron crazy and trying to
> prototype some interesting circuits.
> >> 
> >> I'm curious about the extent that the code is tied to the hardware...
> >> What hardware features are there beyond a proto/dev board that are
> necessary for the project?
> >> Would it be possible to implement something on a cheap board like the one
> I mentioned?
> >> Is the code dependent on any of the hardware on the LISA boards?
> >> What are the memory requirements for the firmware?
> >> 
> >> I ask because I'm currently using Atollic in Windows with my board and
> haven't yet set up a linux environment/toolchain to work with.  Any tips or
> pointers to info on that would also be much appreciated, although I think I
> saw some info on that somewhere.  My only linux install at the moment is
> BT3.  Should I try with that or install debian/ubuntu?
> >> 
> >> I reallize these are all pretty noobish questions, but I just wanted to
> introduce myself and see if I couldn't make a contact or two who have done
> similar work or could easily give me some answers.
> >> 
> >> I plan to put some serious work into this project and think I have most
> of the tools needed.  Besides my $2.20 dev boards I have soldering irons,
> lot's of spare components, a few prototype boards, two o-scopes,
> multimeters, etc..  For the project I've gotten a 9DOF IMU (ST chips), a few
> pressure/barometer sensors, a differential pressure sensor for an airspeed
> tube, a Fastrax GPS module, and a couple generic RF serial modems (sub-G TI
> chip based).  I also have an electric plane, laptop, 3 small cameras, and a
> 900mhz video transmitter.  As far as I can tell I have everything to build a
> prototype UAV and just need to wire everything together and program it! Easy
> right? (kidding)
> >> 
> >> If running on different hardware platforms is not something easily done
> with the project I'm hoping I can put together a more basic program running
> a subset of the normal features.  One reason I'm thinking of this is that I
> need to do things on the extreme cheap side as I don't have a lot of
> confidence that a very high percentage of my planes would actually be
> returning due to the dangerous nature of what they would be doing.  Maybe
> I'm wrong there, but I don't envision a whole lot of my hardware returning
> to me and I'd be happy with a 50/50 crapshoot if I can keep the hardware
> within budget.
> >> 
> >> At the moment I'm hoping to use the components I've gotten for testing.
> Not sure I really even need a radio.
> >> STM32VLDiscovery board - $2.20 (arrow)
> >> 9DOF IMU - $50 (pololu.com)
> >> Fastrax GPS - $28 (mouser)
> >> Cessna 182 (electric, 1.4m wingspan) - $130 (hobbyking)
> >> --------------------
> >> Total $210.20
> >> 
> >> So if I can get any sort of reasonable return rate (many missions would
> probably be pretty safe) I should be able to get samples for fairly cheap
> (<$500).  That should be much cheaper than collecting them by hand and open
> up a lot of areas that simply aren't accessable.  Am I crazy to think this
> might be possible?
> >> 
> >> 
> >> -Jake
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Paparazzi-devel mailing list
> >> address@hidden
> >> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/paparazzi-devel
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > .
> > 
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