The Cheap N' Though Copter
Repository
On construction
Introduction
My goal in this project is an improvement for toy helicopters by adding a better IMU, controllers and communication, the Cheap N’ Tought Copter. Taking advantage of the low price of producing this helicopters and its robustness I can have lots of drones for testing flying applications and many units to try Swarm algorithms.
Materials
A Toy Hellicopter
For the scope of this project designing parts, 3D printing gears and picking motors can be a cumbersome and unnecessary task, especially when you can buy a cheap toy helicopters to start from.
PIC32MX250F128B
A 32 bit microcontroller from microchip the PIC32 is small, cheap, light and used in a variety of applications. It was my choice as the onboard processor of my Cheap N’ Though.
IMU
In order to achieve good controls and a stabilized flight a better IMU is required. For this function I chose the LSM9DS1 from Sparkfun. This device provides me data in 9 DOF, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer and in addition comes with all the pull-up resistors necessary. In this repository is the library that I developed to use this IMU with a PIC32.
Radio Comunicator
A radio breakout board will be added so I can stablish a comunnication between the hellicopter and my computer. For this application I chose a radio that uses the nRF24L01 protocol, so I can communicate with the same antenna I have been using for my Crazy Flies. In this repository is the library that I developed to use this IMU with a PIC32.
The NU32
The NU32 is a development board created at Northwestern University that makes prototyping PIC32 easier. With the Nscope attached I also have a portable oscilloscope. I used the NU32 board to attach the two periferals from Spark Fun notted above and test them, once I converted the Arduino C++ (.ino) samples provided into standard C (.c) PIC32 code.
My Prototype Board
I protoboard mounted by myself with a standard PIC32MX250F128B and a LCD screen for a final test of the comunications before designing the final PCB.