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Control Multirotor with PC

Started by desairaj, January 07, 2014, 11:40:12 PM

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desairaj

Is there any efficient way by which I can control my multirotor with PC at a longer range (more than 200m)
I have made a tricopter for my college project and i want to control it with my pc. NEED HELP!
A good pilot will practice till he learns to fly,
The best pilot will practice till the point, he can never crash.

chintal

Yes you can you need aiop fc board and 3dr telemetry and gps module for this to work
You can buy both from hobbyking
With this you can control your multicopter for a distance of 1 km
But you will still require a radio control to land take off arm and disarm the multirotor
The 3dr telemetry helps to control the copter only through waypoints
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anwar

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desairaj

Thank you Chintal sir and Anwar sir.
Actually i'm sorry I couldn't put my question clearly.
I just want my tricopter to hover, climb up-down, & yaw right-left.
I do not want to use GPS or AUTOPILOT because they are costly and somewhat that is not exactly I want. I just want to use my keyboard instead of radio sticks(I don't even want to receive any information from the model)
Basically i have made a module that can tell my PC, which button to press at what time. I want that i can use these inputs by the module to
control my tricopter using keyboard keys(like w,a,s,d) instead of the sticks of radio.
It will also be okey if I can connect a Radio to my pc and transmit the signal through it by pressing my keyboard keys.
I am really sorry I cannot disclose full details because I'm trying to make something from my own idea and my college competitors are also active on RCINDIA.
Once I submit the project for evaluation, I will revel everything in detail.
Thank you and I'm sorry but I will be needing constant help because I'm from Aerodynamics background and don't have much knowledge about electronics.
A good pilot will practice till he learns to fly,
The best pilot will practice till the point, he can never crash.

chintal

it is not possible to control a multirotor by a keyboard
the keyboard has only to functions either 100% signal or 0% signal that means just on and off
how will you hover ?
if you want to roll or pitch your copter it will be in extreems
whereas in a radio it is fro 0% to 100%
even with a radio a minute movement is enough to move a copter
so its practically impossible to control it with a keyboard
a apm auto pilot with gps and 3dr telemetry is available for 100$ i guess thats cheapest its ever gonna get
dji products cost around a 1000$ for the same set up
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anwar

If your issue is getting a control signal from your PC to the multirotor, then one way to achieve that is using the XBee system.  That is what the post I pointed out is suggesting.
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chintal

but how will he control it with keyboard ?
he wants to control it with keyboard not a radio as he has made an app on his pc
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anwar

Chintal - Have you looked what the XBee is and what it does, and how it can be interfaced with various devices including PCs and arduino boards ?

Please check if your concern is valid after reading up on the above.
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chintal

i have worked with xbee i know what it does
i am not at all concerned how to connect or transfer signals from a pc tp a multicopter
what i am telling is how is it possible to control it with a keyboard even if a xbee is connected ?
what his question is that he want to control it with keyboard
so that if he presses up arrow key the multiltirotor should hover
the keboard doesnot have a potentiometer to give praportionate signales it is just a button like on or off
even if he opts for xbee he will require a joystick to control a copter its is not possible to control with a keyboard
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chintal

i am sorry if you are offended or something i dont want to oppose anyone here just trying to explain the possibility of controlling a copter with keyboard
i am sorry if i am wrong plz correct me @anwar sir
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anwar

No offence, and this is not my area of expertise :) 

But I can't see why he can't code up something on the PC that keeps track of his current "stick position" and transmits additional signals via XBee to the multirotor depending on each additional key press.  Think of it as just like how you play video games with just the keyboard, without using a joystick.

What did I miss ? I thought it was simple and straight forward, coming from a software background.
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chintal

yeah but it is diffrent
a keybord transfers signal in only two forms 0 or 100
a radio control transfers signal in 100 forms from 0 to 100
now even if you do make up a code either you end up crashing which is prone to happen with newbie / if an expert you will end up having a jumpy flight
for example i have a setup which tranfers signal from keyboard through pc via a xbee to the multicopter
when i press up key the multirotor will get 100%signal
and you know at 100% throttel what would happen imagine same with pitch and roll
it would be a dancing crashing multicopter lol
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anwar

Apparently you have not thought it through :)

That is why I said "keeps track of current stick position" in the local software.  So let us say it was at mid stick, so the software knows it is at 50. Now he presses the left arrow twice. The XBee signal transmitted will be 48 !

Got it ?

For this to work, the quad will have to be macho stabilized though, and it seems that radio control will be required for some initial testing at least.
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chintal

i already know what you meant
well the stick movements have to be precise to control a multicopter with the software you are describing
if immediate 100% is required your copter will crash
if you are able to achive immediate 100% your copter will never crash but the flight will be jumpy
lol imagine the copter is going left and teir is a wall on the left
you will have to press right arrow key 50 times if the ratio is 1:1
if you change the ratio to even 1:10 the sticj movements wont be that fast enough
you can never get a safe smooth flight as you will on a radio
imagine a strong windy day with your keyboard lol
you would be constantly pressing right and left keys to maintian hover
with a bouncing copter
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anwar

I don't want to argue this, but every problem you described can be handled, especially if this is to be flown in a controlled environment.

There is nothing that stops you from programming mouse inputs instead of keyboard inputs (what a genius idea ;) ), and achieve the 100% jump and what not in microseconds !

You know where I am going with this, right ? Basically think through with a clear head.  And I already described the constraints (highly stabilized quad, controlled flight area etc).
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chintal

mouse yes can be done  100% sure (great idea)
keyboard i dont think so
i am sorry didnt mean to argue or anything but i did give it a thought keyboard a bad idea
anyways it was nice discussing the idea
thank you for your guidance 
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anwar

I was just pointing out that you have not really thought this through.  That's all.

With keyboard also, you can have, for example, the "Shift" key to act as a multiplier to increase the interval for each click. Instead of each click of an arrow key incrementing by 1, you can increment by 25 when the arrow key is pressed along with shift key. That allows you to hit 100% in couple of clicks. Not sure how practical, but life is about being creative when it comes to solutions.
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chintal

well i think it is possible to fly somewaht that way
but all the effort is it worth it ?
a 4ch tx costs around 2 to 3k (if i am not wrong )

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anwar

This is where the DIY fun is missed, and people get on the snap-in-easy wagon.

Think about the effort of any DIY effort versus RTF/ARF, and you will begin to appreciate the joy that you get from DIY. People still cut balsa to build planes, or solder and build their own TXes.

And don't worry, I was thinking just like you a few years ago, and then I got older... and probably a bit wiser ;)
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rcrcnitesh

I am a bit late.
I am with anwar sir in this.
As i have used leos simulator on a pc with keyboard just try it you`ll know what anwar sir meant.
No offence meant.
Maker | Aeromodeller | Teenager

anwar

I am not looking to build gangs :giggle:

And that WAS an interesting discussion.
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chintal

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desairaj

Thank you very much for taking the interest in the topic @anwar sir & @chintal sir.
@chintal sir I had the same thoughts as you are having but after researching about it for 2-3 month I realized that it can be possible.
@anwar sir I had somewhere similar ideas as yours. But as I don't have much background on this, I was confused.

Few things I'm adding to make myself more clear.
As I said earlier, i just want my model to hover and yaw. (NO ROLL NO FORWARD MOTION)
This is the 1st stage of development, so i will be flying INDOOR in a CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT

Instead of buying a radio i'm trying to build this because I want to create something new. A new way to make this hobby even more interesting.
A good pilot will practice till he learns to fly,
The best pilot will practice till the point, he can never crash.

GhostRider

It's just like we play car race games on PC, you do control acceleration via keyboard controls, UP arrow key we use for higher acceleration, if you keep it pressed it increases..

I guess this can be done though additional coding required.

aniket210696

space bar to enable auto level anyone? ;)
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