21 replies to this topic

[mohammadx90]

Hello

Unfortunately I can't buy CopterControl from the sites that sell this product, So I have decided to do the assembly myself. But I can't find the details about this. Does anyone know Where I can find them (like pcb gerber and drill files, details on what resistors capacitors sensors etc I should buy and ...)  and where I should start?

Thanks

[naiiawah]

mohammadx90, on 20 December 2011 - 05:37 AM, said:

Hello

Unfortunately I can't buy CopterControl from the sites that sell this product, So I have decided to do the assembly myself. But I can't find the details about this. Does anyone know Where I can find them (like pcb gerber and drill files, details on what resistors capacitors sensors etc I should buy and ...)  and where I should start?

Thanks

http://git.openpilot...n/CopterControl has what you are looking for.  Full Gerbers, schematics, Bill of Materials, etc. can be found there.  These same files are available via Git in the Hardware tree also.

Be forewarned that building a board for yourself falls within the license for the designs.  Building boards for others is not allowed by the license.  Search the Forums for other threads discussing this point.

[ANV]

It won't be easy for your country - STM32 MCU falls under ITAR restrictions.
Making a single 4-layer PCB is not cheap, but some people from forum here might have some bare PCBs left, so you can buy from them. Don't forget to make JTAG programmer. Source for all parts are listed in BOM. The bottom line is: you must be skilled enough to solder SMD/QFN chips.

Some issues were discussed before: http://forums.openpi...b-from-scratch/

Edited by ANV, 20 December 2011 - 10:15 AM.

[dankers]

I'm sorry, I am not allowed to ship to Iran either.

*Everything* you need to make your own board is in Git, I mean everything. A lot of projects pull sneaky tricks and don't release most of the files required, we release everything, gerbers, BOM and assembly files, we release everything we use to make the boards, everything.

Making one is not too bad but getting the parts to Iran is not going to be easy, I think even the gyros fall under export restrictions also.

[Kenn Sebesta]

Can you get ahold of PlayStation 3 parts? If so, I suggest the MoveCopter as a humble alternative to the CopterControl:

http://forums.openpi...__fromsearch__1
http://forums.openpi...ame-controller/
http://forums.openpi...-maiden-flight/
http://wiki.openpilo... PS3 MoveCopter

[mohammadx90]

One more quetion; Do I need to know alot about electronics to get it done? I'm a mechanical engineer and don't know much about electronics. If yes, Can you tell me an online source to learn the basic things I need?

[ANV]

You need a good soldering skills, to solder QFN-like packages skill must be "above-average". As metioned before, problem is not only small IC's footprint, but risk to permanently damage gyros by overheating.
Everything else is quite straightforward.

[Stigoe]

I'm new to this board, so please bear with me.

Since it's so difficult to get hold of boards, I decided to make my own. Since DorkbotPDX makes three of every board, I ordered parts for 3 boards. So I also need to get my toaster soldering station working... And before someone comes asking if they can buy one of the extra boards, no, you can't...

My question is, when I have finished the boards, are there any tests that can be done to make sure they, especially the gyros, are working without actually installing it in a quad/tri/whatever?

Stig

[dankers]

Sure, just plug it in to the GCS and see what the PFD does, you will know really quickly if things are working as they should.

[Stigoe]

Thanks!

I noticed when I ordered the gyros that they were supported, but not recommended for new designs. Any plans to upgrade to something else?

[dankers]

Stigoe, on 02 January 2012 - 04:38 PM, said:

Thanks!

I noticed when I ordered the gyros that they were supported, but not recommended for new designs. Any plans to upgrade to something else?

At some point for sure, we have to as Invensense are going to stop with those gyros shortly. Right now we are doing massive amounts of sensor testing but no real conclusions we want to publish yet.

[A*Morale]

After the soldering check carefully for shorts in the vcc rails and at every connector pin, including USB. Other thing to check are the single gate used for clock switching(near the ACC) and the one used for serial inversion(near the flexy port). Their pads are very small and can be problematic for hand assembly.

[naiiawah]

Stigoe, on 02 January 2012 - 09:47 AM, said:

My question is, when I have finished the boards, are there any tests that can be done to make sure they, especially the gyros, are working without actually installing it in a quad/tri/whatever?

After a very careful visual inspection (A*Morale gives some pointers above), you probably want to try to power up the board 1st time with a controllable current limited power supply.  Do NOT just plug in USB, as you can kill both your board and the host on the other end of the cable if you are unlucky.  Hosts are supposed to be protected, but all too often, they skimp on the HW in cheap PCs and....disaster ensues.

If there are any shorts you have missed visually, slowly cranking up the current limit, watching to see you are not pulling too much current is critical.  Dankers can probably give some estimates of what the total board current should be.  If you see more than that amount, you have a short somewhere.

[dankers]

70ma

Suggest powering it via the headers first and not USB. Ensure Green LED lights when you do this.

[Stigoe]

Thanks for the answers and suggestions.

I know about checking for shorts, especially on the Vcc rail, both visually and electrically, before powering up. That was already the plan. Good idea about the current-limited PSU, though. Reason I asked was because I knew there were a lot of problems with gyros on the previous batch.

[mohammadx90]

I was searching on the internet and reading forums that I understood that CC does not support GPS. Am I right? If yes, then how can I have an autonomous flight?(I want to use it for a fixed wing). then It's a stabilizer at most, right?

[dankers]

mohammadx90, on 08 January 2012 - 06:38 AM, said:

I was searching on the internet and reading forums that I understood that CC does not support GPS. Am I right? If yes, then how can I have an autonomous flight?(I want to use it for a fixed wing). then It's a stabilizer at most, right?

It depends if you want to dig in to code or not, on a fixed wing it can and has done RTL navigation and there is a branch for that already, however, not enough work has been done on the firmware for me to really say it is a good solution for autonomous flight on fixed wings.

If that is where you are looking, have you considered something like GluonPilot?

[mohammadx90]

dankers, on 08 January 2012 - 07:25 AM, said:

If that is where you are looking, have you considered something like GluonPilot?

No. Is it an open source project? I mean can I build it myself?

[Reddog]

mohammadx90, on 09 January 2012 - 06:34 AM, said:

No. Is it an open source project? I mean can I build it myself?

You should really try to use Google before asking something like that. See here - http://gluonpilot.com/wiki/Main_Page

[dankers]

mohammadx90, on 09 January 2012 - 06:34 AM, said:

No. Is it an open source project? I mean can I build it myself?

Sorry, yeap Open Source but just checked, closed hardware Did not realize this, assumed it was open, nevermind, my mistake.