The powered parachute, either named “The Flying Machine” or “Lindbergh” has a far simpler electronics package than Dorothy 6’s system, although it’s build on the same framework. Here’s a photo of the first version of it:

The xbee is remoted so that it can be mounted below the plate, but the rest of the electronics stay above the plate (in particular the GPS needs to see the sky). On the left is a FunnelIO board with a perfboard mounted, in the middle is the same IMU as the QC, but without accelerometers or gyros, attached to it is the GPS and altimeter. (GPS not actually attached for clarity).

The FunnelIO board is going to be replaced with a smaller custom board once the system is rung out. Details to follow.

Software’s a long way from written, but this is the first look at the controller for the helicopter — The red thing is the 6DOF — it’s three axes of gyro sensors and three axes of accelerometers to determine the precise orientation and movement of the helicopter in flight so the main computer can figure out how to orient itself. Very slick product from Sparkfun– what I particularly like about this one is that there’s an on board atmega168– so all of the Kalman filtering and preprocessing is going on in the sub-board, and then the processed data is uploaded to the main board.

The rubber band (or gumband), I must say, is only temporary while I put together the elastic system to support the battery. Everything else is hot-glued down to the 3/32″ hobby plywood. The whole thing is going to be attached on top of the central core of the helicopter with screws and possibly some rubber or cork to dampen vibration from the four motors.

I’m building my own controllers for the two UAVs — mainly because I want them to do what I want them to do, rather than have limitations placed by others.

Both sets of controllers are based on the FIO platform — it’s an arduino-like device, notably scores a built-in LiPo charger and Xbee Socket. Since I’m using Xbees for my radio communications, it makes it an easy choice. For the helicopter, which has a lot of sensors to integrate, I’ve had custom boards made through BatchPCB. These solder up to the back of the FIO board, and provide plug-in locations for all of the sensors and connections. The powered parachute will have perfboards attached to its FIO boards and wired up that way, rather than custom boards, since it has far fewer connections to make.

For the helicopter, the landside controller has two joysticks, an OLED display, and a 5-position “clicky” joystick for menu navigation. The airside controller has the following sensors:

• Atomic 6DOF
• Digital compass
• Digital pressure sensor
• GPS
• Ammeter on flight battery
• Simple voltage sensor on flight battery

The helicopter uses the 2.4GHz Xbee-Pro for communications, with a typical range of 1 mile.

The powered parachute has a somewhat simpler controller — a slide pot for the throttle, which controls altitude as well, a dial for steering (which controls both the parachute’s steering lines and the nose gear), a pushbutton for the camera shutter, an LCD and a hotpot for menu navigation and control. The camera, since it points downward, will mostly be in an intervalometer setting, but the period between the photos will be determined by the altitude and speed of the aircraft.

Airside on the powered parachute is a similar suite of sensors, although missing most of the “big ones”:

• Custom built pressure sensor (16bit)
• GPS
• Ammeter on flight battery
• Simple voltage sensor on flight battery

And that’s all for now — photos and details forthcoming as devices are completed.