J-LINK
FMUK66FMU
FLYSKY FS-I6S
NAV LIGHTS
SAFETY PRIOR TO FLIGHT
CHALLENGES DURING BUILD
> Communication garble from PX4 to RPI
> Flight Identified Issues
REFERENCES

Published February 1, 2020

HoverGames Challenge 1 - Fight Fire with Flyers

Aug 2019 I retired with 40 years in the Nuclear Power Plant industry as a mech&elec training instructor and enjoy 50+ years as an RC pilot.

IntermediateWork in progressOver 2 days968

HoverGames Challenge 1 - Fight Fire with Flyers

Things used in this project

Hardware components

SEGGER J-Link EDU Mini

Upload programing files to FMU

FlySky FS-iA6B

I had issues with this radio losing communication between ground my airborne craft during my initial maiden flight. This was a safety concern for “pricy” aerial drone being (at the time) airborne had significant risk being a very real safety issue. Being “my own opinion” I never cared for radios that had internal antennas and not having external higher gain antennas with the exception of being indoors or very close-quartered. Personally, I would have never bought this radio nor used this brand radio system for any of my own personal projects. I have to stay with major brands that have a quality track record for themselves such as. As today's radio systems, FrSky radio units (Chinese made) or higher quality units such as (Japanese made) units Futaba, JR or HiTec that carries a name for themselves. If this craft were to get away could have caused personal damage or injury to someone or something i.e., livestock or crops in my area.

NXP FMUK66FMU

Being in a kit form is not what I expected. Did not care for the following: 1. Assemble the board to its enclosure 2. Place label on the enclosure The label identifying connection points could have been darker – It was hard to read the connection points.

Holybro Telemetry 915 MHz

HGD-TELEM915 - HOLYBRO radio telemetry system work flawlessly .. I was very pleased with this equipment made my connections to the FMU very easy.

ReadyToSky brushless motors 2212 920 kV

I use the ReadyToSky brushless motors mainly for their cost on my less expensive drone systems. On my higher-end systems, and being a bit pricy, I prefer to use the "T-Motor" brand for their reliability.

Software apps and online services

Raspberry Pi Raspbian

Used this to program my Raspberry Pi 3 to setup MAVLink and other software needed for this project

PX4 MAVLink

Using MAVLink can be challenging when using it with the RPI 3 -

PX4 QGroundControl

For all of my projects, I normally use MISSION PLANNER - However, using QGROUND CONTROL was just as easy to use as MP... What I like most about QGC was how it automatically connects to your system whereas MP you have to connect manually.

BITVISE Client 8.34; SHH software

Used SHH for my computer to RPI for file transfers

Pixy PixMon V2

To set up my PixyCam using this software

Simplyfy3D

This software is used to send GCodes to my TEVO Tornado & Tarantula

SEGGER J-Flash V6.51c

Used to flash RDDRONE-FMUK66FMU

SEGGER - J-link Commander V6.51c

Used to flash RDDRONE-FMUK66FMU

CyberLink PowerDirector 365

Used to design videos

NXP Rapid-IOT-Studio

IoT software

Microsoft Visual Studio 2017

To alter code for programing

NXP MCUXpressoIDE_11.1.0_3209 (Windows)

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Helping Hand Tool, with Magnifying Glass

soldering

DC Power Supply LW-3010KDS

Used to power drone projects without the use of battery and to determine amps being supplied to the source.

Zeny Soldering Station 862D+

Fluke 27 DVOM

3M 422 Fiberglass Resin & Repair Kit, .9 Quart

Story

ABOUT ME:

I have always been a "hands-on" person with a passion for radio control modeling. When this contest was provided by NXP/Hackster, I just had to give it a try and see where my experience and challenges could be applied. I will admit, there were some ups and downs especially programming since I'm computer savvy but not a programmer. In my personal opinion about this contest, I have learned a lot from others whether asking questions in the group or researching blogs on the internet. Being a previous training instructor, I always had a knack for interfacing with people and to help those that need help or provide a probing solution to their problem.

FIRE FIGHTING DRONE:

The design I came up with using components provided by NXP was to include additional communications using a 4G network tied to an RPi 3 with extensive storage space for video and onboard programming using 256G Samsung Solid-State Hard Drive (SSD).

The intention (not yet complete - Challenge 2) is to include long-distance communications between the aerial drone and the user (fire tower) by a 4G network (Cell). The information would be more responsive and giving the required data to overlay video and current data such as drone/fire coordinance, heat signatures and continuously monitoring the fire threats and temperatures (use of PixyCam & sensor).

Overview of RPi 3 connected to SSD / SupTronics X825 / SixFab LTE-4G

STAY TIME IN THE AIR:

My main challenge is the stay time in the air being a major factor. My current stay time is approximately 8 mins. I would have like to have changed the brand and size of motors to larger motors with larger propellers and battery packs. The idea of being a quad was a bit challenging with the hardware onboard due to weight distribution on the craft. If one were to make this into a commercial machine I would highly suggest (from a drone safety aspect) having 6 motors (Hexacopter) to help maintain stay time in the air. The idea of having additional motors is if an ESC or motor failure were to occur in the air allowing the drone to compensate for lost motor and would not down the craft.

J-LINK

During the course of the build, some people had indicated they had issues with the J-LINK. My issue was trying to upload the BIN files to the FMU as the cable connections were not of high quality. In order for me to load the FMU programming, I did a continuity on all connectors and everything seemed to be in order.

It was by accident, I had squeezed the connector of the ribbon cable on the board and made a connection with the FMU - THEN - lost connection on data transfer when I released the connectors.

Apparently, the connector was defective not being able to reach the pin of the board OR when assembled the connector was not making good enough contact on the ribbon cable. I could not identify either.

The Fix:

Used Vice-grip pliers to lightly crimp and hold the connector in place to make connections. I made all of my uploads without error after the clamp was in place.

Bad connection to J-Link and Ribbon Plug-in

FMUK66FMU

When the kit arrived, the FMU was not what I expected:1. Had to assemble the board to its enclosure.2. Do it yourself label installation on the FMU enclosure.3. The label identifying connection points on the FMU should have been darker – Very hard to read the connection points for your plug-ins.

FLYSKY FS-I6S

I had issues with this radio losing communication between Tx and Rx while I was airborne during the maiden flight. I didn't have any stick control or RTL to land and none of my fail-safes I setup worked. I basically had to wait for the battery to slowly fizzle out and land. Thank goodness there wasn't enough wind that day during the flight only allowing the craft to drift approximately 25 yards from its take-off point.

The Fix:

I removed the receiver (FlySky FS-I6S) from the craft and installed my RadioLink A10. After the installation and setup of the programs to the RadioLink A10, I took the drone for another test flight. This flight all controls worked accordingly and flew great. However, the next challenge was my battery settings were incorrect and had a short second flight. Went into my setup and readjusted my parameters. The third flight seemed to be better for radio communications and parameter settings. I believe I need to do better calculations on my parameters for battery usage.

3D PRINTED CANOPY

All the widgets I have onboard this model I have seen some of my other drones open-faced without any protection. I thought with the RPi and other devices I need to protect them from the elements and decided to make a canopy. The objective of the canopy is to cover the onboard electronics in case of rain or debris such as dirt from landing or taking off from the ground not to mention "ASH" from forest fires.

Not having the skills working with Fusion 360 to obtain a Gcode for my 3D printing, I had to go to old school technology. Over the years I had built several fiberglassed parts for RC aircraft using Styrofoam, epoxy, glass cloth and fiberglass resin.

Used HoverGames 3D printed frame cover as a patern on styrofoam THEN cut and shaped the block to my own design

After light sanding spackling is used to fill in imperfections

Canopy was coated after spacking with 10 min Epoxy .. then covered with glass and resin

After glass hardened, dig out the styrofoam and burn the rest out with acetone

After cleaning styrofoam from canopy, cleaning up the edges and paint and IT's DONE!

ADDED RETRACTS

One of the things I have found during my dealing with drones using cameras is looking at the landing gear. Which most drone pilots see if they don't have retractable landing gear. This project I figured I would purchase a set of Tarot retracts so the PixyCam could rotate for fires. WIth standard landing gear, this would block out what you are looking for "FIRES". After the installation of the retracts, I mounted on each leg HOLYBRO telemetry and Video transmitter. The antennas on both devices point inward during landing and take off but once in the air and the retracts go up the antennas point down separating the two and providing excellent transmission to ground control.

Mounting of Telemetry and Video Tx

The modified landing gear helps provides:

1. Gives the drone a more streamlined and professional look in the air.

2. Allows aerial antennas for telemetry and video mounted to the retract legs.

a. When retracts raise both aerials pointed towards downward allowed excellent feedback to the ground station.

3. Allowing gimbal 360-degree rotation of Pixy camera without having to view fixed landing gear.

REPLACING PROPELLERSPropellers are everything to this flying drone.HoverGames HGDRONEK66 kit came with 9450 self-locking propellers. After a couple of flights, I decided to use my propellers from the 3DR Solo.

Even with the 3DR Solo propellers the motors never overheated and the performance was actually outstanding compared to the props that came with HGDRONEK66 kit.

Another noticeable difference when testing propellers, was the HGDRONEK66 kit propellers seemed to have more of a delay on takeoff compared to the 3DR Solo propellers. I believe the reason for this issue was the props were soft and flexed requiring you to ramp the motors up a bet higher on their RPMs to become airborne. The 3DR Solo props are little over 1/2" longer allowing more air for its pitch.

The material made for the 3DR Solo propellers is stiffer than the white props that came with the HGDRONEK66 kit.

Prop Comparison:

HGDRONEK66 Kit Propeller: (WHITE)Length: 9.4in / 239mmWidth: 1.250in / 31.69mm Pitch: 5”

3DR SOLO Propeller: (BLACK)Length: 10.0in / 254mmWidth: 1.219in / 32.24mmPitch: 4.5"

NOTE:

A compatible upgrade propeller is the Master Airscrew (MAS) known as the 3DR Solo Upgrade.

HGDRONEK66 Prop (White) and 3DR SOLO Prop (Black)

NAV LIGHTS

Purchased the 2 each Red and Green Night Flight LEDs and install them to the craft. Now having Nav lights for orientation especially during twilight and nighttime. The lights will help the observer identify the craft while in flight.

SAFETY PRIOR TO FLIGHT

I always followed the rules of drone flying to include any RC Fixed-wing

WHEN performing the operation of the drone in a laboratory environment OR in the field all SAFETY INITIATIVES will be performed:

• SAFETY is a priority by recognizing and correcting unsafe conditions and behaviors.

• Comply with all Federal Aviation Administration standards and expectations and take action when standards are not met.

• Prior to flying, I normally contact my small airport nearby.

• Not fly above 400 feet· Stay within the line of sight.

• Not fly over crowds· Not fly over federal, state and local controlled areas, i.e., wildlife management areas, nuclear stations, military stations, community areas.

TESTING DRONE FOR FIRE (HoverGames Challenge 2)

After the month of September of 2019, Missouri weather "went to hell in a handbasket" quick! Either high winds, rain and thunderstorms and then winter set in with rain and snow. I never had an opportunity to do additional test flights due to inclement weather.

Starting to sleet and snow - What you dont see is the WIND!

Owning 35 acres I have a pretty decent test area for my aerial and ground drones. The image below outlines the Ground Stations I have established and where I will have a fire to test the sensitivity of the Pixy and sensor.

I plan on performing a test at all three of the ground stations to detect fire in the field – and obtain a fire detection from the drone to the ground station to show the image of the fire and track it in flight. Since the drone has cell communications allowing it to travel at farther distances to help identify any fires.

The objective is for the drone is to send a collection of data (telemetry, temperature, and video) and collect all data to its hard drive at the same time while transmitting information back to the PIC or FT:

Deliver the coordinates
Stays within the area as an aerial monitor until a field team arrives. (pending battery life)
Retrains copies of information onboard as well as information sent from the drones onboard 4G communications to the PIC or FT cell phone/tablet/laptop.

CHALLENGES DURING BUILD

> Compass Issues

QGround Commander after connecting to the vehicle, Open Parameters-> Commander and change COM_ARM_MAG to 0.25. With the default, 0.18There are two compasses. One is a GPS compass and another one in the FMU. Disabled the FMU compassDisabled the cal_mag1_en) was to write to the drone the "nxp_fmuk66-v3_default.px4 (latest development build, for use with QGround Control)"

> Premature Low Battery Warning

Battery is a LIPO 11.1 volts when charged 12.53 volts. While flying I end up with the drone emitting a beep indication for Low Battery. I had to adjust parameters in MP for BATT_ to get the correct readings.

> Communication garble from PX4 to RPI

Corrected garble communications by re-adjusting baud rates NOTE: SEE baud rate 921600 (above) and the baud rate 111100 (below)

> Flight Identified Issues

1) Having to downloaded flight logs and submit it to NXP for evaluation to help identify the problem. This could help others that may have had the same issues with their equipment.a. Why failsafe did not work.b. Why there was a loss of radio signal and not being able to control the aircraft.

NOTE:
NO SUPPORT was provided from the experts on any of my requests to identify flight log radio issues.

2) Within its 3 minutes of flight time, I lost radio communications (FLYSKY unit) with the craft airborne.

Thankfully the craft stayed in one position and didn’t drift very far. The drone hovered while I tried several attempts to gain control again by moving elevation, yaw and pitch without success from my transmitter without any control to the airborne craft.

NOTE:
I replaced the FlySky radio with my personal radio system - (RadioLink AT10)

3) Remove the FlySky radio gear and use my RadioLink in its place to validate if it’s the FlySky radio is having issues or not.

a. The drone flew without an issue. Apparently, there was an issue with the FLYSKY radio system and not sure if it was receiving transmission properly due to the internal antenna or not. (my best guess)

NOTE:
Contacted NXP - Sent new FlySky radio system.

FUTURE PLANS:

Add onboard to the drone an N532 NFC NXP RFID Module. The RFID will be tied to the RPi 3 eliminating a manual push of the start button for drone startup by using an employee identification card for RFID or by fob.