Resources

REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION

The following hardware are involved in the development of this project. Followed with its brief description.

  • DJI FLAME WHEEL F450

The DJI Flame wheel F450 is the flying robot, a quadcopter air-frame that will be used as the vehicle of this project. The components of this air-frame parts comprises of;

a) A top board and bottom board

b) 4 frame arms (2 red and 2 white)

c) 4 rotors & 4 propellers (2 clockwise and 2 counter-clockwise direction)

d) 4 electronic speed controller (ESC) cables

e) Landing gear

  • NAZA-M V2

It is the main flight controller responsible for the stabilization and receiving user control command. Aside from the FC itself, the Naza-M v2 it also comes with;

a) GPS compass

b) LED

c) PMU (power management unit)

  • FUTABA T6J RADIO RC

The radio RC which consists of a 6-channel Rx that is attached to the FC on the quadcopter and the Tx controlled by the user to send commands to control the movement and navigation of the quadcopter.

Due to the nature of this project which is autonomous navigation, a RC will not be used as the quadcopter will be self operated. Hence, the RC will only be required during the configuration process that was done in the implementation section.

  • NRF24L01+

Developed by Nordic Semiconductor, the nRF24L01+ is a highly integrated, low cost single chip radio/wireless transceiver. With ultra low power consumptions, it features a 2.4 GHz band operation with 250 kbps to 2Mbps on air data rates and it only requires power from 1.9 to 3.6 V supply range.

The nRF24L01+ (nRF24) are a wireless transceiver module that enables telemetry communication. By implementing it on a pair of Arduinos, it will transmit or receive data between each other. Their distance can go up to 10m as tested in the specification experiment that was covered under implementation section.

  • ARDUINO UNO

Arduino Uno will act as a transmitter which will be connected to the laptop to enable telemetry communication from the user on the ground to the quadcopter. It will be equipped with one of the nRF24 transceiver to send navigation command and receive flight details from the FC, which are extracted by the Arduino Mega.

  • ARDUINO MEGA

It will act as a receiver which will be mounted on the quadcopter and equipped with one of the nRF24 transceiver. Since the Naza FC is a closed-source product, the Arduino Mega will interpret the FC and allow control over the quadcopter by sending command signals received from the GCS. Arduino mega has additional pins compared to the Uno, hence why it was selected to connect to the FC.

  • LAPTOP

It will act as the GCS which will connect with the Arduino Uno to display flight details and information that the Arduino Uno obtained from the Arduino Mega.

TUTORIALS

  • How to build the DJI F450 Flamewheel Drone with Naza Flight Controller and DT7 Radio by Marionville Multirotors.
  • Quadcopter DJI F450 Flame Wheel Naza Lite Build and Programing by Stephenson Airplanes
  • Arduino Wireless Communication – NRF24L01 Tutorial by Dejan Nedelkovski
  • TUTORIAL: How to set up the NRF24L01 wireless transceiver Module by Antony Cartwright
  • 1-Day Project: Arduino and nRF24L01+ Data Transceiver by Julian Ilett

REFERENCES

  1. "Flight controller" in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia (last retrieved May 28, 2017)
  2. Liang, O.: How to choose flight controller for Quadcopter. Oscar Liang (2017), https://oscarliang.com/best-flight-controller-quad-hex-copter/ (retrieved May 28, 2017)
  3. Kadamatt, V.: Best flight controller for Quadcopter. Droneybee (2017), http://www.droneybee.com/best-flight-controller-quadcopter/ (retrieved May 28, 2017)
  4. Alex.: Beginners guide to drone autopilots. Drone Trest (2015), http://www.dronetrest.com/t/beginners-guide-to-drone-autopilots-flight-controllers-and-how-they-work/1380 (retrieved May 28, 2017)
  5. Kory.: Best flight controllers and why. My First Drone (2016), https://myfirstdrone.com/tutorials/buying-guides/best-flight-controllers/ (retrieved May 28, 2017)
  6. Hagiopol, A.: Autonomous outdoor navigational live demo. Alex Hagiopol (2016), https://alexhagiopol.com/portfolio/arduino-quadcopter-2-0-gps-live-demo/ (retrieved July 1, 2017)
  7. "RF24L01 2.4GHz Radio" in Arduino Info: Wikispaces (last retrieved July 1, 2017)