Finished my Solo conversion "FrankenSolo". All CANbus, no PWM ESC's, no Serial, no I2C connections.
35 minute maiden flight.
35 minute maiden flight.
3DR Solo conversion 35 minute flight
- Thread starter mike_kelly
- Start date
Yes, working on a non-gopro gimbal with STorM32 controller that will support all the smart shots. But I want to maintain as much flight time as possible so the gimbal/camera must be as light as possible.
congratulations, now add a comparable, or Solo camera+gimbal , and fly around or hover at 10m in some wind, as opposite to hover in your own ground effect, - to measure time. 
Generally speaking it takes more energy to hover than to fly. Simple physics. There was wind during the test. It was having to constantly adjust.
Yes and the power module that OlliW (STorM32) made reports the battery status to Arducopter which the controller reads and displays correctly on the controller. I am building a hex now with just the Sololink brd and a regular Pixhawk without the whole Solo main brd. The Sololink is the best DIY value there is for HD video, telemetry/OSD, rc control and smart gimbal controll on one brd that only costs $30 these days.
Really looking forward to the gimbal being attached.
Really looking forward to the gimbal being attached.
The flight time of your conversion is extremely attractive. We are using stock SOLOS with Canon S100 cameras for scientific/enviromental survey projects. The limited flight time (12-13 minutes) is forcing us to look elsewhere (including DJI) but we'd love to stick with the pixhawk. Do you plan to publish the details of your build? -- that would really help us price this conversion out and decide if it could work for us.
thanks!
Carl
Conservation Aerials
thanks!
Carl
Conservation Aerials
Carl,
My build was kind of a proof of concept and hence much more expensive than needs to be for your purpose. I wanted to do a test of CANbus with Arducopter. I actually built two versions one with the Solo main board and one with a standard Pixhawk but both with CANbus ESC's which are currently very expensive. They simply solved the Solo ESC problem and tested CANbus at the same time but you could use any normal PWM ESC as well.
I am guessing that the flight time will be about 26minutes with a 500g camera/gimbal setup which is doable with the Canon S series. I plan to use a Canon S110 unless I can find something better. You might squeeze a bit more out if you don't need a gimbal and are shooting straight down for mapping.
Note that I went to a lot of trouble to keep the build as light as possible, eliminating fancy folding arm clamps and retracts etc. It still folds tho. Also note that although you could use most any larger frame that supports 15" props the Daya H4 680 was unique among H4 frames in that it is wider than most allowing the Solo main brd to cleanly fit inside, which was still a tight fit.
Here is my build log at RCGroups. Note the problems that I had are related to using CANbus which is new to Arducopter. It was worth it to me because I think CANbus simplfies the build so much it is the future for Arducopter.
The Holy Grail of DIY QUADS - FrankenSolo - RC Groups
Good Luck with your work.
My build was kind of a proof of concept and hence much more expensive than needs to be for your purpose. I wanted to do a test of CANbus with Arducopter. I actually built two versions one with the Solo main board and one with a standard Pixhawk but both with CANbus ESC's which are currently very expensive. They simply solved the Solo ESC problem and tested CANbus at the same time but you could use any normal PWM ESC as well.
I am guessing that the flight time will be about 26minutes with a 500g camera/gimbal setup which is doable with the Canon S series. I plan to use a Canon S110 unless I can find something better. You might squeeze a bit more out if you don't need a gimbal and are shooting straight down for mapping.
Note that I went to a lot of trouble to keep the build as light as possible, eliminating fancy folding arm clamps and retracts etc. It still folds tho. Also note that although you could use most any larger frame that supports 15" props the Daya H4 680 was unique among H4 frames in that it is wider than most allowing the Solo main brd to cleanly fit inside, which was still a tight fit.
Here is my build log at RCGroups. Note the problems that I had are related to using CANbus which is new to Arducopter. It was worth it to me because I think CANbus simplfies the build so much it is the future for Arducopter.
The Holy Grail of DIY QUADS - FrankenSolo - RC Groups
Good Luck with your work.
Mike nice work, you are pretty much Captain Canbus right now.
Looking forward to seeing the new ESCs Profi and Hex are working on, but yeah hearing they will be expensive.
Keep hoping someone makes Ollis T-Storm boards and motor modules for Can gimbal
Looking forward to seeing the new ESCs Profi and Hex are working on, but yeah hearing they will be expensive.
Keep hoping someone makes Ollis T-Storm boards and motor modules for Can gimbal
I wish they would get off facebook so the rest of the world could follow their work.
If we had a vendor someone already had experience with it would be easier. But we need to get those boards out in the wild so those of us that want to use them can. The BBBmini project uses SHenZehn so I am going to see how that works but it is a lot more complicated than the days of single layer boards and socketed chips.
If we had a vendor someone already had experience with it would be easier. But we need to get those boards out in the wild so those of us that want to use them can. The BBBmini project uses SHenZehn so I am going to see how that works but it is a lot more complicated than the days of single layer boards and socketed chips.
not a fan of the format, but sadly a lot of information is on FB these days
Just have to go private and let no one on your list and just follow the pages you are interested in.
Just have to go private and let no one on your list and just follow the pages you are interested in.
Exciting that Olli is testing the waters. If his order is successful we are in business!
I will never give my info to Zuckerberg. FB is an absurd place for a technical forum.
100% agreed. I will pay for a full year of hosting on whatever platform they desire if they agree to bring it out of the walled garden and onto the open internet.
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