3DR Solo Customization Advises

[belal]

Hi Everybody,
This is my first time for me on the community... Thank you all for the very valuable information I found here and in in the ArduPilot...

I ordered a 3DR Solo Drone as part of a plan to play with it, hack it and customize it, and it will be really appreciated if you give me your advises before I build any boards or ordering any sensors...

My plan is to do the following:
1. Replace the stock solo controller by Pixhawk Green Cubes 2.1 (if it didn't come with it already - don't know yet) to be able to use firmware v3.5.x, so how many Pixhawk Controllers I will need?
2. I'm planning to add 6 ultrasonic sensors (8m each) for obstacle avoidance (up/down and 4 sides), so what do you advise? does the controller have enough room to install all of them?
3. I would like to modify the body to make it support landing on Water (and shot under water), the foots will have motor to fold or expand.
4. I would to add 2 back motors/propellers (which will be inactive by default) and to be activated per-user request (when on water surface or when more flight speed is needed) or when a fast air break is needed to avoid collision (I will work run some physics and aerodynamics simulations to see how many motor and where should I place them - I expect two).
5. I will give more control on the GoPro came settings (if the firmware is not supporting some of the major requirements - like exposure, white balance..etc).

I consider this project as an experimentation and learning project, I'm not planning to invest on expensive sensors or body works creation before I get a successful setup first, but I'm excited to know your advises on all above... like, if the factory controllers have enough bins and ports for what I want? Are there any restrictions or complications when adding more controllers (or Arduino boords to be connected to the cotroller)? Does the Pixhawk 2.1 controller run on 5V or 3.3?

Thanks in Advance

 

[belal]

I will answer myself (just in case anybody is looking for the same) regarding to the specs of the Pixhawk and Pixhawk2 and much more regarding to the open hardware info that I found here:
Autopilot Hardware Options — Copter documentation

 

[mike_kelly]

The Solo is not a good platform for this kind of project. All Pixhawk cubes require a carrier brd of some kind to bring out the io lines. The Solo motherbrd which acts as the carrier was not designed to give access to all of the Pixhawk I/O.

Gopro does not document their internal commands, except to developers under NDA, so you will find it difficult to add features.

This is not a trivial project.

 

[belal]

Thanks for the info.. But did they build the solo board as one single board or as modules? I still two days old about this whole story and not even have a hand on any hardware yet, but don't you think it can work if designed another board as carrier for the Pixhawk while making use of the rest of the Solo modules, components and body?
In this case, will be there any missing firmware or whatever that can make any difficulties when utilising the controller and the gumball.. etc?

 

[mike_kelly]

Solo is a motherbrd with the Pixhawk plugged in and a co-computer on a separate brd.

Anything can be done but it is not convenient if you want to access pins on the pixhawk that are not available on the motherbrd anywhere. For instance motor outputs above four.

 

[belal]

What I'm planning to do is most like building my own high end solution to satisfy my exact needs where I can also have full control on how I program it, in the same time without paying 15$+ thousands... So, in the worst case if I end up by taking from my Solo only the mechanics, the motors, the remote and the onboard modules like the wifi module, the gps and the Pixhawk modules and the video transmitter.. etc, then this will still be a good point to start from and way much better than starting the project from scratch... although I thought at the beginning that extending the Solo's hardware will be as easy as extending an Arduino board.

On the other side, is there any where I can find the available board pins and ports? I saw a video on youtube where someone (as I remember called Stephen) inserted a SF-20 LiDar on the factory board of Solo (connected on a socket at the bottom of the Solo drone), where can I get more information about this socket?

 

[mike_kelly]

You would be much better off building from scratch with a Pixhawk 2.1 and carrrier.

 

[belal]

Yea, makes sens, at least I will have my Solo board intacted.
Thanks

 

[belal]

I found this which can help me hack my Solo to do most of what I was planning for (including running more servo)
Extend 3DR Solo Accessory Bay - Hackster.io

I also found very useful link here (I found here all what I need to know about my Solo, the carrier diagram, the ships, the connections and more):
https://dev.3dr.com/

 

[XevetS]

I found this which can help me hack my Solo to do most of what I was planning for (including running more servo)
Extend 3DR Solo Accessory Bay - Hackster.io

I also found very useful link here (I found here all what I need to know about my Solo, the carrier diagram, the ships, the connections and more):
https://dev.3dr.com/

That particular bay extension board is hard to come by, unless you make one but its limited with what you plan to do. As far as your solo coming with a green cube not likely unless whomever you bought it from installed it and charged you accordingly, the stock solo comes with a 2.0 cube period.

You can break out a few PWM outputs straight from the solo mainboard, or buy this >> 3DR Solo Standard Breakout Board – BrownieBoards Store

As far as arducopter master you can install it on a stock solo no problem but it will fall out of the sky at some point unless you modify the stock cube ESC voltage to 5v or install different ESC'S. The green cube was created to get the best of both worlds from the solo and to bring it up to a new level alongside OpenSolo. IMHO you would be better off building a Quad from scratch to achieve the goals you mentioned above.

This has all been done here Ad Nauseum just do a search.....
I myself have built a custom rig so has Mike kelly..

 

[belal]

Thanks for the advise... I totally agree with you, after the research I did within the last few days and by knowing more about the technolgy behind these drones, I can see that I should keep my Solo intacted and to build a custom one from scratch that I plan from the beginning the way that suits my needs.

At the beginning and before I make a dive into this world, I over estimated the complexity of it and thought that reverse engineering a ready one and hooking up to it will be shorter and easier way, but I found the opposite is correct in my case.

 

[XevetS]

Thanks for the advise... I totally agree with you, after the research I did within the last few days and by knowing more about the technolgy behind these drones, I can see that I should keep my Solo intacted and to build a custom one from scratch that I plan from the beginning the way that suits my needs.

At the beginning and before I make a dive into this world, I over estimated the complexity of it and thought that reverse engineering a ready one and hooking up to it will be shorter and easier way, but I found the opposite is correct in my case.

The solo is a great platform as it is you will get many hours of enjoyment in its stock form, I personally think its the best bang for the buck out there bar none..Oh and it doesn't spy on you either.. which is a big plus, Enjoy..

 

[belal]

Oh.. spy on me that came to my mind either, but we used to live with this... hhhh
But again I agree with you, I'm really enjoying it, I picked the Solo after intensive comparisons.

 

[fpvsteve]

My plan is to do the following:
.....
5. I will give more control on the GoPro came settings (if the firmware is not supporting some of the major requirements - like exposure, white balance..etc).

Here you go for the Gopro control via an Arduino:
GitHub - mtbsteve/3DR-Solo-GoPro-Hero-black-5-6-Control: Necessary APIs and functions to control a Hero black 5 or 6 from3DR Solo app or Solex
Still WIP, but most of the Gopro controls are already implemented.

 

[just_bruce]

They look to be implemented via WiFi - which until we get the "Solo as AP" model in place looks like a potential point for loss of control channel (WiFi interference)

 

[belal]

Here you go for the Gopro control via an Arduino:
GitHub - mtbsteve/3DR-Solo-GoPro-Hero-black-5-6-Control: Necessary APIs and functions to control a Hero black 5 or 6 from3DR Solo app or Solex
Still WIP, but most of the Gopro controls are already implemented.

That's cool.. Thanks for link

 

[fpvsteve]

They look to be implemented via WiFi - which until we get the "Solo as AP" model in place looks like a potential point for loss of control channel (WiFi interference)

The AP is the Gopro, not Solo. That cannot be changed.
I could not determine any interference yet with my GP5 black. Solo and Gopro are broadcasting on different channels.

 

[just_bruce]

I thought they added a client mode when they released the GP5.

Do you happen to know the channels your GP5 is using ? Inquiring minds and all..

 

[XevetS]

Yeah in the solo manual it does state to turn off the Gopro WiFi, or else Solo will fly back to its creator.
Although I do use the Wifi on my Sony AS100V on at all times and have not had a single WiFi related issue in over a year of flying this way..It too is the AP and broadcast a specific SSID but seems to be on a different channel, I need to look into this further to be sure.

 

[fpvsteve]

I thought they added a client mode when they released the GP5.

Do you happen to know the channels your GP5 is using ? Inquiring minds and all..

Client mode is for uploading to the gopro cloud only. Not working for remote control.
Mine uses channel 1-6.