Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Discussions about autonomous flight in general, regardless of positioning method
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flynhesh
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Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:54 pm

Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Post by flynhesh »

Hello Everyone,

I am in my last semester of university and I am completing my final year Project. For this project I wanted to experiment with drones within a household. The primary objectives for this drone are as follows:
  • Avoid obstacles within the household (Furniture, walls, people, pets etc)
  • Tracking of Objects as they move around
I came across Crazyflie and sent an abundance of questions to Tobias who has really helped me in making my decision to pull the trigger and purchase one.

I thought I might create a topic for the purpose of sharing the progress of my project with this community.

Here is what I have ordered, cannot wait to receive these parts to start tinkering away:
  • Crazyflie 2.0
  • Flow deck v2
  • Multi-ranger deck
  • Crazyradio PA 2.4GHz USB dongle
  • Buzzer Deck
  • Spare Parts (Motors, props, mounts and battery)
coreysnipes
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Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:09 am
Location: Cleveland, OH, USA
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Re: Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Post by coreysnipes »

Sounds like a great project. I look forward to following your progress here.
flynhesh
Beginner
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:54 pm

Re: Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Post by flynhesh »

Hello,

I am very excited to say that two weeks ago I received my Crazyflie, and it looks awesome. I was missing the CrazyRadio so I wasn't sure how to start my project.

I downloaded the crazyflie app on my phone and was able to connect to it effortlessly via bluetooth. Have flew a few mini quadcopters in the past however I found that this one was quite tricky to fly. I was far to scared to break it so I just flew it on the ground like a hovercraft :oops:. Either way I am very excited that it's here and I look forward to playing around with it.

The guys at bitcraze were awesome and we managed to get the CrazyRadio shipped very quickly and I also just received my CrazyRadio. So look forward to having it all set-up.

My original idea was to use my Raspberry pi as a base station however, I went down the VM route as it appears to be the quickest way to get everything going. I want to understand the architecture and how the Crazyflie works before I can start getting into the project further.

I have also bought some FPV gear so that I can get video so waiting on that to arrive also. I have been following the excellent guide from (https://www.bitcraze.io/getting-started ... /#inst-win) and so far it has been very easy.
Pre-assembly.jpg
Last edited by flynhesh on Sat May 04, 2019 4:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
tobias
Bitcraze
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Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:17 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Post by tobias »

Looking forward reading about your project!
flynhesh
Beginner
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:54 pm

Re: Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Post by flynhesh »

Hey Guys, quick update on what I have so far.

I have completed all the steps from https://www.bitcraze.io/getting-started ... yflie-2-0/. Took me a bit of playing around, but I thought I would just detailed the main steps for anyone that may be struggling to get their Crazyflie working.

From my previous comment, I finally managed to get Virtual Box installed on my crappy Laptop with 7th Generation AMD A9-9420e processor :roll: . I am amazed that it is working :o . Installed Oracle Virtual Box, downloaded the Image. You can find all the steps and information from here:
It took me about 3 Hours to import the Bitcraze image, till finally it booted up (Thanks to my crappy processor :x ). Updated all the necessary files before kicking of the Crazyflie Client. I then Configured the CrazyRadio to be used inside the Virtual Box. Downloaded the latest firmware and followed the steps to upload it to the drone https://www.bitcraze.io/getting-started ... #latest-fw. Pressing the scan button I found a couple of results for the one CrazyFlie radio://00/80/250K & radio://00/77/250K. I found that the radio://00/80/250K was more reliable so insist on using this particular one. Once connected the Flight Data was working, graphs were populating everything seems to be working :D.
After Assembly.jpg
Last edited by flynhesh on Sat May 04, 2019 4:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
flynhesh
Beginner
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:54 pm

Re: Household Autonomous Drone (Flow and Ranger Deck)

Post by flynhesh »

Here is another update on how I am going,

Okay, so I have now attempted to run some of the example scripts specifically for the Multi-ranger deck. Followed the Stem Ranging Bundle walk through (https://www.bitcraze.io/getting-started ... ng-bundle/)and I was able to successfully run the script at the bottom.

I did however notice that at times in the CrazyFlie Client once connected the Flight Data (Attitude Indicator) was not working. This issue was seen intermittently. The error being reported in the console window as follows:

Code: Select all

MR: Init left sensor [FAIL]
MR: Init right sensor [OK]
DECK_CORE: Deck 0 test [FAIL]
DECK_CORE: Deck 1 test [OK]
The problem would only come up when I had the Multi-Ranger connected, and so quickly realised that there must be something wrong with the Multi-Ranger Deck. Upon a quick search in the forum came across this (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3287&p=15928&hilit=Init+Left#p15928). Re-soldered the joints and can now see that the drone can detect objects all around it as expected and required.

Will be interesting to see the completed build once the camera and transmitter comes in.
In the air.jpg
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