I am thinking of plunging in, because this appears to be a great way to learn about quadcopters, electronics and SW development simultaneously (if a bit overwhelming -- PID controllers?!), but before I make the time and expense commitment, a few questions:
1. How large and active is the Crazyflie development and support community?
2. Ok, so this forum will be naturally be biased, but how does this compare to other potential micro-quadcopter development communities, if there are any?
3. Is there a development roadmap?
4. Plans for a BLE radio and iPhone app so we can lose the PC and dongle?
5. Reasons for not using the Invensens 9-axis MPU-9150 or MPU-9250, or other 9-axis IMUs?
That's all for now!
Community and tech questions
Re: Community and tech questions
Hi CliffH!
Great to hear that you are interested in joining the community. Quadcopters are great for learning a lot of engineering stuff. I will try my best to answer your questions.
1. It isn't as active and large as we would like it to be, probably because we have not had that much time to make it attractive. A lot of stuff is going in though but more on an individual basis. Scroll through the blog posts and you will get an idea.
2. There aren't that many micro-quad communities yet, rcgroups would be another good source I think.
3. Hmm, we have been discussing this for a long time but never got to it. We think it is very important to have one to drive the community so it will come.
4. Yes we are definitely planning for this even though we don't think the phone is a good controller.
5. The design is a bit old now and a new version will probably use one of those instead. The magnetometer is hard to use on a small platform like that though due to magnetic interference from the Crazyflie itself and from indoor environment.
Great to hear that you are interested in joining the community. Quadcopters are great for learning a lot of engineering stuff. I will try my best to answer your questions.
1. It isn't as active and large as we would like it to be, probably because we have not had that much time to make it attractive. A lot of stuff is going in though but more on an individual basis. Scroll through the blog posts and you will get an idea.
2. There aren't that many micro-quad communities yet, rcgroups would be another good source I think.
3. Hmm, we have been discussing this for a long time but never got to it. We think it is very important to have one to drive the community so it will come.
4. Yes we are definitely planning for this even though we don't think the phone is a good controller.
5. The design is a bit old now and a new version will probably use one of those instead. The magnetometer is hard to use on a small platform like that though due to magnetic interference from the Crazyflie itself and from indoor environment.
Re: Community and tech questions
Thanks. I just saw the 2.0 roadmap -- looks great. BLE and an iPhone app is really important to me for actually flying.
On the one hand, I figure just wait for the new Parrot mini-quadcopter and focus on flying. On the other, development and learning is more than half the fun, especially after the battery dies and 7-8 minutes!
Hey, here's a 3.0 idea: mesh is most definitely coming to BLE. CSR has publicly announced and others aren't far behind. Seems like a mesh would be great for inter-copter communication in swarms.
On the one hand, I figure just wait for the new Parrot mini-quadcopter and focus on flying. On the other, development and learning is more than half the fun, especially after the battery dies and 7-8 minutes!
Hey, here's a 3.0 idea: mesh is most definitely coming to BLE. CSR has publicly announced and others aren't far behind. Seems like a mesh would be great for inter-copter communication in swarms.
Re: Community and tech questions
Yep, I know what you are talking about but with the Crazyflie you can have booth 
.
Have a look on the blog later today about mesh
.
.Have a look on the blog later today about mesh
.