Youtube Video:
The board contains 4 special piccolo devices which have a sensorless software
encoder in ROM. The Piccolo devices sense each phase current and
voltage and calculate the flux vector inside the motor in real time. This gives
them the ability to precisely place another flux vector to drive the motor with
incredible efficiency.
Balance and control are implemented using a standard suite of 3 axis
accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnatometers, while communications are
implemented using the CC2560 bluetooth controller. Additional navigation
information can be provided by a CC4000 based GPS module which will allow for
completely autonomous flight.
When completed the InstaSpin Quadcopter will run the Arducopter software which
allows us to leverage a large amount of free open source third party software to
provide additional functionality. Phone or PC based software can be used to
both fly the quadcopter and program the quadcopter for autonomous "drone"
missions.
The question I get most when I show off the quadcopter is "Will this thing
fly?". The answer to that question is yes, but not yet! This is a big project
and the PCBs are less than two weeks old and are still being assembled. That
said, this design is based off another quadcopter with a similar size and shape
that uses the same motor prop combination that I have used. The instaspin
quadcopter weighs in a little heavier, roughly 50 grams, but motor size can
easily be increased and weight decreased for a production version of this board.
You may be curious how much this thing costs. While designing the
board the goal was to keep it as low cost as possible. Final BOM cost in a
production environment would likely be near $50 including motors and a battery.
And while this may be over the $40 limit of this competition, I think the fact
that you can now "Launch" a launchpad more than justifies the extra $10 spent.
Finally, because of the way the motor controllers are implemented on the board,
this boosterpack should be compatible with all LaunchPads.
Well thats ends the introduction to the InstaSpin QuadCopter BoosterPack.
Don't forget to vote for me if you'd like to see this boosterpack turned into a
real kit.
Schematic:
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Board Layout:
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BOM:
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Standard Disclaimer:
This design is a work in progress, it is not perfect and there are probably flaws in it I have yet to find. Should the design be put into production much more additional work will be done to ensure a quality BoosterPack that launches LaunchPads!
Vote for me!