Quadcopter Log, Week 3, Distractions

I talked to Digi support about the potentially bricked XBee. Their immediate solutions, not much different from the ones I found on google, haven't helped. I forgot one step, so I need to go back and do that, but school work has been getting in the way. Time has been hard to come by lately.

More parts arrived last week. We now have everything except the frame and the battery. The motors and propellers were coming from China, so I was afraid they wouldn't come for a while, but thankfully I was wrong. I'm going to store them away until this friday so that someone else gets to have fun.

We will have our first quadcopter meeting/workshop/workday this friday.

Quadcopter Log, Week 2, Configuration Woes

While attempting to update one of the XBee units to the most recent version of the firmware, I seem to have broken it. I'm not sure exactly how this happened. Previously, I had been using a serial terminal on my mac to change settings using AT commands. This time, I decided to boot into windows and use Digi's official tool, X-CTU. In X-CTU, I changed various settings, including the baud rate, channel, and a couple of other things, and told it update the firmware on the next write. After I wrote the settings to the device, it stopped responding. I tried every solution I could find with google, and nothing has helped. My next step is going to be talking to Digi's support.

I was planning for our first meeting this friday when our president reminded me that it this friday is Good Friday. After sending some emails, it turns out no one wants to show up. So, delayed again...

Quadcopter Log, Week 1, Package Time

Parts arrived. One of the IMUs was missing. I contacted SparkFun and they're sending a replacement. I did lots of soldering.

I connected the XBees to my computer using the USB dongle. XBee's are interesting and powerful devices. We're using the Series 1 module, which can do point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, or peer-to-peer. For now we're just using point to point. Using a AT command (via serial terminal), I set the network identifier to 1618 and left the channel at 0x0C. I set the local (controller) module's MY to 0 and DL to 1. I set the remote module's MY to 1 and DL to 0.

Using an Arduino, I established wireless serial communication between my computer and... my computer! Albeit, two different serial terminals on my computer. It's pretty neat.

Over the next week, I'll work more with the XBees and possibly the other components. There won't be a work day this week because of a school function.