In this sub-page, we focus on the building of our drone.
Week 6 – Week 7 (16/6-27/6)
In the spirit of fiscal responsibility, we chose to source for a drone that already existed. Luckily, our new saviour Guo Yao told us about this drone that was in the MnT lab.
This drone is promising for a variety of reasons:
- Strong Motors
The collection mechanism is expected to be around 500g. Therefore, the drone has to be big enough with strong motors to carry this payload.
- Pre-installed Flight Controller
The DJI Naza-m V2 has already been installed, meaning less work for us!
- Motor Redundancy
For us, having 6 propellors instead of 4 is helpful. Since the drone is flying into a hot area with sediments in the air, the likelihood of one of the propellors breaking down midflight is significant. Having 6 propellors allows for the flight to still remain relatively stable in the event of a propellor malfunction.
We henceforth bestowed our drone with the name “Clammy”. Hopefully, we will be able to figure out how to get Clammy to be functional again soon! #fingerscrossed
Week 8 (30/6-4/7)
The first step to getting the drone to fly is to be able to control the motors via laptop. When we initially connected a Windows laptop to the drone, problems arose as Windows 11 was incompatible with the drone’s driver. We had 2 options – update the drone’s software (which would take a lot of time) or remove the safeguards Windows 11 has in place and potentially expose our laptops to evil VIRUSES.
Fortunately, there was a third option! As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them. Thus, enter Zhao Hong’s MacBook Air that was released in early 2015, equally as old as the drone.
SUCCESS!
The drone’s driver is compatible with the MacBook and we were able to move the motors. Unfortunately, we need to buy a controller as well as a receiver to fly the drone remotely. Get in girls, we’re going shopping!
Drone Camera
In order to see where we the drone is going, a camera needs to be mounted onto the drone. Thus, we bought a camera, a video transmitter (VTX), and an FPV monitor!
When trying to set up these 3 components, we were able to establish a connection between the transmitter and monitor. However, much of the transmitted image was left to be desired as not only was there a lot of static, but the image was also monochrome and kept jittering.
This week was also when we learned that electronic parts can spoil too! Our continuous attempts to solder the VTX resulted in us accidentally burning the soldering pads on the VTX itself. This caused our circuit to keep being shorted as the electrical component no longer worked.
We feared that this would be the cause of our demise as even our friends could not figure out the cause of this problem. It was at this point where we decided we needed the help of a PROFESSIONAL.
Week 9 (7/7-11/7)
Drone Camera
When we bought another VTX to replace the one that was burnt last week, we also asked shop owner Eddie for advice on setting up the drone camera. Fear struck our hearts the more Eddie talked as he explained the many different components needed for this deceivingly simple circuit. For full transparency, Eddie did help us with setting up of the circuit as it was clear that this was way beyond our skill level. However, trust that the function of each circuit component was meticulously explained to us! #SayNOtoNepotism
With his help, the image on the FPV monitor has gone from monochrome full of static to a colourful stable picture!
Flight School
We managed to connect our remote controller to our laptops!
Our fellow drone group recommended that we try a flight simulator game to train our drone operating skills.
Flight school proved to be a challenge for all of us beginners, not to worry though, we will make sure to continue working on it until we get to fly our drone!
Week 10 (14/7-18/7)
Drone Flight
What a good week it is to be in team VolcaYUH! On Wednesday, we were able to arm AND calibrate Clammy. This means that Clammy was able to take flight! However, our success was soon impeded by our poor ability to control Clammy and our lack of foresight. As we did not tape down the wires to the drone frame, a propellor struck the wires that connect the controller receiver to Clammy, when we lost control mid-flight. Luckily, the receiver was not damaged, and we were able to solder new wires to connect the receiver to Clammy again.
On the bright side, we found out that Clammy’s in-built kill switch works as when the connection between the flight controller and receiver was lost, Clammy was able to land by itself in a safe and controlled manner. #LavaOutLoud
Week 11 (21/7 – 25/7)
Drone Flight
This week, Clammy was finally ready to take flight. As NTU is in a no-fly zone, we had to travel to a park in One-north to freely fly Clammy.
We learned that Clammy has a tendency to drift, which is when it still moves even though the controller is in a neutral state. This was due to the flight settings that were used. This problem was easily resolved as we learned to make micro-adjustments to make Clammy stationary.