Move Over Arduino, There's a Cheaper Microcontroller Option in Town

I saw this post the other day about programming a MSP430 with the Arduino IDE and was like "wait what?". My biggest problem with the MSP430 and Tiva C series microcontrollers (uCs) to date has been having to use code composer studio or IAR. Both are difficult to use, very bloated with features most of us never use, and have a very high learning curve. Pretty much every maker has used or is currently using an Arduino in a project because they are so simple to learn how to use. So if the post was right and you could code in the Arduino IDE-esque Energia IDE and then upload it to the more powerful Tiva C or far cheaper MSP430, I am totally on board.

Here is a cost breakdown

uC	Cost
Arduino UNO	$22
Tiva C launchpad	$12.99
MSP430 launchpad	$4.30
MSP430 IC	$1.85

The best part is that once you buy the MSP launchpad you can use it to program a chip then remove that chip and use it in your project! So for every project after the initial it will only cost you $1.85. Now mind you the MSP430 does have some drawbacks compared to the Arduino UNO, however there are a few flavors of the MSP430 with vary levels of performance. See this post for more a more detailed comparison.

So what is the main take away here? If a MSP430 series uC will work for your project why wouldn't you use it? You save money, can use it in your own PCB or breadboard, and if you break it, no biggy just swap another one in. Now some of you may note that you can bootload your Arduino ICs and move them to a breadboard or bootload them directly in the breadboard. Well you aren't wrong, but you will need a programmer, which is an added cost. Conversely you just need the launchpad board for the MSP430.

A final word of warning. It took me about an hour to realize that the latest version of the Energia IDE no longer supported the MSP430G2231 IC, so I had to download version 17 which still did. After that it only took about 2 minutes to upload blinky to both my MSP430G2231 and my TM4C123G.

All I Want for Christmas is a CNC Machine

I love having a 3D printer. It allows me to make so many things that would just be impossible otherwise. However, there are limitations. 3D printers are slow, the plastic can be brittle, and lets face it sometimes the prints have a look that only a maker could love. So with that I decided it was time to build a CNC machine. A CNC machine is the opposite of a 3D printer, instead of extruding material to build an object it mills away material to create an object. A CNC comes with its own set of limitations, but the fact that you can mill wood, plastic, aluminum just to name a few materials will seriously up my maker game. Not to mention you can make custom PCBs.

Putting my mind to making a CNC turned out to be a fairly complicated task, so I looked for a way that I could leverage my 3D printer. A quick search on thingiverse and bingo!

Meet Mostly Printed CNC 525 "C-23.5mm OD" by Allted. This is quite the design IMHO. Basically all the red and black pieces in the above picture are 3D printed. The total print time is >100 hours. You can buy kits from his website, but I am going to print all my own parts and maybe buy the electronics/hardware from him. We will see how cheap I am feeling. I have around 95% of the parts currently printed so it is just about time to order all the other hardware/electronics.

Printing the last large piece!

My box of parts

Hot Cars and PLA Do Not Mix

As you can see, my mini-quad now has legs... So now I will be printing this again in ABS since it has a much higher melting temperature. 

Removable Bumpers and Sour Beers

Josh and Tim requested removable bumpers on the mini quad. This would serve two purposes, first it will allow us to remove broken bumpers and replace them, instead of replacing the whole frame. Second, we will be able to remove the bumpers which weigh 2 grams each for a total of 8 grams! This should help the flight time when we are racing.

Amy came up with the idea for how to slide the bumpers on, she's wicked smaht. Seriously though she came up with it in about a second.

Take a look below.





Pretty excited to try them out. Undoubtedly they will need some tweaking since they feel like if they are hit hard from the side they will likely pop off.

Now onto my second hobby. HOMEBREWING! I have decided to start trying to brew sour beers. Amy and I love Goses and most sour beers. I tried brewing a Gose a few weeks ago, but it did not get very sour, which was quite sad. Talking with a helpful guy at the brew store I discovered I had used the wrong bacteria, I need lactobacillus brevis in order to get the big sour flavor we like. Now in order to keep the bacteria happy during the first 3-4 days the wort needs to stay between 90F and 120F. This is pretty hard when it is winter in Boston. So I am making an immersion heater. Bascially you put the fermenting bucket in a larger bucket and then use a water heating coil with a temperature controller. I added a water pump in order to circulate the water.

Here are some pictures of my test setup.






The temperature controller has a thermistor which is also in the bucket. This allows it to sense the temperature of the water control the heating coil/pump.

Seems to be working well so far, I am excited to try it out this weekend when I start my sour beer.

Mini Update

Josh, Tim, and I got together today and built up our mini quads. Things went fairly well except the micro multiwii FCs from hobbyking are TERRIBLE. Programming them consistently was a challenge, the GUI stinks, Tim's FC won't bind, and to top it off they stop functioning when they get cold. We tried to fly outside in 35F weather, apparently that was too cold since they literally wouldn't communicate with the transmitter, but were fine after being back inside for a few minutes.

So we are looking to upgrade out flight controllers to something more reliable.

Flight Controller (might have them made myself if I can get them cheap and we can solder them)
Orange T-Six Receiver
Taranis x9d Recevier (Need to double check, but this would mean Tim does not need to buy a module for his transmitter)

I was unsure what CPPM was or if the lulfro FC supported it (it says PPM). This forum topic helped clear that up. "It's actually just PPM, CPPM seems to be a name dreamed up just to differentiate PPM output from the Rx on a servo port from the PPM output of the Tx to the module or DSC port.".

Also we could potentially get rid of the video battery since these boards have a filtered regulated output for FPV gear (it is 5V but can be switched to 3.3V)

Last update is the frame got an upgrade and it works pretty well. Still some tweaking to do, but it works well for now.

The Mini Quad

So I kind of built it before posting anything... Sorry. It has been crazy the last few weeks, which is partly why it has not gotten finished before now and partly why I have not posted anything while I was building it.

Also this is a good resource for micro quad stuff

Bill of Materials

Micro MWC FCB DSM2	FC/ESC/RX	1	$36.00
USB FTDI Flash Stick	FTDI	1	$8.10
Quanum Pico 32bit FCB	FC upgrade	N/A	N/A
8.5x20mm Motor	Motors	2	$2.99
600TVL 1/4 1.8mm CMOS	Camera	1	$9.99
Boscam FPV 5.8G 200mW	Video TX	1	$11.00
Walkera 350mAh	flight battery	2	$3.99
Video Battery	video battery	1	$2.62
Charger	charger	1	$2.50
Video TX Diode	Diode	1	$0.34
2 Pin 6 x Pico Plug	Pico plug	2	$0.50
small custom antenna	antenna	1	$0.00
Hubsan X4	Props	3	$1.50
2 Pairs 2627	Other Props	2	$1.82
Quad Frame	Frame	1	$0.00
JST Connectors (1 male, 3 female)	Amazon	4	$0.50
Shipping		1	$15.00
Boscam 5.8Ghz 200mW RX	Video RX	1	$17.00
Fat Shark RC Vision Systems NexWave RF,	Goggle RF	1	$30.00

Hardware

Read through all notes in this section before assembling/soldering things.

I suggest you assemble the quad without cutting wires first, then measuring wires to make your connections to the flight controller board, battery, etc. You don't want things to be too short or too long.

NOTE: Do not put the male JST on the flight controller (FC) board (as shown in this picture). Use the Female JST.

NOTE: Do not put the female JST on the battery (as shown in this picture). Use the male JST.

What the V1 quad looks like when assembled

Motor layout. You want the red/blue motors diagonal from each other, and the white/blue motors diagonal from each other.

Video System

Be extremely careful soldering to the video transmitter. The pads can get to hot and rip off really easily.

Camera wiring. The camera antenna wire is just motor wire (the red on the wire is insulation). Cut it to be exactly 12.92mm (this is the length needed for 5.8GHz)

The bulge on the red wire in the above picture is the video TX diode mentioned in the BOM above. This is required so that you can fully charge the flight battery and use it with the video transmitter (we are dropping voltage across it so the video TX doesn't get to hot). The video TX requires 3.3V and the battery is 4.2V fully charged. The diode has a forward voltage drop of 0.36V so the voltage that the video TX gets when the battery is fully charged is 4.2V-0.36V = 3.84V. This is still high, but it can handle it. Install the diode with the anode on the battery side of the red wire and the cathode on the video TX side of the red wire (so current flows).

I hot glued wires down to prevent then from ripping off and to add some strain relief.

Use some hotglue if the motor feet or the FC holder feels too lose. If the motors feel to loose you can add a little hot glue to the outside of the motor where it meets the 3D printed material.

Calibrate the Electronic Speed Controller

There are videos on youtube, but they all stink and don't really show you how to do it for our boards. If your motors all start to spin at different times then we will have to calibrate the ESCs. We can figure it out when the time comes.

Software

First download MultiWii GUI from my github 

next download the arduino code from my github

Next follow along with this video MultiWii Setup
MultiWii Resource

I don't think it actually matters what screen you are on in arduino when you upload the code, but I am always on the multiwii.cpp

After uploading the code you can use the GUI for final configuration (the video does a pretty good job explaining how to set things up). I set my quad to arm/disarm with an aux switch on my Orange T-six transmitter.

Arduino IDE Settings

Use the pogo stick after the code has compiled and is attempting to upload. The ftdi programmer red and green leds should start flashing fast and you should see an uploading notification in the arduino console.

Transmitter

I created a miniquad profile on my Orange T-Six for this quad so that it is different than my large quad. I suggest you do the same.

Settings

ESC Calibration

Documentation

Config.h is where the code you must uncomment is located.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA8jjCqbKZY