Category Archives: UAV

Implementing Frame Buffer for OSD

Over a year ago, I was describing a project about an On-Screen Display (OSD) based on the RP2040. It was a simple yet effective application that allowed me to display flight telemetry on a screen in real-time. The solution was somewhat limited because it was created out of necessity. I have several RC planes with FPV capabilities. During flights, I wanted information about current position, battery voltage, etc., displayed on the video feedback. All this information was displayed using four lines of text, two at the top and two at the bottom of the screen. Since then, project requirements have evolved, and I needed to add more functionality to keep up with my needs. In the newest update, I’ve focused on enhancing I2C transmission and adding a frame buffer.

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On-screen Display with Raspberry Pi Pico

For quite some time, I was curious about the on-screen displays (OSDs). It is a piece of equipment which enables you to put some text or graphics directly on a video stream. I am going to present you my solution for this device and, most importantly, why it is useful. The project was based on the RP2040 microcontroller which can be found on a very popular platform, Raspberry Pi Pico.

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My quadrocopter adventure

Well, I feel like this will be one of these sentimental entries, but not entirely. I would like to present my journey with quadrocopters, or drones in general. I first started to invest in drones when I was at my university. The passion developed in 2012 when I was defending my Bachelor’s degree and I decided to make a thesis about it. The topic was ‘Filtering and validation of measurements from accelerometer and gyroscope in Matlab/Simulink for a quadrotor flying robot’. In this blog post, I will tackle different aspects, namely software and hardware (mechanics and electronics).

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Mechanical filter for UAV — damping IMU vibrations

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Good quality estimation of tilt angles such as roll and pitch is desired when it comes to an UAV control. Without good quality signal a proper work of flight controller is nearly impossible. However, the task of filtering is not an easy task, especially when it comes to DSP (digital signal processing). It is even harder when digital filter is inadequate. In this post a mechanical filter is presented that allows to significantly improve attitude estimation in terms of roll, pitch and yaw.

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