V 3.1
MHV Quadcopter Workshop
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Objective
To design and build a quadcopter for a workshop to be held at the Make Hack Void Hackerspace
(Canberra). It is designed to be:
(Relatively) Cheap
Commonly available spare parts
Open source or hackable hardware/software where available
Easy for beginners to build
Strong/tough enough to withstand beginner pilots
Able to carry a 200g payload (such as a small camera)
What to bring to the Workshop
Laptop (and charger!). Confirm that the APM Mission Planner software (see the Ground
station software section) runs on your laptop beforehand.
MHV will provide everything else.
Note the workshop will require basic soldering. If you haven’t soldered before, we can teach you
during the workshop
The hardware
The following list includes all parts (and some tools) required to build the quadcopter. Note you may
need a soldering iron for electrical work. Other hardware tools should be in your shed (or local
hackerspace!)
The list can be found at
https://canberrauav.readthedocs.org/en/latest/quadcopter-
workshops/quadcopter-workshop-2-0/parts-list.html
for the list of tools.
Total cost of all parts is $730.
The software
Ground Station
The standard GCS is the APM Mission Planner
http://ardupilot.com/downloads/
This will run on Windows XP/Vista/7 or Ubuntu (or similar). Linux users need to install the mono
framework.
The program does require a moderately powerful laptop/PC to run on. It will barely run on most
netbooks. An active internet connection will be required to use some features.
The APM Mission Planner is frequently updated. Fortunately, it includes auto-update software.
