Arduino RC airplane

arduino_airplane

[Olivier] told us about this fantastic project where he built his own RC airplane. The airplane itself is nothing special, it is the controls that are worth paying attention to. He used an Arduino Diecemilla , some XBee transceivers, and a SparkFun Wee. The main site is a general overview, but there are links to more detailed breakdowns of how to build some of the parts. There are several videos of him flying it as well.

Comments [7]

tagged: airplane, arduino, radio controlled, rc, wireless, xbee

Reader Comments

I wonder how it compares with a futaba radio rig, esp. range and price. you could probably get good quality plastic shell with the levers for free if you ask around. actually , I think I will get one to control my next robot!

Posted at 11:14 am on Nov 7th, 2008 by tom

I would like to see a simple RC aircraft with a 3 axis accelerometer, magnometer, some kind of range finder pointed downward and a micro controller as a flying assist system so instead of direct control of the control surfaces the user just inputs altitude and speed (say with a slider) then desired direction with a dial (linked to a magnometer in the controller so the direction that they point the dial is equal to the direction the plane is pointing. That would be loads of fun to fly I think just for the fact that it is so easy.

I guess a good start would be a RC car where you do the same thing without the altitude, has anyone seen something like that?

Posted at 11:39 am on Nov 7th, 2008 by Edward Nardella

i had considered something similar. some of the new xbee modules have incredible range. best part is that you have as many channels as you want, and 2 way communication.

Posted at 12:37 pm on Nov 7th, 2008 by charlie

I’m really curious about that price / distance comparison.

@edward
See http://diydrones.com/ for community, discussion, etc.
Their in-development boards have all sorts of features.

Posted at 2:10 pm on Nov 7th, 2008 by nathangray

The main link is http://www.o24rcp.org/ : custom 2.4GHz RC transmitter & receiver, complete w/ PCB and (compiled, to be Open Sourced) firmware, using XBee modules. Sounds like a very nice piece of work.

Posted at 12:08 am on Nov 8th, 2008 by Ed

yes i like to plat rc airplane my site

http://www.108airplane.com

Posted at 8:34 pm on Jan 3rd, 2009 by tawan235

This paperplane is ingenius. I actually might have something at my store best flying rc airplanes is the name.

Posted at 10:13 pm on Oct 5th, 2009 by best flying rc airplanes