Motorin'

I did some research online, trying to figure out how I'm going to interface the motors with the Arduino Nano. After my previous expeditions, I came to the conclusion that I would have to fiddle around with pulse-width-modulation (PWM) in order to properly control the motors. Fortunately, the Nano has 6 outputs that are capable of emulating PWM, and about 8 analog inbputs that could (possibly) be used to read PWM signals from the receiver I'll eventually get. Some sources mentioned that I would need to put an H-bridge between the motors and the microcontroller, though, and I'm wondering if a speed controller would work just as fine.

I got a little antsy, and decided to try flying the Draganflyer again. The wind from earlier today had settled down a little, but it was still incredibly cold. Despite this, Squishy and Jason joined me for the flight test. After a few warm-up flights, I went ahead and had Squishy try filming it with my cellphone like last Friday, and this time it didn't crash. Since I was flying with the attitude stabilization system on, it was easy-peasy even when breazy. Though it's difficult to see in the video, the wind actually twisted one of the motors at an angle, and it still flew level! I think that the attitude system was adjusting for any changes the twisted rotor was causing, so the rotors all sped-up and sped-down to compensate. This didn't provide any translational stability, of course, and so the Draganflyer often ended up veering off considerably to the left or right. We played around with it a little bit... needless to say it ate dirt a couple times. Luckily, the blades are made out of a flexible plastic, so even though they bend easily, they return to form just as readily. I do have to clean some dirt out of the gears, though.

I'm definitely going ahead with the LED idea, but I'm afraid of taking some of the LED's from the xUFO. They're soldered onto circuit boards underneath the motors, and I'm not sure how integral they are to the circuit (they're the kind that are actually built-in to the PCB). I might just grab some LED's I have at home and use those -- anything to help distinguish the front end of the Draganflyer from the other parts. It's time we did something about symmetry...

TL;DR

• ESC or H-bridge: can an esc be used instead of trying to setup a circuit with an H-bridge for motor control
• Draganflyer is one tough mother-: shut yo' mouth! The damn thing can fly level when its motors are off-kilter, and its blades can bend back into shape; I'm still getting the replacement kit, though
  
• Rotor RPM testing: figure out the changes in rotor RPM with certain inputs, like roll right, roll left, pitch up, etc