Raspberry PI Rover (Prepper Security Bot)

[@ScottyM1959]

Very Cool! How've you been? It's good to hear from you. What's new?

[@Commsprepper]

Thanks. All is well. In Germany now but will home (WV) this summer. Working on getting my shop up and running here. Sadly most of my toys are in the States. How are you?

[@ScottyM1959]

@@Commsprepper I'm doing okay if I was car I'd be in serious need of body work lol. Where in Germany? I have a couple of friends from there. I'm glad to hear things are doing good looking forward to your toy videos and any updates of any FCC regs regarding HAM and other comms options and stories of your travels.

[@Devin82m]

VERY cool! WE need more details, links, all of it. I'm going to make one! A quad copter could be an option too, you could sent it up to patrol your property. Maybe a remote controlled hanger bay box, the roof doors being the remote controlled bit.

[@Commsprepper]

I am tweaking the CAD file now for the bot (3D printer parts) and then I will post on Thingiverse.com. My plan is to remote this via Internet on my property. Remote drone is out as FAA requires visual line-of-sight (LOS) of the sUAS at all times.

[@Devin82m]

Ah, I wasn't aware of that, of course they make everything illegal.

[@stevefox3763]

@@Commsprepper WOW, your FAA has rules on ground based craft? Here in the UK we have VERY restrictive rules on RC Aircraft (which we all ignore and use common sense to remain safe) but there are no regulations what so ever on ground based vehicles luckily and i could legally send one on a 200 mile mission and go to bed lol. I have a mini/pocket 50cc quad bike which i have converted to RC and because its now an RC vehicle its a strange situation where its now completely legal to use in all the places where riding it in its original configuration was illegal , including on the road. whats hilarious is that there are no laws prohibiting riding on an rc vehicle which means that sitting on it and steering with my rc transmitter is legal!

[@Commsprepper]

@@stevefox3763 That was not what I was saying. The original post talked about adding a quad copter (sUAS) to this project (in addition to the rover). When it comes to flying craft our FAA controls the airspace and has said the remote pilot-in-command (PIC) of a sUAS (drone) must have visual line-of-sight (LOS) with the aircraft - thus ruling out any chacne of over the Internet remote flying.

[@stevefox3763]

@@Commsprepper ahh, I must have miss read it. To be honest if it was me I'd ignore the rules and build it anyway, if your sensible about when and where you use it you'll never get any trouble.

[@stevefox3763]

do you have any experience with Ardupilot? Its a very capable firmware that runs on a wide variety of Flight Controllers, some of which are very cheap. If your Ham control setup outputs PWM, PPM or SBUS it can be easily intergrated into an Ardupilot setup using the 'Rover' version of the firmware instead of a raspberry pi and would massively expand the capability of your vehicle.

[@Commsprepper]

I do not have any experience with Ardupilot. The PWM pulses driving the motor controller come from the Raspberry PI GPIO ports.

[@stevefox3763]

@@Commsprepper what does the PI receive from your ham control gear or is it integrated in the PI? getting rid f the PI altogether would be the best option but Ardupilot could use the PWM motor commands from the PI if you absolutely have to have the PI. Check out this link for the rover variant of Ardupilot, it also comes in firmware versions for all types of aircraft but rver is what you would want : ardupilot.org/rover/

[@Commsprepper]

@@stevefox3763 PI receives TCP/IP (network) commands via Putty over on on-board Amateur radio.

[@stevefox3763]

@@Commsprepper ok, so the PI is splitting the transmission from your Ham gear into individual PWM Channels, do you have any spare PWM channel capacity? Ardupilot can be controlled by PWM and you would just connect the PWM to the Ardupilot Flight controller and then your motor ESC'S to the flight controller. if you have spare PWM Channels then you can use them to initiate various modes on the vehicle including pre loaded missions that will use GPS to navigate and you can also use ultrasonic or lidar sensors for obstacle avoidance and you can have full autonomous missions and return to home :) The Flight Controller also gives you a full OSD in your video feed giving information about the vehicles status like voltage, current draw, GPS location, Speed, distance travelled, distance and direction to home, heading, altitude, time on mission, vehicle attitude (could be useful for avoiding rollovers), mission/vehicle mode, the list is extensive! If you have another spare PWM Channel then you can switch between different OSD screens which are fully configurable to have as much or as little on screen as you want. providing you can give the FC one or two Extra PWM signals which are separate to the motor commands then i have no doubts that you could integrate Ardupilot into your vehicle and make it a VERY capable tool and a fun toy!!!

[@yvestorquest5760]

when will you bring this to market!!!??? It's a segment of the home security market which largely goes unfulfilled. A mobile security sentry controlled over the internet

[@Commsprepper]

I won't. It took me about a month to make and get working. The cost would be too high.

[@mytechnologytrail]

Interested on any code links you could provide and what is your Thingiverse user name?

[@Commsprepper]

Soon to follow - when I have time

[@TheRedneckprepper]

mount a ----- and your set ?

[@Commsprepper]

I knew a comment like this was coming. I'm in Germany - not allowed.

[@Commsprepper]

I kept the top deck as clean as possible for payloads and expansion. Benefit of 3D printing - I can add and change at will. Right now it has a cup holder to deliver beer.

[@TheRedneckprepper]

@@Commsprepper LOL awesome

[@RESlusher]

Now just to mount a 9mm or .380 on it! :) Good stuff, Hank! Thanks for sharing, dude!

[@Commsprepper]

I'm in Germany - they would not allow that.

[@andrewfisher1051]

That is very cool

[@Commsprepper]

Thanks