Setting up a raspberry-pi powered hexacopter from a clean flash of raspbian
- Update repositories and upgrade system
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Also, if git isn't installed, get git.
sudo apt-get git install core
- Enable support for camera board
You will need to configure support for the raspberry pi camera. Run the following command:
sudo raspi-config
Select "4 Enable Camera" and follow prompts.
Now wouldn't be a bad time to also select the time zone and keyboard from the "3 Internationalisaton Options" menu.
- Install dwm
dwm (dynamic window manager) is a simple tiling desktop environment. It runs an X window server, so images can be displayed through OpenCV. Installation of dwm is not essential, but is more convenient than using LXDE.
sudo apt-get install xterm dwm
See http://dwm.suckless.org for more information.
- Install boost and ncurses
boost is a library of tools that extends the c++ standard libraries. In this project, we use it largely for multithreading.
nCurses is a library used for printing text to the screen in a fashionable way.
sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev
See http://www.boost.org for more information about the boost libraries and https://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ or http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/ for more information on ncurses.
- Install cmake
Cmake is used to build the raspicam userland tools later on.
sudo apt-get install cmake
See http://www.cmake.org for more information.
- Make libraries directory
We'll put all of the hexacopter relevant libraries and drivers here.
mkdir ~/lib
- Install wiringPi
wiringPi is the library used to interact with the pi's gpio pins.
cd ~/lib
git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi
cd wiringPi
./build
See https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/wiringpi/ for more information.
- Install ServoBlaster
ServoBlaster is the program used to output pwm on some of the pi's gpio pins. These are used as inputs to the flight board.
cd ~/lib
git clone git://github.com/richardghirst/PiBits.git
cd PiBits/ServoBlaster/user
make servod
See https://github.com/richardghirst/PiBits/tree/master/ServoBlaster for more information.
- Install OpenCV
OpenCV is the library used for all image processing.
sudo apt-get install libopencv-dev
See http://docs.opencv.org/trunk/modules/core/doc/intro.html for more information.
- Install userland
userland is the collection of development files used by raspivid_cv to interface with the GPU and thus the camera board.
cd ~/lib
git clone git://github.com/raspberrypi/userland.git
cd userland
./buildme
See https://github.com/raspberrypi/userland for more information.
- Install raspivid_cv
raspivid_cv is a library which allows us to use OpenCV on the pi's camera.
cd ~/lib
git clone git://github.com/robidouille/robidouille.git
cd robidouille/raspicam_cv
mkdir objs
One line needs to be changed in the make file for this to work:
nano Makefile
On line 6, remove "/git/raspberrypi" and replace it with "/lib". The line should now read: USERLAND_ROOT = $(HOME)/lib/userland Ctrl-x to exit nano (y, return).
Then make raspicam_cv;
make
See https://github.com/robidouille/robidouille/tree/master/raspicam_cv for more information.
- Install Xsens libraries
The hexacopter used an Xsens MTi IMU (accelerometers and magnetometers). It is used largely as a compass. I've put the libraries up on my git, since they aren't available anymore (too old). Alternatively, they should be on the Xsens usb memory stick. Provided you can find the box.
cd ~/lib
git clone git://github.com/TGLogic/Xsens.git
cd Xsens
make
The compiler usually complains about some 'cdecl' attribute. It's fine to ignore it, as long as you don't compile with -Werror.
- Install picopter
Yo! Champ in the making. Almost there. There's just a few more things to do before you're very own picopter is out there, stalking unsuspecting red bucket lids.
cd ~
git clone git://github.com/crazyoldmans/picopter.git
12.1 Build the project
Nowadays, there's a nice makefile that calls all the other make files. All you have to do is start it off and make a cuppa tea.
cd ~/picopter
make
12.2 Create logs directory
Logs will magically appear here. See logger.h to change the path.
cd ~
mkdir logs
- Have fun!
Yeah, that one's a joke.