Build Your Own Flight Recorder

 

...

This section covers the basic process of building your own flight recorder. The instructions and resources should allow you to build a copy of an GyroFX flight recorder. The documentation offers advice on choosing components for flight recorders.

The GyroFX flight recorder is based on three main components - a flight controller; a GPS module and the ArduPilot firmware. The technology for consumer flight controllers has improved dramatically over the past five years riding on the popularity of drones. ArduPilot is world-leading software that runs on these small flight controllers and controls the flight path of a drone or other small scale aircraft. It's installed in over 1 million vehicles worldwide. Although ArduPilot is very sophisticated, we are only using a small part of the functionality - the flight logging.

In order to control the attitude, speed and position of a drone, ArduPilot uses many on-board sensors including Accelerometers, Magnetometers, Gyros, Barometers and GPS. Complex algorithms take the sensor data and merge it together to calculate the attitude (pitch, roll, yaw) of the aircraft – this is called Sensor Fusion. The attitude is then combined with position and velocity information from the GPS module to give accurate position information at a higher sample rate than the normal GPS position data. This is done using an Extended Kalman Filter.

The resulting flight path data has a resolution of 25Hz (i.e. one reading every 40 milliseconds). This high resolution data is fed into GyroFX to give smooth animation of high roll-rate aerobatics. The combination of a good quality flight controller; GPS module and ArduPilot gives us an Aerobatic Flight Recorder which is as good as (or better) than commercial flight recorders sold to the General Aviation Market.

The following resources are available in a ZIP file:

  1. Notes on Building a Flight Recorder
  2. Parts List
  3. 3D Print Files for the Case
  4. Wiring Diagram - Basic
  5. Wiring Diagram - Pro
  6. Assembly Instructions for a Flight Recorder with a 30mm PCB
  7. Assembly Instructions for a Flight Recorder with the Holybro Mini 6
  8. Configuration of a Flight Recorder with ArduPilot

DISCLAIMER: The information provided in these resources is freely given in good faith and GyroFX will take no responsibility for any problems occurring from errors or omissions. In particular, the specifications of connectors on the flight controllers and GPS modules may change over time. Always consult the manufacturer’s information.

 

Note: You need to Log In to download this documentation. Registration is Free. If you are not already registered, then there is a link on the login page or you can register by clicking this link - Register Now for Free

 

DOWNLOAD THE FLIGHT RECORDER DOCUMENTS