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John Hawley Talks About UAV Controls (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the monocopter-bicopter-tricopter-quadcopter dept.

John 'Warthog9' Hawley was the boss sysadmin on kernel.org before he jumped to Intel in April, 2014, as an open hardware technical evangelist. He last showed up on Slashdot in June, 2014, with his Dr. Who-inspired Robot K-9. Now he's talking about flight computers for quadcopters, specifically ones based on MinnowBoards. Last month (April 2015) he was speaking at the Embedded Linux Conference + Android Builders Summit. That's where he and Timothy Lord had this conversation about flight controllers for UAVs, which makes it a fitting sequel to yesterday's video, which was also about controlling drones with real-time Linux.

20 comments

  1. Can't wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a few ufologists living down the streets that I want to lure out at night.

  2. Isn't that the guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't that the guy that ate the subway sandwiches

  3. Why is the volume shared? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The icon for the volume control tries to share this video. Is it just my computer or everyones?

    1. Re:Why is the volume shared? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In html5's case I'll say the browsers problem

    2. Re:Why is the volume shared? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the share icon pops up any time you hover over the right edge of the screen, including the volume icon. Just click the volume icon and the slider should pop up.

  4. I have by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nothing to say about this.

  5. No offense but by heezer7 · · Score: 1

    Why are slashdot videos so boring? I always get excited when I see the topic then half way threw I yawn and close it.

    1. Re:No offense but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      John 'Warthog9' Hawley is not exactly a smoking-hot technology creator, nor is he burning with passion for what he's talking about, nor is he that interesting in general. linux.org sysadmin is his real claim to fame and he's managed to push that into a career where he tinkers with small form computing.

      Controllers for quad-copters is already a boring topic unless you're *really* into DIY quad copters......most people waht to use them for projects.

      Also, this is a weird Intel Advertisement, and Mr Hawley again proves he is not that interesting of a speaker.

      Hope this answers the question in this specific example of 'why are slashdot videos so boring'.

    2. Re:No offense but by golgotha007 · · Score: 1

      No kidding. It takes him 2 minutes to say something that takes ordinary folks one or two sentences.

      Not only that, but he talks as if the technology he's playing with is cutting edge; it's not.

  6. TV Training by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like many skills, making tv needs a little training and experience, otherwise you get a result which is distinctly tedious!

  7. Story translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jared 'Warthog9' Hawley was the boss sysadmin on sandwiches.org before he jumped to the freelance open sandwich market in April, 2014, as an open sandwich dogwood evangelist. He last showed up on Slashdot in June, 2014, with his Dicedot-inspired Maker sandwich fresh roast beef with a little pink, dripping with hot grits. Now he's talking about Systemd computers for quadcopters, specifically ones based on MinnowBoards. Last month (April 2015) he was speaking at the Embedded Linux Conference + Android 3d printers Summit. That's where he and Timothy L0rd had this conversation about flight controllers for UAVs running Systemd testing avionics plugins, which makes it a fitting sequel to yesterday's video with Troy McClure, which was also about controlling drones with real-time Linux and Systemd.

  8. No flying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watched the whole damn video, didn't see one UAV flying - what a letdown. :-\

  9. Please stop trying, roblimo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's painful. You have some fat monotone wanker picking his nose on the camera. The lighting couldn't be any worse, and the color, well, might as well go monochrome. Roblimo, please try something more fitting like garbage collection technician or toilet bowl sanitation engineer.

    1. Re:Please stop trying, roblimo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...or systemd salesforce... [cue bachachachacha six million dollar bionic man sound!]

  10. Poor video / audio production quality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm am an unemployed lazy ass and I could string together enough cash to surpass your production quality.

  11. CAN vs SPI by fred911 · · Score: 1

    A significant part of the video is dedicated to an opinion that using UARTS for peripheral communication is best. The reasoning for this contention is:

    #1 It's been around forever
    #2 It uses plain text to transfer information
    #3 Everyone understands it
    #4 It's been around forever

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but a SPI generally only defines the transmission of a byte, whereas CAN defines the packets. Isn't another disadvantage of using a serial bus in this type of application the fact that basically we're looking at a "master/slave" relationship?

      If I want to drop in a telemetry stream to my video down-link, isn't it significantly more effective to use CAN? With the vast amount of peripheral devices, servos, video, barometers, magnetometers, GPS and who knows what else (not necessarily needed for flight control), why is it better to use the controller for handling communication timing and then figuring out how to talk, when CAN does it so effectively?

      I'm seriously soliciting more in-depth reasoning for preferring a SPI (using a UART) than what's been mentioned on the video.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re:CAN vs SPI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > in this type of application the fact that basically we're looking at a "master/slave" relationship?

      That is a disparaging term from times of oppression against blacks and is no longer welcome in our more civilized society. Please use a (protected) class neutral, gender equal, cisgender neutral, non-violent, positive communication pair of words. Primary/replica perhaps.

    2. Re:CAN vs SPI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CNN, oh the titan of news. Now the parasite, bottom feeder of news, breeder of click bait. They do jackshit investigation. They pander nothing but clickbait and feel good opinionated pieces in order to cling on to the last few libtard SJWs stil still slurping up the koolaid for leftist's latest "advancements" in society, typically resulting in more NSA.

    3. Re:CAN vs SPI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CAN devices have a tendency to use proprietary binary only protocols with little to no good public documentation. That's not to say that CAN isn't useful, it is, but when you want to make sure that things can easily inter-operate it's something to be wary of with CAN.

      As for SPI it is useful, and can operate at speeds upwards of 50mhz (last I looked at the specs). The gotcha is that daisy chaining things gets complicated by the need for chip select lines, as well as the data over the wire being completely arbitrary, which gives SPI both an amazing amount of flexibility, but also makes it somewhat harder to deal with from a low-level perspective.

      Also keeping in mind CAN != SPI != UARTs

  12. This will be duped I guess by rossdee · · Score: 1

    " Last month (April 2015)"

    Since its still the middle of April 2015, I'm guessing the summary was written for the dupe of this to be posted in a couple weeks time