Building an Arduino Project (My Story): Part I

Any time I look at my Arduino Uno Microcontroller, I start to salivate (yes, I got some geek in me.). It’s kind of like when you are really hungry and you start thinking about your favorite food (chicken parm?) and you can’t take your mind off of it. I think fellow Makers know what I’m talking about!

There’s just so much potential in that thing, but sometimes that’s what inhibits you from acting on an Arduino idea: you don’t know which idea to go with. (Continue reading below).

Steven is the Founder of Collaborizm, and a Mechanical Engineer at heart.

Today is a new day, I’m feeling particularly movitated and I have decided to build one of the ideas my teammates and I have been talking about for some time: a Drone that has an Arduino board attached (and bluetoothe module), that will enable us to drop a fishing line (and hook) from our drone. This fishing line will be able to move up and down vertically, and essentially be able to deliver anything from an actual fishing line, to a drink, pizza, or a note to someone across the office floor at our coworking space inside WeWork.

So for me, as a Mechanical Engineer, I kind of get into my “Senior Design Project” rhythm (I’m sure all you engineers out there know what I’m talking about), which means you really have to start off by focusing on the overall mechanism that will solve the problem, so you can purchase the right parts and not make any painful mistakes that hit you later on in the process. After all, working within a tight budget is critical.

The Problem

It’s really about physical barriers that human beings can’t cross, or don’t want to cross, e.g., a fishing barrier at the beach out on Long Island, or a long distance we might have to traverse at our coworking space. I think another problem nobody every mentions is just that I want to quench some of my creative hunger with respect to the Arduino. But let’s pay attention in this series to the more functional problem: How can we build a drone that wirelessly drops and retrieves a fishing line?

High Level Solution:

Our team’s idea is to leverage a pre-built drone kit (I need serious help determining which kit to purchase I should mention). The drone HAS to be able to fly indoors safely, as it’s going to be delivering pizza, coffee, and other beverages around the office space.

(Preliminary sketches of my drone setup.)

I believe the simplest execution is to leverage a bluetooth module that connects to an Arduino which is controlled by my mac (which is ok, because I am going to be sitting at my desk), or we could go fancier and use the controls on my TinyDuino.

I bought a TinyDuino game kit at MakerFaire 2015. I haven’t been sure how to use it. Maybe now is the big moment?

The bluetooth connection on my computer will enable me to activate a 2-way signal via a bluetooth module attached to my Arduino Uno. Basically I am going to be able to press “Up” or “Down” to lower or raise the fishing line. The actual reel mechanism is something I’d actually like to discuss with fellow users, but my idea right now is to build a simple 2-way servo mechanism that winds or unwinds the line (as shown above).

(Zoomed in view: Servo reel mechanism.)

Next Steps for the Project:

1. Which drone kit should we purchase and why?
2. Is this basic invention feasible? Can it handle this payload and maintain stability indoors?
3. How should we specifically design the reel mechanism?
4. What parts are needed?
5. What does the circuit schematic look like?

Please upload your thoughts and comments here.

Next Blog will focus on what we’ve learned from the feedback in our community.

Thanks for tuning in!