Embedded Development

I have some news, Qualcomm is no longer running a developer advocate program. However, I've completely enjoyed activities such as giving lectures, attending meetup's, working with other devs on their projects and in general answering questions. I've also really enjoyed working on this blog. So for the foreseeable future; I will continue this blog and continue the ongoing projects. However, as I am no longer a Developer advocate for Qualcomm, my posts will not seek to specifically highlight Qualcomm ecosystem. If there is a better solution, I will highlight that instead. I intend to make this blog a resource for developers looking to work in embedded programming. I also will highlight AI and ML. Over time, I might start to introduce some news and thoughts on what new technologies mean by comparing them with their competition. If this blog ceases to be fun for me, or if it proves to never be popular enough to keep it going, I'll cease it. For now, however, I hav

With looking at the last post, I'm detailing out 4 main modules. The largest of the modules is the Drone Software module. This module is the executable that actually runs on the drone itself. This post will detail the architecture of the drone executable module; along with how to get started writing it. First, let's talk about how to get navigator libraries to work in Android Studio. Remember that we're linking in a dependent pre-built library. I suggest using CMake as it has strong integration within Android Studio and is well supported. To use CMake, create the project as detailed here . Now, edit the CMakeLists.txt file and add the library dependency like so: include_directories( ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/snav/1.2.31_8/include ) add_executable( drone-controller ${SourceList} ) add_library( libsnav-arm SHARED IMPORTED ) set_target_properties( libsnav-arm PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT

Finally we're at the point in our opus VR drone project that we need to look at the software. If you're following along, I have the Hardware drone built, using Snapdragon flight . To review, we have knowledge of how to create a project in Android Studio that can target Snapdragon Flight for deployment. We know how to utilize the Daydream controller to build an arm model . We also know how to setup a VR project in Android Studio . Finally, we know how to communicate with the Snapdragon flight controller. So, if we put it all together, we only need to figure out how to program the controller aspect of the Flight. Thankfully there's rich support available for Flight that allows us to have full C-API control over both the ESC and the controller board. It is provided through the navigator api library . Now let's talk about the overall design. I envision four main modules: VR Controller App interfaces with the user gets positional updates and issues commands de

In working with the Drone project, I ran into an issue. It turns out to be really hard to control the drone while transitioning from/to VR. That is to say, when the drone is in the air, flying it in VR is really comfortable and easy. However, getting it to the air and then transitioning to VR mode is a challenge. Also, what happens when the VR mode allows the drone to do something that would allow it to crash. There's two potential solutions to this problem. 1.) I could advocate for having a buddy control the drone and keep it in stable flight allowing manual switch over for when ready for VR control, or 2.) I could advocate for writing some AI to allow the drone to control itself. I'm Opting for #2 for a few reasons, first I'd rather be able to fly the drone whenever I wish whether a buddy is available or not. Also I'd like to avoid creating multiple control capabilities and then require a certain skill level to control my drone. Finally, I'm a programmer,

If you're with me so far, in our Snapdragon Flight VR build, you might have noticed that the connectors that come with the motors do not match the connectors that come with the Snapdragon ESC. This means we need to replace the connectors so electrons can flow and power the motors. Remembering that the whole point of this is to get electrons to flow will make the concept easier. Copper is a conductive material, that's what wires are made up of. Solder is a metal material that is highly conductive with a low melting point and solidifies fast. So the idea is we want to use the molten solder to join the wires to the new connector. I personally favor damaging a cheap motor to damaging an expensive ESC, so I opt for doing the work on the motor connections themselves and highly recommend this path. While the minimum you'll need is 4 connectors, I am really good at making mistakes, so I wound up getting 10. The first step, is to cur the old connector off. Grab a pair of w

In order to have a VR Drone, we must start building a real physical Drone. Snapdragon Flight offers a great light weight powerful platform we can do a lot with. While most home built Drones are built with very custom specs; I felt it necessary to make this very approachable by ensuring the Drone is built exactly as the specs outline. Our's looks slightly different, but hey Drone time! Let's start with the parts the Drone needs: Allen Wrench Hex Key Set Dynamite 5 pc Metric Nut Driver Assortment Generic M2.5 Nylon Hex M-F Spacer/Screw/Nut Assorted Kit Loctite Heavy Duty Threadlocker 2x clock wise motors 2x counter clock wise motors ac converter for battery charger battery charger Battery ESC (to control the 4 props) Frame Kit gps antenna 4 x DF3-3P-2DSA connector Wifi antenna Grey props: x2 Red props: x2 Before jumping straight into working with the hardware, a small house keeping task must be preformed. There's a small problem, If you have big