GeigerCopter Underground Project (GCU)

Please to know you have interest in it.

There s new betaflight configuration working very well.

But if you want doing everything by yourself. (best deal ever)

For calculation and choose the good motors with Esc
https://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.php

Fight Controller:
For easy flight
NAZA M2 (M1)

If you are from Hardware family (programming, Ingenior skill, good undestanding of sensors behaviour)
PX4 2.4.8 Flight Controller Set

A good one
ARDUCOPTER V2.8 APM2.8 Flight Controller + Anti - shock board

A good compromise
CRIUS All in One Pro Flight
Compatible arducopter board edition

Esc must be upgraded to 400HZ (Simon or NAZA)

Your frame must be light and solid. Made of aluminium or resin. I don't like carbon because carbon not good for health when cutting.

Battery must be calculated too. Depend of what you want to do.
First choice is 3S 2200 mA for 1kg drone.
Performance choice is 4S 2500 mA for 1kg drone. Take care is lot of energy. Drone will gain 30% of autonomy and velocity. But you must think design for 3S and 4S.

Radio controller
0 - 400 m : Frsky or flighsky or openlink
0 - 4 km : long range UHF (dragonlink)

FPV
Camera on board with instant recording on sd card.
OSD : Many based on A poor man's OSD , REMZIBI OSD
TX :
0 - 2 km (view line) : 5.8 Ghz
0 - 10 km : 1.2 Ghz or 900 Ghz (prohibited in many countries)
RX : Diversity receiver (omni + directionnal antenae) very cheap today.

Power supply board :
UBEC/SBEC for Lipo. Take care signal is dirty and can disturb your instruments or sensors. Can be used in parallel.

Sensors :
At min a Current/voltage sensor for Lipo.

GPS :
That s a tricky issue. GPS is good for localisation but it can easily disturb the flight controller. MUST BE MANUALLY DISABLED/ENABLED.
That's really an issue. YOu will lost for no reason many drone if you don't do that.

You will have to add many dampers and anti-vibration stuffs for flight controller too, ESC (never directly mounted no frame), camera, radio controller.
Everything must be rain/humdity proof. And well stacked.

Many design exist. The best for scooting is tricopter. The best for versatility is quadcopder. The best for load transportation is hexacopter. The best for failure proof is octocopter...but very expensive....

For geigercopter. We used quadcopter with a X frame. For many technicals reasons. This is the best choice. And it's close to DJI choice too. One of the best drone maker...

DIY Drone cost is around 400 USD without remote controller.

The 3D printing parts can be : Flight controller damper, ESC mounting, Sensors mounting, camera mounting, UBEC mounting, Frame assembly, and many part you want to optimze for your mission. You can find many interesting parts on thingiverse.

Hope you will like.

There happens to be a geiger copter in this week's IAEA News: Nuclear Security in Big Cities . It's on slide 10.

Good news but not the same purpose.

It's DJI mavic with something like a geigercounter...

Built a real one is close to Space aerocraft conception....really more complicated for working in good condition.

This underground project will help to understand the challenge. The real one must be build by space and research industries.