The next steps. Well Since my semester is coming to a close and the Quad is working as intended I have decided to continue the process further. My next step is to start designing an embedded system to perform the functions that the Arduino Mega is currently doing. The reasons behind turning it into an embedded system is that I can break the different processes out onto multiple processors and still reduce the energy consumption while speeding the responsiveness of the system up. Too that end I have ordered a few ATTINY84-20PU chips to test with and requested some samples of some other AVR chips. My plan is to design a board with onboard gyro stabilization for the servos that keep the ultrasonic servos parallel to the ground, control the ultrasonic sensors with dedicated AVR processors, read in the user control on another AVR, then do the overide signals on another AVR before sending the commands to the flight controller. What will this accomplish? Well right now there is a roughly 1/4 second delay between the user sending commands to the quad copter and the quad copter responding. The reason for this is the ultrasonic readings. Having a dedicated processor for the ultrasonic sensors removes that delay. Also, I want to use the Arduino for what it is intended for, early stages of prototyping. I feel it is time to move away from the Arduino and begin fine tuning the process. It will also allow me to use more sensors to cover more area around the quad. I think once I have tested the viability of breaking everything down into different AVRs I will add 4 more sensors to the quad basically at 45 degrees off the existing. The problem there will be the EMI and noise from the motors because the ultrasonic sensors will have to be mounted very near them. I am still massaging the code daily and will post any improvements here until I move to the embedded stage of the process. At that point I feel it is only suitable to either start a new blog or create some sort of webpage to show off my progress. As always, thanks for reading my thoughts here.