Replies to This Discussion

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on May 15, 2012 at 10:59pm

That's APM 1 and APM 2. APM 2 is the latest and best version (and cheaper!) and is recommended for all users. You can order it now and it will be shipped in less than four weeks. 

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Permalink Reply by Cyrus Abdollahi on May 15, 2012 at 11:24pm

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the prompt reply! That's a bit of a wait, do you know if they are currently making a new batch of APM 2 boards so that there will be a large supply in, say, a months time: or are they made to order due to cost and not wanting to have a warehouse of boards that are not selling?

One thing I would be interested in looking at (and will take a good chunk of time) is the source code for the autopilot to see what was done and where/how I can tailor the control algorithms to put in my own. IIRC this is an open source project, so I should be able to do this for free today. 

On a side note: do you know if this is supported in Ubuntu? I have windows XP as well, so if not no big deal. One thing i have done in the past is write a program to get data from Microsoft Flight Simulator X. This was output data; however, I believe I can also give it input data (such as airspeed, altitude, &etc). If I can look at the source code of the ArduPilot I *may* (but cant promise) that I might be able to back drive MSFSX with it. 

-Cyrus

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Permalink Reply by Wesley Chuen on May 16, 2012 at 12:03am

From reading other posts, look like they have stocks constantly arriving and shipping them out whenever they arrival.  The demand is higher than supply.  That's why they are never in stock.  Just place your order and yours will be shipped out in a few weeks.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on May 16, 2012 at 4:11am

You can do everything (on the APM) from Linux; however, Mission Planner is more or less windows. You can sometimes get parts of it running under mono and/or wine, but I don't generally recommend trying to fly that way. 
You can use other ground control software, including qgroundcontrol, and that will get smoother when we are all using the version 1.0 protocol by default (soon, I think) and qgroundcontrol runs under windows, Mac, Linux. However, for ease, start with windows and mission planner. 
Think of it not only as the ground control flight ops and planning tool, and the graphical version of your setup tool (CLI works too, AFTER you've learned a bit of APM specifics) but it is also your intro course to the platform.... It is the lingua francais in terms of support and more people and docs refer to its use. Start with it, and then branch out to using the CLI and/or other tools after you've mastered the core concepts and fixed some of your own stumbling blocks. 

Source code is available from the google code pages. Find the link to arducopter or ArduPlane at the top of the page, "get it" and locate the "browse" or search the blog and forum posts related to GIT access, or read the wiki/manuals in the appendix for working with source code, etc. Ask questions in the forum, post interesting news w photos in the blogs, and happy hacking. 

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on May 16, 2012 at 6:49am

Yes, all the source code is here.

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Permalink Reply by Cyrus Abdollahi on May 16, 2012 at 11:37pm

Thanks Chris, you rock! 

(Were you one of the originators of the source code? - if so I'll call you the architect :D ) 

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on May 17, 2012 at 5:39am

I haven't touched the source code since the original ArduPilot, back in 2008. It's now run by a big team of real programmers, you'll be reassured to know ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Wesley Chuen on May 17, 2012 at 8:46am

lol.  nice one.  Just noticed that Chris is "Mr. Anderson"!  :D

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on May 16, 2012 at 4:01am

Order an APM2, and if you want I'll send or drop off my APM2 for you to borrow for a few weeks until yours is made.  Let me know. 

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Permalink Reply by Cyrus Abdollahi on May 16, 2012 at 9:45pm

Thanks Mike, you're a prince. 

I've been out of the RC game for some time. My current money pit is tuning an old BMW I picked up recently, so I have to limit myself until the project car is complete. In the mean time, I am going to go through the source code  and post questions/comments/etc on the forums. 

I have an RC airplane that is an old Eagle 2; but honestly that's a bit too large for my taste. It's a gas plane and I sold the starter and fuel pump, etc. What I would REALLY like is a small RC helicopter. I might get myself a small electric RC plane to do fixed wing testing on in the near future - something that I would not need to go to the flying club to operate. That becomes a limitation and a pain. I'd like something small to use at a soccer field that is cheap to fix when that time comes.

My question to you guys: do you know how you tuned the autopilot gains for your particular ships? My guess it that it has some simple PID gains that you guys tuned AD HOC (I.e. in flight)? That's probably how I would do it without any aerodynamic stability derivative information about the RC airplane. 

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on May 18, 2012 at 9:38pm

DOXDOG: The APM2 has a USB port and comes with a USB cable. Where did you get yours?

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Permalink Reply by DOZDOG on May 22, 2012 at 12:15pm

3D Robotics.  No cable included.  BTW its a MICRO USB  type and I finally use the correct A to M cable which attaches to the port underneath the SMD socket.  Problem solved!

Thanks.

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