Beginning ArduCopter: Hardware learning / programming

Hi all,
    I have been reading on the AeroQuad and ArduPilot forums and glad to see the two had teamed up. =) I wish I had been one of the lucky guys to test the ArduCopter beta.

    I have some experience flying rc heli's, 4ch and 6ch and have a programming background in Java, JavaScript, etc; learned C/C++ in university but forgot most of them though. What I really wanna learn is the hardware side, that is the renowned Arduio Mega, the Shield. But I have no hardware knowledge at all. I wish I could understand what the C code you development team has written and hopefully could help write some in the future for the ArduCopter project. But I don't know where to start. How do I get started in learning hardware/circuit board? I was gonna buy one of Thomas L.Floyd books -- Digital Fundamentals. Would that help? Any suggestions would be appreciated and happy flying!

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on August 22, 2010 at 2:37pm
The hardware electronics is just ArduPilot Mega and the IMU shield. That's a finished project and you'd don't have to learn that to use ArduCopter. The development teams are just working on the software, which is all Arduino (basically C++).

BTW, the ArduCopter software is in internal development and is only meant for the dev team and special testers yet (it will crash your quad if you don't know what you're doing). Once it's released in Alpha (with in the month), we'll increase the beta tester community. That's probably the best time to get involved.
Permalink Reply by Kenny on August 23, 2010 at 10:19pm
Thanks for your reply Chris. I was just looking at some info on wikipedia like quad copter, yaw, thrust, etc. Really complicated stuff. Looking forward to the alpha release though.

ModeratorPermalink Reply by John Church on August 26, 2010 at 6:56pm
Hi!
Do yourself a favor and pick up an Arduino. Get the basics down like code structure, reading sensor inputs and outputting to some hardware while monitoring in a serial terminal on the PC or in processing. You'll be well on your way.
Permalink Reply by Kenny on August 26, 2010 at 7:00pm
Thanks John. Will do. I am reading some ebook on Arduino. Great stuff.

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