Replies to This Discussion

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on January 1, 2010 at 6:35pm

I checked with Jordi and "Default factory settings (NMEA)" is compatible with the UAVDevBoard, so it might be worth noting that in the documentation.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Bellchambers on January 2, 2010 at 4:47am

Chris, when we wrote the uBlox code, we did try to accomodate as many different stock configurations as possible, as just amongst our group of developers we had units with the different diydones store configs, units from sparkfun, and i think some units from elsewhere.

So at the moment we should be able to work with any uBlox config, as long as it's running at 9600 baud. Auto baud rate detection and setting is on our to-do list, but unfortunately our clock speed means we cannot run higher than 19200 at the moment, so we still couldn't talk to ardupilot configured units. This is something we can fix long term, but i requires a fair bit of work on low level code to move to a different clock speed, so it's probably a way off. It is unfortunate as there seem to be a few products out there communicating at 38400 that we would like to talk to. We will definately be looking at our choice of oscillator for the next hardware revision of the board, to broaden the range of baud rates we can run.

In the meantime we will update the documentation to make it clearer to new users what they need to buy in terms of uBlox units to get up and running. Can I ask what documents you are using as your primary reference to guide you (the hardware manuals linked from here or the wiki?)

Cheers

Adam

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on January 2, 2010 at 8:50am

I've been using the Wiki, which is FANTASTIC! We're going to copy that for ArduPilot Mega.

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Permalink Reply by Michal on January 6, 2010 at 9:36am

Hello,
I have one question regarding UAV Dev Board. I have read somewhere that ReturnToLaunch could be performed if 3 miles distance is not reached. So is this true in V2? If yes would it be possible to remove such limitation?
Regards
Michal

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Pete Hollands on January 6, 2010 at 10:46am

Michal,

I'm not quite sure whether I have understood your question correctly. Let me re-state it what I think you are saying , and then answer it.

Question: When the plane is more than 3 miles from the launch site, will the Return To Launch function does still work ?

Answer: Yes. The UAV Devboard code will work at up to 20 miles from the Launch site. The limitation of 20 miles is caused by using a 16 bit number to represent distance in meters North and East of the launch site. Return to Launch mode will normally engage when the signal is lost by the radio receiver from the transmitter - which will happen long before 20 miles.

If you program the "failsafe" in your radio receiver to continue to provide servo pulses to the UAV Devboard "failsafe channel when the radio signal is lost, then it is possible for the plane to continue around a waypoint course, even when the radio signal has been lost.

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Permalink Reply by Michal on January 6, 2010 at 10:59am

Thank you Pete.
This was exactly what I was looking for :). I have red Bill's text that this was somehow limited to 3 miles. I am happy that now this limit is not an issue. I am FPV flyer and I will have Dragon Link UHF long range system which can do more than 15 miles.
Regards
Michal

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Pete Hollands on January 6, 2010 at 11:37am

Michal,

But do bear in mind, that you will be one of the first people to test the UAV DevBoard beyond a couple of miles. The only person that I'm aware of flying distances out of up to 2 miles away would be Ric in Switzerland. He has posted a video of one of his long range flights here.

Pete

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Pete Hollands on January 6, 2010 at 11:38am

Also, I think we should ask Bill to comment on this. He is "The Authority" on all matter UAV Devboard. If he said 3 miles, then we should get his view again now. I'll email him.

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Permalink Reply by Riccardo Kuebler on January 6, 2010 at 11:45am

Pete,

in navigate.c there is this line:

accum_nav.WW = ((lat_gps.WW - lat_origin.WW)/90) ; // in meters, range is about 20 miles

Before it was a lot less, but I don't remember how much (perhaps 3 miles Michal mentioned)

Ric

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Permalink Reply by William Premerlani on January 6, 2010 at 12:58pm

Michal,

Some of the earliest versions of the firmware for the UAV DevBoard had a 3 mile navigation limit. The most recent versions (MatrixNav 1.8, AileronAssis 1.8, and MatrixPilot 2.0) have a 20 mile limit from the initialization point. That is, plus or minus 20 miles in X, Y, and Z. So, in principle, it would work at an altitude of 20 miles.

Best regards,
Bill Premerlani

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Permalink Reply by William Premerlani on January 6, 2010 at 1:03pm

Michal,

By the way, I do not know what the laws are in Poland regarding how far away you may fly. You might want to check with Chris Bosak on that. In the US, we must maintain visual contact with the plane at all times.

Bill

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Permalink Reply by Michal on January 7, 2010 at 6:21am

Thank you Bill, thank you Riccardo,
I believe there is no such regulation in Poland regarding small (under 5 kg) aircraft models flying under 300 meters high yet. Despite of this our small FPV community (rc-cam.pl) is very sensitive about safety. Thats why I am thinking about UAVDB as "last instance" if anythig else would fail.

@ Ric - I hope you will fly and make movies despite your recent crash. Do you have any guesses about the reason of the "death spiral" of your model? Chris could have pointed some good directions IMHO.
Best regards
Michal

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