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Permalink Reply by Vernon Barry on December 20, 2011 at 7:03am

Ok, so the aeroquad kits use completely separate sensors for everything, that attaches to a motherboard and then that motherboard appears to plug into an arduino Mega, and then, you still need a way to convert the PPM signal from the radio control to the input of the Mega, so another arduino is required. In all, a stack of 3 or 4 circuit baords all wired together.

 

Flip over to the Arducopter APM setup.

The APM is the Mega and the PPM encoder in one board, then the sensor shield with all the sensors called the IMU plugs in on top. The bottom line is a much more reliable (way less solder joints) system that is smaller. Technically, both systems have the same components just how they are assembled.

That said, the APM 2.0 (purple) replaces both the current APM and the IMU in one single compact solution that has the best sensors on the market-in fact so good, they have trouble getting the sensors to make the boards AND IT"S CHEAPER.

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Permalink Reply by shachar.lahav on December 20, 2011 at 11:39pm

ohhhh now i get it. 

thanks :)

can i just add this thing to a working Bixler/TREX450 and enjoy the fruits of autopiloting? would any thing else be needed? 

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Permalink Reply by Vernon Barry on December 22, 2011 at 9:11am

You really want to add the xbee 900mhz telemetry set ($150) as otherwise, you have to land, plug in usb, change parameter, fly again, over and over. With telemetry, you are in constant communications via the mission planner software.

 

FYI, you just install mission planner (it just unzips to a folder) and then it will ask you to configure the APM/IMU board with firmware, and you would choose traditional heli.

I don't yet have experience there in that code yet, but I know others are flying with it.

Interestingly, as a side note, I want to try this new coaxial 450 size and see how it works

http://www.rcinthebox.com/decent-devil-flyme-450-size-barebone-pnp-...

They have an upgrade rotor head that makes both the top and bottom head active, rather than most coaxials with the top rotor being stabilize only via the flybar.

http://www.rcinthebox.com/double-swashplate-upgrade-ch450-025-_p228...

Basically, it should feel more like a real heli, but still have the advantages of a coaxial. Hoping for "heavy" lift and long flight time out of this since coaxial is far more effecient at lift.

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