Hi friends of the ArduCopter,
I'm happy to announce that the
ArduPirates will be further developing the official ArduCopterNG code from now on, which we call the ArduPiratesNG code..
One advantage of joining forces with the "original" Arducopter team will be speeding up the implementation of sensors and features like the Sonar and support for Hexas now and Octos later.
The original Arducopter team now can concentrate on their efforts porting the NG code to the upcoming ACM (Arducopter Mega) code base, which is already branched from the ArduPilotMega repository.
Later on, when porting and implementation is done, we will also have a brand new Installer & Configurator from another collaboration of our team members, which will cover easy installation und updating, pre-configuration of the setup (flight modes, attached sensors and orientation...) and Waypoint Navigation through Michael's Mission Planner which already works for the ArduPilot wing section.
Hopefully we can present you a new version of the NG code this year.
Thanks to all contributors of the Arducopter Project! 2011 is promising to become a fine and successful year for all Multirotor enthusiast.
Please visit our very friendly & helpfull community here. I made a build log with step-by-step instructions for ArduCopter beginners.
Happy flying to y'all!
Norbert aka kinderkram @ RCGroups
Tags: ACM, APM, ArduCopterMega, ArduPilot, ArduPirates, Arducopter, ArdupilotMega, NG

Just to elaborate on this, the ArduPirates community is a great group of quad hackers who have been making many useful additions and fixes to official ArduCopter code. Now that the ArduCopter team has released NG and is moving on to the next version (code named ArduCopter Mega, or ACM) that's built on the mature ArduPilot Mega codebase, we've asked the ArduPirates to take over further development of NG. They've already made great leaps, and you can expect lot of energy and innovation there.
As ArduPirates NG versions are tested and documented, we'll release them as official ArduCopter releases as zip files on the official site.
So going forward, once ACM is released, there will be two well-maintained codebases to chose from. They'll share the same core libraries, so you can be confident in core functionality. But they have different "flavors" and styles, and hopefully lead to healthy cross-fertilization.

What is NG?
next generation
the RC2 is NG code
Permalink Reply by Norbert Machinek on December 21, 2010 at 9:30am Yes, it's the Next Generation!
Right now Hein (the Pirates' coder who will build the bridge between both groups) is ironing some bugs out and he will implement the Sonar, another board orientation for Hexas and Quads and more.
I'm expecting a new release soon...
btw: I've seen you've done a great job supporting new members here.
Keep up the good work, Sebastian! :-)
Permalink Reply by Gunnar Forsgren mobimation.com on December 21, 2010 at 5:58pm Great news, it´s nice when pirates cooperate for a common good.
Hi Norbert, welcome back.
I have just made a RangeFinder library which handles support for the Sharp IR Range Finder and the MaxSonarXL. I'm planning to add support for the MaxSonarLV as well as soon as it arrives from Sparkfun.
https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fl...
I've also in the process of porting Jose's object avoidance code into the main ArduCopterNG code and plan to check it in maybe tomorrow.
Basically I'd like to make sure my efforts aren't being wasted so let's PM!
-Randy
Permalink Reply by Norbert Machinek on December 22, 2010 at 4:32am I think there's two types of Sonars from maxbotix - the LV series is cheaper ($28):
LV0: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8502
LV4: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8504
while the XL is about $50.
XL0: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9491
XL4: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9495
both series come with a range of beam widths - 0 to 4 with 0 being the widest, 4 the most narrow.
I propose for obstacle avoidance (pointing out the sides) the widest would be best..i.e. the LV0 or the XL0. For altitude (i.e. pointing up and down) the narrowest would be most accurate - so the LV4 or XL4.
By the way - the AP_RangeFinder library supports both the XL and LV now.
-Randy
Permalink Reply by Norbert Machinek on December 23, 2010 at 8:41am 
Permalink Reply by Norbert Machinek on December 24, 2010 at 7:17am Thank you guys for your input and Merry Christmas to all of you!
Norbert
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