We often get questions from newcomers who are confused by all the Ardu* nomenclature here, so I made the above product comparison matrix, which you can find here.
And just to extend this to the full family, including software:
- APM 1&2: the autopilot hardware (see above) that can operate nearly any vehicle, once the right software is loaded
- ArduPlane, ArduCopter, ArduRover, ArduBoat, etc: the software that runs on the APM hardware that's optimized for that sort of vehicle.
- Mission Planner: the desktop software that loads the software on the APM board, configures it and serves as a ground station, mission planner (of course!), an interface with flight simulators for hardware-in-the-loop simulation and a datalog analysis tool.
Comments
where can i reserve APM 2 ?
sweet that clears things up for me
No weight comparison...?
afernan: production will begin again in early Feb, when the baro sensors arrive.
This may not be very practical, but it would also be great for the discontinued items to point to a "last stable" software version.
I say this might not be very practical because of course, if a person wants to fiddle they can eliminate unwanted portions of code and for example get current releases of APM2.x to work on the ArduPilotMega 1280. But for basic users, maybe a stable software for each version that is known to work with that hardware.
Code for Legacy is pretty well easy to differentiate as its own thing, but going forward, as the major differences between 1280, 2560, and Purple Dino are code space, I feel it's getting more and more hairy for people with old devices to keep track of what is what. Advanced users of course can do anything but tons of regular Joes bought the 1280 and 2560 and right now I don't see a very clear framework for differentiating between distinct code releases that are "final" for each (I understand we haven't gotten to final yet for 2560 but it's coming soon).
Unless I'm missing something... so feel free to correct me.
I have a thought about shield...
Now it's clear, thanks!
Kirill: That includes the shield, which is required to add sensors. Together, they look like this:
Excellent comparison matrix!
I've just noticed that the ArduPilot Legacy size is 30x50x30mm. But why is it so thick? It looks much thiner than all other versions...
Paul, because these are open source designs, we can't control what other people make and sell. The reason we discontinue boards ourselves is to allow us to move forward with software development. Supporting old boards forever would cripple us, both in terms of developer resources and tech support. We're very happy if the community takes on those functions for discontinued products--we just can't do it ourselves with finite resources.
Please note that the APM 1 Sparkfun sells is the same one we still sell (2560). It's not a discontinued product.
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