APM Mounting Tips - How to Mount your APM

 

CORRECTION: During this video I say GPS operates on 900mhz, which is not correct. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS#Satellite_frequencies) GPS operates on 1.57542 GHz (L1 signal) and 1.2276 GHz (L2 signal). I apologize for the error.

Here are a few tips when mounting your APM to your RC craft.

This is a part of a complete how-to APM series that I'm putting together on MyGeekShow: http://www.mygeekshow.com/beginnertoexpert/topics/AutoPilot.html.

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

  • Great video, and appreciate that it mentioned vibration.

    New code for ArduCopters is now going to be inertially based which means we really need to target less than 2/10 G total vibration and that requires antivibration mounting like O-ring suspension or Moon or Alpha or Kyosho Zeal Gel.

    And with the Gel, one small pad at each corner and board held down with a rubber band

  • All GPS functions need a good working magnetometer to work. Did you include some measures to protect your mag from electromagnetic disturbance? Alu backplate? (Connect it to GND, tip: just "feather up" a cable and put it with doublesided tape on the aluminium)  Twisted powercables?

    Keep it coming! Also look on his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ExperimentalAirlines/videos he has some good stuff at play.

    Cheers Kraut Rob

  • Developer

    Btw - with Arduplane 2.70 or later you can now place the APM in almost any orientation.  On my planes I've been rotating them which ever way fits better (for instance, on my bixler it is upside down and backwards in the bottom of the belly).

    Here's the docs on the new param:

    <param humanName="Board Orientation" name="AHRS_ORIENTATION" documentation="Overall board orientation relative to the standard orientation for the board type. This rotates the IMU and compass readings to allow the board to be oriented in your vehicle at any 90 or 45 degree angle. This option takes affect on next boot. After changing you will need to re-level your vehicle.">
    <values>
    <value code="0">None</value>
    <value code="1">Yaw45</value>
    <value code="2">Yaw90</value>
    <value code="3">Yaw135</value>
    <value code="4">Yaw180</value>
    <value code="5">Yaw225</value>
    <value code="6">Yaw270</value>
    <value code="7">Yaw315</value>
    <value code="8">Roll180</value>
    <value code="9">Roll180Yaw45</value>
    <value code="10">Roll180Yaw90</value>
    <value code="11">Roll180Yaw135</value>
    <value code="12">Pitch180</value>
    <value code="13">Roll180Yaw225</value>
    <value code="14">Roll180Yaw270</value>
    <value code="15">Roll180Yaw315</value>
    <value code="16">Roll90</value>
    <value code="17">Roll90Yaw45</value>
    <value code="18">Roll90Yaw135</value>
    <value code="19">Roll270</value>
    <value code="20">Roll270Yaw45</value>
    <value code="21">Roll270Yaw90</value>
    <value code="22">Roll270Yaw136</value>
    <value code="23">Pitch90</value>
    <value code="24">Pitch270</value>
    </values>

  • Does the anti-vibration gel do anything when you mount the APM directly to the frame that way?

    -Cad

  • Francois, you are correct! I got camera dumb and misspoke. I'll add a correcting note on the webpage, video, and a screen tip on youtube to correct it. Thanks for the heads up!

This reply was deleted.