I am loving the APM 2.5+. I am in the middle of a custom quadcopter build - but I wanted to spend some time getting used to the APM 2.5+ / Mission Planner. So I pulled out my 6x6 Rover built on the MINDS-i robotic platform : MINDS-i. I used my 3D printer to make a platform to hold the APM 2.5+ and some velcro / zip ties got everything wired up - you will notice I need to get some nice length female / female servo wires, I cheated and just use jumper wires for now. Test #1 - I learned I didn't setup the input from my Spektrum DX6i Transmitter / Receiver correctly, so I after laying out the plan and heading out to this church reception parking lot - all I could do was run it around manual - at least the RC was working. I reviewed the site and rewired. Test #2 - I tried to do a small area around my house in my driveway, didn't work so well, I think the area was too small, the house / garage likely blocked up the GPS and I noticed my Rover was drifting.
Aligned up the steering, laid out a nice mission and went back out to the large parking lot. Test #3 - third times a charm. It ran through the waypoints, I did notice it didn't return home but stopped on Waypoint #4. I was able to kick it into manual drove up facing away from Waypoint #1 - kicked auto is spun around and re-ran the route.
Meanwhile I picked up my AR Drone 2.0 to get some video of the rover. I also have the GoPro on the Rover so I have some video to download from that. I will post some pics and links to video on here.
Video Links
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CDAutoRover Run 1
CDAutoRover Run 2
Check out my channel, I have some other robot goodies: RxDTxDTTL (Chuck D)
Comments
I was skeptical about the MINDS-i kit, actually having the Lego NXT - but it is way more solid - the connectors are really nice for putting everything together and they hold extremely well. Andrew - I will try that - thanks for the suggestion, seems like it ran smoothly to the first waypoint then I get that weaving going on. I will post up my edited video, have some news like captions and also FPV, then AR Drone 2.0
Impressive. That kit looks like Lego, but I'm betting it's way more robust, right?
The next step is to have your Octo lift up the rover, itself holding the AR toy drone. More and more we are achieving what I used to see in Goldorak a while ago...:)
Very nice, definitely a cool chassis - their 4x4 one too.
Gotta love lego...
Nice!
Looks like the rover is weaving a bit in auto. Try dropping the STEER2SRV_D to 0 (you may need to set to 0.1 first, then 0, due to a bug in the EEPROM parameter code).
Cheers, Tridge