How to contribute on ArduCopter project.

There are a lot of great talents out there but how to get them involved on different projects is always a question. Chris already had few weeks ago a great overall post on "How to contribute to a DIY Drones project?". Here we concentrate more on ArduCopter project and issues related to it.

As many of you know ArduCopter is separated to two sub projects: ArduCopter multirotors and ArduCopter Traditional Heli. Both of them are using same codebase and libraries but as the devices are highly different it is easier , we need more people to test, program, give ideas and so on.

Now that all Arduxxxx software are under one single easily maintained repository under Google code on address http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/ is it easy for people to do Clones and start working on their own (Look under source / clones). After user is happy with their modifications, posting patches and code snippets to main code is easy from clone repository.

Current version management what whole project and project members are using is Git. If you are not familiar with Git, please take a look on following wiki pages on ArduPilot Mega wiki

• http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Guide - Programming guide
• http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Git - Introduction to Git
• http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/GitCLI - Using Git from command line
• http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/GitTortoise - Using Git on Windows

Issue tracking

Tracking issues and proposing them is one important feature on how we communicate internally and especially externally with all our users. Everyone are welcome to take a look at those and propose more issues for core teams and outsiders. If you think that you have a solution for one of the issues, make a close on main repository and start working with it. After you are done, you can post either patch or link to your close and let repository masters to know about your work.

ArduCopter specific issue tracer can be found from address http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/issues/list


ArduCopter projects that we need volunteers for:
To separate Traditional and Multicopters please use following tags on summary line.

• Multi - means all ArduCopter multitorors
• TradHeli - means traditional helicopter

Some startup lists that you might be interested to see:

• 1) Multi - Automatic PID computations. How to teach correct or close to correct PID settings while flying
• 2) Multi - Failsafe conditions. How to recover from several failures and allow pilot to land with minimal damages on severe failures
• 3) Multi - Navigation tests and complex multi waypoint missions
• 4) Multi - Takeoff/land tests with and without external sensors
• 5) Multi - Scripted acro / stabile flying
• 6) Multi - Barometer/Z-axis accelerometer algorithms for better altitude hold
• 7) Multi - Verify proper operation on all conditions, throttle reversing, aileron/elevator reversing
• 8) Multi - Better failsafes for low battery/lost signal cases

• 1) TradHeli - Determine best PIDs for LOITER for Trex450 and add to standard conf...
• 2) TradHeli - Make a simulator available to ease tuning and reduce the danger of ...
• 3) TradHeli - Get tail control working sufficiently well to remove the need for a...
• 4) TradHeli - Add better control mixing
• 5) TradHeli - Allow full range of radio channel 3 (collective) to be used even wh...
• 6) TradHeli - Move swash properly when user is setting up swashplate movement ran...

Other important links to start and to remember are:

• http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/ - ArduPlane and electronics issues
• http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/ - ArduCopter wiki pages
• http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/issues/list - ArduPlane issue tracker