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New ArduPilot Pro boards

Posted by Chris Anderson on November 10, 2008 at 9:00pm

While we revise the production boards for ArduPilot and Blimpduino is being tweaked by the beta testers, work continues on ArduPilot Pro, the dual-core autopilot with built-in IR stabilization. ArduPilot Pro is also our development platform for future versions of the code and because it uses DIP version of the Atmega168 CPU it can be upgraded to the Atmega328 if you want more memory. The latest board, shown above, updates the previous board in a few ways,. We took the GPS module off the board to give you more flexibility over which GPS use and where it is. Instead, we use a EM406 connector, which you can either use for a 5v 1Hz EM406 or use our soon-to-come daughterboard (which also uses the EM406 connector) for 3.3v 5Hz modules. As before, you need to buy a FMA IR sensor modules (here) or build ours. You can buy the board here. The Eagle files are here: Schematic, PCB. Here are the components you'll need:

LEDs:

Capacitors:

Crystal:

Resistors:

  • (R1,R4, R13) 2x 10kOhms P10.0KCCT-ND
  • (R2, R3, R5, R6, R8, R9-12) 10x 1Kohms P1.00KCCT-ND
  • (Trim pot, not marked on board but the three holes in a triangle next the "pot" lable): Trimpot 10k

Connectors:

Switch:

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Comments

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 17, 2009 at 7:21pm
    This is an ancient version of the board. We've now switched to the Attiny45 (soic), and the code is now designed for that.
  • John February 17, 2009 at 6:39pm
    You (and the link) call for the Attny 45 but the silkscreen calls for the Attiny 12p and is a different package (DIP?) than the attiny 45 (SOIC?). Any clarification on this? Thanks,
    -J
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson January 17, 2009 at 12:12pm
    The patent covers using thermopiles to control aircraft. It's pretty general. But if people want to solder their own, that's fine. I just don't want to be in the business of selling bare thermopiles. I made one bulk purchase, but won't be making another.
  • Marty January 17, 2009 at 11:43am
    I thought that may be the case Chris, especially after all the hoops Dean has gone through. Would there be any restrictions on you providing an alternative design and cheaper thermopiles like you do now ? Is the restriction more related to producing and selling complete boards ?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson January 17, 2009 at 9:14am
    @Marty: FMA has a patent on those sensors. If you make them yourself, no problem, but if we make them, we may have to pay FMA $7 per set, a few thousand dollars upfront, and they may attempt to set our pricing. Ugh.

    But to be clear, if you want to make your own with our board and sourcing the parts yourself, that's fine.
  • Marty January 17, 2009 at 2:30am
    Can I ask what the line of thinking is regarding discontinuing with the open source thermopile heads Chris ?
  • Jhon January 16, 2009 at 7:51pm
    it dont worth in price and weight sell the custom sensors than buy the fma head?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson January 16, 2009 at 7:45pm
    We have not yet decided what form we'll sell this in. We may just sell the board and GPS and recommend that you use the FMA sensor heads.
  • Jhon January 16, 2009 at 5:33pm
    the plans of sell it with custom IR sensor and GPS for 100$ or less, are still "up" ? or finally will be sold just the board?
  • Developer
    Jordi Muñoz November 11, 2008 at 12:03am
    the Thermopile connector is not the same as the infrared module, they need to make an adapator... Until we find the correct library with the tiny connectors...
This reply was deleted.