APM from the start

Ive gone and done it (the Mrs will kill me if goes in the shed). Futaba 6EX, EasyStar and APM along with beefy motor parts. I had original planned to use my disposable JP Zagi but with it being a mixer type craft and some cash the parts just seemed to arrive :D
I bought the kit version so I can customise it to my wants and needs (balance it right and create room for the APM). I have not used the Ardupilot stuff before but I do play with Arduinos, FEZ and others but I have some concerns which I believe your-expereinced-selves can help.

1. Ardupilot requires a header file to be tailored to the plane and every plane is "different". Easystar have been around for ages in DIYdrones and the RC community and I know there is an Easystar header file but I seem to be missing it somehow, even after searching for it.

2. CG is obviously important and I'd like this to be a gentle fly with all the kit in. Moving the CG forward will help this but how have you arranged your bits to get your CG and how does your UAV fly?
Doodles, numbers etc.. welcome :)

3. Anyone started modifications to the code? maybe a landing light or stall recovery

BTW I will take as many photos of the build as possible for reference to help me remember what on earth I did and help anyone else.

1. You mentioned something here that is starting to annoy me too. I believe paparazzi generates some source files based on configuration in xml files. I was thinking that configuring the exact behavior you may want, the channel responses and the likes can be a bit of a hassle. It may be nice to have a 3rd party config tool that can quickly reload different configs together, so making mistakes is a bit more difficult. This would also be handy for people flying the boards in different planes with different personal configs.

2. I haven't flown with this thing in yet, but I'll start off with recommended CG when I do. I see you fly easystar. I have one as well and I have cut out a bit of the material next to the servo's (just before putting it together). There was a bit of a thickened wall there that was occluding the belly compartment. In my plane, a battry just squeezes through inbetween the servo's through to the belly compartment, such that I can balance the plane better. In this configuration I've put on a camera + pan/tilt on the canopy (95g HD GoPro camera) and still maintained normal CG. I've also seen others cutting out a hatch from the belly to be able to reach that compartment, but obviously then you'll need a system to fasten this for every flight.

3. Not yet. I'm waiting for a stable release first, as I expect code to move around a lot for now. I do attempt to help out as much as possible by testing through flightgear, inspecting serial output, flightpaths, behavior and everything I notice by looking at the code.

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Gerard Toonstra August 22, 2010 at 11:53am

1. You mentioned something here that is starting to annoy me too. I believe paparazzi generates some source files based on configuration in xml files. I was thinking that configuring the exact behavior you may want, the channel responses and the likes can be a bit of a hassle. It may be nice to have a 3rd party config tool that can quickly reload different configs together, so making mistakes is a bit more difficult. This would also be handy for people flying the boards in different planes with different personal configs.

2. I haven't flown with this thing in yet, but I'll start off with recommended CG when I do. I see you fly easystar. I have one as well and I have cut out a bit of the material next to the servo's (just before putting it together). There was a bit of a thickened wall there that was occluding the belly compartment. In my plane, a battry just squeezes through inbetween the servo's through to the belly compartment, such that I can balance the plane better. In this configuration I've put on a camera + pan/tilt on the canopy (95g HD GoPro camera) and still maintained normal CG. I've also seen others cutting out a hatch from the belly to be able to reach that compartment, but obviously then you'll need a system to fasten this for every flight.

3. Not yet. I'm waiting for a stable release first, as I expect code to move around a lot for now. I do attempt to help out as much as possible by testing through flightgear, inspecting serial output, flightpaths, behavior and everything I notice by looking at the code.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson August 21, 2010 at 6:34pm

ArduPilot 2.7 should fly the EasyStar well right out of the box, once you've configured it for your hardware. There may be Easystar config files floating around from previous versions of the software, but DO NOT use them. Many of the config options changed in 2.7.

ArduPilot is designed to fly properly with the GC right where the manufacturer recommends. No need to move it forward.

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APM from the start

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