I am relatively new to this forum so please excuse me if I have missed an important thread on this topic. I have spent some time reading various forum articles and just want to check if I have the correct information before settling on an initial code to use for my new quad ArduCopter.
Looking at the recent release of ACM (AC 2.0), whilst thoroughly tested, there is still a "use at your on risk" clause and so the recommended stable code known Ardupirates NG would be my best choice.
With the direction to support the Arduino roadmap, the APM hardware is now based on the newer ATmega 2560. Nothing wrong with this of course. This is the board I was shipped, but I have discovered the Ardupirates NG is not supported or if loaded has potential issues on the APM2560. Again correct me if I am wrong here?
Moreover, on a previous discussion it was stated that ArduCopter 2.0 is currently not supported on the APM2650 either. So even if I wanted to, I cannot use this on the APM hardware I have at the moment. Of course others have said it is supported and I would tend to believe the latter case since the code shares the same base as APM 2.0 which is supported on APM2560.
Ideally I would like to start on the Ardupirates NG while the AC 2.0 evolves into a more stable code.
Has anyone successfully loaded and flown with the Ardupirates NG on the new APM2560? If so are there any gotchas I should be aware of or loading tips?
I do understand by the way the flight planner cannot be use to load code on the APM 2560 at the moment.
Replies
I am using a 2560 with both ACM 2.0 and Ardupirates NG. Should work with no issues. Some early code basis hit a bug in the 2560 bootloader as a sequence of +++ anywhere in the code will escape the 2560 bootloader and the upload will fail.
Jason has fixed this in the later ACM 2.0 beta software versions.
best regards,
Oliver.
You can use the mission the planner to load code onto the 2560 or the earlier version board - you just select what version of Ardupilot you have to load the correct code. You can always use Arduino to load the code directly onto either board.
ACM (AC 2.0) is still in beta, and therefore is not 'mature' in the same sense as APM or the NG code, so there are still some bugs/inefficiencies. On the most part it is flyable, but you might need to adjust gains to suit you frame/additional parts. ACM supports both boards at the momment so you can use the 2560.
I don't think that the 2560 board supports the NG or version 1 code, but I could be wrong.