Dear all,
At the moment, we're editing the ArduCopter code from source with Arduino IDE for ArduPilot Mega (APM2.5), but now we would like to use this changes in the PX4 FMU board. How can we create our own code for PX4 based in the last changes we made in ArduPilot Mega? Should we use Nuttx OS and Eclipse IDE? Where can we found ArduCopter source for PX4?
Thanks in advance!!
Jesus
Replies
APM uses a HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer), meaning the code can run on different types of hardware with minimal modifications, when you have written the necessary hardware drivers for the platform in question. So with PX4 for example, the APM code is executed as a task under the Nuttx RTOS.
If you look in https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/tree/master/libraries there are currently being worked on abstraction layers for AVR, PX4, Flymaple and Linux.
The Arduino IDE is now considered a legacy system, and will not be useful any more when we move away from the AVR. A lot of work has gone into making the APM:AVR continue to work under the Arduini IDE out of respect to our beginnings and to make it easier to build APM:AVR using Windows. But there is a limit to how far this can be taken, and it is not possible to build for example APM:PX4 using the Arduino IDE. Instead since all code in APM is C++, you are free to use you favorite IDE like Ecclipse and built using standard makefiles.