First of all, let me say that I am a robotics hobbiest and not really going to use this ArduIMU in a drone. I am really interested in this new IMU forsale here:
https://store.diydrones.com/ArduIMU_V3_p/kt-arduimu-30.htm
Of course, I have researched that this product is new and the documentation is coming soon etc, so I hoped maybe someone here could answer some questions.
What I would like to do is mount this ArduIMU V3 on a moving robotic base and tie in this sensor to detect an angle or a tilt. Not like a balancing robot, but more so while a robotic base is traversing up a hill. I notice that the ArduIMU V3 has analog outputs. These would work perfectly with a National Instrument RealTime target device that will be reading the sensor values.
So my questions are:
1. What exactly is coming out of the analog ports? Is it the raw sensor values? Or is it the fused sensor values that are already filtered?
2. What is the electrical specifications of the analog signal? Is it a standard 0-5V linear signal?
3. Is this considered a sensor, if I purchase it, will it be "turn key" as if I power it up and I don't have to load anything on it and I can immediately read the sensor values? Or do I need to flash it with some basic firmware? If I do have to flash it, which one would be the best one to get fused sensor data from the analog port?
4. I guess the last thing would be if the analog signals are not the fused and filtered signals, can I get that information from IC2 bus? I believe my real time target support a generic IC2 interface.
Thanks for any information above.
Replies
So, all you are really interested in is a angle/tilt? Get yourself an analog gyro and accelerometer and use that. Otherwise figure out how to use the serial output from this with you board. But that seems a bit of overkill here.
I hope this answers your question.
The ArduIMU is a microcontroller (AVR ATMEGA328p) with gyros and accelerometers attached. The micro controller can be programmed with the arduino environment.
An elaborate reference program is made in the Arduino environment that uses these sensors to determine the direction of the board in terms of pitch, roll and yaw. (this program is pre-loaded into the micro controller when shipped or i assume it will be as soon as the V3 software is released).
The direction of the board is (in the reference program) reported to the user via. a serial message. Not analog!
You may choose to take the reference program and change it so it outputs in a manner that suits your application and use Arduino to upload this program to the micro controller.
The micro controller does not have analog outputs but it does have PWM capability that may be used as a digital to analog converter.
Arduino provides methods for a large number of communication methods such as IIC, serial, SPI, Ethernet, analog (PWM) or you may invent your own protocol.
All of the above require some kind of programming except if using the reference program and serial communication.