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Ardupilot Mega - 2011 Can I still use it?

Posted by Gerard on August 27, 2015 at 6:35am

Hi guys,

It's been a few years but now I want to get into aerial photography again. In 2011 I bought all the gear, including a ArduPilot Mega. The exact type is:

ArduPilot Mega - Arduino Compatible UAV Controller w/ ATMega2560

Can I still run the current softare on this controller?

Thanks a lot.

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  • Moderator
    Graham Dyer August 27, 2015 at 6:53am

    Yes you can but not v3.3 for Copters, APM 1.4, 2.0, 2.5, 2.6 can all run the aircraft firmware up to current and the copter firmware up to v3.2.1.

    Post a photo and we can tell what version yours is.

    • Gerard > Graham Dyer August 27, 2015 at 7:09am

      Graham, thanks for your response. Too bad the newest firmware can't run on it, but a lot changes in four years so I was kind of expecting it. Will post a photo when I get home.

      Is it advisable to upgrade? Does the new hardware significally improve copter stability and thus the quality of the aerial footage?

      • Moderator
        Graham Dyer > Gerard August 27, 2015 at 7:29am

        Newer hardware will usually improve flight behaviour as there are some features and capabilities that are taken advantage of in the latest firmware. EKF is one of them which is not available to the APM 2.x series. The older boards still perform pretty well though with the older firmware, certainly good enough for aerial footage with a good gimbal. There are many, many still flying happily with v3.2.1.

        The changes from v3.2.1 through v3.3rc9 are detailed here: https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/blob/master/ArduCopter/Relea...

        So a fair bit has gone into v3.3

        • Gerard > Graham Dyer August 27, 2015 at 11:22am

          Thanks for the help Graham, below is the photo of my APM.

          3702796876?profile=original

          • Moderator
            Graham Dyer > Gerard August 27, 2015 at 12:06pm

            OK, that's an APM 1.4, the oldest of the hardware that "can" run the newer firmwares. I use one of those in a plane and it works fine, it won't work quite so well in a copter but will work with some mods. The compass (the small blue daughter board) for example has to be separated physically from the board to provide untainted direction data.

            Also the current documentation refers to the APM 2.x family and newer so to wire this up takes a little extra bit of research although the basics are generally the same. (There are wiring diagrams around if you look for them).

            It is however a great economical way start to learn the system while planning or waiting for a Pixhawk (or Arsov AUAV-X2 in my case) to arrive.

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