Connecting an APM to a gumstix

I'm interested in doing something similar to diydrones member curt olson's project, where he has an AP board act as a raw servo input/output interface and has a gumstix run the brains of the flight control operation. I have an APM with the attached oilpan and was wondering if anyone could comment on the feasibility of extracting servo positions and sensor readings from the APM/oilpan and returning servo control commands back through the APM.

As a mechanical engineer I'm not too sure about the implications of choosing different I/O methods, but the options that I see right now are using the I2C port on the oilpan, the AT328 SPI port on the APM, or somehow just using the usb port on the oilpan.

My inclination at the moment is to pull the sensor data (GPS, gyros, pressure,..) off through the i2c port, a process that I sort of have working right now, and then doing servo control using the SPI port. Is this too complicated? Could I just do it all over the i2c connection, or should I just switch to doing it all over the SPI connection?

I'd appreciate any comments at all before I head down an obviously wrong path and misuse a couple weeks of my life, thanks,

-robert

Replies

Michael Zaffuto October 18, 2010 at 5:46pm

Hi Robert, the simplest thing I can think of regarding hardware and software implications is the telecom port. It is a bidirectional uart and fast enough to send all that you will want to through it.

You can give yourself a head start by looking at this base board from the PixHawk group:

They are selling the bare board for $32, but you might have to get your order in real soon.
http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/buy-hardware/

It will hold your gumstix and provide all kinds of additional uarts so that you can
replace the 'telecom port' functionalilty for using xbee, etc.

This reply was deleted.

Discussions

Connecting an APM to a gumstix

Replies

Activity