3D Robotics

Feedback on new manuals

We're moving to a new documentation platform and this is your opportunity to give us feedback and help. There has been a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes on these over the past three months, including the 30 volunteers working within the Documentation User Group. It's now time to include the full community.

You can see a glimpse of the team's work in the betas of the new ArduPlaneArduCopter and ArduRover sites. Click on the "Instructions" tab to see what the new manuals will look like. 

Right now most of the work has been in creating new graphics and design elements to make the manuals easier to read and use, with some work on simplifying and updating the content. But because they're based on a Wiki-plugin for WordPress, it's also a much more powerful and flexible collaboration environment than the current Google Code wiki for community participation, and we can now take this opportunity to update and improve every page of the manual. 

Just a reminder that these sites are still in beta, and we won't be steering users to them until the documentation team has had an opportunity to scrub every page. We'll continue to maintain the Google Code wikis for legacy purposes, but the new sites are designed to reflect the model we'll be moving to in the future. 

Please give us feedback in this thread. If you'd like to participate, please join the Documentation User Group linked above. 

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  • Hazy,
    老板说些什么
  • The new site looks wonderful. I'm curious about whether we can add multiple language instructions in this site?

  • I have an APM 2.5 in the mail headed to me at the moment. And I'm doing some more reading before it gets here and there are two things I haven't been able to find that aren't necessarily vital but would be nice:

    1) A photo of a complete APM 2.5 with GPS and Telemetry options that is hooked up to a receiver and servos. I'd just like to see everything plugged in the way it's supposed to work and laid out before it's mounted in a plane. Diagrams and models of things are nice, but a finished working setup is nice to see also.

    2) Some example telemetry output files. I will probably use the ArduPlane software for most things, but I also want to make my own codes to analyze flight data. It would be nice to see a few example files that I could download and look through just to know what I'm getting into ahead of time.

  • Hi

    The sites looks nice but i have two inputs.

    1. If you use wordpress i would like to see a google translate plugin. I know most of the translations are bad but better bad than nothing ;-)

    2. For newbies i think the structure from the instructions is a little bit overkill. It must be simple as possible (step by step) and for beginners only with the ground informations that they need.

    I think it must be splitet in two parts ex: (ground settings / Tweaking )

    I know its really difficult to find the right structure :-)

    Greetings

    Tino

  • Leveraging all of the community wisdom to create the Wiki is exactly what was needed. Thank you.

  • Hi,

    The links on the Arduplane downloads page points to arducopter downloads.

    farmertom

  • After a quick review - it would seem that APM 1.0 and 2.0 hardware setup should and could be included.

    Those are not moving targets and already mostly documented.

    Also in the safety section I see nothing about "Ariel right of way".. meaning that if you see a manned flying vehicle in the air  at a low altitude then you should be heading to the ground ASAP. 

    This is very important and should be one of the 1st things in the safety guide. Human safety is far more important than any of your non-human hardware. To underline the point... if you need to crash to get out of the way that *IS* what you do. If not you risk ruining the hobby for everyone.

    Also an explanation of what an autopilot does and what that means to you the reader.

    Simply put an auto pilot relies on environmental conditions to perform as desired.

    GPS, Magnometers  and other sensors can get false positives or fail in flight, this is why its extremely important to rely on the human factor as the ultimate backup. These are not remote control devices that fly based on mechanical input only. They use logic and sensors to determine their orientation heading and speed from sensors which can be prone to being affected by other environmental issues. Most people think "Well GPS is reliable it works great in my car" w/o appreciation for the complexities of the GPS (or any other sensor).

    For that very reason GEO fence is nice, but certainly not a completely reliable fail-safe.

  • I haven't take a deep look into it, but seems great. Good job!!

  • Distributor

    One quick note, maybe add these links on the old "current" wiki landing page with a blurb telling people that it is still work in progress... I get quite a few emails per day on what version of the "manual" to use... :) 

    Thanks, good work so far, can only get better. 

    Dany

  • Hi there

    If you are working on new manuals, are you also including new frequencies?

    If so, I found the official frequency plan for Switzerland as PDF. There are some differences, ex the 433mhz Band you can use 1mW on some frequencies, but up to 2.5W on others (depending on duty cycle).

    http://www.bakom.admin.ch/themen/frequenzen/00652/00653/index.html?...

    source:

    http://www.bakom.admin.ch/themen/frequenzen/00652/00653/index.html?...

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