Hi, I am new to Pixhawk and I am not sure about the software which can be used to program Pixhawk. Is Mission Planner the only option? I am a student studying control theory and I need to design my own controller, and therefore I need to implement my controller in code, rather than being interested in waypoints and navigation.
Can it be programmed with the Arduino IDE? I have read in some forums that the Pixhawk can be connected to Arduino Uno or Mega, but can it be programmed in C language through Arduino IDE directly? Because if not, what would be the use of Pixhawk if you need a seperate microcontroller apart from sensor data? Any help would be appreciated.
Replies
Hi Julian!
I'm in a very similar situation, wondering the same exact question! Were you able to access the IMU Raw data using Arduino IDE? Or did you use something else?
Thanks!
Thank you!
https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/
be sure to read everything on that page, the developers guides and all. it contains everything you need.
I don't think I understood what Github is exactly, maybe that is why I was not specific.
What I would like to do is get sensor data from the IMU of the Pixhawk, and use that data through some C code so that I can control the PWM signals which I give to the ESCs. I will check out eclipse because I think I would need something similar to that. How can I know that the code that I write on eclipse can be uploaded on Pixhawk?
not sure what you mean by "If I obtain some source code from github, would it be possible to upload it on Mission planner "
where/why would you upload the source ?
If you mean to modify the source , compile new firmware - sure - there are many ways to upload it, no need for MP to do that, but even it can be used for that i think
Yes, those are GCS software, by "inputting c code" - if you mean programming, it's usually done with eclipse as IDE.
In the Dev Guide, Qtcreator is mentioned for building the code, maybe that can be used and the code can then be uploaded on Mission planner?
The software which you mentioned all seem similar to MissionPlanner in the sense that they focus on navigation and planning rather than inputting your C code. Are any of those software programmed by C?
If I obtain some source code from github, would it be possible to upload it on Mission planner or any of the software mentioned? Sorry if this obvious but I have never used Github before. Thanks for the help
no, beside Mission Planner, you have a lot of better options; APM planner 2, QGroundcontrol , MavProxy , and Tower. Except for tower (Android), all are multiplatform.
As for Arduino IDE, no it's a long time since it was used, you'll find all the info you need about programming/compling Ardupilot on github.