I am starting this discussion to post information for testing the Px4 platform.
Most of the discussion is currently in the APM vs Px4 thread. ArduCopter on the Px4 is a work in progressand has made great progress. I have Arducopter on a Px4 Fmu board hovering now and I am very glad to see the code base integrated into the Stm32 platorm. Ardupilot represents many hours testing and refinement , many thanks to Andrew Tridgell ,Randy Mackay and the other developers as well as Gary Mcray for the documentation on the Wiki
The Px4 can support a Quad with 4 Motors using only the Px4_FMu board with some of its Usart pins defined as Pwm outputs or using the Px4_Io board to supply Pwm motor (servo) outputs. The configuration with the Io board may work better at the moment , the Fmu only has a number of issues to get booted up configured and running. It may be that all the testing at the moment is being done with boards that use the Px4_Io.
The Px4 usb is software driven not a ftdi chip like the Apm and has given problems but is working now . When the Stm32 bootloader starts it creates a Usb port with its own Id and sets up a DFU device for loading. If no bootloader request is received it jumps to the code startup and creates a usb serial port with a different USB Id for a mavlink connection. Windows drivers have to deal with the Usb connection and connect the appropiate driver.
I think the Px4 vs Apm answer is that it is still early in the Px4 development but shows great promise.
Replies
yes mine worked too on UART5 with arduplane. i had been trying to connect via UART2 and USB for last 60 days without any luck. can u please send the link for the startup script to be loaded on the SD card so that the PX4 communicates via serial port instead of USB.
It is good to have a Ftdi serial connection to be able to see the startup msgs on the console. You can also avoid the Usb and move the mavlink connection to serial port instead of Usb. It would be good to have a startup script that can be loaded on to sd card that will start px4 using serial port instead of Usb. I will try to test and post one that people can load on sd.
When this was in the first beta versions their was no usb and serial was used. It will be interesting to see if arduplane is ok with serial connection.
it is the PX4 driver that causes problem. the best way is to use a PC which has very few com ports assigned to various devices. like a computer which has a freshly loaded windows. despite that my PX4 does not connects to mission planner when i load arduplane. i cannot find a reason. arducopter loads and connects fine with 3DR. but no luck with arduplane.
Hello,
After some very busy weeks, I´ve restarted my px4 work. I´ve flashed now the px4-apm firm with the qupgrade v0.3. But I can´t connect it, via USB, with the Apmplanner in it last version, tha apm say to me that it doesn´t receive any hearthbeat. Any idea please?
Thanks in advance
Any luck on how to measure current and voltage? it's a necessary feature.
hi martin, i am facing the exactly same problem. i can connect to mavlink with USB/3DR with arducopter. i cannot connect with mavlink when i upload arduplane. it is definetly the driver problem. i am sure it would be sorted out soon.
@Martin, i strongly believe that PX4 driver is more compatible with windows XP than vista. but eventully the problem will be resolved. i am facing a very wiered problem. when i upload arducopter i can connect mavlink to mission planner. but when i upload arduplane i cannot connect mavlink. i cannot find any solution. i cannot even blame the PX4 driver. with arduplane 2.70 i was able to connect arduplane vis mavlink.
@martin, try another computer which has very few com ports in use. mission planner now has a reliable USB driver for PX4. it worked for me. i tried another computer and it worked. actually PX4 has a software based USB to serial converter and that is the reason for all these problems.
Hi gary, no luck with the new driver. still same. i get mavlink data for arducopter but for arduplane. with 3DR radio also same status. arducopter sends data but arduplane does not.;
@Martin, i can upload all the firmwares to PX4 using mission planner. i cannot connect mavlink to mission planner when i upload arduplane. i can connect to mission planner when i upload arducopter. this sounds very strange but is happening.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 7 Next