Is it possible to move a prebuilt APM2 I bought as an ArduCopter to a plane? If so, how?
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Is it possible to move a prebuilt APM2 I bought as an ArduCopter to a plane? If so, how?
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Absolutely, yes.
You can optionally (recommended, I think) get an air speed sensor, and unplug the sonar, if you have one.
Keep the magnetometer, unless you need it somewhere else, I think there are newly more people using the compass with ArduPlane, especially for automatic launch heading/bearing accuracy, I think.
Then just plug it in and load the ArduPlane firmware from Mission Planner, after pushing the firmware, be sure to make the correct selection between ArduPlane and ArduCopter before connecting to the serial port for the setup, then perform the setup (remember to "default/erase" the settings!) You will need to remap your transmitter channel five/mode switches for the mode controls used in ArduPlane, but I expect you'll want to create a new "model" on your transmitter anyways. Just read the ArduPlane manual for details...
And get some flight sim hours in ... I recommend it mainly because (here comes the disclaimer) that is the only flying my ArduPlanes have gotten so far, I have zero flight hours. But I have loaded ArduPlane on all of my ArduPilotMega boards, even while they are physically installed in my quad copters, and run them as HIL w/ X-Plane.
Its the same hardware, interchangeable between ArduCopter and ArduPlane. Just swap the sonar for the air speed sensor, and you have a classic ArduPlane build.
Here is a footnote on a minor detail, that I do not think is a problem, but I'll mention it for completeness:
Look at your IMU to see if the sensor filter pads are soldered. I have been told that maybe it is not as good to have the sensor pads filtered on ArduPlane, but I have no personal experience. Maybe someone else will make a recommendation. Unless it was a big difference, I would leave them until they seemed to cause problems, I think, but a solder wick and two minutes with a soldering iron would remove them. Just be careful with the other SMDs. Again, I think this is completely optional.