Ok, so I've taken apart the landing skids and will be building the space for the APM some q's in the meantime:
The APM is a Pre-soldered - ArduPilot Mega 2560 Full Kit, Why does it come with resistors together with the servo leads? I cannot find any reference to them in the wiki pages.
I don't have an esc with a governor, could I use the pitch input from the tx into the APM and let the reciever control the esc? If not pls recommend me some esc's with governors that have worked well.
I've got the external Triple Axis Magnetometer HMC5883L
do I really need a gps cable to fit the connector on the APM or could I solder some pins and have the magnetometer mounted somewhere else by means of a cable?
Hope to get this bird in the air soon.. telemetry to come soon too.
Replies
You sort of do need a governor to be able to fly in automatic modes, otherwise the rotor speed will not be controlled when Arducopter is controlling the collective pitch, such as in Alt-Hold or RTL. However, it still needs to be connected to the Rx, not the APM, at this point.
I've got this on my 450:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__8922__TURNIGY_K_Force_40...
It's cheap, and seems to work very well. Soft start is good and soft, and the governor works well. But it is backordered right now.
I also use the 100A version of this ESC on my 600:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__10941__Turnigy_Super_Bra...
It also works very well, and the logging can be helpful. This 40A version is in stock, and will probably work well. It is limited to 3S, however. Not a problem for a standard 450 setup.
The resistors are used if you want to monitor battery voltage /current
http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_Current
You can use any cable you want for the magnetometer if you want, gps cable just makes it easier to connect/ disconnect
Hope that helps