updating firmware - how to back up APM board first?

Hi,

I'm in the process of attempting to upload a custom ArduPlane build to my APM2.5. I've never done anything but the most basics with APM previously, and before I commit I have a few questions for the community:

- Is there a way to make a complete backup of firmware, pids & settings currently on the board prior to doing this? I've spent a lot of time tweaking & calibrating radios, battery levels, etc and all I could figure out how to backup from MP are the PIDs.

- given that my currently loade ArduPlane firmware is some 6 months old, can i expect PIDs, calibrations, configurations etc to work once i uploaded custom firmware, which is based on ArduPlane 2.72, or will I have to redo all of this?

- The custom build is a single line modification to change altitude behavior on RTL. All I did was to download Arduino, ArduPlane source from http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/downloads/list, import the source, set target CPU and HAL board, run verify/compile and snatch the hex from the temp directory. I'm looking to upload it using MPs "custom firmware" option, but got a little nervous when people mentioning having to do extensive editing of APM_Config.h. Do i really have edit this file? I would expect the official ArduPlane hex to simply be a build of the 2.72 zip file available on the APM download site.

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Replies

  • Thank you for your post, I have the same problem. After reading your experience I feel better. Now I will make a backup of my parameters and then I will proceed with the firmware update, Thanks again

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