I finally took plunge and ordered some ardupilot hardware. I just checked my welcome mail and discovered that I have been checking out this site almost daily for 4 years. It sure has come a long way since then and im actually quite glad I waited untill now.
Here is the platform I am using.
Its a custom build chassis of 2 mm alu with 24v motors and a sabertooth 2x25A motor driver. You can easily ride on top of it and it still goes full speed.
For control I have a spektrum dx6i transmitter.
I got all the stuff yesterday and just did a quick test with all the components mounted with double sided tape. So far it houses:
APM 2.6 with external compass/GPS
3DR power module (connected to one of two battery only)
3DR radio
AR6200 6 channel receiver
Wireless video transmitter
Camera night/day
Still to be mounted
OSD board
2 x sonars
Camera switch
Secondary zoom camera (27x optical zoom)
Brushless gimbal (just for the fun of it)
I only did some quick test, but I am amazed of how plug-n-play this system has gotten, hats of to the developers.
The only quirks I found so far is:
- In manual, the rover will sometimes suddenly ignore the controller and start running backwards full speed. Doesnt matter if I turn the controller off.
- The compass for some reason seams to be rotated appr. 90 degrees (its mounted correctly)
- If I switch the controller of, the belts starts to creep slowly forward. Must look into if I can adjust the deadband somewhere.
I need to play with this a lot more, but for now things are looking bright.
Here is a couple of more pics
Replies
could you help me with drawings/plans for aluminum body?
Your platform looks really nice. Do you have plans or dimensions available? May I ask where you obtained the tracks, and do you consider them to be outdoors friendly? Thank you.
George Sutton
So I did the first "Fly to here" test today.
The robot seam to be keen on driving backwards, though the rover is located the right way according to the map, the compass and the APM is located pointing forward, the first thing the rover does is turning around and start driving backwards,
External compass is selected, so the roll is 180.
I drove it manual and it works just fine. The throttle isnt reversed.
Ch3 output is 1680 when driving backwards. Is that indicating that the throttle should be reversed and maybe the transmitter also to get the stick configuration right?
A couple of new pics.
Still somewhat temporary, but less of a mess than before.
A PEHD plate for mounting the 4 antennas and the GPS/Compass on top.
Very nice platform. Are you planning to stabilize the camera gimbal with the APM? How do you control the optical zoom? I have a similar camera on my rover that uses Pelco-D to operate the zoom. I was able to code a PIC to convert RC PWM to the strings needed to move the zoom. And put the whole works on a slipring so it can spin continuously.
What else do you have planned for it?
Falcon
Hi Thomas
Thx for a fast reply.
Yup. Mixing. I might set it to independent and let the APM control the mixing.
Im using the aileron. Its setup as when I just did manual driving, which also leads me to remembering that I forgot to remove the + wire from the sabertooth or the J1 jumper! That might screw things up.
I should try the on/off procedure as you describe. As I said, I think I just need to play around with, most of the stuff are well documented and there is plenty of debugging possibilities.
I did a quick compass calibration also, the highest value was something like 300. The plan is to mount the compass/GPS and the receivers spaced up, so they sit just under the top. There is a 2mm alu top plade, so I will fit a polycarbonate "window". Can the transmitters interfere with the compass in any way? I think the are 433 Mhz, 1,3 Ghz and 2,4 Ghz.
I think I will mount the transmitters in the back, and fit some whip antennas.
@Jacob,
Are you using the Sabertooth in the mixing mode?
Are you using the DX6i throttle joystick or the aileron joystick for the throttle?
Have you calibrated the Sabertooth using the R/C transmitter with the APM in the Manual mode?
I have never had my rover run backwards using the Sabertooth ESC in the mixing mode. Also I always turn the Sabertooth on after the APM has completely booted up and turn the Sabertooth off before shutting the APM down.
I only use the BEC in the Sabertooth to power the APM servo output power bus and I use a separate BEC to power the APM with J1 removed.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer