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APM 2.5 in Servo Magazine

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 25, 2013 at 7:39pm

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Love the conclusion: "No other system offers this much control for so little cost"!

You can read the whole thing here, but suffice to say it's a great intro to APM 2.5 capability and setup. 

I'm a subscriber to Servo Magazine and this is a good example why: authoritative, clear and interesting guides to DIY robotics technology. Subscribe here. 

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Comments

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer March 28, 2013 at 11:43pm

    Yes

  • Mark Kellogg March 28, 2013 at 10:47pm

    Regardless of how the author ending up using an APM he is interested in UAV flight and has designed, built, documented, and written about multiple quad designs.  I used one of his parts kits to build my APM equipped quad which is a solid performer.  His Servo article got me interested in quads and got me to this site as well.

    It seems he, like Chris Anderson and many of us on the forum, is interested in the larger opportunities, for all of us, brought about by the DIY/Maker movement.  So in the end, quads are fun, DIY is rewarding, the Maker movement is all of the above, and like Chris states in his articles and talks, all of it comprises a cultural shift in the modern world which will have a dramatic impact on how "stuff" gets designed, built, and to (international) market over the next decades.  It is as important and disruptive to modern culture and the printing press or electricity.

    Pretty cool stuff...wouldn't you agree?

  • Bo Wingo March 28, 2013 at 8:04pm
    The author started that series recommending the NAZA controller pretty much exclusively. I was planning to build my quad along with him, but wanted to use a controller that offered more tweaking and control and a different set of functionality. My research all pointed to the APM, so I badgered him a bit via the ServoMagazine forum to consider the APM. He relented, and came up to speed as quickly as he could. He mentions the improvement of 2.9.1 with a little prejudice over the fact that he had major stability issues with the firmware that shipped on his APM. I believe he may have had a little bit of a hard time admitting that the limitation may have been his knowledge and not the APM itself, so offering an explanation that 2.9.1 fixed everything may have been his way out.
  • Rob_Lefebvre March 26, 2013 at 12:21pm

    What firmware was he using before.  I have a pretty in-depth understanding of the code, and I can't figure out what he's talking about when he says the APM "is now a full six-axis controller".  It was before too.  And the stabilize performance didn't change between 2.8 and 2.9.  Alt Hold was the big change there.  So is that what he means?

  • Josh Potter March 26, 2013 at 9:12am

    I think it's interesting how the author compared the NAZA to APM, he completely missed the fact that the APM is open source, can be coded by YOU, and does way points unlike the NAZA.  While I feel the NAZA is a great platform for plug-n-play FPV flying (and it does have basic RTL), the opensource is the biggest thing to me, not the price.

  • Joshua Johnson March 25, 2013 at 8:48pm

    Hi Michael,

    The 3DR mention is very positive.  Yes I have read the flyaway club and no I have not watched that presentation yet.  Thanks for sharing it with me I'm watching it right now!

     

    Josh

  • Moderator
    John Church March 25, 2013 at 8:46pm

    The positive exposure is nice, but I wish the description of features in AC2.9.1 was accurate.

  • Michael Johnston March 25, 2013 at 8:40pm

    Hi Josh,

    You don't describe whether the 3DR mention is positive or less so.

    Have you read this?

    http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A1176...

    and have you listened to this presentation?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMBLxmCQ5G8

    Balance please.

    MJ

  • Joshua Johnson March 25, 2013 at 8:23pm

    Thanks for sharing this Chris!  The article is super informative, interesting, and easy to enjoy.  I'm setting up an account right now to subscribe. :)

    P.S. I rarely read anything robotics related lately that doesn't mention a 3DR Product somewhere in an article!

    Josh

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