Find it peculiar that 3drobotics homepage states the old apm2.5 is not compatible with the new GPS + compass combo. Especially since a feature of the apm2.5 is the ability to disable the onboard compass for an external.
So what about alignment of the axes between the compass, which is now subject the vagaries of user mounting, and the gyros and accelerometers? Is this alignment offset something the user now has to determine and input somewhere, or have additional parameters been included in the DCM to account for misalignment (or maybe they've always been there...?)?
The compass can be negatively affected by electromagnetic noise from ESCs, motors, and their associated wiring. The magnetic fields fall off rapidly with distance, so a little bit of separation from those "noisy" components makes a difference.
Its an upgrade in accuracy in a nutshell, from what I understand.
To that end it may simply be easier and more compact to do it this way, plus it makes connection to apm 2.5 and likely somewhat older boards minorly pheasable.
To those asking if the updated compass was usable with the older board: yes.
There is nothing stopping you from severing the internal compass linkage (unnecessary but a nice touch, and a show of endearment) and using the updated compass through external inputs, though I doubt it will be supported by default there is not much stopping you from just doing it yourself
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So what about alignment of the axes between the compass, which is now subject the vagaries of user mounting, and the gyros and accelerometers? Is this alignment offset something the user now has to determine and input somewhere, or have additional parameters been included in the DCM to account for misalignment (or maybe they've always been there...?)?
Thanks for the info guys. I was just curious.
How bad is the accuracy?
Tom,
The compass can be negatively affected by electromagnetic noise from ESCs, motors, and their associated wiring. The magnetic fields fall off rapidly with distance, so a little bit of separation from those "noisy" components makes a difference.
I don't have 3DR radio or xbee. I did have a mimosd connected with telemetry. How can I recover the USB serial?
Its an upgrade in accuracy in a nutshell, from what I understand.
To that end it may simply be easier and more compact to do it this way, plus it makes connection to apm 2.5 and likely somewhat older boards minorly pheasable.
To those asking if the updated compass was usable with the older board: yes.
There is nothing stopping you from severing the internal compass linkage (unnecessary but a nice touch, and a show of endearment) and using the updated compass through external inputs, though I doubt it will be supported by default there is not much stopping you from just doing it yourself
Why was the compass moved externally?
@Mathew just curious, couldn't you use the XBee or 3DR radio to connect to Mission Planner?
My APM 2.0 appears to have lost its USB serial connection. It flies fine but I can't connect with Mission Planner.
Would you recommend I replace it with an APM 2.6 or PX4 FMU+IO?
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