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APM Mission Planner now has a proper installation utility!

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 6, 2012 at 10:56pm

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One of the priorities of the APM team is to continue to find new ways to make it easier to use. The Mission Planner is a big part of that, with it's one-click firmware loading, but author Michael Oborne has now done it again with a great installation utility (64-bit Windows here, 32-bit here) that not only installs the Mission Planner, but also detects which APM you have and installs the right driver for it. That's like five manual steps eliminated! 

Great work, Michael!

(As always, it will also check for updates at startup and download the latest version)

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Comments

  • Tom Evans April 11, 2012 at 8:40am

    Micheal O is a programming GOD!!! The MP in all it's forms is a work of programming art and tech. I'm a really big fan

     

    TOM 

  • Taylor Collins April 10, 2012 at 1:34pm

    I'm embarrassed to admit it,but once again the problem was me.  I forgot that you have to click the "Connect" button...  Painful lesson learned. I think I will stick with the JR R1221 receiver.  Do you have any suggestions about the best placement for the outboard receivers ?

    Thanks for all your help!

  • Taylor Collins April 10, 2012 at 1:07pm

    No luck with a JR R1221 either... in all cases, I can operate a servo plugged into an extra channel, so I don't think it is a radio binding issue... ?????

  • Taylor Collins April 10, 2012 at 12:21pm

    O.K... I'll try another receiver....

    Thanks!

    -Taylor

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson April 10, 2012 at 12:07pm

    Taylor: Have you followed the advice in the Troubleshooting section? The AR8000 is notoriously finicky. 

  • Taylor Collins April 10, 2012 at 12:04pm

    I'm moving forward... SLOWLY.  I got my Spektrum AR8000 receiver hooked up, and have my JR 11X bound to it.

    With the four ESC controller leads disconnected, a 3 cell LiPo pack connected, the radio appears to be working (AT least I have control of a servo plugged into an extra, Aux 2 channel).  But no matter what I do, no sign of life comes up in the "APM Setup" window... just blank gray bars....

    I've tried re-loading the firmware... but have run out of ideas ?????

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson April 10, 2012 at 11:46am

    Taylor: Thanks for the update -- glad it's resolved!

  • Taylor Collins April 10, 2012 at 10:51am

    I have met the enemy and he is Me!.... I discovered that the USB cable that I was using was intended for charging purposes only, and has only the power connections... no data.

    I went out and bought the correct cable, and Windows 7 immediately recognized the Arduino card, found the proper drivers, and it now shows up as Com 6 in the drop down window.

    Thanks for the help!

    -Taylor

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson April 10, 2012 at 9:13am

    Taylor: That's really weird. And you've got the APM board plugged in when the Mission Planner starts?

  • Taylor Collins April 10, 2012 at 8:02am

    If I try to download the Quad firmware, I get a terse message that says..."Failed to download new firware: Sytem Argument Exception: The given port name does not start with COM/com or does not resolve to a valid serial port.... and a bunch of other stuff.  I can do a screen capture if this is meaningful....

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