APM Oil Pan!

Is 2:22AM (when i started writing this) and i can't sleep, so i decided to write this post.

I been working "hard" and the fastest i can to finish this thing, theres only one step remaining in order to start the "mass" production of this board.

This is how the last step will be done:

-A unique assembled board will be shipped from California to Spain.

-Then Jose Julio in Spain will open his "Surprise Board" and make us the great favor to all of us of checking the board integrity and the harmony of all the components on it (thanks in advance JJ).

-That includes checking some new components i can't mention right now.

-If Jose Julio says 'Si", then i will start the mass production.

By now SparkFun is straggling trying to supply all the components and test bed for APM. It will be released soon.

The board is kinda of big right now. This board will be called the "huge" version. When the code becomes very mature i will create a an smaller version of the APM and APM Oil Pan without the multiplexor on the APM and without the bulky FTDI chip on the APM Oil Pan, so i can save 30% of the size. This one will be called ArduPilotMega "In my way" version. ;-)

Oil pan stands for the old shield name. The difference is that the shield goes into the bottom of the ArduPilotMega board.

~~I decided to let the community guess the rest of the specs for ArduPilotMega Oil Pan, because write stuff in English make me drowsy. The best guesser will receive a $50 certificate. ;-)~~

Come 2:56AM!!

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Comments

Developer

Sandro Benigno March 3, 2010 at 6:37am

I guess there is a chip with 16 Mbits of flash at right of the ADC converter. Maybe an AT45DB161D, for log purposes. :P
Developer

Jordi Muñoz March 2, 2010 at 10:51am

Andrew,

Yes somebody mentioned but was point to the absolute pressure sensor port. ;-)

Morli,

Well is recommended but you can always use any uBlox you want.
Andrew Burns March 2, 2010 at 1:36am

Magnetometer or compass? Those are probably better away from stray power interference but they've been mentioned :P

Good work with the autopilot, I can't wait to get my hands on it, need it for the aussie outback UAV comp this year so the sooner the better even if there's no code out for it yet :P
Developer

Jordi Muñoz March 1, 2010 at 8:34pm

Only remains the function of the "BM06B", i guess is pretty easy, only one sensor remains that has to be external, the GPS will attached to the APM board (not oil pan).
Developer

Jordi Muñoz March 1, 2010 at 8:33pm

Ok everybody lets face it, Freddy Gauss guessed the average of the parts. Do you agree with me?
Developer

Jordi Muñoz March 1, 2010 at 8:28pm

Is shipper than the original ArduPilot Setup because is $89 gps + Shield Kit $50 + ardupilot $24.90 + Ir sensors $115 + FTDI $20= $298.90 dlls

This APM setup will cost Ardupilotmega $59 + Pan Oil $139 + GPS $89 = $287 plus you will have IMU, servo switch, datalogger, 12bit ADC (better resolution), Ftdi build in, full support for 8 channels, switches and the possibility to expand. I guess is the smartest autopilot in terms of simplicity and price. The damn problem will be the code XD, but we have a team of rocks stars! Ready to start typing at the speed of light! We already have library's for every part of the hardware.
Developer

Jordi Muñoz March 1, 2010 at 8:20pm

Not so much... because i used cheap components. So i guess would be around $139dlls, but you don't need FTDI cable, plus infrared sensor, plus shield, and blah, blah, so at the end should be shipper than an original ardupilot. The nice part is that you can adapt the expensive sensors like magnetometer, GPS and absolute pressure sensor later. In case you want to use ardupilot as a weather station hehe. Some quads don't need GPS.
John C. March 1, 2010 at 5:01pm

dang....solder-wick time.
Freddy Gauss March 1, 2010 at 3:16pm

Those relays are a nice find Jordi! You're right about being hard to find, out of the four distributors that I usually use, only Newark had them.

I think I figured out what the group of small parts on the bottom left is, here's my updated diagram.

Correction to my previous guess:
- The set of 6 pairs of components on the bottom left are voltage dividers, right?

Thanks for the image processing Morli. I use Dia to add the lables and arrows and it's pretty bad at image editing (it's not really meant for it).
tycinis March 1, 2010 at 2:51pm

the missing component from the spark fun rockets is a G Force sensors ?

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