APM Oilpan Rev. H, Version 1.0 now in production!

The new ArduPilotMega Shield "Hotel' Version 1.0 has finally replaced our old and problematic Foxtrap 2.2, many of the changes are just to accelerate the assembly process and reduce production failure rates, working in conjunction with the very supportive Invensense Team (Thanks guys!).

Note: if you are a user with the current boards, they're fine. The problems were in the production process, which required us to go through extra steps to ensure they passed QA. The new board is more for our sake than yours!

Manufacture changes:
-Improved gyro pads.
-The boards now came with Lead-Free Silver Immersion for an even surface (Turns goldy when baked).
-Added one 0603 resistor pad on voltage divider for automatic machine placement. I should have added it to all the resistors. =/

User Experience:
-Now that is easy to assemble, boards availability will be improved.
-Solder jumpers to optionally enable/disable gyro low pass filters.
-Added labels that suggest where the female headers should be placed.

Bugs fixed:
-Reset button now works under any condition.
-Analog supply for the pressure sensor is now attached to the analog 3.3 voltage regulator.

By the time I wrote this post I still had some Oilpan in stock, please hurry because we are moving to a new warehouse and we may be out for around one week again, just in time to start production with our new Japanese made Manncorp 7722V. Many thanks to the Mancorp team that is also located next to us in San Diego,CA!

Eagle Files:

ArduPilotMegaShield_H_v10.brd

ArduPilotMegaShield_H_v10.sch

Also many thanks to Star Wars (TM)!

Max, this new board has all same components than Foxtrap was. Both of them fly the same but main issue was with 3 capasitors that acts as filters to accelerometers. Some people say that without those capasitors quad flies better but for fixedwing people capasitors must be there. So Jordi just made small modification which is solder jumper to disable/enable those capasitors.

We are still looking and testing behavior of these filters due there are a lot of conflict on our field tests that we try to find. On older IMU filters can be disables by removing those 3 small capasitors. But as I have flown with and without them... I have not seen any difference.

So old Foxtrap board is as good as this Hotel board.

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Comments

Developer

Jordi Muñoz September 20, 2010 at 1:02pm

Chris talked about it before with an article link that explains the situation:

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/update-on-product-availability
Admin

Morli September 20, 2010 at 12:50pm

Thanks for the update Jordi. , hope the shortage vanishes soon. :))
Andrew Robinson September 20, 2010 at 12:49pm

I can vouch for this... atmel has been behind when it comes to availability for a long time now. Economic downturn and the such and they are trying to avoid the boom-bust nature of the economy. Works for them, sucks for us.

I use the data flash chips in a product and you couldn't find them anywhere for a few weeks a while back.
Developer

Jordi Muñoz September 20, 2010 at 12:45pm

The price increase is due to the lack of the AT45DB161D-SU. It normally cost $2-3 dlls, but companies are ripping people off with prices up to 21 dlls each... By the middle of 2011 the shortage may end and the prices will be lowered.
Admin

Morli September 20, 2010 at 12:36pm

Jeffery , I think it was answered to death since its birth. Like every one else I too wish that it was cheaper ( ?!! ) but now that it is shown that it can't be done any cheaper . Price is 160$ unless I missed a updated price announcement somewhere. Cheers
Developer

Max Levine September 20, 2010 at 5:06am

OK, thanks Jani and Chris.
Jeffrey batista September 19, 2010 at 9:03pm

Chris so the price will stay the same on the new board?
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson September 19, 2010 at 6:55pm

I'm flying with them, and see no problems. We've tested this one to death, and we can't confirm that that caps cause a performance degradation. But as Jordi says, if you ultimately don't want them, they'll now be easy to disable. (I'm going to keep mine)
Developer

Jani Hirvinen September 19, 2010 at 5:24pm

Max, this new board has all same components than Foxtrap was. Both of them fly the same but main issue was with 3 capasitors that acts as filters to accelerometers. Some people say that without those capasitors quad flies better but for fixedwing people capasitors must be there. So Jordi just made small modification which is solder jumper to disable/enable those capasitors.

We are still looking and testing behavior of these filters due there are a lot of conflict on our field tests that we try to find. On older IMU filters can be disables by removing those 3 small capasitors. But as I have flown with and without them... I have not seen any difference.

So old Foxtrap board is as good as this Hotel board.
Developer

Max Levine September 19, 2010 at 5:14pm

Jordi, can you pleas explain more about the acc filters ?
Do I need to get new board to fly arducopter, will it perform better ?
And how do I change tis filters on the old board ?
Thanks

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