Blogs

Long time since my last post!

I'm glad to announce the new ArduIMU V3 that will take the place of the very successful ArduIMU v2 (flat version). We called it flat version because ArduIMU V2 was created in a time where 3 axis and even 2 axis gyros were not so common and we had to place some of the gyros vertically. Good times... 

ArduIMU v2 was the first low cost IMU that had gyros that allowed me to keep it flat, but they were bulky and expensive. I had to use two gyro chips for the XYZ axis, another for the three axis acceleration and you had to place the magnetometer externally. Another "disadvantage" was that all the sensors (but the mag) were analog, by default limited to 10-bits and required all the analog inputs in order to read them and you were also limited by the default filtering configuration and other noisy issues. 

All the limitation we had with ArduIMU V2 are all gone with the V3. ArduIMU V3 features the new MPU-6000, that includes 3 axis gyros & accells built-in and process everything internally that is some kind of dual core power (24-bits ADC sampling and sensor fusion is handled inside the MPU), the latest 3 axis I2C magnetometer HMC-5883L and the classic but very robust Arduino Atmega328 running at 16Mhz... 

MPU-6000 uses SPI for max performance. Did I say user configurable low pass filtering and scale range? Hell yeah... and here are some of the other specs:

• Digital-output of 6 or 9-axis MotionFusion data in rotation matrix, quaternion, Euler Angle, or raw data format
• Tri-Axis angular rate sensor (gyro) with a sensitivity up to 131 LSBs/dps and a full-scale range of ±250, ±500, ±1000, and ±2000dps
• Tri-Axis accelerometer with a programmable full scale range of ±2g, ±4g, ±8g and ±16g
• Reduced settling effects and sensor drift by elimination of board-level cross-axis alignment errors between accelerometers and gyroscopes
• Digital Motion Processing™ (DMP™) engine offloads complex MotionFusion, sensor timing synchronization and gesture detection
• MotionApps™ Platform support for Android, Linux, and Windows, with Windows Phone platforms on the roadmap
• Digital-output temperature sensor
• Digital input on FSYNC pin to support video Electronic Image Stabilization and GPS
• Programmable interrupt supports gesture recognition, panning, zooming, scrolling, free fall interrupt, high-G interrupt, zero-motion detection, tap detection, and shake detection
• Full Chip Idle Mode Supply Current: 5µA
• On-chip timing generator with ±1% frequency variation over full temperature range
• User self test
• 10,000g shock tolerant

Other ArduIMU V3 features:

• Pin compatible with ArduIMU V2.
• Breadboard compatible (ArduIMU V2 was not!).
• Cheaper price (around $60 $78dlls, not confirmed).. 
• Smaller size (1.5" x 1.0").
• Atmega CPU has more % available for other tasks.  
• The 6 analog pins are now available!
• Arduino compatible and open source.
• 3 status LED's (RGB).
• I2c port with 3.3V translation.   
• GPS port with FTDI autoswitch. 
• This device is suitable for ANY application from rockets to simple movement detection.

The release date is estimated to be in two-three weeks. We are waiting for the final big batch and finish some code. We will take pre-orders soon.   

We also cooking BIG new goodies that will be announced also this month... =) 

[UPDATE 11/15/2011]: You can buy it now check this post: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arduimu-v3-ready-for-pre-order-and-check-our-new-color