@Olav. Not at the moment, but we are working on a version of the software that could support that. The hardware will be the same, and will use the FMA thermopile sensor heads.
The first hundred or so will have the diode; after that it will have the power regulator. I actually prefer the one with the diode since I'm powering the board with the Rx and it's impossible to reverse the polarity (+ is the middle pin in RC connectors), so I just bridge the diode to bring the board power up to 5V. Fewer parts and things to go wrong, slightly smaller board, etc.
But if you're intending to power the board with a separate battery, you might want to wait for the power regulator version. I'm not sure why someone would want to do that, but we did want to offer that flexibility.
Welcome! You raise some good points. Right now we solve the single serial port problem with one-way telemetry. The GPS gets the RX pin and the Xbee sending telemetry to the ground (on the FTDI port) gets the TX pin.
The way Arduino works is that you can create "software serial" ports on other digital pins. There's a significant performance penalty, but it can work if you're not sending data often. That might work for the return path for ground communications.
Hi, I'm just entering this discussion after following for some time. I have been working with an auotopilot with a design very similar to the ArduPilot but because lacking knowledge in PCB design all my implementations have been to unreliable to fly with. Therefore the news of ArduPilot came as a great christmas present. I have ordered one and i hope i will be able to contribute to the code development. Actually i came quite a long way in accomplish both stabilization (copilot sensors) and navigation on a single AVR Mega 168.
My biggest concern with the Mega 168 was the lack of a second serial port. Having both a serial GPS and to way telemetry was really hard to implement. At least for me. Have you had any thoughts on that? another question is how you are implementing the cpu to cpu communication on the ArduPilot Pro board. That board will have to UARTS, but they are spread over two chips.
I have really been waiting for the AttoPilot to become available, but this project really got me going again.
Things i could contribute with if there is an interest in is a ground station communication protocol that i am quite happy with. It is text based but more condensed than sending complete NMEA sentences.
Comments
But if you're intending to power the board with a separate battery, you might want to wait for the power regulator version. I'm not sure why someone would want to do that, but we did want to offer that flexibility.
Thanks.
Nick
Do you know when the ardupilot will be available again in sparkfun?
Welcome! You raise some good points. Right now we solve the single serial port problem with one-way telemetry. The GPS gets the RX pin and the Xbee sending telemetry to the ground (on the FTDI port) gets the TX pin.
The way Arduino works is that you can create "software serial" ports on other digital pins. There's a significant performance penalty, but it can work if you're not sending data often. That might work for the return path for ground communications.
My biggest concern with the Mega 168 was the lack of a second serial port. Having both a serial GPS and to way telemetry was really hard to implement. At least for me. Have you had any thoughts on that? another question is how you are implementing the cpu to cpu communication on the ArduPilot Pro board. That board will have to UARTS, but they are spread over two chips.
I have really been waiting for the AttoPilot to become available, but this project really got me going again.
Things i could contribute with if there is an interest in is a ground station communication protocol that i am quite happy with. It is text based but more condensed than sending complete NMEA sentences.
Good luck with the tests!
Magnus
Stockholm, Sweden
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