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3D Robotics

ArduPilot Mega Now Available!

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 28, 2010 at 1:00pm


It's available now from Sparkfun! $59.95.


And cool home page promo on the Sparkfun site here.


Here's a quick FAQ for people just now coming to the site, or hearing about ArduPilot Mega for the first time:

  • It is designed to work with an IMU "shield" (board that fits on top) that contains all the sensors. That board will be available by the end of May. The latest info on the shield is here.
  • You'll need two right-angle 3x8 connectors to attach your RC gear.
  • The ArduPilot Mega code will build on ArduPilot 2.6 and be available in about a month.

We recommend this board just for people who want to beta test or tinker. For regular users who want a plug-and-play (ish) experience, it's best to wait a few weeks for us to release the IMU shield, code and documentation. (The Sparkfun board will also be tweaked a bit, with mostly cosmetic changes to make some pin labeling clearer, in the next batch.)

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Comments

  • Ryan April 30, 2010 at 3:15am
    I can't believe that people thinks that this is expensive!

    I mean $150-$200 for a full IMU Autopilot, and unlimited support - what more do you want?! LOL

    I think the ArduMega will be a very good platform for many cool things to come.
  • Javier Robaina April 30, 2010 at 2:45am
    Hi, this is my first participation on this website, but I have enough time reading, I've been waiting a long time to ardupilot mega project to start in a UAV, I would like to know how to stabilize the mega Ardupilot, if necessary or infrared sensors on the contrary, the IMU can be used as the standard Ardupilot and which would be the necessary components to complete the project, not if I'm wrong, I think you need is: MEGA Ardupilot, IMU, GPS, do not know if I'm wrong and lack a component, a greeting from the Canary Islands.

    Excuse my English, but do not write in English and use a translator of google.
  • jaron April 30, 2010 at 1:43am
    With the ArduPilot Mega (40 x 69 mm) you get an Arduino Mega (54 x 112 mm) + additional features + a smaller form factor. And you wouldn't believe it but it costs 5$ less!

    Congrats to everybody who was involved into this project.
  • Developer
    Jordi Muñoz April 29, 2010 at 11:38pm
    Bryce, I asked the same question time ago, Why Arduino Mega ($64.95) cost a lot more than the Original Arduino Board ($29.95)?

    If you watch carefully ArduPilot costs $24.95, and ArduPilot Mega $59.95, do you see a relation?

    Atmega1280 is more expensive and is very difficult to handle and test... They test every pin.... Also as bigger is the board, more shipping costs (weight) from China and the factory charges by area, every square inches is an extra $$! I see many, many reasons why is more expense...

    But in general this board is really, really cheap... Not to mention the code...
  • Andrew Burns April 29, 2010 at 11:24pm
    Significantly larger main microcontroller, significantly larger failsafe controller, larger boards which will cost more, many more tracks which would have required a lot more effort to route etc... It's still fairly cheap when you consider the total package will likely cost the same as the current total ardupilot package.
  • Bryce Wilkinson April 29, 2010 at 11:05pm
    Wait, so what does this board have that makes it so much more expensive than the regular board.
  • Ryan April 29, 2010 at 1:28am
    Nice - I ordered one.
  • Admin
    Morli April 28, 2010 at 10:48pm
    small package and Fedex priority is just 2-3$ more but lot faster. I got mine delivered 4th & 5th day for two orders to asia.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson April 28, 2010 at 10:44pm
    Code is probably a month off. Doug Weibel is leading that team and they're making good progress, but we'll want to do some serious flight testing before releasing.
  • Dimitar Kolev April 28, 2010 at 10:37pm
    To Pedro Assuncao - no problems with delivery times from Sparkfun to the other side of Europe - I am in Sweden. However they sent me once heart rate monitor DIY PCB instead of pressure sensor, but I took it, too for another project :-) General rule is to keep package small, to be faster.
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