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Ardupilot Shield

Posted by bGatti on February 15, 2009 at 7:00pm
So here is a first pass at a Shield for the Ardupilot capable of hosting many of the 3v devices available at Sparkfun.Xbee Pro3v GPS - externalVenus GPS module with chip Ant.2 Axis Gyro3 Axis AccelA Plug for the IR Sensor ModuleThe Board needs more work etc,... But I thought it would be invaluable to put something up as a conversation starter.Eagle Files...OS - Credit: ArduPilot base board for pin locations etc ... Thanks Everyone (Help anyone?)
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  • bGatti February 21, 2009 at 1:27pm
    The second processor would be 3v - this would allow for a full spread of peripherals to be supported.
    I'll have to look at the Arduino-Arduino bridge in the context of switched voltages.

    Ben
  • lionel February 21, 2009 at 11:00am
    being able to do on-the-fly waypoint reconfig would be such a plus :))
  • lionel February 21, 2009 at 10:59am
    another benefit of having 2 processors is hardware partition of applications, quite important with some applications. But never the less, this would be a huge plus. I googled for the processors used by the compact digital cameras to encode MPEG-4 video on the fly. Helas, no result, but they are very cheap and very low power as they can be found inside sub $200 cameras ( http://www.dpreview.com )
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  • Noth666 February 21, 2009 at 9:57am
    via XBee etc
  • Noth666 February 21, 2009 at 9:57am
    @magnus: very good idea, that would also allow for on-the-fly waypoint reconfig if the GPS itself is hooked to the shield rather than the ardupilot directly
  • Magnus February 21, 2009 at 9:28am
    if the shield board contain a second microprocessor it might replace the ArduPilotPro. I have been thinking about this for a wile and isn't it a good idea that everyone that already bought a ArduPilot could upgrade it to a Pro by adding a daughter board. This board could add pressure sensors and a processor with two UARTS (one for GPS and one for ground station communications) and then we have an autopilot that could match most commercial autopilots on a VERY small footprint.
  • Reto February 21, 2009 at 9:13am
    Just a note to mention that some national regulations could restrict the use of the Xbee Pro RF frequencies for video transmission. It is the case, for example, in Switzerland where video is not allowed through the Xbee Pro 868 which is limited to data transmission. I do not know why, though. Probably to keep video apps in the 2.4GHz range. On the other hand, once compressed, video IS data !
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 21, 2009 at 7:51am
    Yes, a "shield" is just a second board that fits on top of the main board and can have some specialty function(s). Designed to simplify attachment.
  • lionel February 21, 2009 at 4:16am
    think of non stackable mezzanine boards. Some shields can be found on the http://arduino.cc website
  • Peter Seddon February 21, 2009 at 3:50am
    Can someone define a 'Shield' - I thought it was a device used for protection but it looks more like a sensor interface?
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