I've seen that ArduPPM 0.9.87 has been downloaded about 2 hundred times.
It seems that we have no negative reports with this version.
This is a very good result and does confirm the good results we had at initial testing in the lab and through the development team.
I feel that we could now push this firmware to the realease 1.0 status.
If you have any decoding problems, please report it, so that i can include it as a note in the manual.
If you are happy with it, let us know as well. It will help to push it to 1.0 release.
There will be no modifications for the 1.0 release. We need rock solid massively tested code here because it is a very important link in the APM system.
ArduPPM binary is available in the Ardupilot-Mega Downloads section.
http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/downloads/list
More informations about ArduPPM here :
http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Encoder?wl=en
If you don't know what is the ppm encoder, if you have no idea about how to program an AVR chip or if you have simply no need for it, then it's ok to keep your actual version.
Thanks, and happy flying.
Comments
APM 2.0 has provision for bidirectionnal communication between ppm encoder AVR and main AVR.
You will get two ppm sum inputs available as well through a 3 way solder pad so that you can route the ppm encoder output to the main avr, or use two ppm sum receivers direct to the main AVR, or use one ppm sum receiver and one normal receiver.
another solution is that ppm chip read and creates ppm sum, both connected to rx, this is doable and will work, I've done that before with my own autpilot years ago. obviaously you should cut the ppm sum trace in the rx make it unusable in the usual way.
I studeid the hw. ppm code can't better than this so the things I point are not a ppm code "bug", go on with the 1.0 release.
I suggest to point up the limitation of hardware both in ppm and aux funcions wiki so nobody crash the plane thinking that he can survive an apm hang or reboot.
I never understood why ppm is not talking full duplex with apm via i2c spi a couple of pin or whatever, actual hw design is tricky and limited, hope they did better with apm 2. I simply fly with only 1 aileron connected to apm, it wors and does its work whitout any risk. External solution are dozens, adding risk in various way. the simplest is an external arduino doing the thing instead of ppm, cutting the problem out.
But best solution is to have the throttle on ch5 and connect the dual ail on ch1. a random throttle is a thing I can survive, a random aileron not.
please consider that same can happen with camera...imagine you cant still fly because rc and videolink is full working but apm hanged and camera points the sky..lose a plane in such a way is something I can't accept :)
Helldesk, i'm not a plane guy as i said, but i think you could use something like a gws elevon mixer.
The APM 2.0 does not have a hardware mux to save room and lower the cost.
If you want a hardware mux with APM 2.0, then you could use a dual receiver external mux. It's about 15$ for a 7 Ch one.
Andy, this is not a ppm encoder task. The ppm encoder is only used as a bypass for the PPM signal. In this mode, the only smart thing it does, is generating failsafe ppm values if the input signal is lost.
So there is no real difficulties to use more than 8 channels with a PPM sum receiver signal, but it will ask modifications in the ppm decoder in the main avr firmware to take care of added channels.
Another solution already usable, is to use a receiver with a high number of PWM servo outputs plus a settable PPM sum output. Jeti for example do have such very flexible receivers where you can map channels on outputs, and set the number of channels you want in the ppm sum output.
Ah, I was afraid I remembered correctly about the hardware limitation. Any recommendations for hardware mixers that would enable separate/dual ailerons via channel 1? Does the same limit exist in the APM 2.0 hardware?
This is a question about the limit of 8 channels in the input stream. I use a 9-channel JR9303 transmitter together with DragonLink radios that are capable of 12 channels. Both of these seem to eliminate me as a candidate for PPM passthrough.
My question is this- Couldn't ArduPPM handle an input data stream with an arbitrary number of channels and then create the required 8-channel stream for APM? Fewer than 8 channels could be "filled" with 1500ms data. More than 8 channels could be ignored. Only the first 8 channels would be passed to the APM processor. Receivers like DragonLink with "extra" channels would be able to control other devices and this would allow popular transmitters with more than eight channels to be used. Can you comment on this concept?
Thanks.
No, it can't. There is no link between the ppm encoder ATMega328p chip and CH5-8 outputs. Ch5-8 do come straight from the main AVR only.
CH1-4 outputs do come from the main AVR and from the CH1-4 inputs through a mux chip. A mux is like a digital switch. Look at the APM v1.4 schematics available in the store here :
http://stuff.storediydrones.com/ArduPilotMega_v141.zip
I have no knowledge about the RC aux library. I never worked on it.
If you want a hardware passthrough on all channels, the simpler would be to use an external RC controlled switch with 2 groups of 8 inputs.
I'm not sure to understand why.
I need a straight reply to this question is ppm able to write down 5-8 channels?
can you please help me with rc aux library I need to move servo but no way...see post in amp 2.x software please.
I need to make contact to a developer because I have a lot of code to implemente and can't find the variables or functions, if I keep doing this alone I will lose a month where a little help can make things straight in a minutes.
can we chat a little?
We can't do Ch1-8 passthrough. Only ch1-4 are physically linked to a passthrough mux chip.
If you want to keep passthrough mode for dual aileron then i think you'll need an external servo mixer.
There is no possibility to read ch1-4 from APM in the PPM encoder because there is a mux chip, effectively isolating signals.
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