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
Olivier I have some idea to share and some code too, I would like your opinion, can you please check your invitation so we can speak a little?
Yes you will get passthrough on Ch1-4 doing that and yes input 8 is connected to the PPM encoder.
You don't need the new ArduPPM firmware to get that, the older version are doing the same thing.
Would you mind giving me a quick run down of how the PPM and failsafe work?
I'm working a project based on the Ardupilot hardware but not the firmware, and need to have a way to switch from autopilot to manual control mode from an RC controller. From what I understand, I can connect a RC output to IN8, and when I send a pulse width greater than 1800us, it will go into passthrough mode. Specifically, IN1-IN4 will be passed directly to OUT1-OUT4. My question is, is there any software or code that needs to done other than flashing the PPM with the new, correct firmware? Will the PPM know when to switch modes based solely on the IN8 pulse? Then is IN8 also connected to the PPM? Thanks in advance for your help!
Yes it is possible. It is supported by the PPM encoder, but it needs to be supported as well in the ppm decoder.
This code is in the Radio library from the main AVR code.
Try it, perhaps it is working.
Eventually you can use a Jeti Duplex system. There is a fully settable PPM sum output on their receivers. You can set the number of channels, the frame rate (runing synchronous or asynchronous with a user rate).
You could use a Jeti RMK2 with only PPM sum output as well if you don't need normal PWM outputs.
You can set it to 8 channels mode even if you are transmitting 12 or 16 channels, and keep other channels on normal PWM outputs.
I don't know if other systems support this. Jeti is the most advanced one here in Europe for high end setups.
sorry if I used this thread but I have hard time getting in contact with some developer.
Frank, Michael Oborne is working on the planner side. Perhaps you could push a feature request in the issue tracker.
If you are interested in developping something interesting for the project, please open a separate Blog entry or forum thread.
Check as well this Blog entry :
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-contribute-to-the
The project is becoming now quite complex with many hardware components and softwares, so the development Team needs to be managed tightly to avoid slowing down the project. Another problem is that we are working with planes or copters, in this regards we need to hardly focus on reliability and choose the right balance between new functions and code reliability / speed.
oliver I have a good code on plane and need planner to help it, can you consider to help?
now I have camera moving with dcm and gps to target a place, when I move the camera code returns the new lat and lon pointed.
xplane simulation and ground test reveals no need error correction, but point at a moving car is only doable with opencv and if target altitude is different from home.alt it point over or under the ground.
Also I need google earth terrain altitude because actually my code assumes target altitude same as home.alt so when I move the camera she points wrong if altitude is different and plane canìt know anything about that.
10hz is eoungh to point the camera, my code will do the interpolations.
I'm blan on opencv and gearth api but code is almost ready to receive the commands..if someone could help..
oliver can you implement on planner the algorithm to send target altitude, I can do the apm part.
actual planner needs to receive a lat lon from plane and send back altitude read from google api, than should be able to track an object on video downlink with opencv and return the offset from center, in this way tracking of fixed ground will be perfect and we can track a moving target too.
Ok thx. I propably have older encoder than these new versions named "ArduPPM" because led led blinks at constant rate few times per second...
If you have ArduPPM, then the blue LED near the PWM input headers should blink changing his speed according to throttle PWM value. See the ArduPPM manual (available in the ardupilot-mega "Downloads" section) for LED status reports.
Good work! Little oftopic but is there simple way to check what is my current Arduppm version? My board is 2560 and ordered late in may 2011 from Diydrones store. I like to update because i'm using frsky receivers which are known to give problems in some cases.
Regards Jani
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