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ArduStation Assembly Instructions

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on June 25, 2009 at 2:00pm


What you will need:
-ArduStation Kit
-Soldering Iron:

-Solder:

-Flush/diagonal cutters:

Recommended:
-Low Profile Multimeter:

-Disordering Tool:



-This is what you will find inside the ArduStation components antistatic bag (LCD is included of course):


-Lets start soldering the non polarized capacitors (.1uF), when you are done place the xBee headers:


-After you placed the xBee headers, place any xBee module you have available to hold the headers in the right angle, then solder:


-Continue with the Atmega328 socket and the buzzer, watch out with the buzzer polarity!:


-Now place the protection diode (check the white strip) and the power regulator, be careful both have polarity too:


-Lets continue with the potentiometers, one is for the contrast with the number "103" or 10Kohms (UP) and the other with the long pins is for the backlight LED, with the number "502" or 5Kohms (down).


-An extra picture:


-Now solder the first 100uF polarized capacitors, check out the white strip (negative).


-Now solder the second 100uF polarized capacitors, check out the white strip (negative).


-No solder the 16Mhz Resonator (orange/brown one), is not polarized, the reset button and the power jack (easy):



Now we need to solder the LED's, but i have chosen very bright LED's in order to see something under the sun, but they are clear, so no way to see the color and one of the was inverted polarity (the long pin is the negative). A solution for that is using a the multimeter, just choose the continuity option or diode test (both will work):

This trick works great for SMD LED, for normal LED will not be so effective but it will work. Anyway just place the multimeter probes in the LED and see in with side the LED turns on and check the color also the LED side that the multimeter red probe is touching is the positive polarity of the LED. In the back of the board you can check the positive polarity of the LED holes:


-After you solder the LED's in the right way, is time to solder the funniest part, the buttons:


-Turn the board and place the Atmega328 carefully (the little half-circle divot on the chip should be on the side with the little half-circle in the socket; ignore the position of the red dot on the chip, which is not meaningful). The processors comes with bootloader pre-loaded:


-Now just solder the LCD (you can use female headers so you can remove the LCD anytime) and the FTDI port. You are ready to connect it. Note: You can't upload code when the xBee is connected.


-When you are ready, just upload the ArduStaion demo code here. It should work with ArduPilot and show you real time telemetry as indicated:


-By pressing the buttons left and right you can change the screen data.


You can find the latest code here:
http://code.google.com/p/ardu-station/
The example is commented and you adapt this system to any of your projects!

Enjoy!
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Comments

  • heckmic October 7, 2011 at 10:51am

    Yes, tried both, with external and without external power. In the second video you see, that when its external powered the LCD is off.

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson October 7, 2011 at 10:48am

    Are you powering the board when you program it?

  • heckmic October 7, 2011 at 9:35am

    Yes, i can. Ardupilot, Arduino mini, no problem.

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson October 7, 2011 at 9:34am

    heckmic: maybe your PC isn't properly configured for Arduino. Can you program other Arduino boards with it?

  • heckmic October 7, 2011 at 9:23am

    My Ardustation won't work. I can't upload any code. Its the 2nd Ardustation with still the same error.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vamlA0fF_VA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3ddhvP65o

  • heckmic September 25, 2011 at 11:45am

    By turning the potentiometers the Display shows two lines of Black Stripes (1st, 3rd). But i still got:

     

    Binary sketch size: 11970 bytes (of a 30720 byte maximum)
    avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
    avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51

    Whats wrong?

  • heckmic September 24, 2011 at 5:43am

    Hi, my Ardustation is not working. Only the green LEDs is on. No LCD. When i want to upload the Software there are these Errors:

    Binary sketch size: 11970 bytes (of a 30720 byte maximum)
    avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
    avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51

     

    Com Port ist set correct, Board ist set to Arduino Dumulanove 328.

    Atmega is setuped right (A0-A5 to A0-A5 on Frame).

    Whats wrong?

     

  • shaheen July 30, 2011 at 12:16am

    how many voltage require for ardustation

  • Electronics April 8, 2011 at 8:17am
    Hi all .....

    May I ask experts ... In EZ-ground-station we connect the ground station with audio port in VRX (video receiver) to get the GPS data for tracking antenna pointing ...

    What is the same manner in ARDU-STATION ??
  • Nigel April 6, 2011 at 9:41am

    Don't know if this is any help to anyone but here is a short video I did to show a method of fitting the ArduStation into a box:

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gahVIxl5S-U

This reply was deleted.