Ardustation Mega with Graphic LCD

I’d like to share my latest hardware ground control station. I call it the ArduStation Mega.

It retains all the features found on the DIYDrones Ardustation, as well as my Ardustation Uno but with some very important upgrades.

Notably the main processor has been upgraded to an ATmega2560 giving 8 times the size of both flash and ram, amongst other things :)

Also there is a graphical LCD that should provide a larger, more user friendly display.

The extra serial ports (4 in total) will enable future expansions as and when required. One is dedicated to the USB for loading software as well as potentially being used to allow a computer to share the installed Xbee.

If you don’t want to use an Xbee, or want to use more than one, that’s fine- three of the serial ports are broken out to the left of the board. These could also be used for adding a GPS unit, or perhaps a bluetooth to pc link for example.

Also broken out is the i2c port, so you can link it up to a magnetometer if need be (could make for simpler antenna tracking alignment)

A micro SD card will allow data logging, parameter saving, mission uploading and hopefully more!

The rotary encoder (like a radio’s jog dial) should help with faster navigation / value editing. The buttons are also on a separate PCB such that they can be mounted flush with the display or separately subject to enclosure constraints. (Also this means I can change the layout of the buttons)

The battery supply and Xbee RSSI are connected to give health information on voltage and telemetry link signal strength. Additional analog pins are also broken out for monitoring external sensors.

The PCB has been sized to match the dimensions of the LCD, giving a neat install that can be attached with screws and spacers. All of the components are mounted on the inside as well, such that the total unit size is minimised.

As with my Uno version, I use a single cell LiPo for the battery source, with an efficient step up regulator for the 5v supply. There’s also inbuilt USB charging.

The antenna tracking will be achieved by the two servo headers on the right hand side of the board. These also have a solder jumper for selecting off-board power in case heavy duty servos are to be used.

Please let me know what you think!

If you want to see more, here's a video of me showing it off:

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Comments

Wojciech Batog January 20, 2012 at 4:43am

Great project!
I'm also developing an ardustation of sorts using an arduino MEGA , an OLED display and a rotary encoder.
Would you mind sharing the code cause I have some trouble running the ardustation code, particulary with MAVlink

greetings,
Wojciech
Colin January 20, 2012 at 3:09am

Thanks very much guys :)

Gareth, yes, I etched this board in my kitchen ;-)

Michael, yup its a 128x64 GCLD. I agree, some jumpers would be handy. I know my LCD has a different pinout to the one sparkfun offer, but according to the arduino help page there may be more than just two pins different.

You can find the schematics on my github page

Here's a picture of my prototype :)
Michael Urban January 19, 2012 at 10:29pm

Colin,

great design. It's about what I was thinking building myself. Is it a 128x64 GLCD you are using? If so, it might come handy to add two jumpers in the design to swap pins 1&2 (+5V, GND). That way different types of GLCD's can be used (some have the first two connections reversed).

Any chance you make the schematic available?

greetings,

Michael
Gareth Rens January 19, 2012 at 8:44pm

Impressive! Did you etch the board yourself?
Heino R. Pull January 19, 2012 at 6:16pm

Looks very good Colin, that is a nice board layout and would be much easier to debug with all the serial ports.
Admin

Thomas J Coyle III January 19, 2012 at 4:47pm

Colin,

Very nice design and execution. Definitely a step up from the original Ardustation!

Regards,

TCIII

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