And I was basically planning on using it as the hardware platform for my own integrated UAV controller.The specs TechFX Motion OSD IMU:* small 2"x2.5" size* fast dsPIC 40 MIPS 80 Mhz MCU* 3 axis accelerometer MMA7260Q with G selectable* 3 axis Gyroscope of IDG300's* MAX 7456 On screen display video overlay NTSC and PAL formats which overlays the data sent to it from the dsPIC over the Video input* (2) RCA jacks for Video in and Video out supporting NTSC and PAL formats* GPS port for 32 channel Sannav FV-M8 (Etek EB-85A) GPS module MAX 2 HZ update rate* DGPS port for optional RTCM DGPS updates* Xbee connectors (XSC gives maximum range of 15 miles!)* 256K I2C serial eeprom for storing settings, waypoints and GPS logger data* USB fullspeed 2.0 communications via FTDI chip* SPI, I2C and UART ports for using optional modules* (8) 3.3 volt IO configurable* (8) 5 volt Output configurable as PWM (servo) or TTL* 10 bit a2d* ICSP port for ICD2 or Pickit2 programmers* 5 volt 800 mA LDO voltage regulator* 3.3 volt 800 mA LDO voltage regulator* Full power and ground planes with quality 6 layer board design minimizes noise* Power ports including 3.3, 5 volt, and ground connections* Optional 0.100 “ headers* Voltage input of 6-9 volts DCI have been thinking of a setup like this:TechFX OSD/IMU with custom programming for Kalman, as well as waypoint and return home navigation, using an XBee 868 modem for control and telemetry plus a video TX for live feed with the OSD overlay.The TechFX has 8 PWM out, and I2C, and I have a I2C 8 servo controller board so there should be enough channels for flight, camera pan tilt and zoom, plus a few other tricks.On the ground I was planning on using a laptop with a custom app in C# to communicate with the UAV, and to be able to also control it manually when needed using normal USB flight sim controllers. The laptop would be showing the video stream, or moving map, or attitude/flight data or a mix of them all.I would use software to select autonomous, manual or a mixed mode on the TechFX but would most likely include a RC rx with a hardware mux as a backup in case of software failure.The airframe will be my ~40" trainer (see my bad pic) with a hefty noname brushless motor, 70amp ESC, and 22.2V Li-Po batteries (big) plus a 7A BEC for 5V and a 3A 9V DC-DC.Will have at least one belly mounted camera with pan and tilt to begin with and then add zoom and another down facing camera later probably.This will take quite some time as it is being built on a very small budget and will move slowly, plus there is a ton of programming to do which may also move slowly since I already do it for 8 hours a day at work.Any comments welcome :-)Ps in case anyone wonders, No I am not affiliated in any way to the silicon horizon.
No IMU or Autopilot SW, but the the drivers etc for the gyros and accelero are implemented. I have seen quite some examples of Kalmans on similar CPU's in other projects wich I have been thinking of borrowing. The sourcecode for the TechFX comes with it on the CD so adding/changing stuff should be easy. They also have a working altimeter using a SCP1000 via SPI which I will also try to use for airspeed measurement.
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