We're delighted to announce the new APM 2.5+, which is the same APM 2.5 board you know and love but surrounded by lots of new goodness! Now, for a new lower price of $179, it comes with all this, right out of the box:
The new APM 2.5 enclosure, available in both top pin (above) and side pin (right) styles. It's designed to keep your electronics safe while looking great at the same time! The enclosure is made of black translucent ABS plastic so you can see the board's LEDs. It protects your electronics while allowing access to all pins and connectors. The inside of the enclosure is lined with ESD safe open cell foam to ensure the barometric pressure sensor is surrounded by static air and prevent unwanted readings due to airflow over the sensor. And the screws that secure the enclosure have been moved to the top for ease of use. It's also available as a stand-alone product for $4.99. (customers who already have an APM 2.5 are eligible for a coupon code to get a free enclosure with their next order. Email sales@3drobotics.com if you don't already have one)
The new APM Power Module, available with either XT60 (shown) or Deans connectors. It's a simple way of providing your APM 2.5 with clean power from a LiPo battery as well as monitoring current consumption and battery voltage measurements, all through a 6-pos cable that plugs in neatly. The board is also shrink-wrapped to protect it (the bare board is shown here so you can see the innards). Been wondering what that "mystery connector" was on APM 2.5? Now you know! This will ensure that you have no brown-outs due to insufficient BEC power from your ESCs, and makes current and voltage monitoring easy! It's also available as a stand-alone product for $24.99
Our new Version 2 of the Mediatek GPS module. This takes all the learning we've had with the Mediatek over the past two years and wraps it up in one vastly improved product. New big ground plane antenna to improve reception! On-board battery for fast lock! New firmware for better performance and datalogging! Also available as a stand-alone product for $37.95.
Oh, and did I mention that we also lowered the price of APM 2.5 by $20 at the same time?? This is all thanks to our new production facilities in Tijuana, which allow us to make an increased volume of products at higher quality and lower prices. We're even adding a new Manncorp four-head pick-and-place machine there to handle even higher volume!
Comments
Rashed:
To give some perspective, they announced the sale on the 21st, it started at midnight the 23rd (EST time), and after almost 48 hours, I ordered something and the number was 34805. Then 6 days later, I ordered another item and that was number 35447, a 642 order difference. My guess is the 24 hours before my first order, there were at least 100-200 more orders and with the sale ending 49 hours after my first order, they likely had 400 or so orders during the sale. Filling 400 orders is no easy task, especially with how they have to double check everything. I finally got mine in today and it was well packed and I'm happy about it but I wasn't in a hurry either. I ship a lot of things since I buy/sell to fund my hobbies and I know it's a pain taking care of everything.
Maybe something that could be done similar to what was done back at the APM 2.0 launch is when there are some sales going on, 3DR could just post on Twitter what the last order was to go out that day. That way, there's a way for people to generally have an idea of when they may get theirs. Of course if the main item people want is backordered, it's hard to get the right idea of when an item might ship but it could be helpful.
Just a thought.
Rashed: Sorry about that. I've checked with the sales department and they working flat out to catch up from the overwhelming Black Friday sale orders. You should hear back from them by the end of the day. They're hoping to be caught up with shipments by the end of the week.
For battery connector problems, if it's just between Deans and XT60, couldn't a simple adapter between the two work just fine? Sure, there's an ohm or two of resistance it adds but it allows you to use multiple batteries.
As for bullet vs. XT60 from HK, depending on the size of the battery, I see both come in so they have them as one or another for a reason most of the time it seems, although it's been a bit since I ordered a battery from them.
@Chris
Chris , I dont mind which way we go as long Diydrones makes a standard connectors so we all stick to that. for instance I got a new battery for my son's quadcopter from hobby king that uses Bullet type connector ( Turnigy) and only a few months earlier I bought some batteries again from the same company for my Arduplane and they used XT60. I hope I can reach to a level that i dont have to keep changing my connectors. now add insult to injury, I have many batteries for my other RC Turbines and planes that all use different different connectors,( The balancing and the main discahrge lead connectors) when it comes to charging my batteries the bench looks like a labarotory with all sorts of charging leads. this is what i hope we could reach to a consensus to standardise our connectors in Diydrones to overcome this problem. and your adaptor is a good idea by the way.
The Universal solution is to have Female T plug - Male XT60 adapter and Female T plug - Male XT60 to cobert all the combinations al says Chirs
I find that soldering Deans and XT60's take only a few minutes, so I can just switch between them easily when I need to. I use both connectors at the moment, and usually just stick to whatever connector the batteries I bought for that particular RC craft have on them, and solder on a matching connector to the ESC's. Some day, I might standardize everything, but I have different packs for every model, so there isn't a need.
Avionics: Unfortunately we're part of the larger RC world, and that's migrating from Deans to XT60. It's very hard to buy a new LiPo without a XT60 these days. I personally like the XT60 better, so I've made the conversion. I recommend you use these conversion plugs, rather than soldering on new connectors.
Gabor: APM 1.4 doesn't have that PM connector. But it does have its own built-in voltage monitoring already.
I wish I see the day that we only have one type of battery connector standardised for all type so we dont have to keep changing the battery connectors. This is causing a lot of hasstle for me, I wonder others share the same view? OR perhaps we i.e Diydrone membaers standardise a connector and select one battery type so that at least we solve this problem !?
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
of 11 Next