The PX4 team is pleased to announce early availability of the PX4 autopilot platform, with hardware available immediately from 3D Robotics.
The platform is a low cost, modular, open hardware and software design targeting high-end research, hobby and industrial autopilot applications.
PX4 is an expandable, modular system comprising the PX4FMU Flight Management Unit (autopilot) and a number of optional interface modules.
The PX4FMU autopilot features include:
- 168Mhz ARM CortexM4F microcontroller with DSP and floating-point hardware acceleration.
- 1024KiB of flash memory, 192KiB of RAM.
- MEMS accelerometer and gyro, magnetometer and barometric pressure sensor.
- Flexible expansion bus and onboard power options.
Expansion modules available at release include:
- PX4IOAR This module interfaces PX4 to the AR.Drone motor controllers, allowing a complete quadrotor to be assembled using an AR.Drone frame and motors.
- PX4IO A flexible interface module with support for eight PWM servo outputs, relays, switched power and more.
As an open hardware design, third-party and DIY expansion modules can be easily developed for specific applications, and more PX4 modules are in development.
In addition to the versatile hardware platform, PX4 introduces a sophisticated, modular software environment built on top of a POSIX-like realtime operating system. The modular architecture and operating system support greatly simplify the process of experimenting with specific components of the system, as well as reducing the barriers to entry for new developers.
Adding support for new sensors, peripherals and expansion modules is straightforward due to standardized interface protocols between software components. Onboard microSD storage permits high-rate logging and data storage for custom applications. MAVLink protocol support provides direct integration with existing ground control systems including QGroundControl and the APM Mission Planner.
Pricing of the PX4 components reflects more than a year of careful development and a strong commitment from our manufacturing partner.
This release is targeted at early adopters and developers looking for a more capable platform than existing low-cost autopilots. With more than an order of magnitude more processing power and memory compared to popular 8-bit autopilot platforms, PX4 is exceptional value for money and provides substantial room for future growth.
For more information about the PX4 autopilot platform, visit the project website at http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/px4/
PX4 modules can be purchased from our manufacturing partner, 3DRobotics.
Comments
Actually the comment of Chris was not accurate. The full amount indicated on the website was reserved for normal customers, plus there was a batch for developers. Both have been delayed by challenges in the production (and the unanticipated stop of the supply of one of the sensors) of the first batch, and both have been shipped partially as boards became available. There are customers that have received the boards and there are developers still waiting. A new batch with a new revision has been set up and should start shipping any moment.
No no no no. That post by Chris Anderson related to a totally different autopilot, and it was factually wrong! That post was about the Lisa family of paparazzi autopilot hardware (which has always been open source despite the misinformation early in that thread - it was corrected later on).
I'm also not sure that being Open Source frees you from ITAR restrictions by the way either, but that's another topic all together. I don't know how 3DR complies with their export restrictions, but it's none of my business - I assume they do, otherwise they would surely have been shut down by now.
@Nick V,
I hear you, I had the same experience (ordered on day 1 then was annoyed by "processing" for a few weeks before it shipped), however it did arrive soon after that and the hardware is fine, no problems. I'm relaxed about it now, this is just the nature of adopting new hardware early in it's lifecycle. I guess it has something to do with small production runs and unpredictable demand.
Hi Nick,
Please direct this question directly to 3DR - the hardware is fine and I think quite a few orders already shipped. I'm sure they can follow up on this quite quickly.
@chc2111 Can you share your Discovery board config? Maybe in a Github Fork? That would be really cool.
@Nick The AR.Drone flashes new firmware on the motors once you connect them first (a new drone will take a little longer on the first boot due to this). So essentially just connect an AR.Drone to the motors before you use them with PX4.
We are also working on instructions how to flash a new AR.Drone motor without the actual AR.Drone. PX4 does not use custom motor firmware.
Please ask any further questions if possible on PX4 answers:
http://answers.px4.ethz.ch/
This will help to keep them available and well organized for other users too.
The latest win build env works a-ok for me (I was having problems with the HOME variable not being set but that's all sorted now).
Looking forward now to the PX4 arriving in the mail!
I have a Discovery F4 board too. I hope get a PX4 stack soon.
My Windows IDE is up. but Mac has brew errors that need fixing.
@Joe We're using DMA in various places, e.g. on UART and ADC. SPI DMA is pending, but will follow as well.
You can use QGC as well as APM Mission Planner, we're mostly using QGC internally. The development platform we use includes Windows, Linux and Mac OS, there is no particular focus on any of these platforms.
The IMU is calibrated statically and dynamically (mag). You can trigger the calibration from mission planner or QGC.
I'd be interested in a Discovery config too.
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