In a previous post, I discussed our mainboard approach for ArduPilot Mega. In this post, I'd like to share our thinking about the expansion boards ("shields", in Arduino-speak).
As you can see in the above diagram, the core ArduPilot Mega will consist of two layers, just like the current ArduPilot. The core autopilot board will remain constant, while the IMU board will come out in versions, improving as sensor technology evolves. But there is also the option to add a third layer, which is an expansion board for additional functionality.
We will break out as many I/O (analog and digital) pins as possible to the expansion board, along with at least two serial ports. Some of the boards, such as the DIY sensor board, will be dual voltage.
Some of the boards proposed above may be ones for which there would be enough demand that we'd make and sell them ourselves. Others may be created by the community. ArduPilot is an open standard, like the rest of Arduino, so we'd like to encourage people to come up with their own shields, just as the community has done with the core Arduino boards.
So what do you think? Have we missed any obvious expansion board candidates? Any design decisions we should be making with the core ArduPilot Mega board or IMU to allow for more expansion options? (Remember, size is at a premium, so suggestions that require bigger or more expensive mainboards tend not to carry the day)
All the pins are forwarded to the second floor plus extra ones the original Arduino board didn't included. The only ones i didn't forward up are the servos pins.
This is proboaly obvious, but consider putting the signal lines for the LEDs out on one of the headers -- daughterboards might want those signals, or lines may be repurposed in future revs...
If you have space in your airframe, then you could use the double shields to add multiple expansion boards. They're basically blank double-size shields that just duplicate all the pins so you can plug multiple shields into one Arduino, even if the shields in question don't duplicate the pins. Liquidware do a double-wide and a double-tall, so you can mount them side-by-side or end-to-end. End-to-end would probably be easier to fit into most airframes, unless you have a nice hollow wing or something.
Stik, I understand your point, but that seems like a pretty specialized product. We'll probably leave that to the community to produce if people want one.
The USB is on the IMU to minimize the size of the mainboard (the IMU board has more room). It doesn't add much cost (~$3) to add that to alternate IMUs
Stik, ArduPilot has always had a dual power supply option (onboard regulator, in addition to using Rx power). We were planning to do the same with Mega. Is that what you had in mind?
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