New ArduCopter, ArduPlane and ArduRover Wikis Operational (provisionally)

New ArduCopter, ArduPlane and ArduRover Wikis are Operational (provisionally)

The old existing Wiki(s) are no longer getting updated on a continuous basis so you need to start using the new Wiki(s).

During this transition you will need to use both of them (although for the PX4, the new one is the only way to go.

The picture above is of my new F330 Flamewheel with PX4FMU and PX4IO flight controller.

I have put PX4 Hardware and Firmware installation pages on all 3 of the New Wikis ArduCopter, ArduPlane and ArduRover.

ArduCopter: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter/

ArduPlane: http://plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/introduction/

ArduRover: http://rover.ardupilot.com/

All 3 have slightly customized versions of the Firmware install page.

And ArduCopter and ArduPlane hare very similar hardware installation pages but ArduRover, for the moment has PX4 and APM hardware install and setup on the same page.

I have updated ArduRover a lot but it will still be undergoing a serious further overhaul, at least it is pretty well up to date now.

The ArduPlane Wiki needs to be properly indexed (only a tiny fraction of the pages on the site are even in the current index).

ArduCopters index is entirely missing at the moment and you need to use the Table of Contents (at the bottom of the Quick Start Page) to get around in it at all.

And ArduRover needs to be relaid out from scratch.

However, that said, right now we are concentrating on getting the new Wiki pages installed and getting them up to date and properly illustrated.

One of the problems that is being addressed (by Joshua Ott) is coming up with a menu or TOC structure that will work with tablets.

In any case, The new Wiki contains the most up to date information especially re PX4 and also for the newest releases of firmware, so I would suggest looking them over and giving me some feedback re errors, omissions and any suggestions you might have.

I have been dynamically updating the Wiki based on the developers real time improvements for some time now and my goal is to make the information available to users in such a way that you don't need to ask the same questions over and over.

Given the intricacy of the PX4 procedures and techniques and the relatively smooth transition into people actually getting it to work this approach seems to be working pretty well.

On another note, on my little PX4 F330 Flamewheel was highly successful.

Its PX4 stack is mounted on an intermediate fiberglass plate which is itself on mounted on 3/4" Kyosho Zeal Gel pads on each corner with a small piece of light foam holding it down on top.

This resulted in very low vibration and a rock solid alt hold with no vertical movement at all except for long term real baro drift. (I live on the coast).

Rate PID P = .08, I = .05 is about perfect for this little hot rod with stock DJI motors and ESCs and 8" props.

Please save the above New Wiki links and start using the New Wiki as well as the old one.

The New Wiki will have the most recent information in it and I don't have the necessary hours in a day to update the old one as well.

Please give me some feedback, suggestions, corrections, omissions and desires, keeping in mind that the new Wiki is very much a work in progress.

Good Morning Chris, I'm happy to hear it, Ive been expounding the growing inappropriateness of Ardu for some time. I guess Auto Pilot Mega can blend into the PX4 which would still be an Auto Pilot and really Mega.

Hi Chester, Thank you, but still very much a work in progress and I will get some logs out here. I disarmed with the button, not the throttle down and to the left (and I knew better) so no logs, but in alt hold it was essentially stationary except as I said for baro generated slow drift.

And Richard, I totally agree, but the thing most in a mess is the indexing and Tables of Contents, that will be entirely fixed and by the time we are done it will be even better than the old wiki, if necessary over my dead body.

Thank You Mark.

Hi Hugues, Yes, as of very recently the answer is an enthusiatic yes. Is it perfect or troble free, no of course not, but neither is the APM and as of very recently because of the way they have redone the APM code to be common for both the APM and the PX4 as well as any future flight controllers, the differences are really small more related to available hardware port resources and are almost worked out. And the PX4 has that really swell pre-arm buton, not to mention 5 to 10 times the performance and memory of the APM so future growth is assured whereas the APM has pretty much run out of speed and memory. If they make a new one it will be a lot more like the PX4 than the existing APMs.

And titeuf, what can I say, DIYDrones is probably the most bleeding edge open source group in existence, sometimes old happens very quick, the APM is a perfectly good, solid capable flight controller, but it is truly out of growth space in every way possible and frankly, the APM really isn't any more rock solid than the PX4. For existing uses and applications, the APM may be slightly less troublesome and problematic than the PX4 (at this moment), but the difference now really is slight and for the PX4, what we are doing now is just the beginning, it really is a game changer. BTW the firmware running on the PX4 is for all practical purposes identical to the firmware in the APM the only real differences being to accommodate the different hardware resources.

I still have an APM 2 and I will continue to use it for a long time yet, I just won't be buying any more of them.

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Comments

Gary McCray June 7, 2013 at 12:09pm

Hi Monroe, The old wikis are still the ones in primary use and are still the ones on the top of the DIYdrones main page.

I suspect that even when they do put the new ones up there instead, they will maintain the old wikis for quite a while anyway. That said, pretty much everything that is all relevant is being transported to the new WordPress wikis anyway.

And there is a lot of new stuff that isn't in the old Google wikis.
Gary McCray May 9, 2013 at 7:21pm

Yes, just like in my original Blog above, really works well.
Gary McCray May 9, 2013 at 7:20pm

Hi all, Flew my F330 Flamewheel with PX4FMU and PX4IO mounted on 4 Kyosho Zeal pads and got this really excellent Accel graph.

Plus and minus one = 1/10 G

Has a 3/4" Zeal pad at each corner and is pushed down from above with soft foam.

I am running 3.0 with inertial and had very solid Alt Hold and Loiter in 10mph gusts.

May actually need to turn response in Loiter down a bit.

Rate P = .08 Rate I = .05 and 40 percent expo on transmitter. Stabilize is very solid.
Gary McCray April 30, 2013 at 11:32am

Hi Richard,

I just clicked on it and it worked fine for me.

These are still very much a work in progress, so there are definitely times they might be down for maintenance or for problems, but they are normally working now.
Richard (DK) April 30, 2013 at 6:08am

Not working

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Gary McCray April 29, 2013 at 5:28pm

I have now added a table of contents link to the top of all 100 ArduCopter New Wiki Instruction Pages:

Here: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter/

Blecch!!!
titeuf007 April 29, 2013 at 5:36am

thanks gary

it s true but px4 pin are not very userfriendly to connect servo,esc,and receiver..

they should create a board with pins like apm 2,5 which is easier way to connect something than their crapy pin ;)
Alejandro Martin Pirola April 28, 2013 at 8:59pm

Nice work!
Richard (DK) April 28, 2013 at 10:07am

Looking forward to final
Gary McCray April 28, 2013 at 9:53am

Good Morning Chris, I'm happy to hear it, Ive been expounding the growing inappropriateness of Ardu for some time. I guess Auto Pilot Mega can blend into the PX4 which would still be an Auto Pilot and really Mega.

Hi Chester, Thank you, but still very much a work in progress and I will get some logs out here. I disarmed with the button, not the throttle down and to the left (and I knew better) so no logs, but in alt hold it was essentially stationary except as I said for baro generated slow drift.

And Richard, I totally agree, but the thing most in a mess is the indexing and Tables of Contents, that will be entirely fixed and by the time we are done it will be even better than the old wiki, if necessary over my dead body.

Thank You Mark.

Hi Hugues, Yes, as of very recently the answer is an enthusiatic yes. Is it perfect or troble free, no of course not, but neither is the APM and as of very recently because of the way they have redone the APM code to be common for both the APM and the PX4 as well as any future flight controllers, the differences are really small more related to available hardware port resources and are almost worked out. And the PX4 has that really swell pre-arm buton, not to mention 5 to 10 times the performance and memory of the APM so future growth is assured whereas the APM has pretty much run out of speed and memory. If they make a new one it will be a lot more like the PX4 than the existing APMs.

And titeuf, what can I say, DIYDrones is probably the most bleeding edge open source group in existence, sometimes old happens very quick, the APM is a perfectly good, solid capable flight controller, but it is truly out of growth space in every way possible and frankly, the APM really isn't any more rock solid than the PX4. For existing uses and applications, the APM may be slightly less troublesome and problematic than the PX4 (at this moment), but the difference now really is slight and for the PX4, what we are doing now is just the beginning, it really is a game changer. BTW the firmware running on the PX4 is for all practical purposes identical to the firmware in the APM the only real differences being to accommodate the different hardware resources.

I still have an APM 2 and I will continue to use it for a long time yet, I just won't be buying any more of them.

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