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3D Robotics

New ArduPilot Mega boards off the production line!

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 19, 2010 at 11:00pm

That's Nathan Siedle, CEO of Sparkfun, handing me the very first ArduPilot Mega board to come off the Sparkfun production line. We were at an Arduino planning meeting in NYC; that's Massimo Banzi of the Arduino project in the back.


Here's a closeup photo of the board. It looks great! The only thing that's not quite right is the GPS connector is supposed to be sideways, so it doesn't rip off in a crash, but we'll fix that in the next batch. It doesn't really matter, because nobody will use that connector; they'll be using the GPS connector on the IMU shield instead.


Front:


Back:

I don't have an ETA on when they'll go on sale, but it's not long now!

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Comments

  • Andrew McCalip April 1, 2010 at 11:21pm
    Any updates?
  • John C. March 26, 2010 at 9:33pm
    I see a few changes from the beta APM board. Anything that is incompatible with aerial survival?

    Thanks!

    JC
  • Daniel Nugent March 24, 2010 at 2:51pm
    Oh yeah I never really thought about using extra channels with the ardupilot. Putting the pan and tilt through the ardupilot for the stabilization is a good idea! K now I starting to get the differances between the two.
  • Developer
    Jason Short March 24, 2010 at 9:17am
    Daniel,
    Some planes require more channels. I for one will be building a gimbal camera mount with stabilization. That's two extra channels right there. Also think of the Outback challenge. I think they have to drop a water bottle onto a hiker during a rescue. Another servo channel.
    The current Ardupilot was not designed for 2-way comm. it can be done, but it's not easy to support and can't be done when reading the GPS or IMU. There are some workarounds but they require soldering components to the board and we just can't offer that level of custom support. But if you are adventurous, have at it.

    The Mega, on the other hand, supports 2way com out of the box because the 1280 chip has multiple hardware uarts. It will be really easy to support this config with a newly design ground station.
  • Morli_ March 23, 2010 at 8:33pm
    oilpan is base board with additional options on which mega will sit
  • Tenzin March 23, 2010 at 8:25pm
    Daniel, could you share what was said?
  • Daniel Nugent March 23, 2010 at 8:18pm
    Oh ok. Thanks for filling me in. It makes a bit more sense but I guess I'll just have to wait like the rest of us to get the full scope. I can't wait to see it and hope to hear more about it soon!
    Thanks
    Daniel
  • Daniel Nugent March 23, 2010 at 8:06pm
    Oh that sounds cool. Thanks. Why would more channels be required if the plane is only a 4 channel? Wait didn't the ardupilot already contain two way telemetry with the xbee addition. Or does the mega just come with it as a standard. Aslo what is oil pan and what would more I/Os do. Sorry I'm asking so many questions I'm just really curious what all these additions are used for because I thought the ardupilot was pretty good and expandable. So would you say the ardupilot mega is just a beefed up and pre-upgraded version of the original ardupilot.
    Thanks
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson March 23, 2010 at 7:55pm
    Daniel, Morli's laid out the basic, but we're just giving previews of a product in development (it's the open source way!). When we're ready to release it will give a full list of features and a side-by-side comparison. The simple answer is that both ArduPilot and ArduPilot Mega are full-featured autopilots, but Mega is built around an IMU from the ground up and ArduPilot can handle either thermopiles or an IMU with a slightly less neat installation and no dymamic (in-air) mission planning.
  • Morli_ March 23, 2010 at 7:38pm
    Daniel,
    number of channels, more memory for future upgrade,faster processor(!?), more I/Os , 2way telemetry, new oil pan with additional sensors etc to start with should make you happy, cheers
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