I been working on this project for about a year, but i never had the time to finish it. Is very difficult go to the field with your bulky laptop all the time, not to mention that you can damage it and the battery life is to short (the sun on the screen don't let you see anything). So i spent some time using Olimex development board with the Atmega128, but i want it to make it simpler, open-source, bigger screen (with back light) and Xbee compatible. So i come to this:
-Atmega328 at 16Mhz with Arduino Bootloader.-XBee Socket and 3.3V powered (I've included some holes near to the antenna so you can hold it with a strap) .-Can be powered with 2 and 3 cell LIPOS (diode protected and regulated).-Huge 4 line screen with backlight, very clear under the sun! (2 pots to control the backlight and contrast).-FTDI port to upload code, also the boards is ready to be programmed with XBee (using this trick).-Six button to navigate and change screen and options.-Very noisy buzzer that can be used to alert you when it has low battery or low altitude.-6 I/O analog pins available, including the I2C port.-2 powered SERVO OUTPUTS (Tilt & Pan) than can be used to control a directional antenna (NICEE!).-Extra 3.3V and 5V volts outputs.-Status LED's.-The software is ArduPilot compatible and Open Source (out of the box).
What you can do:-Portable Telemetry.-Send commands (Ardupilot mega).-Robotics.-Remote control robots, can be used with Wii NunChuck to send commands.-Smart toaster's and dishwashers. (I use it to control my reflow oven).
The cost would be around $57dlls. 17 units will be ready in the next 10 days. Any orders?Has no official name, but for now is ArduStation (Later i will release the ArduToilet, LOL). The pictures only show the first prototype, that have some minor mistakes like the holes to close to the edges, i didn't include the reset button and the 5V power regulator get pretty hot (when 3 cell lipo is attached), so i change it to the big ventilated version. All this is fixed in the release version. I still working on the software.
Hi Jordi,
the Ardustation work great. I love it.
... but... is it normal that at power up, two times on three, nothing appear on the screen? If I power off and on again, then it will show data. It will work with a reset too (reset switch).
Thanks.
Yes that is correct. The development of everything is stopped right now. I need to program an option where you can tell to the ardustation that the current position of the airplane is home and record that as home (your airplane should be close to you), then use the new position data of the airplane and the home position to calculate the 2D and 3D distance, direction and angle of altitude. Is 3D vector that indicates distance and direction. The servos is the easy part, but we need to use a easy way to scale the range of your servo in 360 degrees and the pulse width. Piece of cake.
Hey Jordi,
Taking a look through the code it appears that the bearing displayed is the bearing from the current autopilot coordinates to the next waypoint and that the tracking antenna functionality has not yet been implemented.
Is this correct?
Many thanks.
Nick
You can use the FTDI to power up the system and works pretty well. Will save you time and you don't have to plug the battery all the times. FTDI 5V goes to the ardustation no Ardustation 5V to FTDI =).
My Sparkfun FTDI is 3.3v so it will be a no go with that board. However I do have the Adafruit FTDI cable which will probably work okay.
I still do not understand why Jordi attached the ArduStation FTDI power pin to +5v instead of leaving it open unless he planned to power the ArduStation (sans LCD display) with the FTDI cable during the programming process.
I used Arduino 16 on a Mac OS 10.4.11 and a Sparkfun FTDI 5v. Please remove xBee,
Attach Sf FTDI & power up ArduStation with 7.4 lipo then connect USB cable
select your USB port & speed under Tools,
Press reset on ArduStation then compile code and upload to IO board.
Look for a long pause before lights on FTDI blink both will flash for 30 second while code is loaded
Good Luck These steps should work on a WIn OS to but I didn,t try it.
What process did you use to program the ArduStation.
I was going to use my Sparkfun FTDI cable/board to program the board when I noticed that Jordi has the 3rd pin from the right on the ArduStation FTDI connector tied to the ArduStation +5v.
What FTDI cable did you use to program the ArduStation and did you have the ArduStation powered up by its own power supply during the programming?
I got my squished USPS box today, with all parts intact, thanks to good packing!! finished assembly, uploaded demo code and now testing, I had red LED backwards. :-( ,now all is well, I installed GCS it in a 1$ plastic pencil box from King Soopers looks great, but needs some buttons added.
Just got my ArduStation kit in the mail this afternoon. The priority box had gotten a little squished by the USPS, but Jordi had packed the contents very well and there were no damaged components to be seen.
Plan to put it together this weekend if the wife will let me. LOL!
Jordi, This is a very nifty idea. I think that it could easily be expanded to replace the RC radio as well if a couple of thumbsticks are added and support for two-way communication is added to ArduPilot Pro. Is this something that you are working on? I've started sketching out some PCB designs, but let me know if this is something that is already in progress.
Comments
the Ardustation work great. I love it.
... but... is it normal that at power up, two times on three, nothing appear on the screen? If I power off and on again, then it will show data. It will work with a reset too (reset switch).
Thanks.
Regards
Ric
Taking a look through the code it appears that the bearing displayed is the bearing from the current autopilot coordinates to the next waypoint and that the tracking antenna functionality has not yet been implemented.
Is this correct?
Many thanks.
Nick
Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.
My Sparkfun FTDI is 3.3v so it will be a no go with that board. However I do have the Adafruit FTDI cable which will probably work okay.
I still do not understand why Jordi attached the ArduStation FTDI power pin to +5v instead of leaving it open unless he planned to power the ArduStation (sans LCD display) with the FTDI cable during the programming process.
Regards,
TCIII
Attach Sf FTDI & power up ArduStation with 7.4 lipo then connect USB cable
select your USB port & speed under Tools,
Press reset on ArduStation then compile code and upload to IO board.
Look for a long pause before lights on FTDI blink both will flash for 30 second while code is loaded
Good Luck These steps should work on a WIn OS to but I didn,t try it.
What process did you use to program the ArduStation.
I was going to use my Sparkfun FTDI cable/board to program the board when I noticed that Jordi has the 3rd pin from the right on the ArduStation FTDI connector tied to the ArduStation +5v.
What FTDI cable did you use to program the ArduStation and did you have the ArduStation powered up by its own power supply during the programming?
Regards,
TCIII
Just got my ArduStation kit in the mail this afternoon. The priority box had gotten a little squished by the USPS, but Jordi had packed the contents very well and there were no damaged components to be seen.
Plan to put it together this weekend if the wife will let me. LOL!
Regards,
TCIII
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