Blogs

Developer

New Portable Open-Source ArduPilot Ground Station (Arduino and Xbee Based)

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on June 10, 2009 at 11:30am
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.

E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Follow

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

  • Earl June 13, 2009 at 7:20pm
    Jordi,
    I just found out how to use the XBee adc's! Now with a propeller chip I have 5 10 bit ADC's to play with !
    Earl
  • Earl June 13, 2009 at 3:36pm
    Jordi,
    Can you release the software so I can make my AutoProp8 software compatible to your unit ? This looks realy good.
    Earl
  • Developer
    Jordi Muñoz June 12, 2009 at 6:43pm
    I know in theory, but i never done it before. I not difficult compared with inverted matrix's
  • Earl June 12, 2009 at 6:33pm
    Do you know how to read any of the a0-a5 analog inputs on the XBee module ?
  • Earl June 11, 2009 at 6:32pm
    BTW, I got the Wii Motion plus controller yesterday. For $19 you get a 3 axis gyro that is i2c ! Also has some other neat stuff in it.
    Earl
  • Earl June 11, 2009 at 6:29pm
    Jordi
    How about a small switching regulator on board for the +5 and +3.3 from a 6-13 vdc input? Switchers run cooler too.
  • Developer
    Jordi Muñoz June 11, 2009 at 4:11pm
    Erwin: !No hay problema!
  • helitron June 11, 2009 at 4:09pm
    Jordi,

    thanks for the link to the shield schematic

    Erwin
  • Developer
    Jordi Muñoz June 11, 2009 at 1:19pm
    Sal,
    Yes, you will have to.
  • Sal Filingeri June 11, 2009 at 1:03pm
    Thank for your quick response, yes if in case I would be using a gyros and accelerometer, will I need to change to code to adapt the accelerometer with the gyros ?

    Thanks again

    SAL
This reply was deleted.