By Gary Mortimer
From SUAS News
Not just flying, but driving and floating as well. Pixhawk 2.1 running Ardupilot software can be used to command all types of autonomous vehicle.
Shipping has started from Australia and distributors around the world.
Designed by Philip Rowse of ProfiCNC the Pixhawk 2.1 is a tale of two halves.
A cube contains an isolated and dampened IMU that is heated by a thermal resistor. This allows for consistent operations across a wide temperature range. It is particularly important in cold weather conditions.
The IMU solution is triple redundant, having.
3 Accelerometers
3 Gyroscopes
3 Magnetometers
2 Barometers
The cube essentially is the part that will keep your flying platform the right way up. It connects to a carrier board that provides the inputs and outputs to flying controls/motors and command and control (C2) links.
Cube and carrier board are sold as a combined kit for $238 or individually.
This allows end users to have the power of a triple redundant heated IMU in their own carrier boards for specialist applications.
The standard carrier board has a built in Intel Edison port to easily add a powerful companion computer. It has standard radio control in and out along with SBUS support.
You can connect two GPS for that extra sense of in-flight security, better still they can be RTK GPS.
Very unusual in this space, the Pixhawk 2.1 has two power inputs. Allowing you redundancy in case of one power system going down.
The Pixhawk 2 Suite comes as standard with.
- The Cube…. the brains behind the operation.
- A full carrier board.
- 1 Power Brick (two power bricks can be filtered for redundant power.)
- Cable set that allows you to connect to your old Telemetry module, GPS, and sensors
I was lucky enough to receive an alpha unit, and quite honestly lost my mind over the new connectors. A vast improvement over Pixhawk 1
Comments
hope on my hands soon too
to purchase....
Thanks All!
really appreciated.
first unboxing video showed up today!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pixhawk2/
and Ardupilot.org
I have been wondering how is the other two IMU's heated and vibration isolated? This would be interesting to know in case I wanted to try to isolate the IMU's similiar to what is done here. Also I have read that you are supposed to be able to connect a intel edison to this guy. Would love to see how the pixhawk 2.1 is conneted to an edison.
Any way to get notified when they're available again?
Thanks!
The internal damper and connectors were really needed. I could never remove a cable by pulling method in pixhawk although I never had a autopilot a failure. also internal damping was essential since it would generally be difficult to locate the foam tape with the right damping characterstics. now we need some flying test. I am very keen to try it on my quadcopter.
Nice work Philip and team.
Never doubted your capability, commitment and persistence!
Looking forward to testing and the next generation of capabilities.
The price is also spot on so we'll be making it the defacto FC for our fleet.
Great news and well done! And price is amazing for what it is.
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