Blogs

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.

1. The Cube…. the brains behind the operation.
2. A full carrier board.
3. 1 Power Brick (two power bricks can be filtered for redundant power.)
4. 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