After months of rigorous testing, we are pleased to announce that our Pixhawk autopilot is now in production and ready to ship.
Designed by the PX4 open-hardware project and manufactured by 3D Robotics, Pixhawk delivers industry-leading performance and flexibility for controlling any autonomous vehicle.
Our new Pixhawk represents a significant improvement over our standard APMs, offering enhanced reliability, robust power, a broad range of USB power options and a second sensor port – for a dual IMU system. The second sensor chip not only provides redundancy, but enables the combination of different sensor inputs.
This release follows months of beta-testing by the IRIS-Developer community. Based on their feedback, we improved the noise immunity of the power supplies and added the MPU 6000 to supplement the LSM303D accelerometer.
We are grateful to the community for their valuable feedback.
Comments
@Crashpilot, you have to add some realism to your expectations.
A full blown autopilot below $100 is currently not realistic in today's niche marked. A sub $1000 autopilot is already considered to be a disruptive innovation in the autopilot game. Heck, a plain 2.4ghz receiver from a brand name, will easily cost you more then $100.
You cannot just add the cost of all components and sell it for that sum. No company would be able to survive like that. You have to add a margin to make some profit and cover the costs of having a business. Things like manpower for R&D, manufacturing, service, management. Equipment, offices.. the list goes on. All this has to be covered in the price of the products.
Tables and smartphones are sold in the millions, meaning that they can get very good deals om components, manufacturing and such. The cost of development/business also becomes negligible when divided by millions of units. 3DR and other such companies in comparison operate with sales in the thousands.
And please don't point to cheaper Chinese versions of APM, as an example of 3DR being overpriced. They do not innovate, only mass produce existing designs, and also do not offer support in any meaningful way. As such they have hardly any costs to cover. DJI and ZeroUAV for example is are 100% Chinese companies doing their own R&D. And you don't see them selling $100 autopilots.
They will sell thousands more Tablets than 3DR will sell Pixhawk.
YAY Ive ordered me 1 with the GPS option and some longer 30cm cables x2, I had a problem though in which I was charged twice for shipping, in other words it would not combine the shipping for the PIXHawk + GPS with the cables....I sent a help request and a refund notice as I dont want to be charged $37 for $5 worth of cables! LOL
Crashpilot: right now the code is optimized for the MPU6000, which is why it flies better with that sensor. In the next rev, we'll optimize it for the new sensors and then you will be able to evaluate them properly. This is the way it always works with new boards -- we ship them with new hardware capability that is gradually unlocked with software updates over time.
Hopefully Vrbrain will break the 100$ barrier, because all that 32 bit hype is not worth a penny more.
Yes and the new sensorset. I learned in a previous thread from Mr Lorenz that the ST sensorset is so new and superior - good to know that the rusty/trusty MPU6XXXX delivers better performance with the actual code. Putting a mag sensor on board seems to be doubtful since even the sales page tells you that you will need an external one (included on the ublox gps board). If including a mag than why not the newer HMC5983 in the first place since it's the replacement of the HMC5883. From the datasheet there is "only" the temperature compensation differently (price wise the difference is in the pennies range, if any). Both mags even report the same ID on the I2C bus ... but suddenly the HMC5983 should also more resistant to external disturbances? Those parts may have eyes and see you running around with a magnet and cancle that out - the datasheet doesn't reveal that.
I'm very happy that pixhawke now is on the market , so VRBRain is not the only cpu that use 32 bit processor on APM Copter.
As developer my impression is that the Nuttx revision of code is bit complex to compile and debug respect of no os code.
But sure NuttX revision of code support interesting feature as Mass Storage or IP connection using wifi , we are doing some test on VRBrain NuttX OS and it work fine with CC3000 chipset.
Should have a GPS/loiter flight mode that works without caveat.
Along with the simple modes, and RTH.
Should warn the user, if vibes are high enough to put flight at risk.
Should warn user if magnetic compass is compromised.
Should warn user if MEMS are reporting faults.
Should handle GPS glitches gracefully ... See first point.
Putting the above in, before adding bells and whistles, would be keen ...
TIM GREEN SAID IT ALL!
Thomas:You mean you replaced it...because its till used in the recent 3DR units (e.g. in the IRIS). I already asked that in the other thread. The Honeywell datasheets do not tell this. Superior resistance to magnetic fields (whether local or global...) is not desired anyways, because that could only be achieved by a lower overall sensitivity. The only difference is the temperature compensation, and I wonder if anyone of the few using the 5983 noticed it....
I already have 6M and don't feel like spending another $70. The wires can be bought separately, that's what I'm planning on doing. Thanks!
Like the APM, the Pixhawk needs VCC,GND, SDA,SCL. Since the next trouble for you will be where to get the DF13 connectors and cables and how to connect the GPS, you better buy the outstanding 3DR LEA6h / Compass Unit, which will work out of the box...
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