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Quick Post: ArduPilotMega Shield/OilPan Photos!

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on May 16, 2010 at 10:30am

Is not ready yet, has tiny mistakes, but the tweaked boards is under the last hardware performance test's , as soon as i get an answer, I will start the mass production... ETA two weeks! (Maybe sooner).

The shield can be bottom placed (oil pan) or in the top (Shield). I would suggest the bottom side so you protect the IC's and have a lower profile!

Poll: Do you prefer the Shield in Red or Blue?

See ya!









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Comments

  • FlyMario May 19, 2010 at 2:33pm
    The Helicopter part would be extreemely fun. I fly them and have one that I would love to put some UAV guts into. The flight characteristics would be much different as you transition to about the 3 foot high mark where the helicopter will fly much more stable. Motions would really need to be dampened to slow any tendency to jerk the heli too quickly. Oh and what would be really great is if you set up a resonance causing your sensors to go crazy.

    Heavier birds are more stable because of the added weight.

    A person would have to be very patient. Ahh heck sounds like fun!
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 19, 2010 at 11:39am
    @Mark. Indeed. We'll be doing fixed wing first, quickly followed by quad. Only then will heli development start...Any volunteers to help lead that dev team? The core IMU and nav code will be in very good shape, but we need people who understand the special challenges of extending that to helis.
  • Developer
    Mark Colwell May 19, 2010 at 10:20am
    There are several folks here who want helicopter support, but this is the most difficult code to create and test. After the ArduPilotMega system is released, code development can start. Maybe sometime this fall it can be release? 120° mixing is needed for collective, altitude hold, stable hover, etc...
  • Developer
    Sandro Benigno May 19, 2010 at 7:12am
    @Wallace: The ArduPilot is exactly for that autonomous flying job. For now, to applying it to a traditional helicopter isn't trivial and I never seen it applied. By other hand, is totally possible to use it on a quadcopter or tricopter, but not without a considerable programing work and nice understanding of how each piece works.
  • John Ihlein May 19, 2010 at 5:52am
    Chris,

    Any advance info available on the gyros choosen, the interface between them and the 12 bit ADC, and the interface between the 12 bit ADC and the ArduPilot Mega board?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 19, 2010 at 5:38am
    John,

    The gyros were selected to be able to handle helis well. Stay tuned for more on this...
  • John Ihlein May 19, 2010 at 4:57am
    If the gyros and accels can handle the vibration, there is no reason it can't fly a heli with the proper control laws. As soon as I can my hands on the new shield, I'm going to put the unit on my Trex450 and see how the AHRS behaves.
  • Developer
    Sandro Benigno May 19, 2010 at 1:53am
    @Wallace: "...the purpose of the newest version of ArduPilot (the main board) is to use a shield that accumulates a lot of functions and peripherals, including a 6DOF IMU,.." (My english isn't good... The best word isn't "purpose" but is "deal" or "proposal").
    When I told it, I tried to say that the shield already have the sensors. And, like I said, the shield have a connector to add a 3-axis magnetometer too. The GPS will be connected on main board, not on the shield.

    Looking at the shield's board you will see that the IMU parts on it are passive. There is no microprocessors around it. I think isn't totally right to say that "...the shield has an ArduIMU+ V2 on it". But, in fact, that group: AP Mega + Shield + 3axis magnetometer board + GPS will have all the resources and processing, necessary to give you a complete 9DOF AHRS and everything else. It's awesome, man! So, that's all... 4 pieces and... go out happy.

    And don't forget one detail... The AP Mega have two processors. One of them is dedicated to translate the Rx signals. So, the other one will be free for working on other things.
  • AKRCGUY May 18, 2010 at 9:53pm
    I like blue. Do you have an ETA for delivery yet?
  • Taylor Cox May 18, 2010 at 8:12pm
    If I am not mistaken...the new shield has the arduIMU + V2 on it.
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