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UDB5 available now from SparkFun

Posted by Ben Levitt on July 23, 2013 at 2:40pm

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We're excited to have UDB boards once again available for purchase over at SparkFun! [UDB5 from SparkFun]

This latest revision of the UDB switches over to using the MPU6000 digital accelerometer+gyro chip, which has been performing even better than the very solid UDB4's analog sensors. It is otherwise a very similar board the UDB4.

Along with this new hardware release, we've also released MatrixPilot 4.0, which includes new hardware support for this board, and also for Nick Arsov's AUAV3 board.  MP4.0 also improves cross-tracking and navigation accuracy, among other goodies.

Thanks to all the developers for their work adding support for new hardware, refactoring the code, and constantly improving performance! 

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Comments

  • Crashpilot1000 July 24, 2013 at 10:54am

    Is there a benefit over the px4mu in concept / design functionality?

  • Developer
    Pete Hollands July 23, 2013 at 11:27pm

    I think it probably is good to try to position these two produces (UDB5 and AUAV3) in the market place:-

    TheUDB5 has some specific attributes:-

    1) The hardware design is completely open sourced and kept in the github repository.

    2) The design is purposefully minimalist in that it does not include barometers, and magnetometer on the board. Bill Premerlani always wanted to see what could be achieved with a minimal system. It just needs a GPS to fly.

    3) The firmware is for the main board has been developed over 3 years: well tested. The only incremental change is really the support of the MPU6000. The processor is the same as the UDB4 as it currently uses about 10 percent of cpu in the standard release of the firmware (configured to run a slow clock, and run cool). We are using around 10 percent of the available RAM, and 30% of the flash ROM.

    4) Many people fly with the UDB4, and so the UDB5, with it's same form factor and peripheral support, is an easy transition for them.

    The AUAV3 is  a marvellous piece of integration of by Nick Arsov into a smaller form factor.

    1) The design is not fully open sourced. Nick has been fairly up front about that. There is not open source licensing,  the electronic design files are not in an accessible github or svn repository. 

    2) The AUAV3 has additional devices like the magnetometer (I prefer my magnetometer to be separate and in the wing away from local magnetic forces) and a barometer, and a USB connection, and on board flash storage. It uses a different more powerful dspic processor.

    3) The firmware support is still really in development. The hardware was launched in January / February of this year. Barometer support to provide altitude is still in development and not part of MatrixPilot trunk or a major release. I am unsure of the status of USB and on board flash support in either fully released code (MatrixPilot 4.0) or trunk.

    4) I am only aware of a handful of developers that have flown with the AUV3. The most prominent being Mark Whitehorn who flew successfully (just) at the Sparkfun AVC using his own modified branch of MatrixPilot. (The barometer altitude has serious errors). In general, the software support of the AUAV3 is being done by different developers, than that of the UDB4/5. There has been a great deal of work very recently to re-integrate the UDB4/5 firmware and AUAV3 firmware (branches of MatrixPilot) back from branches into the main trunk code. But that work is currently on going, and not yet completed successfully.

     The UDB5 is an incremental design evolution of the UDB4. The AUAV3 has a very small, form factor yet  powerful processor. Both products occupy different market niches in the marketplace. I wish both success. 

  • Nick Arsov July 23, 2013 at 11:00pm

    Hi Bill, Ben, UDB team, SparkFun team,

    Congratulations for the nice board !

    Best wishes

    Nick

    ///off topic:...just a little explanation...the AUAV3 is NOT a UDB5 clone as it has been released 5 months ago and has much different schematics and design concept, the last dsPIC33EP MCU in the 16bit range and as Tom mentioned, many extras - BMP180 baro, HMC5883L compass, 32Mb flash, 2x optoisolated UARTs, USB. It is GREAT the team moves the two approaches in parallel! Each design has its fans. Thus the progress moves forward.///

  • Rana July 23, 2013 at 10:56pm

    Hi Tom, I am already aware of that, presently I am porting (private) GP2 code to AUAV3 (a much much affordable board), already implimented bi-directional telemetry (only support waypoints read and write on the fly) on UDB3, with additional E2PROM chip. 

  • Developer
    Tom Pittenger July 23, 2013 at 7:52pm

    Hi Rana, MP4 supports Mavlink 1.0 with various bi-directional commands. Peter Holland or Matt Coleman are the authors of that and may be able to give more details.
    Yes, the AUAV3 is a UDB5 clone but it also offers a few extras that the UDB5 doesn't: built-in magnetometer, barometer, USB and on-board flash to store logs and settings.

  • Rana July 23, 2013 at 7:50pm

    Great Ben ! Does MP4 have two way telemetry ?

    Tom, AUAV3 is nothing but a miniature UDB5, it had been on sale since quite some time.

  • Developer
    Tom Pittenger July 23, 2013 at 4:44pm

    This project has come along way, glad to see the latest UDB5 is finally for sale!

  • T3
    William Premerlani July 23, 2013 at 3:45pm

    Hi Ben,

    Thanks to you and the UDB developers for continuing to add value to the MatrixPilot firmware, to SparkFun for their loyal support of the project, and to the UDB users for their many contributions to the project.

    And for newer diydrone members who may not be familiar with MatrixPilot, here is a link to the history of the technical advances made during the evolution of MatrixPilot.

    Best regards,

    Bill Premerlani

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