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Along with sharing some imaging technology with our UAVs, FPVs often use autopilots because they can fly further away than you can see from the ground. When pilots get lost or lose the wireless connection (and thus their view), the autopilots can bring the planes back into range.

The initial kit, which costs $549, has the basics and looks like quite a good deal (Hobby Lobby has a great reputation, and the company that makes the equipment, Intelligent Flight, is one of the best in the business). But if you happen to be independently wealthy, you might want to wait for some forthcoming accessories that will complete the full FPV experience: a pan-tilt camera mount, which can be connected to a gyro in your video goggles so the camera will turn where you're looking; an On Screen Display that integrates telemetry data into the video stream (and has a basic "return home" GPS-only autopilot for very stable aircraft), and a directional antenna that can greatly increase the range.

I wouldn't be surprised if all that together runs over $1,000, so it's a bit out of our range. But if you can afford it, this is the ultimate RC experience.

From the description: "The PICO-GS program performs four basic functions: 1. Provides a graphical view of your waypoints on the map image. 2. Permits "point-n'click" waypoint programming on the map image. 3. Provides realtime GPS tracking and flight data on the map image ( requires a radio modem ) 4. Includes the standard PICOPILOT line item editor." It costs $100 for a CD and a license key for a single installation. They're sending me a review copy, so I'll give you a hands-on report as soon as I get it.

I'll be showing this at Maker Faire tomorrow and Sunday. Below is the bottom side of the old (left) and new (right) boards. Differences include putting all the chips inside the gondola ("top") and just the IR sensors, the on/off and reset switches and the FTDI programming port on the outside ("bottom")

The BASIC Stamp product line will continue to be developed by Parallax. But most of the improvements we make to the product line pertain to documentation, operating speed and memory, and the addition of commands. You won't be seeing a floating point library built into the BASIC Stamp.

If you want to have true simultaneous processing with another high-level language, my suggestion is to use the Propeller. You seem to already know that processor so I'll skip listing the specifications. We aim to make the Prop very easy to use by publishing our educational tutorials (see Propeller Education on this page). The forums supporting the Propeller are very active. Supporting the growth of the Propeller is a big priority for Parallax and we back our position by responding to customer requests. In this case, you've got a complete floating point library to use. There's also a BS2 library for the Propeller in case the user wants to continue using something they've already learned.

He and I also had a good phone chat where we talked more about the options. Here's my bullet-point report from that, and summarizing the comments above:

• The Basic Stamp platform continues to be staple of electronic education in schools and will be for years to come. It's still growing in terms of its usage base.
• That said, the technology is not going to evolve much more. The things we want, such as floating point, C-like variable handling and significant increases in memory, are not planned for the Basic Stamp architecture.
• Instead, Parallax recommends that we shift to the Propeller chip, which has both everything we need and reflects the direction that Parallax as a company is going.
• Although Propeller is not currently as easy to learn as the Basic Stamp, Parallax is working hard to improve that. One thing in particular that will help a lot is a forthcoming serial debug window facility like that of the Basic Stamp. This will let you use the PC as a display screen for the chip's output and otherwise get real-time data on variables and program operation. Finally, it will be possible to write a simple "hello world" program for the Propeller and see "hello world" on your screen, rather than just a blinking LED.

As a result, this is what I propose for DIYDrones:

1. We complete the Basic Stamp autopilot so that it works perfectly as it is, both as a teaching tool and for those who currently have the Basic Stamp hardware and want to keep it.
2. After that is done, however, we will not develop it further.
3. We will instead port the Basic Stamp autopilot code to the open source Arduino platform. All future development of our "entry-level DIY autopilot" will be on that platform
4. After that, we will port the code to the Propeller platform and then encourage better programmers than me to help collectively build an open source "pro-grade" autopilot project on it. This is a big job (just ask Dean Goedde, who used the Propeller for his awesome AttoPilot commerical autopilot), so I'm looking for volunteers to help take it on. Anybody out there want to try their hand at the future of embedded computing (8-core, 32-bit, object-oriented parallel processing)?
5. To that end, Parallax has kindly offered to donate $500 worth of Propeller gear to DIYDrones. If you want it and can make a public commitment to starting and sharing an autopilot project here (and can demonstrate that you've got the coding experience to pull that off), I'll work with Parallax to give you the gear of your choice up to that dollar limit. Please respond in the comments.