Comments

• Developer

  Randy May 2, 2012 at 7:54am

  @Tedd,

       re separating the gps from the APM2 for the trad heli...de-soldering the GPS sounds dangerous to me but it's your APM2!  When you order you can actually get one without a GPS..if it's two late for that...well..if  it were me I'd probably cut some traces on the daughterboard to disable the GPS..and then buy a separate one.

       You should need at least 4 wires between the main board and the GPS.  Because you need GND, power, tx and rx because the Atmel2569 talk to each other with a bi-directional serial connection (The APM sends a bunch of config messages at start-up time to the GPS to get it into the right mode).
• Developer

  Randy April 18, 2012 at 4:18am

  @Tedd,

       Re "can the APM2 be separated by a 50cm cable", and that would be a great help for the trad heli's because you could then mount the APM2 between the landing gear and main body but mount the daughter board on the tail.  There would then be no need to buy a separate mag + GPS which is quite a bit more expensive than the daughterboard.

       I've never heard of anyone doing this but I've also been thinking about it.  The issue is that you need to find a very fine pitch connector for both ends of the cable (unless you were to do it by just soldering very carefully).
• Developer

  Randy April 1, 2012 at 8:29pm

  @Jeff Re whether Arducopter for TradHeli will work on a helimax AXE CP,

       I suspect that the heli has enough power to lift an APM2 but the problem I see is that the AXE comes with a consolidated esc, radio and tail gyro.  You'll probably need to remove that completely and replace it with a normal ESC, receive and the APM2.  That'll add weight but also a lot of cost.

       The other problem is that the AXE has a flybar which we know adds trouble when it comes to doing loiter.

       So it might work but it's not going to be completely straight forward.
• 

  valentin colon February 26, 2012 at 7:23pm

  APm 2 on traditional heli, any test with this new APM 2 ?
• 

  Colin Johnston November 17, 2011 at 7:14pm

  Does any body know how the fast the execution rate of the Ardupilot or Arudcopter software is the with current build without adding more code?
• Developer

  Randy November 16, 2011 at 11:19pm

  Trad Heli user group members,

     Just wanted to let you know that the trex450 mounting plates made from stylish and durable carbon fibre are now available in the diydrones store for $15.

  These plus a 3d printed sonar and gps mounts available from shapeways (at cost) can help you get up and running quickly (if you're using a trex450 or HobbyKing clone)
• 

  Marianne Antonio October 13, 2011 at 4:12am

  Has anyone tried the latest code? We wanted to try it for stabilize and loiter. Hopefully with navigation. Would there be a problem in flying the latest code with waypoints?
• Developer

  Randy October 3, 2011 at 6:32am

  Hi,

       As Marianne just found out the hard way, since version 2.0.43 (or thereabouts) you must arm your motors in order to get the APM to start saving logs.  This is not something that quad people would every notice because of course they must arm their motors in order to fly.  But with the heli, because the servos move whether armed or not and because you control the throttle yourself, there's been little need to go to the trouble to 'arm'.

   

       ..but now you must if you want logs!  Actually it serves some other good purposes as well:

            1. reinitialises the barometer

            2. sets "forward" for simple mode.

  -Randy