Hi Guys &Gals, I am relatively new to this fantastic hobby having flown a Bixler 1.1 previously as entry to RC. I got into multis at local club where some of the guys were bringing there homebuilt KK2 quads which flew badly & DJI quads that flew superbly but at 10 times the cost. Being an electronics engineer I decided I could build one & decided to go with Multiwii because I had already experimented with Arduino & loved it. I bought an EBay X525 kit that came with Crius 2.5 clone & got it flying with some help from the guys on Multiwii.com. I soon outgrew it & wanted more advanced features like those offered by http://eosbandi.com/downloads/ So swapped the Atmel328 FC for a Crius AIOP V2 AtMega2560 & added Ublox Neo6m GPS & external Mag. With addition of Bluetooth module & EZ-GUI on my Samsung S3 I can program quad (tune PIDS & set virtually anything I can on WinGUI) plus plan a Mission on map & see quad flying it in real time! The DJI Phantom guys are blown away as the quad cost under $250 & can do things that there $1000+ quads can only dream of:highly_amused: Cheers..B
Hi From Cleveland Brisbane Australia
- Thread starter brewski
- Start date
Upside down backyard boat?
Was going to try the MP port of APM on my Crius AIOP but since the Eos Bandi release of MW2.3 Navib7 with same functionality as MP I am pretty impressed so far. I haven't even had to do all the fine tuning that MP requires as standard PID work great with my X525 hardware.
I didn't know that Arducopter code came from Oz. From little I've read it requires dedicated hardware correct?
I didn't know that Arducopter code came from Oz. From little I've read it requires dedicated hardware correct?
dazzab
Member
It's pretty well tied to the PX4 Pixhawk hardware. However, one of the huge changes it's gone through is to make it portable. I think it even runs on Linux systems now. As far as Oz goes, yeah, Leonard from Adelaide Uni is a big contributor and the well known Andrew Tridgell (author of rsync and Samba) is the lead developer for Arduplane and contributes heavily to Arducopter. So Australian software engineers have made a very large contribution.
Andrew is heavily driven by his involvement with Canberra UAV which is a competitor in the Outback Search and Rescue competition in Qld. That's on again in September so things are heating up. I do photography for them once in a while.
Of course many people have contributed to Arducopter over the years including Multirotor Forum member Robert Lefevbre (hope I spelled it right).
[ Hey Bartman! - What's up with adding links? I tried to hyperlink to Canberra UAV and the Outback Challenge in this message and a window popped up saying options have changed. When I said OK the link wasn't created. Just letting you know.]
Hi Dazzab
I see APM 2.6 boards going for <$50 n EvilBay. They appear original but most likely clones. Do you have any experience with these? If any good I will buy one & after going over every solder joint as i always do with any electronics from China install on my quad & see how it flies compared to latest MW.
I see that there are several revisions of Firmware 1.xx. 2.xx, 3.xx. Which version should I load on APM 2.6 for most stable performance with GPS/Mag functions?
Cheers.B
I see APM 2.6 boards going for <$50 n EvilBay. They appear original but most likely clones. Do you have any experience with these? If any good I will buy one & after going over every solder joint as i always do with any electronics from China install on my quad & see how it flies compared to latest MW.
I see that there are several revisions of Firmware 1.xx. 2.xx, 3.xx. Which version should I load on APM 2.6 for most stable performance with GPS/Mag functions?
Cheers.B
dazzab
Member
I would advise against the clones. It's just not worth it. There was a time when there was a small problem with the APM and they added a small capacitor to fix it. Nothing huge, just took care of some issue I don't remember. But the clones didn't catch up with that and some people had issues with them. 3DR moves fast and reacts very quickly to users. Not to mention if you don't purchase it from them then you aren't supporting both the great work that 3DR does but also their ability to support other projects like Arducopter. Yeah, it sounds like a sales job but in this case I really do think it's worth the extra few bucks to go via 3DR.
Also, consider moving up to the Pixhawk if you can. It has a lot more memory and CPU power so some of the upcoming cool features just won't fit on the APM. If you don't want to spend more for the Pixhawk don't worry about it. The APM is still one kick arse flight controller. Personally I think they should lock it down, make it as bullet proof as possible and sell it everywhere for cheap. It's quite a contribution to the community.
As for the version stick with the newest release of 3.0 whatever that is. I believe 3.2 is just about to be released out of beta and apparently it's quite nice.
Cheers.
dazzab
Member
A couple of posts down I mentioned that I thought Arducopter/Arduplane would run on Linux. Well, believe it or not, the next day I was asked if I wanted to take photos of the first plane flying with Aruplane running Linux. It was pretty damn cool and we had a lot of fun. I put the photos of Andrew Tridgell, Ardupilot developer, flying the plane up on the Canberra UAV team Flickr account for anyone interested. Strictly speaking not about multirotors but it's only a matter of time before you may see Arducopter running on Linux powering a multirotor as well. We live in interesting times.
Hi Dazzab,
I will take your advice & buy genuine. The specs on Pixhawk look amazing compared to APM2.6 so might save up for one of these.
Are you running a Pixhawk & if so would be intersted in your experience.
Do APM2-6& Pixhawk run same version firmware?
Do you have difficulty typing in reply box? I have to type VERY slow or letters get missed. Maybe it is something to do with the IE version with Win8.
Cheers..B
I will take your advice & buy genuine. The specs on Pixhawk look amazing compared to APM2.6 so might save up for one of these.
Are you running a Pixhawk & if so would be intersted in your experience.
Do APM2-6& Pixhawk run same version firmware?
Do you have difficulty typing in reply box? I have to type VERY slow or letters get missed. Maybe it is something to do with the IE version with Win8.
Cheers..B
dazzab
Member
There are long threads here of me going on about not having good experiences with the Pixhawk on a heavy coax Octocopter. Don't let that sway you too much. My point there is just that it's a very fast moving project and in development so I worry about it being ready for 'prime time'. I was careful to state exceptions and that is was MY experience etc but people get very worked up about such things. I've been saying all along that others should give it a go. It's more difficult than other FCs but the pay off is much bigger as well. So it depends on what your specific needs and expectations are. Nothing is right for everyone and no FC is perfect or totally reliable.
The same version of Arducopter runs on APM and the Pixhawk. I'm not sure how they do it but some features that might be available on the Pixhawk are automatically disabled on the APM if it doesn't have the capability to support them. Although right now I think that list would be very small as they worked quite hard to squeeze out every bit of functionality that they could with the APM. I recommend the Pixhawk over the aPM more as a future proofing type of statement. There will be cool stuff that will only run on the Pixhawk. No idea what that cool stuff is. Maybe Robert could tell us? He's a developer and a member here.
I don't have any issues with type in the Reply box. But I only use Safari and Firefox so can't comment on IE8/Win.
dazzab
Member
Belted? I don't have any planes in the air right now. Just multirotors.
dazzab
Member
Oh, the poor Bushmaster that was in the mid air at Canberra Model Aircraft Club. Yeah, I take photos for them. It hit the ground at 165kph when a guy doing a loop went through the tail of it. Many months of work down the drain. Quite shocking. But they have a backup being the very clever people that they are. Nonetheless is was a real set back given it's just a few weeks out from the competition. There are pics on their website.
dazzab
Member
Since we have gone so far off topic anyway, Tridge just posted an article about the first Arduplane to fly with Linux over at DIYDrones. Take note that he says the next step is to try it with Arducopter. See, I told you it wouldn't be long before a copter would fly with Linux. 
Hi Vellocer,
Where do you live? You should put it in Profile so others,where it's yesterday, don' expect same day repl. Blody reply box!!
What type of multi do you fly?
Cheers..B