Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Greg on March 26, 2013 at 9:32pm

It is of course early days but what is apparent is you will loose the ease of using the Arduino IDE and compling a new version to run like you can now with APM hardware. APM1 and APM2 are native ardunio platforms. PX4 is proprietary and has its own code base and development system. What I have seen so far is a port has been created of the APM firmware to run on the PX4 RTOS. How this performs versus a native code developed specifically for the PX4 hardware is too early to say. Its early days and the manual at the moment is more suited for senior developers with lots of cross platform coding experience.

Of course once the load of PX4 is more automated from the mission planner this will be moot for the end user. But looking ahead what is uncertain is when will the current ardunio based APM development stops in favour of PX4?

You may want to also look at this: "ArduCoper V2.9.1" code on "VR Brain" FC board by "Virtual Robotix Italia". I cannot find the specific link but Marco posted a video under the 2.9.1 forum a few days ago. Should not be hard to find. Its a 32bit ardunio solution and looks to have all the features plus more we see in APM today.

My plan is to wait a few months to let the dust settle. PX4 has a lot of development potetntial. The hardware is extensible and whilst the code is less portable than Arduino I would say watch this space for some interesting projects on PX4 :-)

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Permalink Reply by Lorenz Meier on March 26, 2013 at 11:52pm

Greg,

I think you have two big misconceptions here:

• VRBrain is not 32bit Arduino hardware. Its using the same chip as PX4
• VRBrain is not using the Arduino IDE

So you won't have anything different (also much faster than APM 2.5, also not Arduino), except that you loose the benefit of having a scalable solution with a RTOS and the official 3D Robotics support.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on March 27, 2013 at 2:44pm

Lorenz You said "APM 2.5, also not Arduino" APM is Arduino based and if you look at our diydrones development history you will see this. for the most part we all use the Ardunio IDE with APM. I was not aware the VRbrain could not be programmed using Arduino IDE so I stand corrected on that one Anyway its all about choices. We have not answered ALK's question above on functionality differences if any i.e port of APM to PX4 versus code normally runing on APM. In terms of choices my preference is to go for a simpler design e.g APM or VRbrain. Both are single board solutions, have 8 PWM outputs instead of a stack of multiple boards connected via multi port cabling Losts of single points of failure if the cabling connectors become an issue. You can of course use one main PX4FMU board but that only has 4 Outputs for motor servos. If I want to build a hexa or octocopter with 8PWM outputs you have to buy two boards the PX4FMU and the PX4 IO board.

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Permalink Reply by martin keilloh on March 31, 2013 at 11:37am

Hi probably not the right place to put this,ive got my PX4 uploaded,it does the com change from 8 to 9 but wont load the mision planner says no heart beats,can some one please help me,Thank's,Marty

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on March 31, 2013 at 11:07pm

I'm not sure what they were thinking splitting things amongst multiple boards.

Maybe someone can comment on that, but to me it doesn't seem like a very smart way to do things.  It seems to be kind of a holdover to the pans and shields day of generic multi purpose hardware.

OP was ported to a $10  STM32F3 Discovery board, so if we have to deal with pans and shields maybe something like that would work just as well.  I'm guessing someone will do something like this once there's some good STM32 code to be ported.

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Permalink Reply by Chester on April 1, 2013 at 9:40pm

Hello everyone,

I still have problems with PX4 board.

1. I can not calibrate acc level with MissionPlaner. It only success via CLI.

2. I have enabled IMU logs but can not download any logs from the board. It tells me Error opening com port.

Does anyone have success with it?

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Permalink Reply by Lorenz Meier on April 1, 2013 at 11:09pm

For all interested in flashing Firmware conveniently, there is a new tool called QUpgrade in the Downloads Area. It allows to flash the PX4 default or APM Plane / Copter / Rover Firmware on Windows, Mac OS and Linux with a graphical user interface in a single click. In particular for APM @ PX4 early adopters it may be interesting, since new builds can be flashed with a single click by browsing the Firmware page.

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Permalink Reply by Quadguy on April 6, 2013 at 8:29am

Flew with PX4 flashed with Arduplane. Stabilized and FBW-A mode works fine. Will try waypoint navigation next week. So far looks good. Great work

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Permalink Reply by martin keilloh on April 24, 2013 at 1:37pm

Hi,i have 2 questions,the first it is o/k to use the usb cable with the PX4 to set parameters,and secondly ive got the PX4 flying well in stabilized mode,but its terrible in loitter any suggestions please ,your's,Marty.

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Wiki NinjaPermalink Reply by Gary McCray on April 24, 2013 at 3:43pm

Hi Martin,

Works fine to use USB cable to set parameters.

What are symptoms of bad Loiter?

Do you have Vibration Damping?

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Permalink Reply by martin keilloh on April 27, 2013 at 6:48am

Hi Gary,ive turned the vib dampening up to 98,ive ordered new prop adaptoror's and bearings,is it best to mount it on moon gel,your's,Marty.

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Wiki NinjaPermalink Reply by Gary McCray on April 27, 2013 at 7:32am

Hi Martin, I dont know about that 98 value.

Moon gel or my favorite Kyosho Zeal Gel will work fine.

Use a 1/2" to 3/4' square pad at each corner and hold the board down with a lightly tensioned rubber bad or Velcro strap loosely fastened with light foam between it and the flight controller.

Try Alt hold mode before trying loiter. if it won't hold altitude properly the problem is probably vibration.

If you have SONAR turn it off in Mission Planner, it can work very nicely, but it is its own source of a whole batch of problems.

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