Hey guy's
Our team is interested in ArduPilot IMU. I am wondering if the IMU will work in conjunction with the thermopile sensors? Is this the arrangement?
I don't want to create unnecessary another topic. I just want to know a bit about IMU 6DOF razor (Red) from sparkfun, where it stated required 3.3V regulator. Not mentioned about Vrefs for gyro chips. Which I believe will require 1.23V right?? Funny thing is it is connected to OUT pins where LPF part and also connection for external Vref. I didn't give any to those pins as i was not aware. But It seems to be giving out correct zero rate value. So i don't really know if i need 1.23V ref or not. Can u suggest n e ??
Permalink Reply by Ken on December 7, 2009 at 7:22pm
Spell it with me: T H E R M O P I L E. One "h."
A thermophile is something which likes heat. For example, teenagers residing north of the Mason-Dixon line when spring break comes. Or certain, rather disgusting, little creatures living near undersea vents. Which may be the same thing...
Permalink Reply by Ken on December 11, 2009 at 4:57pm
Yeah, there are quite a few things that are tough to test in the garage, tweak, upload, tweak, upload, eh!
I'm worried about cold spots -- deep shadows -- on the ground, and the rather abrupt ground to space horizon transition without any atmosphere. Mostly the former.
I don't think thermopiles will work on the moon. You would be seeing the moon's surface temp or the temp of space which I think is pretty low (3 deg K ?). This is out of the range of the sensors. This would definitely be something to consider, but impossible to test unless you above the moon. It might work just from the how much of the surface is in the field of view.
If I had the resources for a moon landing I would use a machine vision system to back up and correct the gyros. I hear visibility is all ways near infinity on the moon.
Check out the Paparozzi site. Some where they explain how thermopiles work for autopilots. IMHO you might just want to use a triple redundant system using higher quality gyros.
Who's has a big enough rocket to get to the moon, let alone into LEO?
If this is one of those tests I've seen in the desert, then it would work, but that would be cheating if it wouldn't work in space. :)