I was preparing RS-232 plugs for connecting my high wings to the fuse of my Kadet Senior UAV (to get rid of the cable salad when mounting my wings. When I had to wire the DC power for the FMA CoPilot sensor, a question came suddenly: what DC should I feed the CoPilot sensor?
Since the sensor is connected directly to ArduPilot in version 2 of the soft, and since the CoPilot module (not sensor) is normally powered from the Rx through the servo connections at +5VDC, I expected the CoPilot sensor to get +5VDC too.
To make things sure (ie to see it by myself), I plugged an Rx, battery, FMA Copilot module to Rx channel 1, sensor to adhoc FMA cable, and measured the sensor connector pins.
Result is following and somewhat unexpected:
- wire 1: GND. It's the RED wire!
- wire 2: +3.3VDC
- wire 3: +1.63v (x or y data)
- wire 4: +1.63v (y or x data)
So the FMA CoPilot module (not sensor) has a DC/DC 5v/3.3v step down converter on board.
This will help me wire the sensor correctly, especially to power it with +3.3v.

My question is following: in the normal ArduPilot 2 settings, are you guys powering the sensor from ArduPilot with its +5VDC ? If yes, do you think the sensor is able to handle 5v in the long term? If no, do you use the daughterboard as presented here?

Second thought: for all those using the CiPilot module and looking for a +3.3VDC supply for their GPS chip, there's maybe one usable in the FMA module to sensor output. I do not know if it is able to draw the necessary current for the GPS, but I am sure someone will find out !!!