Since this blog is not the easiest place to document something I've started copying all my notes into a google doc here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcjvf635_397kw96gfg

I should have prefaced this series of blog entries with the following:



My ideas for this design center around the need for a stable aircraft, either via its own inherent stability and/or provided by an on-board IMU or AHRS. In my case I'm relying on an ArduIMU for stabilization. Once I get the time I'd like to study further the possibility of using one 3 axis accelerometer for short-term pitch and roll stabilization for inherently stable airframes. I'm flying foam aircraft, up to 24 oz… Continue

I'm using a baud rate of 38400 for all serial ports; xbee's, Arduino to Palm, ArduIMU to Arduino Mega etc. I found that the higher baud rates increased latency on xbee's but didn't troubleshoot further to really explain the issue. With the packet size and baud rate as they are, the largest packet still allow a long enough time between packets for easy decoding and processing before the next packet arrives, at either end. On the GCS side I'm simply passing every byte as it arrives to the Palm.… Continue

There is no RC TX or RX in my setup.



The XBee is a Pro, 900Mhz, and it I found it isn't the baud rate that is most important like some have suggested. At first I attempted to use the Xbee like a RC TX/RX sending channel updates at 50HZ and the result was 'latency'. This was caused by the buffers of the XBees filling faster then they were emptied, so what I was seeing was data up to a half a second old.



What does work is to send the least amount of data needed at a rate the… Continue

I've been toying with this design for a few weeks and thought I'd post it. I'm using a Palm Vx, Arduino Mega, and XBee Pro for a ground control station. It's pretty rough at the moment. The airborne portion is made up of a ArduPilot Mega beta and a XBee pro. After building a airborne system using a Turborix Satelite receiver and Arduino I decided to eliminate the 'RC' equipment from the design completely. It was surprisingly easy and the range of the XBee Pro is better than my RC equipment.… Continue