ArduPilot Mega v1.0.3 alpha ready for public release
OK - After working with a small group of Alpha testers, I guess we are ready to open the flood gates and make a public release of ArduPilotMega!
Here is what you need to know:
- This is an Alpha release - expect there to be bugs. If you don't want to deal with bugs, wait for the Beta. There will still be bugs in the Beta (probably), but a lot less.
- For the Alpha release we will NOT be providing a .zip download. The code will be changing frequently as we find and fix bugs. You should use a SVN client to get the most recent revision to the code. Look below for a mini tutorial. If you don't want to mess with SVN, please wait for the Beta release.
- Read the ArduPilot Mega manual. It is located here. Expect the manual to change on a daily basis. Recheck it frequently.
- Please understand that there is a HUGE amount of functionality in ArduPilotMega. Most of it is still untested in actual flight, and some specific commands are not fully implemented.
- We have made extensive use of libraries. You must either add these to your Arduino install or we would recommend using the great new "Sketchbook checkout" put together by Michael Smith which will handle getting the libraries for you and keeping them current. See the SVN mini tutorial below.
- There is some functionality in place for the Legacy ground station. There is also functionality in place for the new ground station, however the new ground station is not ready yet.
What has not been tested:
- Airspeed Sensor and associated control laws
- Magnetometer
- NMEA
- Most of the commands
- Use of many of the options in the config file
Good luck and happy autonomous flying!
Mini SVN Tutorial
This is a quick tutorial on how to use Tortise SVN to download the ArduPilotMega code using the "Sketchbook checkout" and how to keep your copy up to date.
- Install the TortiseSVN client on your PC. Get it here.
- On your PC open a window for the directory into which you would like to store your local copy of the code. Right click in the window and choose SVN Checkout.
- Fill in the URL of repository with: http://ardupilot-mega.googlecode.com/svn/Sketchbook/trunk/
- The checkout directory field should contain a folder name of the folder you are in appended with \Sketchbook
- Click OK. This step downloads all the firmware and library files you will need. If you have a slow connection this step can be glitchy. If you get an error that one or more libraries you can use the SVN update feature to correct this after the checkout completes.
- You should now have a Sketchbook folder which contains folders for ArduPilotMega, libraries, and Tests.
- Open the Arduino IDE. Go to Preferences in the File menu. Change the Sketchbook location to this new Sketchbook folder. Now choose Sketchbook from the File menu and choose ArduPilotMega.
- You are now ready to compile the latest code.
- To update your local working copy to the latest revision, go to the directory containing your Sketchbook folder, right click on the Sketchbook folder, and choose SVN Update. With this one step you will get the latest code for ArduPilotMega and all the libraries downloaded to your PC.
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Comment by Earl on August 25, 2010 at 12:48pm -
The bugs 44-46 I posted still apply.
Earl
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Comment by Adam AKAV8R on August 25, 2010 at 2:33pm -
I just loaded the new code using the method above. Everything seemed to work as described except now my orange B LED on the IMU is solid and the C LED is flashing red but my Mediatek GPS blue light is solid with a lock. Shouldn't the C LED be solid as well? I did change the GPS protocol to 4 (Mediatek).
Any idea's or is this the proper LED indication?
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Comment by Doug Weibel on August 25, 2010 at 5:58pm -
There is a pending bug issue for the LED's. It hasn't been a high priority....
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Comment by Antonio on August 25, 2010 at 6:30pm -
Hi,
Have followed the above SVN instructions and all files synchronised without errors however when i verify the code i get the following error :-
51 error : APM_RC.h: No such file or directory??
Regards,
Tony
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Comment by Doug Weibel on August 25, 2010 at 7:42pm
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Hi Tony,
Check in your libraries folder within your Sketchbook folder. You should have a folder there for the APM_RC library. If not navigate out and right click on the Sketchbook folder and select the option SVN Update.
I have seen Google Code be a bit glitchy in this regard if their servers are busy and the initial checkout not get all the libraries.
That should take care of it. If not, let us know.
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Comment by Adam AKAV8R on August 25, 2010 at 7:47pm
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Should I assume the GPS and APM are working correctly then and the bug is only relating to LED indication?
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Comment by Doug Weibel on August 25, 2010 at 7:52pm
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Adam,
Yes, it is most likely just the poor state we have left the LED code in at the moment.
The easiest way to tell would be to use the ENABLE AIR START option in the config file. See the manual. If you do this then you will only get the ground start after the gps has lock. You will get all 3 LED's flashing during ground start. After ground start switch into Stabilize or Fly By Wire mode and observe the control surfaces when you pitch and roll the plane. That will verify IMU and APM operation.
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Comment by jasonshort on August 25, 2010 at 9:38pm -
There was an error in the MTK GPS library. Please redownload the libraries.
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Comment by Ryan Beall on August 25, 2010 at 9:52pm -
Congrats, this is moving right along! When I'm on leave in 4 weeks or so, I might be joining the crowd. The airspeed/mag/wind estimate seem to be the next on the list and i'm all setup to maybe knock that out.
-Beall
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Comment by Francis FELIX on August 25, 2010 at 9:58pm
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Cool
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