Comment by John C. on October 27, 2009 at 8:30pm

Thanks for the guidance Chris! It helps!

JC

Comment by NorthSweden on October 28, 2009 at 10:06am

Nice points.

But for mountain peoples like me need to wait for the ArduMega or until the IMU Ardu to Ardupilot modification is working.
Because i dont think my thermopiles would work until i reach a hight of 1mile, hehe
So i am grounded until then?

Comment by Matt Fisher on October 28, 2009 at 10:32am

Any ideas (even rough ones) on ArduMega price point and who will be selling it, you or SF?

Comment by Chris Anderson on October 28, 2009 at 10:50am

I think <$300 is a good price target for the works, including GPS (but not including wireless telemetry and ground station hardware). But we'll see. As always, everything will be open source and all software will be free and open to all.

We'll probably sell the autopilot board itself through third parties, for regulatory reasons. (We don't sell autopilots; we give away autopilot technology for others to sell and sell stuff around them)

Comment by Andy Geppert on October 28, 2009 at 12:52pm

If I were to jump in now by purchasing a Arduino Mega and either the IR sensors or the ArduIMU and the associated to-be-built analog adapter, is it reasonable to run the ArduPilot code on the Arduino Mega, as if it were a standard ArduPilot?

Stated another way, can I build an ArduPilot with Arduino Mega hardware, and then morph into ArduPilot Mega later as that becomes available? At least from a technical standpoint?

Comment by Chris Anderson on October 28, 2009 at 12:57pm

Andy, I wouldn't recommend that. You don't have the MUX/failsafe chip, and much depends on that. I think at best you're looking at a tangle of wires on a breadboard, and at worst you're reinventing the wheel. If you want an open-source IMU-based board now, get the UAVDevBoard.

Comment by Andy Geppert on October 28, 2009 at 1:01pm

Ah - I was just going to add that - the MUX/failsafe. Other than that (and the tangle of wires), is there anything technically wrong with the concept? I understand it is not the best path, but I'd like to stick with Arduino, otherwise I'd be more inclined to try the UAVDevBoard.

Comment by Chris Anderson on October 28, 2009 at 1:14pm

The ArduPilot code will run on any Arduino, including the Mega. Of course it won't do anything useful if you don't have all the right inputs, from GPS to RC to sensors, and you'll have to find your own way to connect them, but technically it's possible.

Comment by Morli_ on October 28, 2009 at 2:58pm

Hi Chris,
pardon my enthusiasm and eagerness.I too was thinking in the same like as Andy, am quite eager to jump in the bandwagon being tired of standing on sidelines and watching you guys having all the fun :) , however I wasn't quite sure that I like FMA like sensor based stabilization, i am more inclined towards IMU. So my question is/ will the ardu team design whole Mega based AP from scratch or use this board and this breakout board. Will you be using this board and all the additional components in additional board or will you be just using mega chip on custom board? i hope there is possibility of integrating ultrasonic sensors of low altitude sensing( <6 m for landing estimation) also or atleast to get those reading on GS screen somewhere( would love to do FPV landing :)).
In anticipation of my OWN AP some day soon, i went and bought Aerocomm AC4790LR-1000 already and tested it using regular terminal programs, works fine , haven't done long distance test yet.
In addition I am very impressed with Millswood failsafe , Do you think this device has place in ardumega based AP? or such function will be or atleast is in pipeline for mega AP. Thanks for your valuable input

Comment by jasonshort on October 28, 2009 at 3:36pm

I wouldn't knock the IR sensors and a simple Ardupilot board. With all of this IMU hype going around, it's easy to forget how good they actually work.

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