Is it possible to have the arducopter board control wheels?

[togy]

I'm new to arduino, arducopter and multirotors, but have pretty long experience in building RC helicopters and 3D flying. I'm sorry if I write something wrong, please correct me if I do so.

I would like to build a tricopter that also is able to drive around on the ground. I would like to use two front wheels (futaba servos with wheels) on the landing gear and a uncontrolled rear following wheel. Is this possible to do using the arduino board in APM 2.6 or pixhawk, or would I need a separate arduino board.

[R_Lefebvre]

Well, it's certainly not covered in the existing code, but being open source, you can do whatever you want.

There is ArduRover code in existence already, and it would probably be easier to use two boards, one running Copter code, and the other Rover.

[togy]

Originally Posted by R_Lefebvre

Well, it's certainly not covered in the existing code, but being open source, you can do whatever you want.

There is ArduRover code in existence already, and it would probably be easier to use two boards, one running Copter code, and the other Rover.

Ok. Then I'll go for two boards. Could on of the boards be programmed to switch on the other?

[R_Lefebvre]

Sure, anything is possible. But that's not a standard thing in the code.

[togy]

Cool! A friend of mine have a lot of arduino programming experience so I may get help from him. Is the pixhawk software be open source?

[R_Lefebvre]

Yes, it's still open source. It's actually a unified code-base between the two systems. But compiling and uploading to Pixhawk is not done through the Arduino IDE and is a little more complicated.

[togy]

Originally Posted by R_Lefebvre

Yes, it's still open source. It's actually a unified code-base between the two systems. But compiling and uploading to Pixhawk is not done through the Arduino IDE and is a little more complicated.

Ok nice then ill go for pix hawk. I been considering the Y6 combo, but can't see any reviews. Is it a fairly new platform or how come? I can't see the pix hawk controller in stock either, is it in production?

[R_Lefebvre]

The Pixhawk is still in the initial release stage. It was supposed to be shipping in November or December, but has suffered a few delays. They have shipped some for pre-orders, but then got held up again for another week or so.

[togy]

Ok. I just emailed them asking them to put together the prize for what need. Let's hope they can deliver.

[jperkosk]

You don't need to bother, why go through all this trouble? Set aside a channel (lets call it AuxWheels) directly from the Rx to be connected to wheel servos. Create a mix with rudder signal (that goes to APM or Pixhawk or whatever contrloller you fancy) on the input and AuxWheels on the output, the mix percentage will be your wheel sensitivity. You're done.

[R_Lefebvre]

There's some out of the box thinking. That should work with no/minimal code modification. If all you want is manual control of the wheels.

If you had a really good radio with flexible software (Taranis?) you could flip a switch, and have it change the right stick from controlling Ch1/2 to 7/8. Then use 7/8 direct output to the car functions.

[togy]

Thank you guys for the tips. The thing is that i want the Y6 to taxi on the ground to a polulu IR beacon. What stops me from making my order is that I can't figure our if I can give PPM inputs from a extra arduino nano to the pixhawk while still having normal ppm inputs from my receiver.
I think I'm pretty sure it would work with the old APM arduino based card but I of course want the latest and greatest hardware. As you hear I'm new to programming so sorry for sounding stupid.

[R_Lefebvre]

It would not be easy to make the Pixhawk take a second PPM stream. But, that's fine, because PPM doesn't really make any sense in this day and age, I wish we could get rid of it. But all the hobby radio control systems are stuck in the stone ages....

It would be easy(ish) to set up an I2C communication between the Nano and the Pixhawk, and that would be far superior in every way. Even serial UART would be better than PPM.

But you're still talking about quite a bit of software hacking. The beauty of these open systems is that ANYTHING is possible. But it's going to take work.

[togy]

Originally Posted by R_Lefebvre

It would not be easy to make the Pixhawk take a second PPM stream. But, that's fine, because PPM doesn't really make any sense in this day and age, I wish we could get rid of it. But all the hobby radio control systems are stuck in the stone ages....

It would be easy(ish) to set up an I2C communication between the Nano and the Pixhawk, and that would be far superior in every way. Even serial UART would be better than PPM.

But you're still talking about quite a bit of software hacking. The beauty of these open systems is that ANYTHING is possible. But it's going to take work.

Or maybe its easier to skip the arduino nano middle step and connect the IR transiver directly to the pixhawk and make some additions to the code.
I do have resources to help me out but this is to much fun - I would like to try my self to learn and to be more familiar with how these things actually work. Where should I start to read? Below is a more detailed description of how I want it to work:
1: Y6 makes a landing close to a "hangar"(IR beacon).
2: start "return to hangar" program from mission planner.
3: "return to hangar" consist of :
3.1 limit throttle to below hover power ~15%
3.2 rotate Y6 on ground (standing on wheels 2 fixed on front landing gears 1 free rotating on tail tail gear) towards IR beacon on "hangar". I think I will use the polulu pair of IR transivers
3.3 Forward flight (taxi on ground) towards beacon
4: a small bar on the ground next to the IR beacon prevents the craft from hitting the beacon.
5: stop "return to hangar" automatically after 15 seconds or by using some sort of switch when colliding with the bar next to the beacon.

I'm not sure where to start. I'm waiting for the Y6 v2 to be released so I can place a order but I want to do some preparation in advance.

[R_Lefebvre]

I'm not sure where to tell you to start. But the code is located here:

https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot

[togy]

Ok I'll sit down with a arduino experienced programmer tomorrow to get going. If you have any suggestions or practical tips regarding to the list of steps in my previous post I'd be very thankful:-)