new autonav / GPS / IMU / OSD !!!

[corvette321]

the cheapest possible route for a full IMU with all the features mentioned above would be to buy our techFX motion light board (thats without the IMU components) and solder on the parts for the IMU yourself!!!

yes we are using the same PCB for the light version!!!

so if you have a hot air rework station or a reflow toaster oven, you can put together your IMU even cheaper than what we will sell the full version for!!

but the 1st one we are releasing is the techFX motion light version with windows OSD software.....

the options for this are:

1) no programming, complete GUI version with firmware preinstaled.

2) can program your own firmware and change source code using free MCC 30 pic compiler and a cheap clone ICD 2 programmer (or pickit 2) available on ebay for about $30 dollars.

the techFX motion light version (everything but the 6 DOF IMU) will be available as early as 3 weeks from now.

complete IMU version to follow soon.

[corvette321]

pricing for the techFX motion light version with software will be around $100-120 range.

techFX motion full version (IMU) will be around $250 range.


if you reflow or rework your own IMU chips on there (about 90 dollars worth of chips) you can save yourself about 50 dollars.

[corvette321]

oh yah forgot to mention another great feature of both versions.

the Xbee communication module.... (which can go upto 20 miles depending on which one you choose) will be able to control your camera!!!

it will provide a serial link, and will be transparent to current software..!!!

thats right you can use your favorite software that you are already using to control your camera!!! no need to buy a separate camera control board.

All that is needed is to hook up the serial cable from your camera to our controller.

how can we do this?

this is basically a hardware patch.... we are using the Xbee module to provide a wireless serial protocol link betwen the computer and the controller on your UAV.

that hardware is transparant to your windows software and will use a standard com port.

why do we like this?

CAUSE WE DONT HAVE TO WRITE ANY SOFTWARE hahahahahah




the Xbee link could also be used in other ways such as a "telemtry dashboard" etc.

[corvette321]

here is the 1st test layout.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcxilxPlc4M

the heading scroll and distance to home and target arent coded yet (2 bottom lines...)

this has thresholds for GPS start (hdop, vdop, and pdop) that wont proceed to screen 2 until they are past the threshold values (then it will log the home coordinate for DTH calculation)

the screen swiching rate is adjustable as is what data u want to display.

all variables can be set via windows GUI interface...

also there are threshold for blink values for battery voltage and current-hour meter....(as seen in example..)

we are basing the altimeter on the SCP1000 baro and temp chip (via SPI port)
compass will be external also, and each board will have the accelo chip on them so they can use 3 axis magneto and calculate a heading WITH TILT!!! (cheaply done...)

u could use a 2 axis also if u really wanted too

the current sensor is adjustable via windows GUI also so you can use a 50 amp or 100 amp and just quickly change the rate in eeprom.

its also very modular, you can add what u want and modify code yourself if you like....

and will be very low cost!!

anywhoo this isnt a flying example.... (yet)...

was just testing out the NMEA parsing routines and playig with the layout.... i like this layout...

it aint a graphical OSD, but we will make one later this year after the pic 32 comes out. (i promise!!!)

[corvette321]

microchip is selling pic 32's now!!!

thats about 120 DMIPS (80 mhz...)


its a pretty fast little MCU...

and is pin for pin compatible with dspic..


so the techFX motion full IMU version will come with the PIC 32

and the light (non IMU) version will come with the dspic.

[iflybyu77]

Just so you know, we ARE reading and paying attention, so don't think you are wasting your time. You seem pretty excited about the development, so I'll cheer you on! Seems like a pretty neat idea going modular..

[StatiC]

yea... what he said . Very interested in something that is open to develop on myself. Keep the info coming.

[Hogster]

So basically this would be a drop-in replacement for something like the Helicommand? How about flybarless mixing?

I love the idea of GPS hold! Keep up the great work with the development


David

[corvette321]

well helicommand is approx 600 smackers!!! ouch...

this is an OSD for 100-125 modular also.. that you can interface anything too and develop more past what we have done in the firmware (which is alot)!!!

also it is a full IMU yes similiar to helicommand, but once again modular, and alot cheaper!!! and you can develop more on your own too past what we have done.

so this is a tinkerer's solution.

but also a full featured solution offering turn-key operation (for you non programmers).

[corvette321]

we are releasing the ligher version OSD 1st... so well see what type of mixing we offer when we start coding for the full IMU version.

but the full IMU version will be released prior to code completion as a hardware platform for developers!!!

and that will sport the new PIC 32 processor at 120 Drystone MIPS. (~80 mhz).

[Hogster]

That's fair enough Could one use this system in-line with a Helicommand to offer GPS holding ability? Although come to think of it I've run out of channels on my transmitter so I wouldn't be able to activate/deactive your device! Hmm!

Keep up the great work! I'm following your progress closely


David

[corvette321]

well you could use the wireless Xbee 2.4 ghz (or 900 mhz upto 20 miles) telemetry module ... it is 2 way communication.


you could set it up to control upto 8 servo lines on the board... , or digital in / outs.

whatever you like...

to control a camera, to switch on an RX mux or similiar....

etc..

[corvette321]

code code code writing!!!

got alot of features done already..


everything is in floating point!!! no interger rounding... so have the most accurate possible values....


-altitude in feet and meters upto 99999 feet or meters....
- AGL and MSL selectable (AGL is latched upon meeting threeshold values of minimum HDOP , VDOP , PDOP, sats #
- lat and long is ddmmm.mmm and decimal degre with high accuracy
-speed can be mph and kph upto 999 with decimal point for slower speeds ie: 0.xx 00.x

distand to home and distance to target based on lat, and long are done using great circle forumals with high accuracy floating point....

DTH and DTT displayed in same units as others selected...

also whats cool is when you go below 1.0 unit (1 KM or 1 mile) the DTT and DTH automatically switch to feet and meters.... pretty cool feature

its super stable right now....

still have some left to do:

--addon modules

1) current sensor and mAH meter
2) SCP1000 baro altimeter module code
3) magneto or compass code instead of COG parsing
4) compass bar.... almost done actually.
5) other addon modules.... rpm?

so its getting there!!

really happy with the eb 85 a's accuracy!!

[Neil_J]

Very cool. I was going to design an IMU board very similar to this about a year ago but I've been too busy. Looks great so far. Thanks for keeping the project open-source, I for one will be contributing my work to the project.

My only negative comment would be the processor choice. I was a bit bummed to see a dsPIC/PIC32 tying everything together -- I would much rather see an ARM9 (e.g. LPC3180 or i.MX31). This is just my opinion so don't take it the wrong way. I first learned to program on PICs years ago, which put a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't until I moved to the ARM instruction set that embedded programming actually became fun. A favorite quote of mine from ladyada:

Overall, I've written some asm for both processors and I hate to break it to PIC users but writing assembly for PIC is akin to stabbing myself in the face. (Except its not even that efficient, cause you have to more the knife into the working register first (movlw KNIFE), and then you can stab yourself (movwf FACE).)

At least the newer PIC32's are MIPS M4K core and have JTAG. Much better than their previous (proprietary) cores and programming interfaces. So I'm sure the PIC32 will do great. Wonderful, I get to learn another CPU architecture, another instruction set, and another build toolchain

[corvette321]

Hi Neil,

the dspic is only for the light OSD version


the pic 32 is a drop in for it.... (ive already looked over the pins and have a pile of the pic 32;s right here waiting to be installed!!!)

ive been rigorously testing out the OSD code..... fixing bugs...

i like stable code!!

did some driving over to bradenton today over the bridge, and was observing a small 7 inch LCD i have hooked upto it./.....

fixing a small bug in the bearing calculations...

the distance calculations is nice.... making it an option to switch between haversine and regular pythagorean... i want to include vicenty 0.5 mm accuracy distance calc code too but ill have to see if the processor can handle it as it is pretty intensive!! but super accuracte...

i have been getting accuracy from 10-25 feet depending on how many sats i have,.

today i had 11 sats!!!!

gonna bump the OSD upto 5 hz next and see how it handles.... but the code is coming along nicely....

youd be surprised how mucht the dspics can do!! remember it has DMA!!!

all the A2D can be handled in DMA.....so can the SPI.....

thats how you can fit a complete autonav on a dspic!! good code writing.

thats why i refuse to release it until i have all the bugs worked out... and will test it rigorously and completely.

also im packing it with tons of features...

but yah the light version is almost ready.....code is coming great....

i am happy with the COG parsing and compass scroll. it is working pretty well.....(just gotta fix 1 bearing bug.... no biggie...)

tested it out to 50 miles today and its working great....

next hooking up the altimeter SCP1000 sensor and the current sensor and code that.. A2D will be running in DMA mode so less processor utilization. SCP1000 is SPI so thats easy to do...easy code to write...

the 2 axis compass is primarily for those wanting a compass on the ground (slow moving robots etc....) whereass the COG will not work!!!! well it works well when you are moving but for really slow speeds it doesnt give accurate turns etc.,.. thats where the 2 axis compass module support will help out. it is not intended for the air.

maybe further on down the road will do the 3 axis tilt compensated compass readings from the 3 axis magneto data.... that shouldnt be too hard to do, but of course that requires the accelo data....

decided not to include the 3 axis accelo with the light version, as i think most people will use the COG from the GPS....

btw: the pic 32 is a nice chip.. i wish it had a FPU or MMU.. but thats ok... 120 DMIPS is still nice!!!

they have USB versions coming out.

the next full IMU and OSD will be a bob 4 unit with dual pic 32's.

-one pic 32 for sensor / OSD IO

-one pic 32 for kalman / servo driving....

both communicate via SPI at 10 mhz or soo.

that should be around december.

well see how this one sells 1st!!!

[Neil_J]

Originally Posted by corvette321

btw: the pic 32 is a nice chip.. i wish it had a FPU or MMU.. but thats ok... 120 DMIPS is still nice!!!

i.MX31 does 740 MIPS, that's over 6 times faster It has DMA, MMU, vector floating point processing, MPEG encode/decode, CCD camera interface, etc.. I'm not too worried though, I will be using an ARM to do the important stuff, the dsPIC/IMU board will be its slave

thats why i refuse to release it until i have all the bugs worked out... and will test it rigorously and completely.

It would be a good idea to let a few people look at the code before the first release, i.e. peer review. That way anything that gets missed will have a chance to be fixed. I will volunteer to look everything over if you want. I'm somewhat of a GPS guru so I'm sure I could help out.

[corvette321]

hahahah yah freescale imx is nice...

we are playing around with cirrus logic 9315 right now....

(trying to find some applications for it that will be profitable...)

still even the cirrus logic doesnt touch the imx.....

had fun compiling win CE code!!!!

wow that takes a long time even on a dual processor system hahaha....

but yah you could have a nice little embedded linux autonav hahaha!!

but i think thats overkill for a heli or a small rc plane.

maybe for a predator aircraft.

[corvette321]

sure you could use it purely for a sensor / OSD board...

it has SPI to pins... so yah slave it all you want!!!!

ill be proud to say its in your autonav system.

[corvette321]

hahahah found the error in my bearing algorithm...

forgot the %360 at the end.

how silly of me!!!......

[r40734]

Originally Posted by corvette321

hahahah yah freescale imx is nice...

Buy the Freescale stuff (keep food on my table).

This is an incredible setup you are designing. From all the features you have mentioned already, and being open source and modular, really got my brain working on the possibilities (scene recognition, fly-to locations, etc. hint hint)

Keep up the good work . I'm anxious for this to hit the market and see just what everybody comes up when they really start playing with the possibilities.