paparazzi-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[Paparazzi-devel] Alternative options for Booz hardware


From: Vassilis V.
Subject: [Paparazzi-devel] Alternative options for Booz hardware
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 22:20:25 -0500

A question to the Booz experts!

I know the there are a few people that are working on offering complete Booz hardware kits and I will likely be getting one once they become available. However being the impatient guy I am, I would like your opinion on a alternative setup based on existing hardware and the Booz software.

The idea is basically to use the following hardware in order to put together a Booz controlled quadcopter. All hardware is already available and the airborne software will be very similar to the existing code base with some modifications to handle the new IMU.

- TWOG (or Tiny) board as the main controller
- GPS connected to the TWOG GPS port (if not using a Tiny)
- Xbee modem connected to the telemetry port
- CHR-6d 6DOF Inertial Measurement Unit from http://www.chrobotics.com/CHR6d.php . This is a relatively new board with a lot of nice features, 64MHz ARM MCU, open source software, 16 bit ADC, all sensors are flat and very small. It has a TTL UART or I2C interface. I am planning to connect it to the I2C1 port of the TWOG board. - HMC5843 3-axis magnetometer from Sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9371 . It will be connected to I2C1 port together with the IMU. - 4x TowerPro ESC with modified firmware. These will be connected to the I2C0 port of the TWOG board.

I went through the Booz main board schematics and one difference I spotted is the level converters on the I2C port. The TowerPro are based on a 5V ATMega8 MCU, however I have used this ESC (in PWM mode) with a 3.3V MCU with no problems (high-level threshold for the ATMega is 3V). The accels and gyros used in the CHR-6d IMU look decent and the additional processing power on the board may allow for some more advanced signal processing if needed.

Do you see any major issues with the above setup? I know I will have to make some modifications on the code and I am fine with that (I am doing this for fun after all :-)), I just want to make sure that I am not missing anything major. I already have most of the hardware including the quadcopter frame.

Thanks for any feedback and sorry for the long post,
Vassilis

P.S. The above setup could also be used on a fixed wing (using a slightly modified version of the Paparazzi code to support the IMU), but this is another project!





reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]