This last update  about VBRAIN add ON. In the picture you can see the first prototype of VR Neuron (Down) near the VR Brain (UP) . As you can see te board have the same mechanical design of VR Brain . The board is very compact 6x4 cm VR Brain 7x4 VR Neuron. You can put VR Neuron above and VR Brain up , connect the board by serial port and the use VR Neuron to connect the World :)

Above the board there is PAD for connect by an Header a breadboard or directly thw wire for add yor specific applciation. On the PAD there are available a lot of input output port 27 GPIO , SPI , I2C , Serial port .

In the next days will be more update until official presentation 9 November 2012 at Makers Italy .

In the last six month i decide to implement a new revolutionary design that could be usefull for add a lot on new functionality to our drones.

In the past we only work on micro controller : AVR , SAM3X, STM32 , great platform the last STM32f4 is best micro controller for manage our drone : acro and stable flight , loiter , waypoint navigation ecc ecc. But if i want to put on it a o.s. i start to have a lot of problem : small memory footprint available , not enough ram slow speed processor. So a lot of proposal .... ChibiOS , Nuttx . But what is better and opensource of the worlds ? No doubt It's Linux :)

In my professional work i used a lot of micro controller and micro processor , but all ,too complex to be hackable as a STM32. Until i start to play with a great Italian product , the first that put an Android on a wearable PC .

I like a lot the micro inside it and decide to use that microprocessor for my next opensource design.

I'm happy to present the first design of VR Neuron . It will be official present the 10 November 2012 at the Makers Italy exibithion so who would see our great new design are welcome to meet us at Makers Italy in Milan.

These are preliminary technical info about VR Neuron :

• Freescale Imx Arm9 microprocessor.
• 64 Megabyte Ram
• Flash until 32 Gbyte Flash on SDIO bus
• 456 mhz clock
• DUAL BEC 5V Input
• 1 for CPU
• 1 for USB channel
• 1 Pal Video Output
• 2 Audio Channel Output
• 1 Input audio channel
• 26 GPIO (LCD BUS)
• 2 i2c bus
• 1 SPI MISO MOSI SCK
• 2 serial Port
• 1 USB Host 2.0 channel
• Only 6x5 cm half of Raspberry PI

The operating system that i choose for my development is ArchLinuxArm , the powerfull of this design is incredible , i play a lot with the kernel and add a lot of usb device : wifi dongle , 3G dongle , webcam and install a lot of application and test it : apache2 , mysql , mjp-streamer .

So on this platform is possible to do anything of application , it's available python , gcc , i ply with mavlink_proxy and it work fine ... i connect the VBRAIN serial port to VNeuron and by wifi connect mission planner to VBRAIN and see live the telemetry of my quadcopter online.

With the PAL output could be possibile to develop a great OSD application or with oudio you can implement a tele presence systems ... the limit will be only fantasy :)

So i'm very exited about this project and i hope that you like it and join us in development.

Follow the evolution of project here :

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/group/armcopterdevgroup/forum/topics/penguin-project-introduction-and-started-the-developer-enrolment?xg_source=activity

Best

Roberto Navoni

This is Vbrain RTF with new enclosure the .stl file is available on thinkverse:

 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32321
This last revision of VBrain will be official presented to Makers Italy in Milan 9 November 2012 join us at the event : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/events/virtual-robotix-workshop-d-autunno-incontriamoci-a-makersitaly

Emile and Roberto are progressing on the port and test of the VRBrain with the Arducopter

code now we are working on rev 2.7.3-4.

In this video is possible to see the test of Emile Hexa . It's the first flight and we testing the stability , loiter and alt hold and return to land with approach activated.

We have succesfully flown and tested latest features and came up with some benchmarks to compare the different architectures using Arducopter firmwarre.

In this video is possible to see a vbrain installed on a custom frame that use great component : SmartDrone motors and propeller the time of flight is around 27 min.

This is the video of first flight of special revision of firmware for VBRAIN that use the FPU acceleration the benchmark is about this revision of code.

Roberto and Emile a FoxTeam Member .

Dear Friends,

after some months without my reprap prusa i start to doing new test. My Friends Simone told me interesting firmware for manage my 3D printer . 

The name of Software is Repetier-Hosts this is the link :

https://github.com/repetier/Repetier-Host

The big advantages of this firmware respect of other tested some month ago is that this is an integrated development suite. 

In one Software there is 3D visualization , support for Slic3r or Skinforce , and managment of printer.

So you have 1 enviroment that support also the simulation , so you can see before to print what could be the result of your printing using the Virtual Printer driver.

Now i found a nice Quad model and i would try to print it with my prusa.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:26152

Best

Roberto

Dear Friends,
Some news after our first post : "A New Search And Rescue Project"
We finished our Ground Control Station this month ! The idea was to have a mobile station to use the drone in a car or in a control center. The GCS consists of 2 computers (for eventually future ROS deployment), the first and the main is for all without logging details (and, further for important calculations with kinect(r), single camera, etc. if we need) which is done by the second.

The PC uses a DiyDrones 3DRRadio 433MHz for telemetry data but the RC control is done by a hand assembled RC inspired from here with a computer joystick, an arduino card and a V8HFR transmitter from FrSky.
The GCS soft used is principally Qgroundcontrol but we use also APM Mission Planner from Michael Oborne. Both of them are Open Source and very customisable for sending commands with the joystick's switchs.
Our next post will be consecrated on the Drone's construction.

Imax B6 Charger integrated in the Flight Case.

Emergency stop. It kills the drone stopping all the motors immediatly with a MAVLink command or starts the emergency land.

The main computer with his KVM switch

The starting switches of the RC, fan regulator, Video receiver, etc.

Next post coming soon, we have finished the first drone today, we just have to put the magic card (with NAVY2012) and it flies !
Best,
Stynes and Lichard Torman

Hello,

At least with the latest firmware, I was able to log IMU data and download it. This flight was a test with auto take-off,  some waypoints with altitude changes and auto landing. I did it twice with the same result. I'm happy with my quad.

Here are some screens of X  and Y  acceleration data, GPS Data (Sat number and hDop), Altitude Data, and trace of the flight on GoogleMap.

Marc

/**************************** ENGLISH *******************************************/

After struggling with strange wobbling without being able to find correct PIDs, I have finally found the source of the problem.

This problem is affecting all MP32F1 users using either VRIDE or VRIDE PRO.

The bug was related to the micros() function of the Maple libraries.

To correct this before the latest relaease (currently under testing) unzip the attached file and replace the files in:

vrobotix-ide-x.x.x.x\hardware\leaflabs\cores\ for the VRIDE installation.

vrobotix-ide-pro\workspaces\MP32F1xx\ACopter32-0.0.5.7.0-WIP\wirish\ for the VRIDE PRO installation.

This is quite critical, so please take the time to upgrade it before next flying.

The zip is here:

http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=MP32F1-...

/************************ ITALIANO **********************************************/

Dopo diversi tentativi per capire cosa stava affliggendo il mio quad che nonostante PID tuning non smetteva di oscillare (piccoli scatti), finalmente sono riuscito a trovare la sorgente del problema.

Questo problema affligge tutte le piattaforme basate su MP32F1 sia che usino VRIDE che VRIDE PRO

Il problema era nella funzione micros() delle librerie MAPLE.

Per correggere il problema prima della prossima revisione del Firmware (che attualmente sto finendo di testare)  scaricate lo zip in allegato e posizionate i file nel seguente percorso relativo a quello di installazione:

vrobotix-ide-x.x.x.x\hardware\leaflabs\cores\per la VRIDE .

vrobotix-ide-pro\workspaces\MP32F1xx\ACopter32-0.0.5.7.0-WIP\wirish\ per la VRIDE PRO.

La modifica è abbastanza radicale, quindi consiglio a tutti di aggiornare la vostra installazione prima del prossimo volo.

Lo zip si trova al seguente indirizzo:

http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=MP32F1-...

My wife was nice enough to let me bring my quad and FPV gear on vacation :)

This is the result.

http://youtu.be/pYzNKglo5os?hd=1

Had dozens flights using Multipilot32 with MPU6000 and latest ported Arducopter32 2.6 firmware.

Unfortunately the quad had some vibration problems and wind was always quite strong.

I think is time to change motors and frame....

Had a lot of fun. This is my first edited video so please be nice with comments :)

Cheers,

Emile

Thanks to Roberto for his MP32 + NAVI2012

and thanks to the Arducopter dev team for their great work!

http://youtu.be/pYzNKglo5os?hd=1

Unfortunately the quad had some vibration problems and wind was always quite strong.

I think is time to change motors and frame....

Had a lot of fun. This is my first edited video so please be nice with comments :)

Cheers,

Emile

Thanks to Roberto for his MP32 + NAVI2012

and thanks to the Arducopter dev team for their great work!

original blog post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/vr-gimbal-nex7-preview

Best

Roberto

Dear friend,

This is last video doing by Marco with his Marcopter HV2 Full Carbon

yesterday we release last revision of Arducopter rev3.1rc5 for VRBrain with no OS the AP_HAL_VRBrain is very similar to APM.

more tech info about vrbrain here : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/vr-brain-v4-0

The name of our revision is APM Copter rev 3.1.11 this release is without OS , We have also available the NuttX-PX4 revision of code but only in alpha revision for dev team test.

see here for more detail on nuttx os on VRBrain : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/vrbrain-4-5-last-updat...

On VRBrain the Arducopter code use use only 6-7 % of cpu resource .... on APM 2.x use from 70 % to 95 % of cpu ... so we have a lot of resource available for doing reliable test of advanced functionality . The code need only 480 kbyte we have available 60 % of flash for develop new functionality .

Last revision of code work very well ... we are very happy of these fly result ... in italy a big community of user start to switch to VRBrain from Arduflyer or Cirus Board AIO.

http://www.baronerosso.it/forum/modelli-multirotori/274499-vrbrain-...

Update in 3.1.11

SPI BUS speed for MPU6000 increased to 8MHz
ENHANCEMENT of MPU6000 enabled by default (MPU6000 @ 1KHz and gyro full scale @ 1000dps)
update to latest 3.1rc5 of arducopter code
Corrected bug in Dataflash log download
Yellow led on board now show Scheduler activity.

Please upgrade to this release following this link.

THe Gyro and Accels now are sampled at 1KHz instead of 200Hz and main loop averages 10 samples every main loop.

This has imprved flight performance, but it is still in test, so use accordingly. With this version you can try to rise the INS_FILTER partameter to 42Hz or 98Hz, but you must have vibration under control.

Have fun and fly safe!

Best
Roberto

Dear Friends,

after 2 month of test I'm happy to inform you that the VBrain is ready to fly.

The platform is a result of 4 years of work on ARM autopilot platform. It's last evolution of Multipilot32 platform. I'm very happy that this is the year of ARM and we are here to present our last creation : Simple , Smaller and Ready to Use.

VBrain is a good choose for OEM ready to use hardware platform.

The VBrainautopilot features include:

• 168Mhz ARM CortexM4F microcontroller with DSP and floating-point hardware acceleration.
• 1024KiB of flash memory, 192KiB of RAM.
• MEMS accelerometer and gyro, magnetometer and barometric pressure sensor.
• 8 RC Input standard PPM , PPMSUM , SBUS
• 8 RC Output at 490 hz
• 1 integrated high speed data flash for logging data
• 1 Can bus 2 i2c Bus
• 3 Serial port available  one for GPS 1 for serial option 1 for serial telemetry.
• 3 digital switch (ULN2003).
• Jtag support for onboard realtime debugger.
• 1 Buzzer output.
• 1 Input for control lipo voltage
• Include in the standard Vbrain Package there is VBrain GPS module , the module support MTEK 3329 gps , Ublox module , Fastrak IT600. On the module is available optional magnetometer. You can disconnect the board and put it far from brushless motoros to solve the problem of noise on mag signal.
• Physical Dimension 6x4 cm
• Will be available a case

It's first Universal Arm hardware platform . On it is available different kind of firmware : Open or Closed source . The main firmware available is Arducopter32 , last revision is 2.7 In the next day will be available a full fly test.
This platform is fully compatible with different kind of RTOS : FreeRtos , ChibiOS , Nuttx , CooxOS .

Our first target when start to develop our hardware platform 2 years ago was to develop a simple and powerfull ide.

We develop VRIDE PRO that is a special distribution customize by FoxTeam and LaserLab guys. The Ide use Eclipse as Editor, GCC as compiler , GDB and OpenOcd as Debugger.

This is the link of ready to use Ide:

http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=vrobotix-ide-pro-0.0.5.7.0-WIP-Angerl%20Loiter-F1-F4.part1.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges

The ide support different kind of workspace and library. Our first target was porting all arduino and APM api to ARM platform.

The supported firmware are Arducopter32the last revision available is 2.7 the status of firmware is ready to fly .

The Workspace with last revision of code is available here :

http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=ACopter32_2.7_Beta1_VRBRAIN.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges

Our Team are working also on PX4 enviroment , first target was to port Arducopter32 on PX4 and PX4 enviroment to Vbrain and MP32Fx platform.

The hardware is compatible also with other opensource firmware as AutoQuad AeroQuad and OpenPilot. A lot of work are doing on IDE and firmware to share it on our platform.
We try to work to a new Opensource Standard based on high performances STM32F4 micro controller.

The price for VBRAIN with GPS Board (MTEK 3329 rev) developer revision  is 199 euro.

It's also available a ready to use board with 3 days of support by team viewer at 270 euro.

There is also available a oem version of product.

We are Ready for pre order the first batch of production will be available in 3 weeks some sample is yet available.

For more info about VBrain  contact us at virtualrobotix@gmail.com or by skype our nick is virtualrobotix

Best

Roberto

Today I did the first test with my new CTX4 V2 (VRBrain 4.5 + external IMU)
Did some simple test in my garden + alt hold, loter and auto land - no probles, and wery stable.

My great VRBrain controller is running code from today (10.10.2013)  (used Eclipse to pull and build the latest code from Emilie, that does an impressive job)

The auto land function works great.

My CTX4 V2 ready for it`s first test :-)

Next is more test, then add GoPro and FPV

Hello,

I had more flights with my Quad. I'm still impressed with RTL performance but as I explore the settings I have some questions.

I had a try with Fence. I have to do a retry but I'm quite sure there is a problem: I cannot arm motors (after battery exchange) with fence enabled. There is no Red led blinking and save of the new home. I had to uncheck Fence in the config in order to save the new Home and fly.

I had also a try with Saving waypoints (Chan7 and redo the flight Chan8). Fine.

Also a Memory problem with the logs. If I do not flush the old logs, when reaching out of space, the last log is corrupted and download hang.

I keep you in touch and had to have another try at Fence.

Thanks,

Marc

Dear friends,

Today we’ll present you our project.

    As we can see in standard rescue, the first and major step is the localization’s step. And this localization could not be always easy in some cases. Indeed, a lot of hostile environments areas like flooded areas prevent a satisfactory location of victims. So, it would seem necessary to find a localization system adapted and efficient for rescuing and avoiding a possible risk for humans.

    Our project was born from the idea that a UAV system is cheaper and smaller than helicopters, and so it could me deployed in a most important number. The project consists of creating a fully functional system (Ground Control Station, Quadcopter and maybe auto-charging system) for Search in hostile environment. The Ground Control Station is an equipped flight case with a computer for data logging, video and telemetry displaying and sending MAVLink commands; the UAV will be a MultiPilot32F4 and Navy 2012 system, with FrSky RC and 3DR 433MHz Telemetry and fiberglass Quadcopter, with a video camera and his gimbal. The auto-charging system is just an idea for the moment and had been inspired by induction and wireless energy transfer to avoid connectors (the drones should just land on an area to charge) but we’re thinking on the potential risk of interference on the radio link.

    We’re going to do some posts in July to present you the construction of the project which have been created for French physics contest and which will be probably exposed on the National Physics salon of the contest.

Best

Stynes and Lichard Torman

This is today video update , new Automatic mission with more detail during the flight. This video is better of first doing yesterday :)

In my test i using MP32F4 + NAVY2012 (ARM rev.) the revision of code is 2.5.5 Mission planner is 1.1.9

My quad is a 330x is not so good for fly in the wind :( But i fly well my first automatic mission :)

This is the discussion thread : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/how-work-and-setup-of-automatic-function-altitude-hold-loiter-aut?xg_source=activity

I doing the recording of waypoiny using the switch that is possible configure on mission planner on channel 7.

Before to start to recording is possible to delete the waypoiny in eeprom with Disarmed Motor , then switch in AUTO mode and selected then switch channel 7 the same that you use for add new waypoint.

So then you go in stabilize mode and fly where you want to put first point , second ecc until last.

When you switch on eeprom write lat lon and altitude for every point. Keep atention that in first point the quad doing a strange roll fasta change ready to controll the quad.

When you put in Auto Mode , the quad rotate his noose towards the next waypoint , don't worry :) The important is that you know how control the quad if you need to return in stabilize manual mode :)

This is the quality of auto navigation in a windy day on waypoint i see an max error of 2-3 m

At the end of flight i download my log and convert it in KMZ file and check it in Google Earth. For check the quality of flight i save the waypoint and then i prepare manually a KMZ and import it in the Google earth.

In my test i verify that hit waypoint with an error 2-3 m . I think that it's good :)

This video is doing by our VRGimbal user VR Gimbal with Sony 3D HXRNX3D1U ( 720 gr) in handeld mode

This is a video using complete VRGimbal with Panasonic GH2

..and this is another video of the same copter (in HD)

Dear Friends,

These are specification of our : VR Gimbal :

Micro Controller is STM32F1 at 72 mhz.

3 Axis Brushless Direct Drive gimbal :

• Roll (MOT1)
• Pitch (MOT2)
• Yaw (MOT3)

For each channel we have 3 high power pwm 5 Amp output .

I2C IMU that support 3 axis . It is on camera module , so we can know exactly the position of camera and control in realtime the 3 Brushless motors. MPU6050 (6 DOF) + HMC5883 (3 DOF)

1 USB port.

1 Serial port that support mavlink protocol.

1 Power module that support until 3S battery.

4 Radio RC Input for :

• Control ROLL Setup.
• Control Pitch Setup.
• Control YAW Setup.
• IR control repeater.

4 Analog Input 0-3.3v

1 IR Out , so is pssible to control a remote camera by its ir receiver.

On new revision 2.0 we add :

• customizable push buton.
• support for motors ampere monitor for each motors.
• Very intuitive Firmware update tools.
• Simple and powerfull VR Gui for VR Gimbal configuration.
• Serial driver on USB port.
• A complete and updated wiki repository with media gallery with last video from our user.

In this video is possible see the utility available for measure the current used by different kind of motors. This feature is very usefull for evaluate the specification of motors.

Is available a new tools for firmware update you can found more detail here :

https://vrgimbal.wordpress.com/quick-start-guide/firmware-upgrade/

We release a Major release 1.0.12 we add a lot of new functionality and full support of pan stabilization with 1 IMU sensor or two sensor .

The accelerometer 6 position (scale and level ) calibration is a one-time configuration. You need to do it the first time you power up the board after the firmware update (or if you change your IMU board), then you can save the calibration parameters and don’t worry anymore.

1. Power up the board and connect it to the VRGimbalGUI 0.11
2. Open the “Logs” tab
3. Write AC in the command line textbox and click on “Send Command”
4. Follow the procedure moving the IMU as requested. After each step click on “Send Command”
5. If the calibration is successful send the ASC command using the command line textbox
6. Click on “Save to Flash”

rev 1.0.12

• Minor bug correction
• Accelerometer 6 position (scale and level) calibration with saved parameters (see below)

rev 1.0.11

• Stabilize mode on Yaw
• Corrected stabilization issues for pitch near 90°
• Configurable PWM frequency
• Support for auxiliary IMU for more precise Yaw measurement (see here for more information)
• Gyro calibration can be saved to avoid calibration at startup
• Added radio channel for position reset of each axis (you can use the same channel to reset two or three axis)

rev 1.0.9

• Experimental Stabilize mode on Yaw (good with small pitch values)
• Experimental Follow mode on Yaw (need motor steps calibration and PID reconfiguration)
• Experimental support for second IMU for precise Yaw measurement (contact us for more info)
• Added support for analog/digital input (like joysticks and buttons) to be used in alternative to RC:
  • configure channel 100 to 105 to use analog input 1 to 6;
  • use the “JYC” serial command and follow the instructions to calibrate the inputs.

rev 1.0.5

• Completed PID mode on Roll and Pitch, with support of RC commands.
• Manual (RC) mode (to be used on Yaw for now) working but requires improvement.
• USB serial support (see vers. 1.04)

more info is available here :

http://vrgimbal.wordpress.com/download/vrgimbal-1-09/

The firmware is opensource the repo is available here :

http://code.google.com/p/vrgimbal/

So if you want to join in development you are welcome .

This is a screenshot of VR Gimbal Gui developed using .net technology, so could be work also using mono on mac and linux , test on that platform is welcome ,you can connect directly by usb to VR Gimbal or by radio link as 3dr module , blueetooth or other ttl wireles adapter :

We Upgrade also the VRGui with new functionality , slider full support of Pan axis and Full Frame.

With VRGimbal is possible to control this kind of gimbal ;

Handheld and Air Drone Gimbal 2-3axis Entry level gopro gimbal.

Handheld and Air Drone Gimbal 2-3axis Heavy dslr gimbal.

This is an example of video doing by our user of VRGimbal on heavy dslr gimbal :

This is official thread in virtualrobotix community is here join us for have more info and support :

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/group/vr-gimbal-user-group?xg_source=activity

For info or order VR Gimbal 2.0 board send a mail to :

info@virtualrobotix.com

We can also support our user in custom development on oem - odm gimbal hardware or firmware contact us for more detail.

Dear Friends,

our lab continue to work and improve our platform , we are working on next generation RTF and OEM platform.

The new brand will be VR BRAIN 4.0 the revision of produvt will be MP32FX V4. Put a BRAIN in your DRONE :)

The new design will be based on experience doing with MP32FX V3 and NAVY 2012 . Same great sensor MPU6000 , HMC5883 , MS barometer and STM32F1 or F4 as micro controller and Data Flash onboard for save realtime data logging .

The design will be more compact , only  1 all in one board with put a gps on it or connected by a cable

There are also interesting news about new exclusive ST MEMS sensor supported by VR Brain but will be more news available in the future :)

For special low consuption application will be available also L1 revision of micro.

So with this new boar will be available also the new VR IDE PRO .

The main adavantages of this new ide is the direct support of .PDE file  so will be more simple mantain the aligment of arducopter project  and support of relative path  so will be more simple de zip and use enviroment without need to redefine the path ecc ecc in the eclipse.

This is the link of new VRIDE is 4 part download all then dezip it.

http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=vrobotix-ide-pro-0.0.5.7.0-WIP-Angerl%20Loiter-F1-F4.part1.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges

See last video doing with the hardware that will be used also in VR BRAIN

The precision of loiter is around 2 meter

New developer and user are welcome , this will be ideal platform also for oem developer : Autopilot and Gimbal Control systems :)

Best

Roberto

After more than a year of VRBrain 4.5 development , thanks to the efforts of FOXTEAM and the VRI dev team, reached a level of maturity and very high reliability .

It ' was the first platform to support Arducopter 32-bit first through the use of a port of the old library AP_XXX then with new AP_HAL_VRBRAIN library , but without the use of an operating system, as is the case for APM 2.x and now instead of in the video you can see the first pre flight check and the first flight of VRBran 4.5 NuttX that mounts the operating system and the firmware Arducopter 3.1rc5 .

Thanks to PIX4 Dev Team and all the other member of team that develop and support this new OS
To use NuttX of VRBrain we simply add on the expansion port on the SD Card reader
In tests of performance using the mission planner , the cpu  uses NuttX Arducopter with only 6% of the CPU resources , On APM 2.x need 70 %  cpu.
Now are available 4  VRBrain 4.5 firmware and 2 OS Supported:

The first OS supported by VRBrain is FreeRTOS used inside the TauLab project , Stefan a member of dev team working on it  :

https://github.com/scenkov/vrbrain

The new one OS is Nuttx integrated in PX4 enviroment and Arducopter32 the ap_hal use is PX4 instead of AP_HAL_VRBRAIN that we use without OS. Our work on NuttX was  on device driver 

An early revision of our code is available here  :

https://code.google.com/p/vrbrain/downloads/detail?name=nuttxonvrbrainworkspace.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges

You need to install standard PX4 dev enviroment and import our workspace for build the code ... in the next weeks we prepare a ready to use dfu that will be available in VRbrain wiki page.

Arducopter32 rev 3.1.5 (stable version) :
tested for more than a month with a deep debug coordinated by Marco Robustini and supported by me and Emile and other users of the devteam.

http://vrbrain.wordpress.com/version-3-0/

Arducopter32 rev 3.1.9 ( dev version):

https://code.google.com/p/vrbrain/source/list?name=master_latest_rc4

That ' a video conducted by Marco in the last days ...

VRBrain 4.5 is the only platform that supports Arducopter 32 with and without the operating system. It has the same reliability of an APM 2.x from the first use and guarantees the use of future developments based operating system NuttX.
It is also the basis for the future development of a European project called GinSec whose purpose is to develop an innovative and revolutionize gps inertial for the specific application in the world of UAVs ... but we'll talk about this thing in the coming months :)

for more info about status of the project and future development contact : r.navoni@virtualrobotix.com

The VRBrain 4.5 is available on our webstore at : 

http://www.virtualrobotix.it/index.php/167-2/componenti-elettronici/vrbrain-4-5-detail

If you have some problem on it in your country contact info@virtualrobotix.com

Hello,

I received my VrBrain4.5 order today. I used an APM2 on a SpiderLike Quad and I just swapped the two units on the frame. As I had a spare 3DR uBlox GPS, I managed to install it with the VrBrain (internal plug).

Firmware is the latest dev VRBRAIN_3.1.5_QUAD_INTGPS_ENHANCED.dfu. 

I had a short flight to check my setup before dinner and i'm quite happy with my new setup. 

Here are two pictures (there is a 6" ruler on the frame). 

Frame is home made.

R/C setup: Futaba T14SG transmitter, Frsky TRF4 PPMSum receiver (8 channels).

VrBrain box is installed on 4 moon gel pads. 

VrBrain box came with 4mm metal screws. I tapped the holes with a 3mm tap and used  short nylon screws to close the box. No risk of breaking the holes, nor magnetic interference.

Marc

First early Flight Video only for test that all work fine ... a windy day and need to setup PID because with more power the old one is not good:

Dear Friends,
i'm happy to inform you that our new product Multipilot32F4 and NAVY 2012 is ready
for beta testing for a special price of 199 euro.

We presented it at the beginning of year .We finish to port low
level library from STM32F1 to STM32F4: We rewrite old libmaple for STM32F1 by scratch porting
all lib to STM32F4. (thank's Alberto V for his work on library)
So the AP_LIB have same interface of standard AP_LIB for arduino and
the Arducopter32  is very similar to original revision for Arduino
platform , share 98% with original code.

The firmware that i using in my fly test is Arducopter 2.5.4 so it's last available.

I'm doing my first fly test in these day with success . A video will be availabe in the next days

The characteristics of Multipilot32F4 are:

Hardware:

• ARM Cortex-M4 processor STM32F407VET6. 168 Mhz
• Flash 1024 Kbytes RAM 196 Kbytes
• 16-bit Timer 4
• SPI 2 (ADC Interface , MicroSD connection Option)
• I ² C 2 (First I2C (sensor), Second I2C control until ESC 12)
• USART 5 (GPS, DEBUG Console, XBee Pro Telemetry)
• USB 1 (Upload Firmware, Debug Console, Power Board for Debug)
• CAN 1 (Interconnection with Professional ESC 1 Mbit update rate)
• 8 PWM Output Bit 16 (ESC / Servo Control)
• 7 PWM Input 16 Bit (RC Input Channel, accept PPM SUM)
• 8 Analog Input 12 Bit.
• Professional 4 layers PCB.
• DC: DC 30 V (6s Lipo): 5 volts and 3.3 volts
• MPU6000 Imu Sensor 3 gyro and 3 acc on board

The NAVY 2012

• HMC5883 3 axis magnetic sensor
• EEPROM for data storage
• MS6511 high precision barometer
• MTEK GPS with custom firmware for arducopter.
• Dataflash on board.
• SDIO SD Card
• SPI SD Card that support FAT file systems. (Optional)

More info about the boards are available here :

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/multipilot32f4-v3-0

The board is yet in production and available the next stock could be
available in the middle of may.

There are a lot of tool for development :

• A very light toolchain for peolpe that like command line ... a lot in hard developer community.
• A VRIDE Pro that is an eclipse with support for JTAG debugging .. we using ST-LINK.
• An VRIDE Std that will be available in some week for end user .

Is possible to use the DFU on usb for upgrade firmware without problem.

This is the link for download last revision of  enviroment :http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=VR%20MP32F4%20%20IDE%20LIB%20FIRMWARE%2001-5-2012%202.6%20%20beta.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges

This is the link of the thread on virtualrobotix forum:
http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot32-v3-f1-f4-and-new-vr-ide-pro

In our test we found more of 12x respect to standard Arduino Mega hardware platform.

The spare time cicle in 5 second is 3610 for APM and 42321 for an Multipilo32F4. 


In this test is not yet available the FPU acceleration only by different clock 16 mhz for arduino , 168 for Multipilot32F4



In this video you can see the different whe use FPU ON or FPU OFF math acceleragion going up 17x

This is the new benchmark   

Arduino APM1 e APM2  

PerfMon:            cpu%          mils #called Hz 

loop                     33.45%  96 3614 0hz 

read_AHR             34.09%    98       29 0hz 

FiftyHZ_Loop         2.88%         8        15 0hz 

Update_GPS           0.56%                  1       15 0hz 

setupA                   0.00%              0   0 0hz 

unexplained         29.03% 83  



STM32F1                        MP32F1  

PerfMon:                       cpu%        mils #called    Hz 

loop                            35.81%  112     18357   0hz 

read_AHR               23.53%  73      130             0hz Fif y

FiftyHZ_Loop   H           7.54   54      15              0hz 

SuperFast_Loop         3.04%   9       392             0hz 

Update_GPS             1.10%   3       15              0hz 

ReadBarometer          0.07%   0       3               0hz 

setupA                 0.00%   0       0               0hz

unexplained             18.91%  59    



STM32F4                 MP32F4 ( NOW I2C IS OK )  

PerfMon:                 cpu%    mils    #called Hz 

loop                       46.88%             131 42321 0hz 

read_AHR               11.01%  30      138     0hz 

SuperFast_Loop         8.45%   23      519     0hz 

FiftyHZ_Loop           3.00%   8       15      0hz 

Update_GPS             0.13%   0       15      0hz 

ReadBarometer          0.04%   0       3       0hz 

setupA                 0.00%   0       0       0hz 

unexplained            30.49%  85

So if someone would join the development is welcome :)

Best

Roberto Navoni

Ciao a tutti!

Incidente mortale per un ingegnere austriaco in Sud Corea durante una prova di un drone militare.

Si dice nell'articolo che sarebbe dovuto ad un interferenza (voluta o no, Nord-Coreani ...) sul GPS.

E impressionante i danni che ci sono stati oltre la morte di un uomo (150 kg di drone in un camion...)

Cliccare su Link per l'articolo completo.

Fa riflettere sul rapporto costi/sicurezza di questi mezzi ...

Buon voli

Touch