My autopilot is evolving

[ALtitudeap]

I have been working hard on this little project. i now have the board designed in ExpressPCB and need to send it off to be etched. the board has an RS-232 connector on it for connecting to my computer or to the MaxStream Wireless Radio that i have. the board has an onboard math coporcessor to help chug the gps math. It has a pressure sensor (the mpxa4115a) to dertemine and hold altitude. it also has an integrated mux to switch between auto or manual mode. it also has input points for GPS connecton and 4 extras for other things to come. The board will control my ailerons, throttle, rudder and elevator, camera trigger, and camera rotation. The plane will also have an accelerometer that will keep the wings level. All in a board that is 3.75 inches long and 1.25 inches wide. Wow, i was amazed. Now i am looking for plans for a plane with a 5 to 6 foot wing span. Maybe a 3021 airfoil with a little dihedrial. Thats the next project.

[lvspark]

Have you flown the beta yet??

[ALtitudeap]

i have flown most all the parts. stability with the accelerometer went well. and gps waypoint navigation is working well. my proto board was to big and wanted to make a pcb to make things easier.

[AnthonyRC]

One quick quesion on this.. why do you need a math coprocessor to handle the GPS math?. Even on a lowly PIC, with integer versions of the math routines (distance, heading, etc.), the performance is quite acceptable.

[ALtitudeap]

Am am using an oem GPS board and am usig the coprocessor to handle the floating point math to determine the distance, and heading. i will be imputting all the waypoints via a debug window.

[JettPilot]

Altitudeap,

That is pretty cool you are building your own autopilot :p , but I see you are running into issues with processor power etc :mad: . Look at my Gumstix Autipilot post, this may be a much better soloution for you. The Gumstix has a million times the power of that chip you are considering and will be infinately expandable for whatever you want in the future. Also you wont have to build circuit boards, etc. Take a look and see what you think ! We could sure use your help !

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=420499

Jettpilot