Edit: 9/4-2011

Some very nice users has pointed my attention towards the fact that I have overlooked to connect the top and bottom PWW Rows (Pins 0-13 + gnd and aref)

This means that you have to use the lower set of PWM pads for pins 2-13 pins to get signal to motors. Otherwise you can jumper the appropriate pads between the upper and lower PWM row on the shield.

Andother remark is that there is a track missing between the stable LED and R2. This is easily solved with a small jumper!

I will upload pictures of the fix soon!

As a consenquence of this I am lowering the price to 6E for these, and I will be making a revised version soon!

Sorry folks!

Edit:7/3-2011

First batch of shields are in! They have passed initial electronic test and everything checks out

Ordering through my shop only: www.viacopter.eu

Assembly guide:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=89

Pinout:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=62

Cheap 6DOF using WMP and BMA020 breakout:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=90

Originally Posted by 420RcPilot

Jump in - all ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Ha, if all things could be this easy, job almost done:
http://code.google.com/p/aeroquad/so...FAeroQuad_v2.0

This is AeroQaud shield 2.0.6, with all features you''ve asked plus many more, clever power connections, etc. Should be super-easy to adopt it for physical Seeeduino Mega connections, since on the logic level they are identical.

It's battle-tested buy a large number of AeroQuad users, plus you can buy one here to test it yourself:
https://www.aeroquadstore.com/Produc...ctCode=AQ2-000

Hope this helps.

I was thinking of something easier and faster to develop, though.

My idea was a simple shield with pins that can be plugged onto the Seeeduino and has pins for

- your upcoming sensor board (I2C)
- pins for the motors/servos (maybe only 1 connected to 5V, all others only signal and GND wires?)
- pins for 5V going to the Rx
- pins for 3,3V for the sensors
- holes (serial port) for a GPS like this (25$):



I think this one could be designed and developed much faster...

subscribing

I was thinking of something easier and faster to develop, though.

My idea was a simple shield with pins that can be plugged onto the Seeeduino and has pins for

- your upcoming sensor board (I2C)
- pins for the motors/servos (maybe only 1 connected to 5V, all others only signal and GND wires?)
- pins for 5V going to the Rx
- pins for 3,3V for the sensors
- holes (serial port) for a GPS like this (25$):

Yes, I think this should be the next Step.

I"m in, I have one in the mail.

With a shield like I described we only need more headers for the I2C and the Serial port. The pins for the Rx could be soldered directly onto the Seeeduino with rectangle pins - so there's no need to pin out these on the shield as well. Only extra 5V for the Rx is needed...

Seeedstudio sell their Mega proto shields for 12$:

Well, in my opinion there is not a single functionality of the AQ shield that you do not need. You can simplify things, but you will want something sooner or later. OK, except maybe seven independent LED lights connectors to blink LED stripes according to the flight status. Scratch that, but the rest of the functionality is a must.

No doubt that you can produce it much, much cheaper if you set your mind to it. But if you still want to save dollar or two after those cost savings by limiting features, sooner or later those savings would cost you much more. Just my $0.02.

@ Itod. I completely agree on using Aeroquad shield as a base-reference. And since most other duinobased copters are more or less derived from that, it is the obvious place to start. (I was kinda hoping to see Ted Carancho jumping in here and offering up his opinion)

@ Norbert....Impatient, as usual- huh Dont worry about the timefactor -I will put the long leg forward and get going with this. The major part of the work is to make the footprints and librarys for the Seeeduino Mega anyway. Once that is done, adding in extra features and connectors is very straight-forward!

I am probably not gonna add a PPM Multiplexer to begin with! There soon will several alternatives to DIYD/Paparazzi anyway!

But I do want a decent GPS connector and a connector for a Spektrum sat - those are must-haves in my world!

Besides that, adding in ekstra pinheader pads for other types of serial equipment is no problem!

Originally Posted by 420RcPilot

@ Itod. I completely agree on using Aeroquad shield as a base-reference. And since most other duinobased copters are more or less derived from that, it is the obvious place to start. (I was kinda hoping to see Ted Carancho jumping in here and offering up his opinion)

@ Norbert....Impatient, as usual- huh Dont worry about the timefactor -I will put the long leg forward and get going with this. The major part of the work is to make the footprints and librarys for the Seeeduino Mega anyway. Once that is done, adding in extra features and connectors is very straight-forward!

I am probably not gonna add a PPM Multiplexer to begin with! There soon will several alternatives to DIYD/Paparazzi anyway!

But I do want a decent GPS connector and a connector for a Spektrum sat - those are must-haves in my world!

Besides that, adding in ekstra pinheader pads for other types of serial equipment is no problem!

With the Seeeduino Mega, there will be no problem to support 8 RC channels for every config without a PPM Multiplexer. If failsafe functionality is the only reason to support this, I think it's possible to implement something to detect a failure (no more data or anarchic variation)

Oh some hours off and you u did exactly what i wanted to do now.
I came here to the Forum and wanted to ask how we can make our own Seeduino Mega Board, and you did it allready, graet.
I still have the eagle files for the ardupilot, and sseduino 1.21 on the HD, i will have a look at the aeroquad shield.

I think it should be possible to add the FreeImu directly on the Mega Board with rubbermounts for Computer Fans.
We may should not use a pinheader for Freeflight Board, if we take flexible wires we may have a better decoupling with the rubber mounts.
Also there should be a posiibility to add all the ESC directly on the Board.
What Pins do we need for what?
Maybe you can clear this a bit up Kinderkram, i will be glad to "eagle" our "Flyduino" Board with our needs.

How much of the analog inputs do we need, with at least 12 we should be on the save side i think?

Which PWM outputs can we take for the Motors?

Which Outputs should we reserve for Servos, what limitations do we have on the outputs?
For Servo support we should have the posibilty to feed the servos over a external power source like a uBEC, but we have to decide which pins shoud be used for servos only, can you do that Norbert?
We can also take the ATMEGA2560 it isnt more expensive if we create our own board, but the only source we have is the big size original layout, but why not, we will get it a bit smaller.
Thanks

I just got my seeduino mega in the mail....my wmp is waiting to connect to it. which sketch would i be using for quad x? I just have the wmp right now.

I was in contact with Seeedstudio yesterday. They promised me a eagle library of the Seeeduino Mega.....

It has not shown up yet. Maybe tomorrow.....

Originally Posted by rollinolin

I just got my seeduino mega in the mail....my wmp is waiting to connect to it. which sketch would i be using for quad x? I just have the wmp right now.

You could try this from Mariano - it's working for me:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=6165

Originally Posted by 420RcPilot

@ Norbert....Impatient, as usual- huh Dont worry about the timefactor -I will put the long leg forward and get going with this. The major part of the work is to make the footprints and librarys for the Seeeduino Mega anyway. Once that is done, adding in extra features and connectors is very straight-forward!

I am probably not gonna add a PPM Multiplexer to begin with! There soon will several alternatives to DIYD/Paparazzi anyway!

But I do want a decent GPS connector and a connector for a Spektrum sat - those are must-haves in my world!

Besides that, adding in ekstra pinheader pads for other types of serial equipment is no problem!

Yep, that's me - impatient as always!

Now that we have more designers involved I could ask the coders to have a look at the board.

@ Goofy: from what I know (and I don't know much) the analog ins 8-15 can be used for the Rx and the PWM 1-13 can be used for the motors/servos.

In the code that Mariano developed for the pins are used like that:

RX
Analog  8 - AUX2 (Not used)
Analog  9 - AUX1 (STABLE - ACRO)
Analog 10 - YAW
Analog 11 - PITCH
Analog 12 - THROTLE
Analog 13 - ROLL


MOTOR PIN (QUAD MODE)
 3 -  FRONT
 9 -  REAR
10 -  RIGHT
11 -  LEFT

Not tested for Y6 and Hexa configurations
 6 -  
 5 - 

SERVO PIN (not tested yet)
 7 - PITCH servo
 8 - ROLL servo

LED PINS
13 - LED PIN
12 - POWER LED
 4 - STABLE LED (added by me, ON when Stable mode is activated)

Other PINS
(if V battery monitoring)
A0 - Baterry PIN
31 - Buzzer PIN

I2C PINS
20 - SDA
21 - SCL

Signed,
Notorious Norbert