Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Paparazzi

[Antoine]

Hi Pardeep

Pardeep Athwal wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm going to begin my paparazzi project and I had a
> few questions regarding tools I'll need.
>
> 1) I will be purchasing a Twinstar so I can use the
> same settings as the project founders.
>  
yep, that is going to make your life easyer  - you might then even be 
able to do autonomous on first flight :)

> 2) Should I purchase an AVR ATMEL Development kit for
> the Atmel8 & 128 or not?
>  
I don't think that is needed

> 3) I haven't found information on the GPS Unit how to
> build it I've searched the website etc.. I am open to
> buying a fully built unit if thats possible.
>  
get a SAM-LS module from ublox - this is a module with a GPS chip and a 
ceramic patch antenna. All you have to do is solder some wires to the 
controller board. I'll set up a page about that on the wiki.

> 4) Should I build the Servo Control Unit first and
> then the main unit, I'd like to build it in stages
> rather than all at once.
>  
I'm not sure what you're talking about - The supported hardware is 
described on this page
http://www.recherche.enac.fr/paparazzi/doc2/moin.cgi/Introduction/Hardware
Some boards, like the tiny ot the v1_2_1/lite have a builtin "servo 
driver", that is a chip that allows to drive 10 servos from a single 
microcontroller pwm output.
Some others, like the classix or the robostix don't - For those boards, 
there is two solutions:
 - use the microcontroller PWM pins do directly drive servos ( there 
are 6 available)
 - use a "servo driver" chip that is build on a rc receiver to drive 
more servos ( theoriticaly you could reach 6 * 10 servos )

> 5) Can the project founders recommend someone who can
> build the units i.e. I'm not great with a soldering
> iron etc.. Or is it straightforward, I do have a
> tempreture controlled soldering iron.
>  
The finer chip on the old generation boards ( v1_2_1 and lite) had 0.8mm 
pitch - They were moderatly easy to solder by hand. The new boards ( 
classix and tiny ) have 0.5mm pitch chips and are difficult to do by 
hand. A reflow oven is very handy for them. Miraterre, the company of 
Anton and Jeremy intends to sell ready build boards, but it's not 
available yet.

I could mount your first board if you're in a hurry.

> 6) I am intially thinking of purchasing the complete
> FMA autopilot so that I can get the FMA infrared
> sensor along with it.  Is that recommended? Or should
> I just build my own infrared sensor.
>  
maybe just get the sensor as spare part from FMA - there is little point 
in building your own. The price of part in small quantities is similar 
to the price of the FMA unit.

Regards

Antoine.