Re: [Paparazzi-devel] custom autopilots

[Stephen Dwyer]

Hello,

On the note of the skytraq decoder, I was curious about this. Has
anyone had experience using the skytraq receivers with Paparazzi,
especially with fixedwing? In particular I am interested in the Venus
modules Sparkfun carries (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9060).
Antoine, I noticed your comment on Sparkfun about having tested all of
the modules they offer and much preferring the uBlox one. Clearly
these modules are better based on the level of use within the
community. However, the small size and lower cost of the Venus modules
are intriguing (plus the fact I have a few laying around). I realize
the code currently sits in the rotorcraft area.

Just wondering about any thoughts or experiences.

Thanks,
-Stephen Dwyer

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 11:32 AM, antoine drouin <address@hidden> wrote:
> There's a skytraq decoder in the rotorcraft codebase
>
> On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 7:26 PM, Felix Ruess <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Hi Andre,
>>
>> great!
>> Fixes/additions to the NMEA parser would be very much appreciated. Same goes
>> for new (mediatek/sirf) parsers.
>> A pull request is the preferred way of contributing, but patches would be
>> fine as well.
>>
>> I would like to encourage everyone again to share their
>> bugs/fixes/modules/nav_routines/additions and submit a bug report, code
>> review or pull request where appropriate.
>>
>> Do you think a wiki page on how to contribute would help or is actually
>> needed?
>>
>> Cheers, Felix
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 5:31 PM, Andre Devitt <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>
>>> I can chime in about the NMEA parser. I've been working with some
>>> folks using a mediatek GPS and we've brought the NMEA parser to a more
>>> usable level.
>>>
>>> We added support for  satellite signal level reporting (GPGSV msg),
>>> as well as parsing heading, and speed. I'd be happy to submit a pull
>>> request if it'll help out. I also added the gps type "nmea" and
>>> associated files to the new software build system.
>>>
>>> I do agree with Felix's thoughts on NMEA not being the nicest
>>> protocol. It's likely that the sirf binary protocol isn't that
>>> different from ublox, it might be worth looking into using it instead.
>>> The ublox parsing code could probably be used as a template for sirf.
>>>
>>> Protocol info is here: here
>>> http://www.usglobalsat.com/downloads/SiRF_Binary_Protocol.pdf
>>>
>>> We have some other hardware support that we'd like to contribute as
>>> well so contributing the nmea code might be a good start for us to
>>> figure out the process.
>>>
>>> Andre
>>>
>>> (finally found mediatek binary specs last night and may implement at some
>>> point)
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:50 AM, Maikel Punie <address@hidden>
>>> wrote:
>>> > maybe i should have a look at those boards then,
>>> >
>>> > any sugestion on what board? since i have no idea what board to use.
>>> > about the gps: it supports nmea or SirfBinary format, but it seems that
>>> > the
>>> > sirf binary format is not supported,
>>> > What about the imu on i2c should it be possible to integrate that one?
>>> >
>>> > Maikel
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 16:38, Felix Ruess <address@hidden>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Hi Maikel,
>>> >>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> What limitations do you see? Any hw/technical limitations or is this
>>> >>>> more concerned with availability?\
>>> >>>
>>> >>> buying another board an all new hardware,
>>> >>> we already have all the hardware (except the failsafe rc part)
>>> >>>
>>> >>> so if we are going with a paparazzi board we will need to drop all out
>>> >>> hardware and start over, or is there a possibility to integrate our
>>> >>> own
>>> >>> modem, gps servo controller and stuff with the paparazzi boards?
>>> >>
>>> >> Of course you can integrate your modem and GPS with paparazzi.
>>> >> - Modem should be trivial (probably nothing to be done here at all as
>>> >> long
>>> >> as your modems can provide a transparent, serial-like, link and don't
>>> >> need
>>> >> any fancy in-the-air configuration).
>>> >> - GPS should not be a really big deal either (although the paparazzi
>>> >> NMEA
>>> >> parser is not really good and nobody uses it afaik). So you would
>>> >> probably
>>> >> want to have a look at the parser and make sure it works always and
>>> >> does not
>>> >> hang up on unexpected packets. NMEA is not really nice in my (and a lot
>>> >> of
>>> >> other peoples) opinion anyway.... but that is not the point here of
>>> >> course.
>>> >> - Your servo controller you would very likely not need at all, since
>>> >> that
>>> >> is already directly on the paparazzi boards.
>>> >>
>>> >> Nevertheless, personally I think it would be nice to have support to
>>> >> run
>>> >> all the paparazzi stuff in linux userland. That being said, I don't
>>> >> think
>>> >> this is a very good idea in a lot of cases. (You loose tight control
>>> >> over
>>> >> timing, you should probably use a RT linux, etc.)
>>> >> Imho it often makes more sense do do the sensor interfacing and fast
>>> >> estimation/control loops directly on a dedicated board and only do
>>> >> higher
>>> >> level (navigation, payload, perception, etc.) on a (especially when it
>>> >> is a
>>> >> non-realtime) linux board.
>>> >>
>>> >> Cheers, Felix
>>> >>
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> Paparazzi-devel mailing list
>>> >> address@hidden
>>> >> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/paparazzi-devel
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
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>>> >
>>> >
>>>
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