[Paparazzi-devel] Suggestions on Which IMU to buy?

[Haiyang Chao]

Hi, guys. 
We
are planning to buy a commercial IMU to
integrate to paparazzi autopilot. We already have one IMU: MNAV from Crossbow, which is under testing and coding. But we may need another one.

After some searches by my collegue, we found out that the closest one may be o-navi Phoenix-nx unit since they are about $1000 . But they do not have magonometer sensor to measure the angles.
---------- o-navi ----------------
3-axis gyro for angular rate
3-axis acceleration
absolute and relative pressure sensor
GPS
--------------------------------------------------
I know Kestrel autopilot from Procerus has 2/3-axis magemeter. So does MNAV from Crossbow. But they stopped producing them for some reason.
----------mnav sensors----------------
3-axis magnemeter
3-axis gyro for angular rate
3-axis acceleration
absolute and relative pressure sensor
U-blox GPS
--------------------------------------------------
Do u guys have any recommendations about similar IMU? Maybe less than $2000 and similar sensor sets.
One last question is : is the magetometer/compass or these kind of angle measurement sensors necessary for UAV control? Maybe integrate gyro sensor to get angle??? Any UAV group does not use magetometer or compass?

Thanks.
Haiyang