There are 2 problems
#1 the Pixhawk uses a 1 G calibration to base the flight controller on.
How hard it is to overcome that problem is beyond me. BUT From what I
can gleen it's not that difficult and it is open source. IF SOMEONE will
begin work on solving this issue there are guy's at ardupilot that will
kick in and help. I have been working with them (as best I can) since
2008.
A small step in this direction will net big results I can promise that.
#2 the GPS issue
Paul Breed is so close to solving this problem it hurts. I'm sure the
solution is forthcoming if just a few good people get in the right
places and this all lines up.
There is so much code written and so much already done with Pixhawk and
Mavlink it's a waste not to take advantage of this.
The ground control already in place and the possibilities with Mavproxi
allowing remote stations is so tasty. I use the Ground tracking
capability as well it will all tie in quite nicely.
Flight sim with X-Plane and FlightGear using Pixhawk is amazing.
I've also been working with FlightRadar24
https://www.flightradar24.com/38,-97/7
There is a way to develop a amateur tracking network for cubesats ect..
based on this system. Doing the soft handovers from station to station
is the key.
...........................
I want to give away about 50 tracking stations to get the network
started.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [AR] Re: Test Stand DAQ
From: Eric Robbins <erobbins@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, December 16, 2015 2:56 pm
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pixhawk looks very promising to me.
I have a pixhawk enroute for investigation as I think it could be
quite useful as a flight controller for rockets. Ardupilot is mature
software, with the hard parts done (see: kalman filter) and for
someone like me with a strong C programming background is pretty
easily extensible. The one big limit (and it's shared by everything in
the amateur space) is the lack of an unrestricted GPS module, but I
have a plan to cobble one together using a raspberry pi and an SDR
module that I can just query on the SPI bus.
On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 12:19 PM, Monroe L. King Jr.
<monroe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yeah, I'll get a coffee cup.
I do what to talk more about the Pixhawk and why it would make a good
rocket flight controller and WHY rocketeers won't take advantage of it I
don't know.
But I will stay focused on the test stand it's more right now.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [AR] Re: Test Stand DAQ
From: Nathan Bergey <nathan.bergey@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, December 16, 2015 1:08 pm
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Lloyd!
I feel like this project needs at least one more rev (and a lot more
documentation) to be really stable. But it works! We're using it for a
few things already.
Having a simple python library where you can plug the board in and ask
for data, then get a stream of data, is really great. Simple and
no-frills.
We're still running our crowdfunding campaign for the upcoming year ;)
http://www.portlandstate-foundation.org/crowdfunding?cfpage=project&project_id=11930
-Nathan
PSAS
On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Lloyd Droppers <ldroppers@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Nathan,
Looks nice, a fair bit nicer than the Arduino based things that I
bodged
together. And if you used python for programming probably easier to learn
than the monstrosity that is LabView. And importantly it provided the
reminder I needed to actually contribute to PSAS.
Thanks.
Lloyd
On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 8:42 AM, Nathan Bergey <nathan.bergey@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Yeah, LabJack/Labview is standard. If you just want to get started
without any fuss, do this.
For some reason (...well, for the specific reason that LabJacks are
god awful to actually use) we built our own last year. It's still a
work in progress, but Andrew really wanted something that could be
reusable for lots of people and better than labview.
And I made them make a web page for it:
http://marionette-daq.github.io/
-Nathan
On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 11:28 AM, Lloyd Droppers <ldroppers@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Yep, LabView coupled with National Instruments hardware is the defacto
standard, at least in the NewSpace section of rocket testing. The main
problem is the cost, which can be as low as ~$1000 for the extreme low
end
up to ~$5k by the time you were happy with the system for running a
rocket
test stand. If you go that route the cDAQ chassis and module system
if a
reasonable starting point
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/208990
I would highly recommend a microcontroller system though, especially
if
your
plan is to eventually fly the rocket, as you won't be flying a NI
board
:)
There are a lot of options, Arduino is probably the best known and it
is
a
good bet for a start. I documented a very simple arduino leonardo base
DAQ
that might help you get started at
http://projectearendel.com/home/documentation/
Sensor arrays are not standard.
Lloyd
On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 6:56 AM, Pierce Nichols
<piercenichols@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
The most common software in the world for this sort of thing is
probably
LabView. LabView is commercial software and its relentlessly visual
paradigm
takes some getting used to for those more used to conventional
programming
languages. That said, it's a very powerful tool and it encapsulates a
lot of
tricky stuff.
As for common hardware and sensors... no.
-p
On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 9:47 AM, Monroe L. King Jr.
<monroe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Is there a standard DAQ and sensor array used by most of you guy's
on
the list?
Is there a standard software used?
The reason I am asking is because I want to use what most of the
guy's
use and understand. Sure I can come up with something but I would
prefer
something the most people could work with.