Middlesex County, Ontario | Do you have any idea whats available out there for Drones kyle? A $75 piece of open source hardware can do everything the $5000 nav controller can do, plus some of the monitor stuff.
The ArduPilot Mega 2.5 is an open source $75 piece of hardware. It has gyros and accelerometers for roll, pitch, and yaw. It can use serial communication to integrate into a drone for various sensors and communication (or operate on its own) and talks directly to the speed controllers and steering apparatus. The same little $75 board controls when and how much to steer or accelerate. The 2.5 receives feedback from its external GPS, internal compass, 3 axis gyro's and onboard barometer to better control the vehicle in 3d airspace. When used in a land vehicle a simple 5k potentiometer directly connected to the steering gives feedback.
To top it all off this is in a vehicle that is bouncing through windy air and would fall out of the sky if it wasn't being corrected many times a second. Oh and with all of this you can don't even need to purchase software as its open source and freely available online. $75 is nothing when you think about everything going on in that little 3 square inch circuit board.
The downside: Its basically a smartphone GPS antenna. Single Band 5hz. The cool kids are working on open source RTK but it might be awhile.
Edited by WildBuckwheat 2/23/2014 09:03
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They are charging too much for auto steer
