Comment

Developer Comment by Randy on May 7, 2012 at 6:11am

@Tedd re mouting an APM2 on the heli,

     yes, I think at the back, in the crux where the tail meets the body is the best place.  There's mixed reports on whether heli blades interfere with GPS or not so interested in seeing how it performs for you.

     I suspect we will get the mounting options for the APM2 a little more clear (and update the wiki) in the near-ish future as more trad heli users switch to the APM2.

Comment by Tedd Jensen on May 4, 2012 at 4:36pm

Randy

yea you are right its a risky job to Desoldering the GPS it was for saving some $$ and dead weight. I think I am going to live the GPS unit  in place for now and try to mount the APM2 on the "gyro place" in stead of under the heli,hope its no interference from the CF-blades? ...Hmm if they made the sister board like a breakoff board ... so if you wants external GPS you just break off the GPS part from the sister board plug in the cable and you are good to go , no need to order external GPS :)

Developer Comment by Randy on May 2, 2012 at 7:54am

@Tedd,

     re separating the gps from the APM2 for the trad heli...de-soldering the GPS sounds dangerous to me but it's your APM2!  When you order you can actually get one without a GPS..if it's two late for that...well..if  it were me I'd probably cut some traces on the daughterboard to disable the GPS..and then buy a separate one.

     You should need at least 4 wires between the main board and the GPS.  Because you need GND, power, tx and rx because the Atmel2569 talk to each other with a bi-directional serial connection (The APM sends a bunch of config messages at start-up time to the GPS to get it into the right mode).

Comment by Tedd Jensen on May 1, 2012 at 4:19am

Ok you can do the separation with cable but the worries is there any danger for any interferens?

Maybe it's better to de-solder the gps module and etch a new PCB for it ?

then you only need 3 or 5 cable.... it's what i can see in the EAGLE files

only 3 cables if you move some of the external components to the GPS unit also

 

Developer Comment by Randy on April 18, 2012 at 4:18am

@Tedd,

     Re "can the APM2 be separated by a 50cm cable", and that would be a great help for the trad heli's because you could then mount the APM2 between the landing gear and main body but mount the daughter board on the tail.  There would then be no need to buy a separate mag + GPS which is quite a bit more expensive than the daughterboard.

     I've never heard of anyone doing this but I've also been thinking about it.  The issue is that you need to find a very fine pitch connector for both ends of the cable (unless you were to do it by just soldering very carefully).

Comment by Tedd Jensen on April 17, 2012 at 9:24am

Does any body know....

Can Shield board on APM2 be separated by a 50 cm cabel?

Comment by Carles Ayesa on April 4, 2012 at 4:30am

Just Flying my new GAUI X5, the best heli made price/quality.

Comment by Leon Reisner on April 2, 2012 at 7:35am

Have an e-Flight 400 3D with the Spectum 6Xi along with a backup radio that has never been flown off a stand.  Am thinking(?) of trying to convert over to a Drone.  Pros and Cons and any help possible! 

Developer Comment by Randy on April 1, 2012 at 8:29pm

@Jeff Re whether Arducopter for TradHeli will work on a helimax AXE CP,

     I suspect that the heli has enough power to lift an APM2 but the problem I see is that the AXE comes with a consolidated esc, radio and tail gyro.  You'll probably need to remove that completely and replace it with a normal ESC, receive and the APM2.  That'll add weight but also a lot of cost.

     The other problem is that the AXE has a flybar which we know adds trouble when it comes to doing loiter.

     So it might work but it's not going to be completely straight forward.

Comment by Jeff Callender on April 1, 2012 at 7:47pm

I have a helimax AXE CP.  Is that powerful enough to support the weight of the additional hardware?

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