Mission Planning Firmware for STM32+GY-80?

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humblehacker
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 6:40 pm

Mission Planning Firmware for STM32+GY-80?

Post by humblehacker »

I've been working on the same project for months now and it seems like the best thing to do is just ask for suggestions straight up before I dig myself deeper and deeper into a hole!

Short Question- Can anyone recommend the best open source firmware, with Mission Planning to flash a DIY FC consisting of an STM32F103C8T6 dev board and a GY-80 10DOF? Other components include a Spektrum Satellite and/or Spektrum AR6110e RX and an MTK3339 GPS module.

Long Story-
This project began as an effort to build a super-low cost, programmable aerial mapping UAV using as many off-the-shelf/easily obtainable components as possible, and to document it in a way that non-experts in environmental or humanitarian NGOs could understand. The documentation (which badly needs an update) can be found at http://publiclab.org/notes/code4maine/0 ... r-under-60, but the gist of it is to find a very affordable method of building a highly capable UAV out of ordinary components and to integrate the firmware into existing open source aerial mapping programs so citizen scientists could focus on the mapping/sensing capabilities instead of the hardware itself. Of course, such a capability would require some kind of a mission planner and autopilot at bare minimum...

As the project parameters don't allow usage of special-built FCs like the PixHawk etc... I naturally began with the simplest programming method I'm aware of with Arduino and the original ATMega328+ WMP MultiWii board seemed to fit the spirit of my project perfectly! Of course, the problem with learning MultiWii, is unless youve been part of the project since the beginning, its difficult to put everything in chronological context. So one second I'm reading that you can't use GPS navigation with an 8bit board and the next second I'm reading that thats not true as long as you use another Arduino to convert the GPS signal to i2C until realizing that these instructions were also outdated.
Then I came across this build thread- http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2154329 demonstrating how to build a 32-Bit Flight Controller that costs even less then the original MultiWii! The only problem is it would be using an STM32 development board instead of an Arduino, which would likely entail a major sacrifice in overall accessiblility... So to ease the learning curve, I decided to learn using a manufactured Naze32 FC (AfroFlight Mini Rev5). The Baseflight/Cleanflight firmware seems much more current then the original 8 bit multiwii sketch, but things got complicated again once I tried to connect the RX I had been using (a Spektrum Satellite) with the GPS (an MTK3339). Apparently, Cleanflight/Baseflight only supports receivers with CPPM mode, and I would have to buy yet another RX, and there didnt appear to be any testing to confirm the platform would work with my GPS either...
All this is part of the learning curve of course, and could've been worked through, but the point that killed my interest in the Naze32 came when I learned that the Naze32 wasn't designed for autonomous flight or mission planning. Whether this is still the case or was never in the first place, I can't seem to find.
Now when I search STM32/autopilot, I get all sorts of hits on projects that are probably outdated and others that might be current but I cant understand anyway. Paparazzi, looks amazing for example, but the further away I get from an Arduino programmer, the more lost I'll be...

So I pose this question to the MultiWii community... Knowing what my project parameters, and workable components are... Which platform/firmware would you recommend for programming an STM32 dev board+GY-80 sensor (originally meant for a Naze32) with autopilot capabilities?

homeslice976
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:32 pm

Re: Mission Planning Firmware for STM32+GY-80?

Post by homeslice976 »

This is actually something I've been curious about as well. I'm getting ready to start a new build and was going to go with the MultiWii Mega as I'm used to it, but started considering 32 bit options to jump in to the way of the future :). This is when I came across very little regarding waypoint navigation in Cleanflight/Baseflight/Harakiri. GPS Hold and RTH are mentioned frequently, but nothing about navigation. Looking at the Cleanflight source, it appears waypoint/nav defs are there (https://github.com/cleanflight/cleanfli ... ain/flight - see navigation.c and navigation.h), and baseflight has waypoint/nav defs as well (https://github.com/multiwii/baseflight/tree/master/src - see gps.c), but I am NOT a developer and can't specifically say if actual waypoint navigation code is implemented or not. According to this (http://blog.oscarliang.net/naze32-fligh ... -i-get-it/), you can still use EOSBandi's mw wingui for configuration with Baseflight. Does that mean that it or the navigation part of it will work with Cleanflight or Baseflight? I have no idea... I wish someone could tell me though.

humblehacker
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 6:40 pm

Re: Mission Planning Firmware for STM32+GY-80?

Post by humblehacker »

I'm happy I'm not the only one :? I had no idea that trying to include a NAV capability would constitute such a barrier considering the breadth of autopilot options out there! I was already pushing the limits of my programming/electrical knowledge when I dropped 8 bit AVR for STM32, but there's no way I'm going to pay through the nose for an APM/PixHawk just to get the NAV feature!

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