MultiWii

I am wrapping up the changes required to run multiwii on an ardupilot mega. I am not using the oilpan shield, but the standard wii sensors.
I also have GPS working(tracking only) and a xbee connected, each on their own serial port.

Anybody else interested in this?

I will soon be making available arduino code that uses a nokia LCD shield to display real time data from the ardupilot. Color, shows more or less the same info as the desktop app. I have to clean up the code as to not embarrass myself. Currently uses a mega but I think I can trim down the code to run on a 168.
Interest in that also?

Picture is worth a 1000 words

Looks quite impressive. I am interested.

Yes, it's really impressive.
I use also this display for another project, its library is very well done.

what is the connection between that display and the arduino running the multiwii, please? Do buttons accompany the LCD?
Hamburger

Currently I have the LCD shield from sparkfun running on an arduino mega for the display. The buttons come as part of the display shield.
It communicates to an ardupilot on the quadcopter with standard wii sensors, baro, and compass. Using the mtk16 gps library with its associated hardware.
I am using xbee's for communications between the two. Currently short range 2.4Ghz but will upgrade to long range 900Mhz.
Working on a menu system to allow you to configure the multiwii using the color lcd and buttons.
NKC electronics has a cheap version of the lcd shield for less than $20. I have not tested it.

I had mavlink working but need to go back and revisit that later. Code is commented out for now.

Which library did you use for the LCD? I started out with the LCD_Library but ended up rewritting most of it to allow for multi-size fonts and to try to get more speed out of it. The screen I have is a nokia knockoff and does not support anything but 12-bit color. 4-bit would be good enough for this.

Currently getting 3-5 frames per sec refresh. Good enough for right now. Half the frame time is rendering and the other half is doing the 3d transform. The math is overkill but it works.

tasmaniac wrote:Which library did you use for the LCD? I started out with the LCD_Library but ended up rewritting most of it to allow for multi-size fonts and to try to get more speed out of it. The screen I have is a nokia knockoff and does not support anything but 12-bit color. 4-bit would be good enough for this.

I use a way simpler Textstar LCD. No dealing with fonts and sizes, just plain 16x2 characters (and bar graphs). The display acts as a kind of vt100 terminal without keys. It has 4 buttons which send chars 'A' to 'D'. This is also used in the later dev versions for navigation in the LCDconfiguration menu.

Currently getting 3-5 frames per sec refresh. Good enough for right now. Half the frame time is rendering and the other half is doing the 3d transform. The math is overkill but it works.

yes, sounds good enough if the 168 can handle it. I use bluetooth for communication between the LCD and the multiwii. While it is not long range it is still very usable for near tange wireless configuration over this and also telemetry transfer of flight data (current Amp draw, battery voltage and consumed mAh, cycle times, angles, sensor readings).
There are some wireless tx/rx combos named apc220 out there, work in the 450 MHz (?) range. Drawback is these can only do 57600 max on the serial side. Way cheaper than xbee though.

Keep going. Hamburger

I am interested too. A very nice idea!

Hi

Im interested in this,
i have the ardupilot mega, im starting to work out how to put multiwii on it, i have figured out that it cant use the normal code, im quite a n00b at this but im defintely interested in having a telemetry screen,

a question, could i have the screen on my tx handset and wirelessly communicate with the cuad to receive the telemetry ?
im definately up for that, happy to help if i can although i suspect i wont be of much help yet,

thanks,
daniel

Is it possible to install Multiwii on Ardupilot Mega + Oilpan?

I have a couple lying around, after not much success with Arducopter. Multiwii has been much more successful on a Scarab with a Paris board, but I would like to try the GPS functions.

in interested too

One way to get a first idea of what is already in the code is this
get the MWii code, open config.h and look at the section with the supported / preconfigured sensors/boards.

support for color LCD monitor (the 0.96 size OLED) is currently _not_ in the code. It was being worked on. Use the search function to find out more.