Success! I was at last able to fly my EasyStar with the Paparazzi open source autopilot. A few days ago I made the first flight in MANUAL and AUTO1 mode to get everything tested and tuned. Today I tried for the first time AUTO2 mode and worked beautifully! Some tuning is obviously required, especially for the roll response but it worked after only a few test flights. I will make a separate post detailing my setup, wiring (very important) and configuration files.
Following is a picture of my EasyStar, I had to move components around to minimize interference from the various receivers/transmitter. I currently have the following equipment:
- EasyStar airframe with added ailerons
- Paparazzi TWOG autopilot (from PPZ UAV)
- GPS receiver
- IR, horizontal and vertical
- PPM encoder (worked great and with excellent support from Chris)
- Xbee Pro 2.4GHz modem
- KX191 camera
- 900MHz, 500mW video transmitter
- Pan/tilt video pod
- Spektrum AR9000 receiver with a remote receiver (total of three receivers)
The following two screenshots are from the Paparazzi ground station, two flight plans were tested an oval and a figure eight. Both worked very well considering that I have not spent too much time on tuning. Altitude was alse held within about 5 meters of the target.
Finally a video from the flight follows.
I am very impressed with the Paparazzi autopilot so far, it is open source, it has the best ground station software and a large and helpful community, what else can I ask for.