From:  Pardeep Athwal 
Subject:  [Paparazzi-devel] Paparazzi 
Date:  Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:57:31 -0800 (PST) 

Hi,

I'm going to begin my paparazzi project and I had a
few questions regarding tools I'll need.

1) I will be purchasing a Twinstar so I can use the
same settings as the project founders.

2) Should I purchase an AVR ATMEL Development kit for
the Atmel8 & 128 or not?

3) I haven't found information on the GPS Unit how to
build it I've searched the website etc.. I am open to
buying a fully built unit if thats possible.

4) Should I build the Servo Control Unit first and
then the main unit, I'd like to build it in stages
rather than all at once.

5) Can the project founders recommend someone who can
build the units i.e. I'm not great with a soldering
iron etc.. Or is it straightforward, I do have a
tempreture controlled soldering iron.

6) I am intially thinking of purchasing the complete
FMA autopilot so that I can get the FMA infrared
sensor along with it.  Is that recommended? Or should
I just build my own infrared sensor.

Thats all for now.

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From:  Antoine 
Subject:  Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Paparazzi 
Date:  Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:22:59 +0100 
User-agent:  Debian Thunderbird 1.0.2 (X11/20050331) 

Hi Pardeep

Pardeep Athwal wrote:


> Hi,

> I'm going to begin my paparazzi project and I had a
> few questions regarding tools I'll need.

> 1) I will be purchasing a Twinstar so I can use the
> same settings as the project founders.

yep, that is going to make your life easyer - you might 
then even be able to do autonomous on first flight :) 


> 2) Should I purchase an AVR ATMEL Development kit for
> the Atmel8 & 128 or not?

I don't think that is needed


> 3) I haven't found information on the GPS Unit how to
> build it I've searched the website etc.. I am open to
> buying a fully built unit if thats possible.

get a SAM-LS module from ublox - this is a module with a 
GPS chip and a ceramic patch antenna. All you have to do 
is solder some wires to the controller board. I'll set up 
a page about that on the wiki. 


> 4) Should I build the Servo Control Unit first and
> then the main unit, I'd like to build it in stages
> rather than all at once.

I'm not sure what you're talking about - The supported 
hardware is described on this page 
http://www.recherche.enac.fr/paparazzi/doc2/moin.cgi/Introduction/Hardware

Some boards, like the tiny ot the v1_2_1/lite have a builtin 
"servo driver", that is a chip that allows to drive 10 servos 
from a single microcontroller pwm output. Some others, like 
the classix or the robostix don't - For those boards, there 
is two solutions: - use the microcontroller PWM pins do directly 
drive servos ( there are 6 available) - use a "servo driver" chip 
that is build on a rc receiver to drive more servos ( theoriticaly 
you could reach 6 * 10 servos ) 


> 5) Can the project founders recommend someone who can
> build the units i.e. I'm not great with a soldering
> iron etc.. Or is it straightforward, I do have a
> tempreture controlled soldering iron.

The finer chip on the old generation boards ( v1_2_1 and lite) had 
0.8mm pitch - They were moderatly easy to solder by hand. The new 
boards ( classix and tiny ) have 0.5mm pitch chips and are difficult 
to do by hand. A reflow oven is very handy for them. Miraterre, the 
company of Anton and Jeremy intends to sell ready build boards, but 
it's not available yet. 

I could mount your first board if you're in a hurry.


> 6) I am intially thinking of purchasing the complete
> FMA autopilot so that I can get the FMA infrared
> sensor along with it.  Is that recommended? Or should
> I just build my own infrared sensor.

maybe just get the sensor as spare part from FMA - there is little 
point in building your own. The price of part in small quantities 
is similar to the price of the FMA unit. 

Regards

Antoine.

Copyright 2006 http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/paparazzi-devel