Been trying to get my rover test bed set up and overcoming a number of issues that must’ve occurred when a pixhawk 2.4.8 sprung the mortal coil. Same incident killed the telemetry, and aparently the compass too, but the gps, buzzer, and switch were fine.
Anyhow, to the point. Ordered a Here 3+ as a step up from the generic M8N clone with a duff compass that many reviews say should be capable of running autopilot by itself. I’m guessing that this connected to my (replacement) 2.4.8 clone is a bit horse before cart, but alas funds aren’t quite there for the full cube just yet.
My thoughts are the here 3+ may well do a better job of the auto pilot than the clone! Has anyone achieved this yet? I have preemptively ordered a matek dronecan node for pwm out and a few other features.
The poster add for the Here3+ says it is fully capable of running Autopilot onboard, and I suspect that both the processing power of the here3+ on its own would outstrip the performance of the here3+ being throttled down to the CAN speeds available on the 2.4.8. STM32F427C vs STM32H757.
Sure Here3+ and Orange+ would be great but even running in manual the 2.4.8 is very laggy in following Tx commands.
I don’t know what poster ad to which you are referring, but there’s no reasonable way to turn a Here3+ into a fully featured autopilot, even if it has the requisite processing power. It has no IMUs, no barometer, and only 2 CANBUS connections. I guess if you got super industrious and wanted to use all CAN peripherals, maybe it’s possible, but it seems like a fool’s errand, especially since IMU updates would be limited to a shared CANBUS scheme.
Yeah - I think the problem here is the phrasing of “capable” vs “supported”. Theoretically it has all the pieces - but I don’t think anyone has build a software stack for it. Would need to be requested from the devs - nice part is that it shares very similar features to the Orange+. So hopefully a simple build?
Yeah I thought that maybe the case, I was asking on here to see if it was being looked at, but I guess not.
I’ve asked the same question on their forum this evening too.
From a general stand point it would be interesting to know how much spare processing power there is. If you had everything on DroneCAN could a second autopilot behave like a GNSS unit until it detected an issue with the main controller and then take over to attemp safe land etc? Guess the probability of that being needed is very small.
Actually the Cube Red (next version to Orange) has a complete redundant autopilot setup within it for this reason. So I think once that comes out we will see more software support for a full backup autopilot suite.
Even just running a very compressed flavor of ArduCopter loaded on the Here 3 that allows RTL or Landing would be great. Even just a simple stabilization support with manual control would be adequate.
I also just noticed the Here 3+ shares the same exact processor as the Cube Orange+ (STM32H757) - so I wouldn’t be surprised if it had the power for the entire autopilot stack.
If I understand the STM specs right it has 2MB of flash, and 1MB of RAM, from the other poster image shared the same processor that is on Here4.
The processor on the 2.4.8 clone only has 256MB of RAM, with the same 2MB of flash. Seems like potential for rovers at least, maybe save your gear on a last chance on a airborne vehicle.
Mhm - regardless I think the ability to run ArduPilot on the Here 3+ would a great addition (even if its just for Rovers, Trackers, Boats, etc.). Integrating support for aerial vehicles (most likely with the addition of an external barometer) would just be another plus.
We already have a custom build suite that allows you to select a limited subset of features for loading onto older/weaker autopilot boards.
My main interest - aside from it potentially running my rover better than in collaboration with a 2.4.8 clone - would be having it on a boat to bring it back to port. Perhaps in the instance of a bit of a nasty dose of emf from lighting for example upsetting the main controller or simple component failure.
I will try to set up the Here3+ with very little hooked up to the 2.4.8 aside from the Here3+ and the DroneCan L431 node.
In the background I will hunt for a guide for setting up an ubuntu machine for compiling standard Ardupilot software sets, then custom, and finally trying to work out getting that on the Here3+.
All that said my C/C++ experience is limited so I strongly suspect someone else will achieve it before me!
