How to update ArduPlane FW on a Pixhawk?

SeismicCWave1 · May 30, 2022, 4:21am

I have a couple of vintage (2014/2015) Pixhawk PX4 that I purchased from 3DRobotics. I understand the hardware has been discontinued. One of the Pixhawk PX4 is brand new and I like to load some firmware on it and possibly use it.

Can I still find firmware to load in them?
Is there any version of Mission Planner and/or APM 2.0 that will support it?
Is the hardware so old that I can no longer use it.

I did try and after getting the USB port to recognize the hardware I tried to use Mission Planner to load the firmware. However Mission Planner kept on trying to search a website (firmware.DIYdrones.) that is no longer in existence.

I also tried some later versions of APM 2.0 (2.0.20) and it recognized the old Pixhawk as some clone and will not upload the firmware.

I thank you in advance for any one that can shed some light on this.

amilcarlucas · May 30, 2022, 6:50am

If it truly is a pixhawk and not an APM 2.x then it is not Vintage. It is a fully supported board that requires the latest mission planner to get the ArduPlane 4.2.1 version that you need.

Post a picture if unsure

SeismicCWave1 · May 30, 2022, 8:18am

Yes they are Pixhawks I purchased from 3DRobotics back around 2014/2015.

Where do I get Arducopter 4.2.0?

Thank you. Here are pictures of what I have. One I have used on a multicopter and the other is new. I don’t fly mutlicopter anymore and I like to use them on my fixed wing airplanes.

Hansen

c.rieger · July 27, 2022, 9:21am

just use current missionplanner and follow the standard instructions in the wiki.

SeismicCWave1 · July 27, 2022, 5:09pm

Thank you. Out of the two I got one of the working fine. The older one is not happy. All kinds of issues so I gave up on it. Maybe the hardware is simply too old.

c.rieger · August 3, 2022, 8:12am

up to version 4.1 i was using the MRO Pixhawk 1 myself.
No problem at all.

If it’s only one with problems, what does not work?
If it’s a problem during flashing, maybe you have to flash the bootloader again first?
Not sure how this is done, perhaps using betaflight software suite to upload the hex file directly? (i had to do this for my mateksys FCs)

SeismicCWave1 · August 3, 2022, 5:16pm

Thank you. I am not sure we are talking about the same thing here. I am using Mission Planner. I have two PixHawks, probably version 1. One is not working and the other one is working.

I will look into flashing bootloader again on the one that does not work.