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Pmw3901 optical flow sensor

#1

Hello,
i would like to add an optical flow sensor to my muticopter.

i found this pmw3901 board on amazon and PIMORONI website

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81O4Xh0crjL.SL15001500×1500 242 KB

the price is good (about $20) ,
but i would like to know if it does work with my flight controller Pixhawk 2.4.8

In ardupilot documentation i found other pmw3901 based boards, but did not found this specific board.

Someone knows if it does work with my Pixhawk 2.4.8, and which firmware (Ardupilot or Px4) does support it?

or perhaps can you suggest me another good (under $50) suitable optical flow sensor?

Thank you!!
Lodovico

#2

Hello, did you manage to make it work? i’m having not having any data coming from the sensor
Hardware:
pixhawk 2.4.8
Pmw3901 optical flow sensor on spi

1 Like
#3

Hi,

I have not tried, but I would guess it is not supported. If the documentation is up to date is this the supported boards: https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-optical-flow-sensors-landingpage.html
None of those who use PMW3901 use an SPI interface.

According to this should the ThoneFlow work directly, but I have not tried it and can’t say if it is good.

#4

Thank you to all.
I have not bought it yet, because, to be honest, i am not an expert, so i do not know if adding an optical flow sensor is a good idea.
I am building an agricolture drone, and so my goal is that it must follow the path that i draw in mission planner as best as possible, without drifts going far from that path,
and holding the height precisely.
Let me know if an optical flow sensor is good for this, or perhaps it is better to add something other, like a second GPS, or a more precise GPS, and so on.
And, if the optical flow sensor is good, which is the best for our pixhawk.
I read something about PX4FLOW…is it the best available, or some other is better?
Let me know,
thank you!

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