We're calling it the "PhoneDrone board for Android", and it's a way
to connect any Android device (2.3.4 or higher) to the world of RC and
UAVs.The board has 8 channels of RC in and out, with PWM-to-PPM
conversion and multiplexing between RC and Android control. You just
plug the Android's phone USB connector into the board and you have
two-way communications with RC gear and any other board, such as APM.
That means that you can switch between RC control and Android control
or mix the two. An example would be "fly/drive by wire". You steer your
vehicle via RC, but an Android phone does the actual control using its
onboard IMU. On a car, that would allow every turn to be a high-speed
controlled drift, for instance (we may show something like that at Maker
Faire).
Or, with a UAV, you might have the Android phone doing high-level
image processing and object tracking, sending mission commands to an
autopilot board such as APM. You might also want to use the phone's
long-distance wireless instead of an Xbee for two-way telemetry.
This can either replace APM if you've got equivalent code running on
Android, or compliment it with the Android device doing image processing
or long-distance wireless comms.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- 8 Input&output PWMs
- Native USB host master (MAX3421)
- Native USB slave (Atmega32-au)
- Arduino Compatible
- Atmega2560 as main controller
- Atmega32-u2 as FTDI substitute and PPM encoder
- Three spare serial ports to communicate with other boards (including APM)
- Build-in 5V-2A switched power regulator (input range 6V - 36V)
- Build-in 3.3V LDO power regulator
- Android TM compatible...
- All Atmega2560 pins exposed.
- High quality PCB is ROHS/lead free, Gold immersed.
- Dimensions: 4" x 1.6"...
Thanks to Falko for sharing this great video and info on the PhoneDrone board!
