The AutoQuad team is delighted to let you know that we are now ending the beta for the AQ6 controller and ESC32. In the future we will make “release candidates” for the main firmware. These represent stable versions that has been tested by several team members and deemed stable.
AutoQuad will still remain a developmental project, so we still cant give you any guarantees about fitness for a certain purpose or pose any guarantees that there wont be bugs. But the release candidates should be quite stable and all higher revision numbers are labeled “developmental”
We will also very soon be making a Digital IMU available for the AQ6 controller. When this becomes available, we will end support for the analog sensors, and we won’t be able to replace analog sensors in the future. All boards sold from dealers will be with the DIMU in the future.
Of course we will continue to support the AIMU in current and upcoming versions of the code.The DIMU will make the calibration simpler and it gives better performance in the altitude hold because of a better pressure sensor. Also, with the integrated gyro and accelerometer chip, we don’t have to align these two sensors to each other, and that means a simpler calibration run.
AutoQuad + DIMU + CAN now with very short full calibration (2 min 44 sec)
We are working further on simplifying the calibration – so far a “tare” function has been introduced for the DIMU that allows you to fly the board with just a simple stick combination that temporarily resets all bias numbers to 0. Basically what that means is that you can take a new board out of the box and fly it right away without having to go through a lengthy calibration sequence. But for best performance it is still recommended to do a full calibration.
Autoquad M4 (3 min 42 sec)
We will also soon release a AQ “palm flyer” designated “M4”. It’s a full flight controller with GPS on a palm sized board with 4 coreless motor drivers on board. See photos below. A prototype run has been commissioned from our manufacturer, and we expect the first ones to become available for team members ultimo January, and if all pans out well, we will make it available to the public soon thereafter.