Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Umarim

[Gareth Roberts]

Hi Héctor,

I know what you mean - the multiple alternatives are great for
innovation but we do suffer fragmentation compared to other open source
autopilots.

Why I like the Umarim:

- Same processor as the tiny. Known good and tested firmware, the layout
will be simpler because this board is an evolution of the Tiny.
- Murat was flying his precious Firestorm around with one at IMAV; if he
trusts it with his baby, it shows a lot :)
- The IMU is onboard.  Not on a daughter board, no extra wiring.
- The performance of this board is not as good as the Lisa.
But why do you need performance?  If you are doing crazy control/data
fusion work that absolutely has to happen on your mission-critical
flight processor then you are probably in a minority. Most stuff can
happen on a separate off-board  processor, like a gumstix.

Just my take on it.
Cheers,
--G


On Thu, 2011-10-06 at 17:18 +0200, Hector Garcia de Marina wrote:
> Hi Gareth,
> 
> thank you very much for your explanation :P. Actually I wanted to know
> different opinions about the two boards.
> Nowdays there are many boards available with similar performances and
> features, and I am interested in these little details that makes you
> to make a good choice.
> 
> Héctor.
> 
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Gareth Roberts
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>         Hi Héctor,
>         
>         I'm with Marc on this.  I appreciate that Lisa/M or L are
>         technically
>         more powerful, and have an IMU available as an external board.
>         
>         I see the two as complimentary.
>         
>         I like the tiny form factor of the Umarim, the fact that it is
>         pretty
>         much backward compatible with all my airframe files, the
>         onboard IMU and
>         the fact they are less of a hassle to get made up, the
>         firmware is
>         stable and I don't like programming via JTAG.  I see it as the
>         spiritual
>         successor of the Tiny.
>         
>         Whilst the Lisa is more powerful, for this project I don't
>         *need* the
>         power.  I need the plane to stay the right way up and carry
>         out a
>         flightplan.  A standard Tiny/TWOG does everything I want
>         already, I'd
>         just rather have some Umarim's because they are smaller,
>         include IMU,
>         and they get rid of the dreaded 5V switchmode PSU.
>         
>         The STM32 gives a bit more grunt, but if I need more
>         processing grunt
>         I'll lift a beagleboard or gumstix anyway and have access to a
>         proper
>         operating system, drivers, orders of magnitude more power &
>         simpler
>         debugging.
>         
>         My two pence,
>         --G
>         
>         
>         
>         On Thu, 2011-10-06 at 14:21 +0200, Hector Garcia de Marina
>         wrote:
>         > Hello all,
>         >
>         > I have been checking out the board and I really like the
>         design and
>         > layout of the Umarim. On the other hand Lisa/L is based on
>         CortexM3.
>         > In my opinion ARM7 (Umarim) is to step back for new designs,
>         moreover
>         > when the new CortexM4 is currently available.
>         >
>         > Maybe I missing something, and I would like to know what are
>         the
>         > reasons of prefeering Umarim over Lisa/L.
>         > Thanks in advance.
>         >
>         > Héctor.
>         >
>         >
>         > On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Gareth Roberts
>         > <address@hidden> wrote:
>         >         Hi all,
>         >
>         >         Nice to see the interest.  I'm currently waiting on
>         getting a
>         >         quote back
>         >         from the manufacturer; when I do I'll have some
>         prices.
>         >         I'm in discussions with our accounts department
>         regarding
>         >         other people
>         >         purchasing boards from us.
>         >
>         >         Cheers,
>         >         Gareth
>         >
>         >
>         >         On Wed, 2011-10-05 at 20:18 +0000, Gareth Roberts
>         wrote:
>         >         > Hi all,
>         >         >
>         >         > I'm planning on getting some Umarim boards made up
>         for a
>         >         project we are working on.
>         >         > Obviously the bigger the volume the cheaper it's
>         going to
>         >         be.
>         >         >
>         >         > Any UK dwellers interested?
>         >         >
>         >         > Cheers,
>         >         > Gareth
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>         >
>         > --
>         > Héctor
>         >
>         >
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Héctor
> 
> 
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