CRIUS ALL IN ONE PRO v1.0 Need simplicity

djberna

Junior Member
Hi all! I want to start playing with UAV planes. I have a Bixler and a CRIUS ALL IN ONE PRO v1.0 (just the board), but I would like a walkthrough guide for those of us who have used a KK board but want to start with these wonders. Any help would be appreciatted and I want to make this thread for all of these who are in the same position. Thanks!
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
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Would be a great topic for an article. I've got one of the new HK Multiwii with GPS and will be looking to use Megapirate for a UAV project.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
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I'm more inclined towards ArduPilot on a quadcopter. But I've never heard of Crius... ??
 

djberna

Junior Member
Would be a great topic for an article. I've got one of the new HK Multiwii with GPS and will be looking to use Megapirate for a UAV project.
I also want to use megapirate but I Haven´t found any clear way to load the flash and to start using it
 

lobstermash

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If I figure out how to do it I'll let you know. It should be really similar for both boards, as they're almost the same.

@andre, the Crius AIO board is a very cheap alternative to ardupilot mega. It's got all the same sensors (I think) and can be flashed with MultiWii or Megapirate firmware. The excitement about a cheap alternative to the APM has driven some pretty impressive development of firmware to suit the board. The MultiWii board from HK shares pretty much all the same features as a Crius AIO but appears to be a little more robust on some components and comes with a high spec GPS, which would be about $30-40 on its own.

These cheap new controllers are certainly an exciting prospect, as they're less than half the price of the cheapest OSD with RTH capability (NOVA Cyclops) and can waypoint as well. It'd be really cool to be able to fly a drone out FPV for a bit, use the waypoint firmware to go somewhere beyond control range but in video range and come back to control range for landing.
 

lobstermash

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Hi djberna,

I finally started playing with my board tonight. Loading firmware onto it is fairly simple, BUT finding enough information to get me to that point took a couple of hours.

The best tool for flashing the firmware on there is Arduino. Once you've installed it, download the arduplaneNG or arducopterNG or whatever firmware you want, and put the 'Library' and 'ArduplaneNG' folders into it. Then, in Arduino, go to the file menu and hover over the Sketchbook option. It'll have ArduplaneNG in there as an option. You can then upload it, and you'll get magic LED lights telling you it's doing something. You can then run the Ardupilot Mission Planner software - just make sure you set the baud rate correctly. Clear as mud? I've got a few issues I need to iron out before I write an article that'll have better instructions and pics etc. Hopefully I've at least pointed you in the right direction.
 

djberna

Junior Member
Hi djberna,

I finally started playing with my board tonight. Loading firmware onto it is fairly simple, BUT finding enough information to get me to that point took a couple of hours.

The best tool for flashing the firmware on there is Arduino. Once you've installed it, download the arduplaneNG or arducopterNG or whatever firmware you want, and put the 'Library' and 'ArduplaneNG' folders into it. Then, in Arduino, go to the file menu and hover over the Sketchbook option. It'll have ArduplaneNG in there as an option. You can then upload it, and you'll get magic LED lights telling you it's doing something. You can then run the Ardupilot Mission Planner software - just make sure you set the baud rate correctly. Clear as mud? I've got a few issues I need to iron out before I write an article that'll have better instructions and pics etc. Hopefully I've at least pointed you in the right direction.

Thank you very much for the update. Please keep us posted on your progress!
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
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What GPS have you got for the Crius AIO? If it's a UBLOX, the standard script should be plug and play. Unfortunately I've done lots of playing with the script and can't seem to get the mission planner to read the GPS signal. The only sensors that seem to be working properly with ArduplaneNG are the baro and yaw. Mind you, I don't have a Crius board to compare the outputs, so it might all be working OK and I don't know it. Aside from the GPS module, the sensors are all but identical.

I'm thinking my next move will be to have a play with MultiWii 2.1 and make sure I've got all the sensors working. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this stuff... Although I very much doubt I'll be able to get Arduplane to work with this board without some tech help on RCG.
 

lobstermash

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And after another hour or so of playing, I've got it working really nicely with MultiWii. It's disconcerting to see the map hone in on your house... To get it to work, I had to define all the sensors individually, as this board isn't in the standard sketch (sorry to take over your thread with the Hobbyking stuff).

Have you had a go at using arduino to load MPNG on your Crius AIO yet?