SMACCMPilot Hardware Platform Preparation

This repository contains a set of utility programs required to transform an ordinary Pixhawk-based flight platform, such as the Iris or Iris+ quadcopters sold by 3D Robotics, into a SMACCMPilot compatible platform.

Step 0: Flashing the PX4 project Bootloader

If you haven't ever used JTAG or don't even know what that means, skip this step.

If you have used a JTAG interface to flash programs to the Pixhawk's FMU processor, you probably need to reflash the USB bootloader on the FMU processor. Follow the instructions in fmu_bootloader/ on how to perform this step.

Step 1: Flash the APM firmware to the FMU

We need to load a version of the APM project's firmware onto the FMU processor in order to perform an upgrade of the firmware on the IO coprocessor.

Follow the steps in fmu_apm_firmware/ to load the included APM project firmware image onto the FMU.

Step 2: Upgrade the IO coprocessor firmware

A new firmware image for the px4io IO coprocessor must be copied to a Micro SD card so the APM firmware can read the image and load it.

Follow instructions the sdcard/ directory to complete these operations.

After Step 2 is complete, you can overwrite the APM firmware with the ordinary smaccm-flight standalone flight firmware.

Step 3: Upgrade each 3DR Radio's firmware

SMACCMPilot uses a upgraded version of the 3DR Radio firmware which fixes several serious security vulerabilities in the factory firmware, and provides a more reliable framing mechanism. Follow the instructions provided in the smaccm_sik/ directory With each 3DR Radio (or compatible HM-TRP based radio).

Step 4: RC Transmitter Configuration

See external instructions on the SMACCMPilot website for required RC Transmitter configuration.