Building for Bebop 2

These instructions explain how to use ArduPilot for the Bebop2 on a Linux machine. The Bebop 2 is based on the same architecture as the Bebop with a few noticeable changes, not the least being a much better quality GPS (UBlox GPS with a bigger antenna).

Warning

Making the changes described in this article will void your warranty! Parrot’s technical support will not help you with this hack or to recover your original software.

Warning

Hacking a commercial product is risky! This software is still evolving.

That said, it is almost always possible to recover a drone and members of the ardupilot dev team can likely help people hacking or recovering their Bebop on this google group.

Building ArduCopter for Bebop 2

Tip

You can skip this step if you just want to try out the (experimental) binary version.

The following steps show how to build a custom version of the Copter software for Bebop 2:

Install armhf toolchain

  1. Install Parrot’s version of linaro arm-linux-gnueabihf toolchain that can be downloaded from here

  2. Install it (the toolchain will be extracted in /opt)

    sudo dpkg -i parrot-tools-linuxgnutools-2016.02-linaro_1.0.0-5_amd64.deb

  3. Add the path to the toolchain to the PATH variable

    export PATH=/opt/arm-2016.02-linaro/bin:$PATH

Download and compile ArduCopter

  1. Clone ardupilot repository

    git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot.git
cd ardupilot

  2. Building the flight control firmware is nearly identical for building for the Pixhawk except the build command is:

  3. ./waf configure --board=bebop
./waf build

Uploading the Firmware

Mission Planner can now upload stable and custom versions of ardupilot to the Bebop2.

Instructions below are for the manual method of uploading

  1. Install adb (android debug tool):

    sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb

  2. Connect to the Bebop2’s WiFi network (BebopDrone-XXXX).

  3. Enable adb server by pressing the power button 4 times.

  4. Connect to the Bebop’s adb server on port 9050:

    adb connect 192.168.42.1:9050

  5. If the previous command returns an error, try again (press the power button 4 times and retry).

  6. Remount the system partition as writeable:

    adb shell mount -o remount,rw /

  7. Push the stripped arducopter binary to the Bebop2:

    adb mkdir /data/ftp/internal_000/APM
adb push arducopter /data/ftp/internal_000/APM/

Starting ArduPilot

  1. Kill the regular autopilot:

    adb shell
kk

  2. Launch Copter:

    cd /data/ftp/internal_000/APM
arducopter -A udp:192.168.42.255:14550:bcast -B /dev/ttyPA1 -C udp:192.168.42.255:14551:bcast -l /data/ftp/internal_000/APM/logs -t /data/ftp/internal_000/APM/terrain

Launch Copter at startup

As for Bebop, modify the init script /etc/init.d/rcS_mode_default. Comment the following line:

DragonStarter.sh -out2null &

Replace it with:

/data/ftp/internal_000/APM/arducopter -A udp:192.168.42.255:14550:bcast -B /dev/ttyPA1 -C udp:192.168.42.255:14551:bcast -l /data/ftp/internal_000/APM/logs -t /data/ftp/internal_000/APM/terrain &

  1. Enable adb server by pressing the power button 4 times.

  2. Connect to adb server as described before:

    adb connect 192.168.42.1:9050

  3. Re-mount the system partition as writeable:

    adb shell mount -o remount,rw /

  4. In order to avoid editing the file manually, you can download this one.

  5. Save the original one and push this one to the bebop

  6. adb shell cp /etc/init.d/rcS_mode_default /etc/init.d/rcS_mode_default_backup
adb push rcS_mode_default /etc/init.d/

  7. Sync and reboot:

    adb shell sync
adb shell reboot

Recovery

For recovery, you can use the same cable as the one used on Bebop, see here.

  1. Remove the two screws using a torx T6 screwdriver

    ../_images/bebop_remove_screws.jpg

  2. Remove the neck by pulling it towards the front of the Bebop

    ../_images/bebop_recovery_remove_neck.jpg

  3. The UART connector is located on the right side

    ../_images/bebop_uart_connection.jpg

  4. Plug the cable with the black wire at the front

    ../_images/bebop_connections3.jpg

  5. Connect to the bebop with the UART port using any terminal emulator

  6. Copy the backup rcS file back to its place

    mount -o remount,rw /
cp /etc/init.d/rcS_mode_default_backup /etc/init.d/rcS_mode_default

  7. Sync and reboot

    sync
reboot

Flying and RC over UDP

Flying and RC over UDP instructions are the same as the ones for Bebop

Basic configuration and frame parameters

  1. The set of tuning parameters can be found here. These are not yet fully tuned for Bebop 2

  2. In order to do the basic configuration and calibration, you can use any of the GCSs and perform:

    1. Magnetometer Calibration

    2. RC Calibration

    3. Accelerometer Calibration

Additional information

The loiter mode quality is very good compared to the first Bebop because of the (much better) UBlox GPS. It is now safe to takeoff and land in the mode you want.

There is still no support for video yet and the optical flow and sonar are currently under development.

This is a good time to participate and help improve them!