Arduplane on Solo hardware?

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After finding this blog: OlliW's Bastelseiten » 3DR Solo: Mod Blog I had to wonder if something like that could be put in a fixed wing?

I don't know enough of the internals of the software on the Solo to know if something like that might even be something to consider. Any thoughts? Would it just be a matter of refactoring some code, or would it likely required a significant amount of coding/porting?
 
The entire IMX companion computer is written only with the copter code and procedures. There is no plane related code. It would be hellacious to implement plane support in Open Solo. Not that it can't be done. But I'm not aware of anyone with a mission or desire to do so.
 
I am in progress on this but I'm on hold due to moving. I have been able to make it work up to the point of bench testing but no maidenbyet. It takes some manipulation but with Open Solo 4 I believe it will work. It arms and the control surfaces work and the motor spins up an it seems to be ready to fly. The modes that plane and copter have in common work normally but the rest are reported incorrectly. Having it connected to Mission Planner helps to tell the actual status. Solex sees it as a plane and I get video signal. Ready to maiden mine.

If there was a Plane version of Open Solo it would be super useful!!
 
For the record, I have a mission and desire to get it flying, just no programming skills lol. :)

The entire IMX companion computer is written only with the copter code and procedures. There is no plane related code. It would be hellacious to implement plane support in Open Solo. Not that it can't be done. But I'm not aware of anyone with a mission or desire to do so.
 
I also have an interest in this!) I once bought a broken Solo from Ebay very cheap, for spare parts ..), and all electronics work! I even have a spare body. But I have two other working Solos.) So the idea of setting this brain on a plane, too, I have long ..
 
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I am in progress on this but I'm on hold due to moving. I have been able to make it work up to the point of bench testing but no maidenbyet. It takes some manipulation but with Open Solo 4 I believe it will work. It arms and the control surfaces work and the motor spins up an it seems to be ready to fly. The modes that plane and copter have in common work normally but the rest are reported incorrectly. Having it connected to Mission Planner helps to tell the actual status. Solex sees it as a plane and I get video signal. Ready to maiden mine.

If there was a Plane version of Open Solo it would be super useful!!

So, what did you do to get to this point?

I haven't had time yet to look into the details of what's going on in the companion computer. My understanding is that it handles some of the tasks that would normally be on the flight controller, but I don't know what.

I was thinking that it should be possible to run a standard version of arduplane on the cube and just use the companion computer to pass through the mavlink stream and video, but that would likely break the interface with the controller. That's the way I normally fly anyways, with an SBC connected to my Jumper that handles telemetry and video, but I really like the solo controller now, so I would hate to ditch it. It would be great if plane could be supported by just modifying the interface.

I am still working on trying to get a USB camera video feed (mostly fighting with Yacto actually), but I'll take a closer look at this if/when I get that working.
 
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I loaded OS4 and then flashed Arduplane 4.0 to the cube and configured it in mission planner. Then played with the ext_settings.conf file to configure different modes.
 
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That's encouraging then. Maybe there's not as much interaction between the companion computer and flight controller as I thought.
 
In general the companion computer of Solo just does any needed transforms on received RC values, spits out PWM values to the flight controller, handles video, and does the computations for smart shots.

The flight controller actually flies the bird in the strictest sense. The i.MX6 is a fancy command translator and video handler in a simple sense.

Do note that I am simplifying a little bit here, but only a little.
 
Simply loading ArduPlane on the cube isn't going to make the interactions on the IMX (both copter and controller) or the STM32 (controller display) handle it properly. All the enums will be wrong.
 

My stab at it using a solo main board, it actually flies great with arduplane ArduSolo.jpg
 
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My stab at it using a solo main board, it actually flies great with arduplane View attachment 11339

Hey, I don't remember seeing this! How did it go? Is it still flying? Any video?
 

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