Pixhawk 2.0 (Std Solo) - vs Pixhawk 2.1 (Green Cube)

KenMc · Jan 16, 2018

Since the announcement of Open Solo 3.0.0 what is the real advantage of upgrading to the Green Cube?

2.0 and 2.1 have these features in common (everything but the MPUs):

FMU Main Board

STM32F427; flash 2MiB, RAM 256KiB.
On-board 16KiB SPI FRAM
MS5611 Baro
All sensors connected via SPI.
Micro SD interfaces via SDIO.

Vibration Damped IMU board

LSM303D integrated accelerometer / magnetometer.
L3GD20 gyro.
MS5611 Baro
All sensors connected via SPI.

The MPUs are still InvenSense - but

2.0 has MPU6000
2.1 has MPU 9250 or ICM 20xxx integrated accelerometer / gyro.

Is there a significant advantage to upgrading to the Green Cube?

Are there features in the 2.1 that I'm missing?

Thank you.

pyrate · Jan 16, 2018

heated imus
and it addresses the esc voltage problem that 3dr masked with software fixes effectively hobbling solo performance
trust me, it flies better

USMC86 · Jan 16, 2018

If you upgrade to the green cube- you won’t be disappointed. Solo is more responsive; compare it to 8 cylinders versus 4 cylinders.

allen_993 · Jan 16, 2018

You guys (pyrate and USMC86) both say it flies better with the green cube. Can you give me any kind of real example of what exactly what you mean by that. I'm not disputing at all, just want to know what is so different...is it smoother when you the release sticks, is it quieter, what are we talking about? I have (3) stock cubes with Open Solo v3.0.0, and they are all pretty smooth and fly awesome...the two with no gimbal & camera more so, I guess because of the less weight.

USMC86 · Jan 16, 2018

Go to the search engine on the forum and put green cube- a bunch of threads will come up describing the advantages of the green cube- in simplistic fashion because I’m not even close in tech savvy as a bunch of members- but it supplies the electronic speed controllers with the “ appropriate voltage “ that the motors should have creating more power and making Solo more responsive. This is only one advantage- there are several. Pyrate will be able to address this question A LOT BETTER than I.

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 16, 2018

The stock cube requires 3DR's old ass handicapped version of ArduCopter from 2015. It has several limitations built in to mitigate the flaw in the motor pods. And you are stuck with "it is what it is" from 2015. Development on that is dead and has been for over a year.

The green cube mitigates the motor pod flaw properly with 5v signalling. Which means it can run ArduCopter master / 3.5. Which means all the new features and ongoing development. I am not going to list them all here since it is spelled out already in the release notes. All the throttle handicapping is removed. You have the full range of throttle, with rate limiters.

KenMc · Jan 16, 2018

My mistake - somehow I thought since Open Solo 3.0.0 upgraded both - that the stock Solo was coming up to current code.

5r49cfu · Jan 16, 2018

I bought a green cube from Jester

Can you just swap the cubes and continue to run the original Solo FW?

Pedals2Paddles · Jan 16, 2018

KenMc said:
My mistake - somehow I thought since Open Solo 3.0.0 upgraded both - that the stock Solo was coming up to current code.

Open Solo detects which cube is installed during the factory reset steps, and installs the appropriate version of ArduCopter. Stock cubes get the old thing, which is presently v1.5.4. Green Cube solos get ArduCopter master v3.5.4.

5r49cfu said:
Can you just swap the cubes and continue to run the original Solo FW?

Are you asking if you can use the old stock ArduCopter firmware on the green cube? No you cannot, it is incompatible and will not install. And I don't know why you'd even want to since it is old and outdated. Please follow the green cube installation instructions. Link in my signature.