CubePilot life cyle

Cube Autopilot
1

Hello,

we are thinking about developing custom carrier board for Orange/Orange+ autopilot, but we would like to know what is the expected life cycle for mentioned autopilots? How many years do you expect will you produce mentioned models of autopilot?

@sidbh
@Eric_Xie

Many thanks.

2

@DH24 With Cube footprint you can be rest assured of really long term life cycle. Cube footprint has been around since 2013, so basically 10 years. We have gone through several iterations of Cubes since then, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the layout of the connector that cube sits on. This means that a carrier board designed in 2013 is still compatible with the latest cube we have released and will continue to do so for a long time in the future.
We have made an addition of another connector to expose Ethernet, Display for CubeRed. CubeRed is backwards compatible i.e. it will work with older footprint, just ethernet and display peripherals will not be available. If this is something that is needed, I would recommend using CubeRed Footprint.

3

Hello,

@sidbh
Many thanks for your reply. Since CubeRed has second connector, additional to the connector which is already used on older cubes, this is really good idea that we would develop custom board according to CubeRed specs and then just omit second connector when this board will be used for CubeOrange/Orange+.
I have additonal questions:

  • is a position of the main connector (Connector 1) completly the same on the CubeOrange and CubeRed?
  • what is the position of the second connector on the CubeRed? I can’t find any information (any dimensions/numbers) about that in the CubeRed repositorium:
    Cube Red - CubePilot
  • are there any external protections (ESD, …) needed on the interfaces such is USB, CAN, … or are all protections integrated internally?
    Only for PWM and USART interfaces I can find an information that this outputs have ESD protection integrated internally.
  • for ETHERNET interface is recommended to use external transormer?
  • do you have any open reference schematic for CubeOrange and CubeRed interface board?
  • both CubeRed and CubeOrange AP can be supplied via USB connector and Power connectors. Which power source is used when both supplies are present - maybe that one with a higher voltage?

Many thanks,
Kind regards,
Dejan.

4
  • yes first connector is positioned exactly the same.
  • Please keep track of that link. We will update the page with more information soon.
  • IO lines are protected. UARTs are directly connected to mcu. CAN normally is directly connected to transceiver. It is generally recommended to not power off those lines. Best to use them for signal only.
  • For Ethernet magnetics are not included inside the cubes. They are meant to be put it on the carrier board.
  • For cubeorange the carrier board schematic reference is available here GitHub - proficnc/The-Cube: home of the cube Autopilot
  • There is a power selection module used for this on Standard Carrier board. It is available separately for custom carrier boards as well. The power selection is done by priority The Cube User Manual V1.0 - CubePilot
5

Hello,

@sidbh
Regarding to second point/paragraph from my first post - CubeRed documentation - I would like to ask you when is expected any update of the documentation? I’m checking CubeRed respositorium pretty often, but last update was made on 08 February 2024?

Many thanks,
Kind regards,
Dejan.

6

@DH24 We will try to update that as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

7

Hello,

@sidbh
Thanks for an update you made - I can see that there is a drawing now.

  1. Can I ask you - Serial port mapping will be the same for Cube Red as it is for the Cube orange or will be there any difference according to the table on the link below:
    CubePilot Cube Orange Flight Controller | PX4 Guide (main)
  2. Will be there any new UART/USART interfaces exposed in compare to Orange cube?
  3. If custom carrier board is made for Cube Orange / Cube Red, can be UART7 used as debug port or for a communication with remote UART device?

Many thanks,
Kind regards,
Dejan.