Hardware Installation

Mechanical assembly

Veronte Autopilot 1x is manufactured using an anodized aluminium enclosure with enhanced EMI shielding and IP protection. A high reliability connector is also provided. The total weight is 190 g for enclosure version and 90 g for OEM.

Dimensions

Veronte Autopilot 1x dimensions

M3 screws are recommended for mounting. In saline environments such as coastal and oceanic, the screw material must be stainless steel.

Pressure lines

Pressure Intake
Pressure intakes must be located in order to prevent clogging.
Never install pressure intakes on the propeller flow.
Design pressure tubing path in order to avoid tube constriction.

Static Pressure
It is not recommended to use inside fuselage pressure if it is not properly vented.

Pitot Tube
Pitot tube must be installed facing the airflow.
It is recommended to install it near the aircraft’s x axis in order to avoid false measures during manoeuvres.
For low-speed aircraft it is recommended at least 6.3mm tubes to prevent any rain obstruction.

Note

In case of not using an input air connector, it is recommended to remove its corresponding nut. Vibrations may move and damage intake connectors with a nut that is not fixed with a tube.

Location

The location of Veronte Autopilot 1x has no restrictions. It is only required to configure its relative position respect to the centre of mass of the aircraft and the GNSS antenna. The configuration of the location of Veronte Autopilot 1x can be easily configured reading the manual of the corresponding software.

Orientation

The orientation of Veronte Autopilot 1x has no restrictions either. It is only needed to configure axes with respect to the aircraft body axes by means of a rotation matrix or a set of correspondences between axes. The configuration of the orientation can be easily configured reading the manual of the corresponding software.

Axes are printed on the Autopilot 1x box. Aircraft coordinates are defined by the standard aeronautical conventions (see image below).

Aircraft Coordinates (Standard Aeronautical Convention)

Vibration Isolation

Although Veronte Autopilot 1x rejects noise and high-frequency modes of vibration with electronic filters and internal mechanical filters, there might be situations where external isolation components might be needed.

Autopilot 1x can be mounted in different ways in order to reject the airframe vibration. The simplest way could be achieved by just using double-sided tape on the bottom side of Veronte. Other ways may use some external structure which could be rigidly attached to the airframe and softly attached to Veronte (e.g. foam, silent blocks, aerogel, etc).

The user should take into account that wiring should be loose enough so vibrations may not be transmitted to Veronte Autopilot 1x.

In cases where mechanical isolation is not viable, it is possible to use soft engine mounts. It is also recommended when there are other sensible payloads like video cameras or for high vibration engines.

Antenna Integration

The system uses different kinds of antennas to operate that must be installed on the airframe. Here you can find some advice for obtaining the best performance and for avoiding antenna interferences.

Antenna Installation
Maximize separation between antennas as much as possible.
Keep them far away from alternators or other interference generators.
Always isolate antenna ground panel from the aircraft structure.
Make sure the antenna is securely mounted.
Always use high-quality RF wires minimising the wire length.
Always follow the antenna manufacturer manual.
SSMA connections shall be tightened applying 1 Nm of torque
For all-weather aircraft, insert SSMA lightning protectors.

GNSS Antenna
Antenna top side must point the sky.
Install it on a top surface with direct sky view.
Never place metallic / carbon parts or wires above the antenna.
It is recommended to install it on a small ground plane.
For all-weather aircraft, insert SSMA lightning protectors.

Electrical

Power

Veronte can use unregulated DC (6.5V to 36V). Pins used for power and ground are the same for both Ground and Air configurations.

LiPo batteries between 2S and 8S can be used without regulation needs. Remaining battery level can be controlled by the internal voltage sensor and by configuring the voltage warnings on the Veronte software.

For higher voltage installations, voltage regulators must be used. For dimensioning voltage regulators take into account that a blocked servo can activate regulator thermal protection.

Warning

Caution!! Power Veronte out of the given range can cause irreversible damage to the system. Please read carefully the manual before powering the system.

Veronte and servos can be powered by the same or different batteries. In case of having more than one battery on the system, a single point ground union is needed to ensure a good performance. The ground signal should be isolated from other noisy ground references (e.g. engines). If all grounds need to be connected, the connection should be made on the negative pole of the battery.

It is recommendable to use independent switches for autopilot and motor/actuators. During the system initialization, the PWM signal will be set to low level (0V), please make sure that actuators/motor connected support this behaviour before installing a single switch for the whole system.

Veronte Autopilot 1x I/O Signals

68 pin connector for Autopilot 1x (frontal view)

Pin	Signal	Type	Comments
1	I/O1	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
2	I/O2	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
3	I/O3	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
4	I/O4	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
5	I/O5	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
6	I/O6	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
7	I/O7	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
8	I/O8	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
9	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for actuators 1-8
10	I/O9	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
11	I/O10	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
12	I/O11	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
13	I/O12	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
14	I/O13	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
15	I/O14	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
16	I/O15	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
17	I/O16	I/O	PWM / Digital I/O signal (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
18	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for actuators 9-16
19	RS 232 TX	Output	RS 232 Output (-13.2V to 13.2V Max, -5.4V to 5.4V Typical). Protected against ESD and short circuit
20	RS 232 RX	Input	RS 232 Input (-25V to 25V Max, -0.6V Low and 2.4V High Threshold). Protected against ESD and short circuit
21	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for buses
22	Analog 4	Input Analog	Input 0-3V. Protected against ESD and short circuit
23	Analog 5	Input Analog	Input 0-3V. Protected against ESD and short circuit
24	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for buses
25	CanA P	I/O	CANbus interface, up to 1Mbps (2.3V Typical, 1.2V-2.3V Differential). Protected against ESD
26	CanA N	I/O	Twisted pair with a 120Ω Zo recommended (2.3V Typical, 1.2V-2.3V Differential). Protected against ESD
27	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for buses
28	CANB_P	I/O	CANbus interface. It supports data rates up to 1 Mbps. Protected against ESD
29	CANB_N	I/O	Twisted pair with a 120 Ω Zo recommended. Protected against ESD
30	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for buses
31	I2C_CLK	Output	Clk line for I2C bus (0.3V to 3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
32	I2C_DATA	I/O	Data line for I2C bus (0.3V to 3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
33	GND	GROUND	Ground for 3.3V power supply
34	3.3V	POWER	3.3V - 100mA power supply. Protected against ESD short circuit with 100mA resettable fuse
35	GND	GROUND	Ground for 5V power supply
36	5V	POWER	5V – 100mA power supply. Protected against ESD short circuit with 100mA resettable fuse
37	GND	GROUND	Ground for analog signals
38	ANALOG_1	Input	Analog input 0-3V. Protected against ESD and short circuit
39	ANALOG_2	Input	Analog input 0-3V. Protected against ESD and short circuit
40	ANALOG_3	Input	Analog input 0-3V. Protected against ESD and short circuit
41	GND	GROUND	Ground for FTS signals
42	FTS1_OUT	Output	Deadman signal from comicro. Protected against ESD and short circuit
43	FTS2_OUT	Output	!SystemOK Bit. Protected against ESD and short circuit
44	GND	GROUND	Ground signal for safety buses
45	V_ARB_TX	Output	Veronte comicro UART output to activate safety mechanism. Protected against ESD and short circuit
46	V_ARB_RX	Input	Veronte comicro UART output to activate safety mechanism. Protected against ESD and short circuit
47	GND	GROUND	Ground signal comicro power supply
48	V_ARB_VCC	POWER	Veronte comicro power (6.5V to 36V). Protected against ESD and reverse polarity
49	FTS3_OUT_MPU	Output	MPU alive voting signal, to use with 4xVeronte. It is a Square Wave at [100,125] Hz. Protected against ESD and short circuit
50	OUT_RS485_P	Output	Non-inverted output from RS485 bus (-7V to 12V Max, -2.3V to 2.3V Typical). Protected against ESD and short circuit
51	OUT_RS485_N	Output	Inverted output from RS485 bus (-7V to 12V Max, -2.3V to 2.3V Typical). Protected against ESD and short circuit
52	IN_RS845_N	Input	Inverted input from RS485 bus (-7V to 12V Max, -2.3V to 2.3V Typical). Protected against ESD and short circuit
53	IN_RS845_P	Input	Non-inverted output from RS485 bus (-7V to 12V Max, -2.3V to 2.3V Typical). Protected against ESD and short circuit
54	RS-485_GND	GND	Ground for RS-485 bus
55	EQEP_A	I/O	DIGITAL output / DIGITAL input / Encoder quadrature input A (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
56	EQEP_B	I/O	DIGITAL output / DIGITAL input / Encoder quadrature input B (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit WARNING!: Only use it as digital I/O with Veronte units of Hardware version 4.5 or lower
57	EQEP_S	I/O	DIGITAL output / DIGITAL input / Encoder strobe input (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
58	EQEP_I	I/O	DIGITAL output / DIGITAL input / Encoder index input A (0-3.3V). Protected against ESD and short circuit
59	GND	GROUND	Ground for encoders
60	V_USB_DP	I/O	Veronte USB data line. Protected against ESD
61	V_USB_DN	I/O	Veronte USB data line. Protected against ESD
62	V_USB_ID	I/O	Veronte USB ID line. Protected against ESD and short circuit
63	FTS_OUT_MPU	Output	Abort mission voting signal from MPU, to use with 4xVeronte. Bit Low (0V) if mission OK. High (3.3V) if mission wants to be terminated. Protected against ESD and short circuit
64	FTS2_OUT_MPU	Output	Abort mission voting signal 2 from MPU, to use with 4xVeronte. Bit Low (0V) if mission OK. High (3.3V) if mission wants to be terminated. Protected against ESD and short circuit
65	GND	GROUND	Veronte ground input
66	ND	GROUND	Veronte ground input
67	VCC	POWER	Veronte power supply (6.5V to 36V). Protected against ESD and reverse polarity. Warning Both pins are common. They MUST be connected to the same power supply.
68	VCC	POWER

Warning

Remember!! All Veronte’s GND pins are common.

To know the differences between version (this one) 4.5 and 4.8, read Troubleshooting -> Pinout changes from Autopilot 1x 4.5.

Connector colour code:

Connector HEW.LM.368.XLNP

Harness plug

Warning

Check the pin number before connecting. The colour code is repeated 3 times due to the amount of pins. First section (yellow) corresponds to pins 1-30, the second section (blue) to pins 31-60 and the third one (red) to pins 61-68. Pin number increases following the black line of the pictures above: counterclockwise for the connector and clockwise for the plug.

PIN	Color code	PIN	Color code
1	White	35	Gray
2	Brown	36	Pink
3	Green	37	Blue
4	Yellow	38	Red
5	Gray	39	Black
6	Pink	40	Violet
7	Blue	41	Gray – Pink
8	Red	42	Red – Blue
9	Black	43	White – Green
10	Violet	44	Brown – Green
11	Gray – Pink	45	White – Yellow
12	Red – Blue	46	Yellow – Brown
13	White – Green	47	White – Gray
14	Brown – Green	48	Gray – Brown
15	White – Yellow	49	White – Pink
16	Yellow – Brown	50	Pink – Brown
17	White – Gray	51	White – Blue
18	Gray – Brown	52	Brown – Blue
19	White – Pink	53	White – Red
20	Pink – Brown	54	Brown – Red
21	White – Blue	55	White – Black
22	Brown – Blue	56	Brown – Black
23	White – Red	57	Gray – Green
24	Brown – Red	58	Yellow – Green
25	White – Black	59	Pink – Green
26	Brown – Black	60	Yellow – Pink
27	Grey – Green	61	White
28	Yellow – Green	62	Brown
29	Pink – Green	63	Green
30	Yellow – Pink	64	Yellow
31	White	65	Grey
32	Brown	66	Pink
33	Green	67	Blue
34	Yellow	68	Red

Flight Termination System (FTS)

Flight Termination System

Veronte Autopilot 1x integrates two different FTS pins (42 and 43):

FTS1 - Deadman (Pin 42): On this pin, Autopilot 1x outputs a square wave with A = ~5ms and B = ~5ms (3.3V). Its frequency can be higher right after the rebooting (around 300-400Hz), but A and B must be always < 8ms.

FTS2 - !SystemOK (Pin 43): Its output is 0V when the system is working as expected and 3.3V when some error is detected. In detail, pin 43 goes high if A > 8ms or B > 8ms in the deadman signal sent by the Main Processor Unit (MPU).