What happened to OpenPilot?

GPS · Apr 25, 2013

It looks like some of the OpenPilot team didn't like some of the goings on inside the group. Some have split off and are now doing a new project called "Tau Labs".

Tau Labs kicking along
So for those of you not following our forums, Phoenix Pilot has an official name: Tau Labs. For the brief announcement see here. Honestly, this group is just great. All of the main developers from OP migrated over in the early days so it's nice to have the team still working together. In addition we regained a few people who had left OP due to the various politics there and some new people. Edouard Lafargue who was one of the main developers of the GCS is has been helping fix some bugs in GCS telemetry and also extend the plugin system to better support new boards. David Carlson has just designed a shield for the F3 to make that easier for people to use (and making a really cheap full autopilot solution). Angus Peart, one of the co-founders of OP, has rejoined the project and is a great guy. He developed the first generation of hardware which was the basis for CopterControl, wrote a lot of the original core code, and also set up the original OP forums. We also have Vincent Kessler now who developed the port to the F4 discovery board and then the F3 discovery. He is a great developer with an eye for details, and his F3 port really opened up a new platform that makes it readily available and makes it easy for anyone to get involved (in flying or developing).

On a side note I owe a serious apology to David Carlson for how I treated him over some OP drama a few years ago. I let myself be talked into scapegoating him and should have trusted my gut after meeting him in Portugal that he was a great guy. After I was driven out too I ended up thinking a lot of similar things to him. Essentially the complete lack of transparency or administrative and financial accountability left the project too much in the control of one person. That is fine for a company but not for an open source project where people donate thousands of hours to have the rug pulled out from them. It leaves you with no recourse of how to keep playing. That's why I'm so please that he and Angus established the OmniLoco foundation which is the non-profit in charge of Tau Labs. It really forces us to put policies in place to protect against that. In addition we've tried to structure as much stuff to be as light-weight, low-cost and open as possible to avoid repeating previous slippery slopes. Luckily everyone on the board is like-minded on these issues and I don't see any problems.

...continue reading via the source link.
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Source:
http://buildandcrash.blogspot.com/2013/01/tau-labs-kicking-along.html

Pelagic Pilot · Apr 25, 2013

interesting. might be a little while before a finished (beta test) product is out?

GPS · Apr 25, 2013

I've already installed their version of the GCS and it installed well on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit and looks good. I suspect that it works with my OpenPilot CopterControl board, but have not yet tried it.

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What happened to OpenPilot?

What happened to OpenPilot?

Discussion in 'News' started by GPS, Apr 25, 2013.

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What happened to OpenPilot?

What happened to OpenPilot?

Discussion in 'News' started by GPS, Apr 25, 2013.

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