Ainstein US-D1 Radar Altimeter

The Ainstein US-D1 Radar Altimeter has a range of 50m, an update rate of 100hz and weighs only 110g.

Warning

currently the manufacturer warns that operation indoors can be problematic due to multi-path reflections…caution is advised

The user manual for this radar unit can be found here.

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Note

Support for this sensor is available in ArduPilot firmware versions 4.0 and later

Where to Buy

Units can be purchased through Ainstein’s website.

Connecting to the Autopilot

The USD1 is available in serial and DroneCAN versions.

For a serial connection you can use any spare Serial/UART port. The example below shows how to connect to SERIAL4 as the first rangefinder.

For the CAN version, connect via CAN to the autopilot and set the following parameters:

Testing the sensor

Distances read by the sensor can be seen in the Mission Planner’s Flight Data screen’s Status tab. Look closely for “sonarrange”.

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