Here’s what our current autopilot and companion computer set-up looks like:
We have a Pixhawk 1 connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 via the TELEM2 connection. The dev’s say a USB connection from the Pixhawk to the RPi3 will work by changing the cmavnode config file, but I haven’t got that working yet. The 4G USB dongle is a Novatel 620L that is linked to my Verizon data plan, so we didn’t need to create a new one.
We have an OpenVPN sever running on an AWS CE2 instance. We can connect our ground control station computer to the server, but not the RPi as of yet.
The Wi-fi is just for local control and I wasn’t planning on using that as a connection to the internet due to its short range, but it might be useful if we create a “docking station” down the line.
And feel free to ask as many questions as you want, it will be good to have some extra help.
We’re doing coordination on a Gitter channel. https://gitter.im/ After you get signed up, let me know your username and we’ll get you in.