Arduino Due + Adafruit 10-DOF IMU unboxing

I figured as good a point as any to catalog my attempts to build a drone autopilot. I am looking for a challenging project and given the robust DIY community supporting both Arduino and DIY drone development I figured: "why not?" I plan to document this build both to get advice and to provide information for anyone who may be doing the same thing!

To that end, I decided on the Arduino Due as my microcontroller of choice. I decided on the Due instead of the Uno or Mega because of the 32-bit processor, superior clock speed and extra I/O/RAM. Additionally, the board only draws 3.3v vs the 5 of its' predecessors, which may well be phased out in a few years!(Doubtful but that was what I seemed to read while doing some research)

Additionally, I picked up a 10-DOF sensor array from Adafruit. This breakout has on it:

• L3GD20 3-x gyroscope with +/- 250, 500, and 2000 degree-per-second detection. 
• LSM303 3-axis compass with +/- 1.3 to +/- 8.1 guass detection
• LSM303 3-axis accelerometer with +/-2g, 4g, 8g, and 16g detection.
• BMP180 barometric pressure/temperature with -40 to 85 C resolution and a resolution of 0.17 meters

The board comes with level shifting circuitry so I should be able to use it with the Due right out of the box. 

Here is a photo of both the sensor array and the Due side-by-side

Adafruit 10-DOF gyro/accelerometer/magneto/barometric on left. Arduino Due on right.

The next few steps of my project are as follows:

• Get sensor readings from the board
• Do more research on PID controllers. I need to code a PID controller for each sensor or at least investigate the Arduino PID library.