Replies to This Discussion

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Adam AKAV8R on February 3, 2011 at 1:03pm

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gord Likar on March 4, 2011 at 10:16am

I got this from store support.  Whats confusing, as Chris mentioned is that the grd. & 5v wires colors are reversed.  Power wiring is correct you only need to swap wires 3 & 4 from the gps connector.  Just do as Kens post described.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hugues on January 19, 2013 at 6:37am

I edit this post to confirm that the shown diagram here is correct. DO NOT reverse TX/RX from this schema. The message is indeed confusing.

So : use this chema AS IS. It works.

• ▶ Reply

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on February 3, 2011 at 1:39pm

Yours looks a bit different from mine, but I think the Red wire goes, ironically enough, to the FTDI's black wire. Mine has a black wire there instead.

Check out the manual for the correct pin mappings:

http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/wiki/MediaTek

• ▶ Reply

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Adam AKAV8R on February 3, 2011 at 1:51pm

Exactly,  Different from even what is pictured on the DIY Store site.  I've already read the wiki page and it explains the FTDI to strait pins but without knowing the pinout on the GPS connector end, I'm a little leary about just plugging in black to red.  I ordered the cable to get my GPS going not smoke it.

 

I would still like to confim with someone if possible?..... Anyone?

• ▶ Reply

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Adam AKAV8R on February 3, 2011 at 6:32pm

FYI on the latest batch of FTDI to GPS cables from DIY Drones Store:

 

Hi Adam,

You are absolutely correct! Our cables are wrong =X! We just looked at our stock and they are all like this. Thank you for e-mailing us about this. We have had them in stock this way since the new year.

The cable will not fry your board because the Voltage and Ground are in the correct position. However the RX and TX are flipped in your version so you would not be able to read/upload any data.

We are trying to figure out how we are going to handle this as a bunch of these cables went out. It's funny that on one else has e-mailed me about their cable. I'll keep you posted as to what we will do.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you and thank you once again!

Regards,
Cindy
DIY Drones

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ken on February 5, 2011 at 7:12pm

The pins readily (maybe too readily) slide out of the header. You can grab the affected Tx & Rx pins on the FTDI end with needle nose pliers, push it back out of the header, then grab it on the other side to pull it the rest of the way out. Swap the Tx & Rx lines. Push the pin back into the header.

 

(Don't grab the wire with pliers and pull on that, else you'll find yourself re-soldering the wires to the pin.)

 

• ▶ Reply

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Adam AKAV8R on February 5, 2011 at 10:40pm

Thanks Ken,

 

I just ended up soldering pins on my MTK GPS and used the FTDI cable as shown on the Wiki page bypassing the bad FTDI to GPS cable.  I got my GPS updated after some trial and error and everything seems to be operating as it should.

 

Adam

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ground Loop on February 5, 2011 at 11:04pm

The GPS comes with a stubby cable that's not good for anything, so I built my own FTDI adapter out of it, using pinouts found on DIYDrones/Sparkfun.  Cut the GPS cable in half and you can build two. :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ip9 on March 2, 2011 at 6:17am

hi, i've been looking for documentation for building the GPS/FTDI adaptor, but can only seem to locate the magnetometer one, can you post a link please?

• ▶ Reply

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Adam AKAV8R on March 2, 2011 at 6:45am

This is about all your going to find:

 

http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/wiki/MediaTek

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ip9 on March 2, 2011 at 7:00am

thanks, ground loop mentioned above that he's managed to make one from info found on diy/sparkfun so i would hope its possible, plus people had purchased the cable from DiyD so maybe some helpful chappie could post a picture or some info?

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page