Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Onur Daşkıran on February 15, 2012 at 10:47am

I'm also a beginner. For the initial phase, I want to  use the board only as a datalogger which will get the sensors and GPS readings of several manually flown air vehicles. Please correct me if anything is wrong with what I think:  Board must have its separate battery. Also I don't need servo power so I will leave the jumper off. In order to power up sensors processor and sdcard  which pin should I connect the 5V supply? Thanks. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by UAgroV on February 15, 2012 at 5:19pm

Hi Onur,

If you leave your jumper off, the only way you could power your board would be by the input rail.

The + pin in all RC 3-wires wires used to be the center one, to avoid polarity change when hooking it in the wrong way (+ allways stay in center of the 3 pins). Here you can see the polarity of your input rail:

http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/APM2RC?wl=en

You can use any of the inputs and anything but the output rail will be powered.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JD on May 9, 2012 at 9:41pm

I'm having a bit of a different issue and could use some clarification on how to power everything.

In my case I am use a large servo that requires 6v or 7v and my Castle Creations Phoenix Ice 50 BEC is programmed to output 6v accordingly.

So I need 6v to my servo.  I don't really want second battery right now. Can somebody diagram for me how I might set this all up for use with the APM 2.0 + telemetry.

cheers

JD

• ▶ Reply

DeveloperPermalink Reply by Andreas M. Antonopoulos on May 9, 2012 at 10:34pm

I would think a second BEC, set to 5V, just to feed the APM and telemetry, RX, radios etc. That way you keep servos separate (on the existing 6-7V BEC)

I have 2 BECs and a switch on each, so that I can turn things on in stages. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JD on May 9, 2012 at 10:45pm

Could you diagram that for me? I'm having a hard time seeing how everything would be connected.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JD on May 10, 2012 at 4:07pm

Ordered a castle creations BEC. I have a rudimentary plan now.  I will post a diagram when i am finished so it can be double checked.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 10, 2012 at 5:54pm

I'm not sure what the problem is.  Perhaps you have a bad board.  Mine powers up just fine from either the input or output.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Thomas Finan on May 16, 2012 at 8:10am

Thanks to all for these replies...i have posted in a couple other discussions these general questions.

I too would like to see a very general wiring diagram (perhaps im more of a visual learner!). In theory i think im starting to grasp what is required in terms of powering...but again like other newbies the concern of frying the board outweighs experimentation at this point.

I hope contributors here continue to elaborate. It is very helpful.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rick Eis on May 16, 2012 at 12:15pm

Yes, I agree. 

It would be extremely helpful for an "expert" to show some general and specific wiring diagrams with photo's showing the various possibilities of powering the APM2.

Some notes and/or warnings with a few of the key  "what not to do" for the most common mistakes would also be very helpful. 

Forgive me if one has allready done the above, sometimes I get lost in DIYDrones trying to find specific answers to these questions.  Please point me in the right direction if we have allready explained this in great detail.

At $200 a pop (pun intended :) , I'd rather spend those dollars buying more fun things from DIYDrones.

 

Richard Eis P.E.

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DahaS on May 21, 2012 at 12:16pm

Just read the message I just posted will make some linght on the powering AMP and others.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rick Eis on May 21, 2012 at 1:45pm

I think a little drawing and maybe some photo's would help a bunch :)

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eddie Furey on July 9, 2012 at 6:16am

A few people requested a diagram to explain the power options. Based on DahaS's post I created this...

What I have learned creating the diagram:

JP1 connects the input and output power rails.

Connecting +5V from a power rail to the USB will fry it.

So basically you must not have ESC/BEC power running to the Input rail, either directly or via JP1, while you have the USB connected.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page