Replies to This Discussion

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Gary Mortimer on December 27, 2010 at 12:18pm

Not enough power

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Permalink Reply by Nick Chamnong on December 27, 2010 at 7:37pm

You mean power from the USB and 5V NiCd Battery are more than the 3A BEC?

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Permalink Reply by Nick Chamnong on December 27, 2010 at 7:41pm

Is it the same problem as this guy?

http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/xtreambee-board-at-5v

with USB or Battery the voltage level was about 4.8V

with ESC it's about 5.1V

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on December 27, 2010 at 7:50pm

Stick with the Xbee modules we recommend. Higher power ones take more current than the adapters can handle.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Chamnong on December 27, 2010 at 9:27pm

I use 2.4Ghz Xbee modules as recommended on this page.

http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Wireless

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on December 27, 2010 at 9:30pm

Then that should work fine. Are you sure the slider on the Xtreambee is in the right position?

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Permalink Reply by Nick Chamnong on December 27, 2010 at 9:36pm

I try connecting diode between ESC/BEC and APM to drop the voltage down from 5.15V to 4.85V and Xbee works!

But is this normally happening to other people?

Will there be any consequences to other system on the board?

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Permalink Reply by Henry Gan on February 12, 2011 at 10:53am

Can you show how you did the connection?

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Permalink Reply by John Ihlein on January 3, 2011 at 6:45am

I've got the same problem, and know of another user who has it too.  Two 60mW xBee Pro's on XtremeBee adaptors.  Baud ratea set at 57600, master mode selected on adaptor boards.  Hooked up to FTDI's and 2 laptops and they communicate just fine.  When one is hooked up to Serial3 on the APM stack, it will transmit data to the laptop, but it will not receive it from the laptop.

 

The xBee on the APM knows it's getting a transmission as the red RSSI LED lights up on it when you type on the laptop, but there is no sign of activity on the DO line, the amber LED never flashes.  Same behavior is exhibited if I swap radio positions between the APM and laptop.

 

Also it does not matter if I power the APM stack from the USB cable or from a 3S 2170 lipo connected to the power input pins, same behavior.

 

Is there a schematic of the XtremeBee board availble so we can look at what we are dealing with?  I'm going to try reversing DO/DI at the APM end and setting slave mode and see what happens.

 

John

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Permalink Reply by John Ihlein on January 3, 2011 at 7:12am

More info:

 

Changing TX and RX and setting slave mode on the APM side does not change anything, same behavior.

 

If I disconnect TX and RX from the APM xBee and send characters from the laptop, I will get activity on the DO amber LED.  If I connect either or both TX and RX to the APM xBee, the DO line will not indicate activity when characters are sent.

 

Is there a 3.3 volt device (xBee) incompatability with a 5 volt device (1280) going on here???

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on January 3, 2011 at 8:31am

John, can you link to the Xbee modules you're referring to? (Ideally on Sparkfun)--I get confused by all the different types. The ones we linked to and recommend have been fully tested and are in use every day with Xtreambee adapters, but I don't know about others.

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Permalink Reply by John Ihlein on January 3, 2011 at 8:44am

Here it is:

 

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8742

 

JI

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