If I want to modify the firmware in UAV board WITHOUT connecting RC receiver to the board, can I use ESC to power UAV board directly? I mean to connect +5V and GND of ESC to the VCC and GND on the board. I have a 3s Lipo battery (11.1V) with a Castle Creation Thunderbird 18 ESC.
I just brought UAV board, ICD2, GPS and some other parts from Sparkfun. I want to try this UAV board with my EZStar RC plane. My 1st question is how to the UAV board to the Receiver, the servos and the power. I read the manual (GPSSUAVManual_v29.pdf) and asked some questions to Sparkfun tech support, but still not sure if I’m really understanding the connection. I draw a picture attached, could anyone help me to validate the connection in the picture? Thanks for the help in advance.
I finally got the UAV Devboard. Damn its so small! Right now I am hunting my friends who can solder header pins on the board and the FTDI breakout board for me. While that search continues, I re-read the Devboard manual and found that the board has to be connected to the batteries while debugging. I was merrily assuming that the ICD can provide power to it. You say in the manual that the board works fine with 4.8V NiCd batteries. However you do say that for the CPU & GPS to run properly, they need 5V. So undervolting is not a problem?
Secondly, I was planning to make the battery pack myself using 4 of these 1.2V batteries. Will they be OK? I also found a neat battery pack. Since I am novice I was not aware that these things existed.
It is great to see UFO_MAN accomplish what I was thinking to do. That gives me more confidence to keep working on it.
i hope my question below has not been asked already, i've read many posts in this forum but honnestly not all. Here we go:
I'm interested in your UAV devboard as mentioned in my post in the newbie forum, to autostabilize my glider when very high in a thermal, and of course the RTL feature. About the stabilization function:
of course when you are high up in a thermal you don't want to fly straight but in a circle. How does it work when the stabilization mode is activated ? Do I just need to use some trim ? Or do i need to program your card differently ? But I think i cannot change the stabilization mode when up in the air, right ? Obviously you thought about that , but i'm just curious to understand how to do this. I don't want to "battle" with your board's instructions.
Onto another topic, and i'm sure you thought about this: as your board is full equiped to sense the change in atitude of the plane and speed, is there any way you can program your card to detect a thermal and then eventually "drive" the plane back to this point and circle ? Or I'm just dreaming here...
Hi Bill,
When connecting to the 2nd serial port on the board: the ground is that a signal ground? Well I need a signal ground, data from GPS, and ground. Is okay to use the same point for SGND and GND with a MCU? To listen in on the data do I simply hook (board.TXD -> (RS-232.RXD) and (board.RXI) ->(RS232.TXD) and (board.GND) -> (RS-232.GND) ? Do I need to do any thing else with the other pins on ther RS-232? Is the data from the GPS going to be on RXI or TXD pin and what is on the other pin? Is this in a NMEA sentence? I saw some where that you where doing some binary form? Which file should I look at in your code to under stand the format of the data? I saw gpsParse.c and It looks different than my way (I need to look at yours more). I had done a NMEA sentence but that was not embedded. Is there a GPS book / tutorial that you would recommend (I have not read the data sheets yet sorry)? What would I send to the GPS to get a NMEA sentence? (const char bin_mode[] = "$PSRF100,0,19200,8,1,0*39\r\n" ; // turn on binary) Oh by the way any suggestions of books / tutorials for embedded C? Does this IDE down load an operating system when it down loads the program? I noticed it was also down loading some thing else besides the program.
Thank you,
Joker
I would to fallow this threat, but i have to comment something to receive update emails.
Bill i would like to export your code to floats (no funky variables). If we are using 70% of arduino for DSM, sorry DCM, why not use maybe 6% of the DsPIC and make the life easier for beginners (like me)?
I guess i already mentioned this to you! But i would like to share it to everyone. XD
;-)
Hi Bill, I am wanting to add a transiver to my board to send some of the data back. I read in the manual that the Tx and Rx are allready being used. What do you suggest / Solution?
Replies
If I want to modify the firmware in UAV board WITHOUT connecting RC receiver to the board, can I use ESC to power UAV board directly? I mean to connect +5V and GND of ESC to the VCC and GND on the board. I have a 3s Lipo battery (11.1V) with a Castle Creation Thunderbird 18 ESC.
Thanks
Thanks a lot for the correction. Really appreciate for the additional info. I'll try these connections.
Bill - you mentioned the instructions for the connection are in fw. Could you point out which file(s) I need to look at?
David
I just brought UAV board, ICD2, GPS and some other parts from Sparkfun. I want to try this UAV board with my EZStar RC plane. My 1st question is how to the UAV board to the Receiver, the servos and the power. I read the manual (GPSSUAVManual_v29.pdf) and asked some questions to Sparkfun tech support, but still not sure if I’m really understanding the connection. I draw a picture attached, could anyone help me to validate the connection in the picture? Thanks for the help in advance.
David
UAV.ppt
How is your flying going on?
I finally got the UAV Devboard. Damn its so small! Right now I am hunting my friends who can solder header pins on the board and the FTDI breakout board for me. While that search continues, I re-read the Devboard manual and found that the board has to be connected to the batteries while debugging. I was merrily assuming that the ICD can provide power to it. You say in the manual that the board works fine with 4.8V NiCd batteries. However you do say that for the CPU & GPS to run properly, they need 5V. So undervolting is not a problem?
Secondly, I was planning to make the battery pack myself using 4 of these 1.2V batteries. Will they be OK? I also found a neat battery pack. Since I am novice I was not aware that these things existed.
It is great to see UFO_MAN accomplish what I was thinking to do. That gives me more confidence to keep working on it.
Dev.
i hope my question below has not been asked already, i've read many posts in this forum but honnestly not all. Here we go:
I'm interested in your UAV devboard as mentioned in my post in the newbie forum, to autostabilize my glider when very high in a thermal, and of course the RTL feature. About the stabilization function:
of course when you are high up in a thermal you don't want to fly straight but in a circle. How does it work when the stabilization mode is activated ? Do I just need to use some trim ? Or do i need to program your card differently ? But I think i cannot change the stabilization mode when up in the air, right ? Obviously you thought about that , but i'm just curious to understand how to do this. I don't want to "battle" with your board's instructions.
Onto another topic, and i'm sure you thought about this: as your board is full equiped to sense the change in atitude of the plane and speed, is there any way you can program your card to detect a thermal and then eventually "drive" the plane back to this point and circle ? Or I'm just dreaming here...
thanks again
Hugues
from Switzerland
When connecting to the 2nd serial port on the board: the ground is that a signal ground? Well I need a signal ground, data from GPS, and ground. Is okay to use the same point for SGND and GND with a MCU? To listen in on the data do I simply hook (board.TXD -> (RS-232.RXD) and (board.RXI) ->(RS232.TXD) and (board.GND) -> (RS-232.GND) ? Do I need to do any thing else with the other pins on ther RS-232? Is the data from the GPS going to be on RXI or TXD pin and what is on the other pin? Is this in a NMEA sentence? I saw some where that you where doing some binary form? Which file should I look at in your code to under stand the format of the data? I saw gpsParse.c and It looks different than my way (I need to look at yours more). I had done a NMEA sentence but that was not embedded. Is there a GPS book / tutorial that you would recommend (I have not read the data sheets yet sorry)? What would I send to the GPS to get a NMEA sentence? (const char bin_mode[] = "$PSRF100,0,19200,8,1,0*39\r\n" ; // turn on binary) Oh by the way any suggestions of books / tutorials for embedded C? Does this IDE down load an operating system when it down loads the program? I noticed it was also down loading some thing else besides the program.
Thank you,
Joker
My first try at programing the board with you source code and tutorial went very nice. Now how do I erase ?
Thank you,
Scott
Great explantion.
james a
I would to fallow this threat, but i have to comment something to receive update emails.
Bill i would like to export your code to floats (no funky variables). If we are using 70% of arduino for DSM, sorry DCM, why not use maybe 6% of the DsPIC and make the life easier for beginners (like me)?
I guess i already mentioned this to you! But i would like to share it to everyone. XD
;-)
Regards!!!!
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