Hi everybody,
I just bought a 3W 4LEDs LED Module LED Indicator V1.0 for APM MegaPirate RC From Ebay and I would like to add it to my Apm 2.5.2 board. I do have no idea how to do this . There are no videos on youtube about these LED boards, some of them just show these boards flashing, but not any "how to connect them" . Since I am new to these boards, I really need help.
Do i need resistors ?
Should I power these LEDs directly from a lipo battery instead of the Apm board?
Do I need a BEC?
What parameters should I do/modify in the APM ?
Where should I hook up positive and ground leads?
Specs
"The LED indicator is for APM/MegaPirate. There are four 3W led White/Red/Green/Bule on the board, and it can be setting light up method in Mission Planner.
The LED Indicator supported 5~30V input."
I appreciate your help.
Replies
Okay so Im still wondering if I can plug the power and ground into the apm....But for the rest:
A7 is the motor so that will be white, (so I will use a 3 pin connector with 1 plugged into ground, the other into signal and the power slot will be empty) Now we can get another 3 pin connector that will go sideways right against the side of the first 3 pin. So on one end put blue for A6, In the middle I will put red for Arming (A5) and then the last pin will be green (A4). So make sure your 3 pin connector is blue then red then green and again put it sideways against the other 3 pin you used for white (A7) and Ground (The other side of the connector, so the middle will be empty).
Now I just have to figure out if I need to change any settings and I need to figure out if I can hook power and ground into one of the open slots on the ESC side.....That should in theory mean its going to be powered by the BEC from one of the ESC's. Does anyone have any input on that? If not, I Will be Powering it from my PDB so it will get 11 volts, but 5 from the BEC built into an ESC should be just fine for LED's. I'm also going to to be soldering a header on the LED board. Keep in mind you do not have to use the matching colored wires! you could always just use normal 3 pin Connectors with the wires on them, and rearange the pins on on them....The wires just help keep it straight in your head.
Honestly Im really shocked and suprised that no one has answered this. Last year I was a Moderator on these forums and I helped EVERYONE that asked a question that crossed my "radar" (AKA the Forums I frequented). Ive been AFK as far as the forums go for about 8 months, give or take. And now Ive only started a thread about 3 times, and only gotten a reply on one of them. I was going to make a thread for this when I found your while searching for others that might have already worked with these...........So to keep things tidy I jumped onto yours. Are People not helping much anymore? Has the "tone" of the forums changed? I hope not, because this was a very helpful and proactive community. But I digress.... Did you ever find an answer to this? I have 2 of them, and while I know what the pinouts are, I'm not sure of power requirements., or more accurately I dont know whether or not the APM can safely power this on its own.
Now one telling thing on what the designers must have been thinking is the fact that there is a ground for the 3 Led's and the Buzzer....and a Separate power and ground.That tells me that it has a seperate power section on board....AND your going to need to on at least one of the pins,to have one on wire on the ground pin and one on the output. The rest I believe you can just put on the output. now if it was meant to be powered from the APM, I dont think it would have the seperate power and ground pins, meaning power is meant to come from somewhere else. That said, can you run the the power and ground to 2 of the pins on the apm to power it up anyways? Say run power and ground to the + and - rail on the output section (where you would put you ESC's) and let the BEC from your crafts ESC(s) power the board up? probably. It also say it will accept 3-30 volts DC for power.....So Im guessing its meant to be run off the crafts main battery be it a 1s or 8s. Now where to tie it in cleanly might pose a problem.......But doing it that way would definatley work to power it up. Since it accepts such a broad range of voltage, I may just solder to the Power Distribution Board and be done with it, but it would be easier to just power it from the APM.
Now what I dont know, is what would be the best pins to hook it up to, and what else you have to do in the settings (if anything) A search could easily pull up one light and a buzzer.....or even 2 lights (A6 and A7?). But 3 lights AND a buzzer? I dont know...that's where we need the help of the forum. So please guys, help us out on this one. Im thinking we may want to just skip one of those lights....but if we do need to use all 3, to hook them up Im thinking on 3 pin connector with output and ground oriented normally, and one 3 pin sideways catching the the other 2-3 outputs (it would look almost like a lopsided T Junction....or a masons square. (and as far as resistors, thats been dealt with on the the PCB board already)