Hello DIY Drones!
I am a newcomer to this fantastic hobby, and am hitting a minor (hopefully) speed bump right at the onset.
Any help, suggestions, advise or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.
I am in the process of setting up an ArduCoper 3DR Hexa-B with an Ardupilot 2.5 using a Spektrum DX8 radio and Spektrum AR8000 receiver.
So a quick rundown of how far along the build is:
I have the frame constructed, the motors hooked up to the ESCs, the ESCs and input wires plugged into the PDB, and the outputs and power cables hooked up the the APM 2.5.
I connected the APM 2.5 to the Mission Planner software via USB and updated the board with the hex x software. I then attempted to connect the receiver and bind and calibrate it while connected to Mission Planner but it wouldn't pair.
When I connect a battery to the system, there is a 3 note musical tone, and then beeps every few seconds which correspond with each motor jogging a fraction of a turn each.
Is there something wrong with how the Ardupilot is connected to the receiver, or am I missing something else?
See inserted photos for reference, I have a video of the symptoms that I could upload if need be.
Thanks!
Replies
Good news, got it running!
Finished up routing the cables a bit. Think I'm going to put a switch in place of the jumper on the receiver for faster binding.
Will post a video once I get it up in the air.
Thanks for the help!
Hi.
I'm glad you got it working.
Shane.
Yeah man, me too.
Thanks so much for the help :D
Don't put a switch on it will move in the air and that will be that.
Oh I see. Not even a guarded toggle? Its just a bit of a pain, I had to mount the receiver sticking out forwards from the platform to leave those pins accessible.
Does everyone with a Spektrum use a jumper each time they turn it on?
Hi Michael.
Nice looking machine.
I have an AR9200 receiver on my setup and it works quite well. Your wiring does not look like mine. I simply have 4 normal 3 wire cables connecting each of the following to the APM...
Thro - Port 3
Evel -Port 2
Aile -port 1
Rud- port 4
The APM will power the reciever ok but NOT any servos on the input side.
Also check your grounding on the output side. You may need at least one ground connected to an output.
Hope that helps.
Shane
Hey Shane,
Thanks! That helps a lot. Looks like I will have to grab a few extra servo hookup cables and configure it like yours is.
Do you split off pre PDB to supply servos, or use a separate battery?
Will post again once I try it like that.
-Michael
You really only need one servo cable to hookup your rx to your apm. The +ve and -ve from that will power your tx.
Yup, that's what I ended up doing. Everything is working great now. I just want to run through the mission planner and make sure all of the parameters for fail safes are set correctly before mounting any propellers.
Any recommendations for a first time pre-flight check?
I have everything running off the one 4S battery.
I've cheated a little and have used a BEC from an old heli to supply the 5V power to the output side of the APM.
Its lighter than a separate battery but I'm sure there is a better way than how I'm doing it.
With your input side, If you connect your wires in the right ports so long as you have one cable that does the full 3 wires, I'm guessing it should still work.
Maybe connect the unit to mission planner to see if that side of things is working first then look at the output side.
There is a radio calibration section that will tell you if its all working right on the inputs.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next