Posted by Andrew Bailey on December 9, 2010 at 9:38am
I have the pre-soldered kit. I cannot find anything to tell me how I power the APM and receiver. Each of the ESC's connect to the PCB, I think all but one should have the power wire cut? From the PCB I have what must be a two wire power supply, but where do I plug this into the APM? There are some pictures on the Wiki showing power supply soldered into the two VIN+6V, but my guess is the power lead from the PCB plugs onto a pin somewhere. Also, do I need a separate power supply to the receiver?
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I struggled to get my head round this at first too.. but thanks to some excellent help on here got it sorted.
Basically - the power from the battery is distributed to all 4 ESCs via the deans connectors, 3 of the 4 ESCs only have a signal wire connected via the power board, the 4th one provides power up to the APM (and through the APM to the RX) from the ESCs BEC. This is the ESC for the right-hand motor, on the PDB this should be the one near where it says "DIY Drones" you should see the small red and black cables soldered here - they provide the power up to the APM by plugging into the bottom two pins on the right hand side.
you might find the link below useful - check the diagrams on the last couple of pages.
The RX pics its power up from the other side of the APM. - this is as far as i got as both my RXs failed at this point, this is either due to some problem with the power board i have (i hope not, everything seems to be good quality) or the fact that i have cheap Turnigy/HK RXs (possible). I've ordered a multi-meter so i can test the voltage before I risk connecting another RX just in case.
Replies
Brilliant. Thanks a lot guys. The draft documentation is great, very helpful indeed.
I struggled to get my head round this at first too.. but thanks to some excellent help on here got it sorted.
Basically - the power from the battery is distributed to all 4 ESCs via the deans connectors, 3 of the 4 ESCs only have a signal wire connected via the power board, the 4th one provides power up to the APM (and through the APM to the RX) from the ESCs BEC. This is the ESC for the right-hand motor, on the PDB this should be the one near where it says "DIY Drones" you should see the small red and black cables soldered here - they provide the power up to the APM by plugging into the bottom two pins on the right hand side.
you might find the link below useful - check the diagrams on the last couple of pages.
http://arducopter.googlecode.com/files/Setting-up%20ArduCopter%20El...
The RX pics its power up from the other side of the APM. - this is as far as i got as both my RXs failed at this point, this is either due to some problem with the power board i have (i hope not, everything seems to be good quality) or the fact that i have cheap Turnigy/HK RXs (possible). I've ordered a multi-meter so i can test the voltage before I risk connecting another RX just in case.
I hope that helps
reciever is powered from APM