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Powering the Ardupilot Board

Posted by Charles Winter on February 13, 2012 at 3:03am

Hello.

I am completely new to the world of hobby UAVs so apologies if this question sounds a bit trivial, but any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

I recently purchased a new ardupilot mega and oilpan. After soldering and downloading the software I am keen to connect my RC gear and get going, but am terrified of doing it wrong!

Firstly should I connect my receiver to the input channels on the Mega Board, and then connect my servos to the output channels.

However, if I then put attatch my battery and motor to the ESC, and connect that to the output channel of the Mega Board, will that operate correctly?

Again, apologise for the probably trivial question, if you need any additional information please comment.

Thanks!

Charles Winter.

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Replies

  • Daniel Gru February 13, 2012 at 10:24am

    Thanks, i will do it like that, put the power to the APM.
    Yeah, my videofeed gets an extra battery.

    Daniel

  • Daniel Gru February 13, 2012 at 8:22am

    HEy Marcos, that was a really helpful post.
    I'd like to hang a question on to that.
    If i am using APM2 on Arducopter, i have all the ESCs getting their power from the main battery.
    I want to power all the Electronics + 2 Servos in the camera gimbal with an BEC.
    Do i now hook the BEC into the servorail of the APM (input or output?) or do i attach the BEC to my Reciever?
    And Jumper on or off?


    I'd love to hear your opinion.

    Daniel

  • UAgroV February 13, 2012 at 7:57am

    Hi Charles,

    your APM2 comes with a jumper (JP1) as shown here:

    http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/APM2board?wl=en

    if its "On" your whole equipment would be powered by the output rail, normally from the ESC in chanell 3. Thats meens, all the power pins in output rail, all the power pins in input rail and APM will be in parallel, so the servos conected to output pins, your radio receiver conected to input pins and your APM will be powered by de motor ESC. This is the case you described so Yes, it would operate correctly.

    If Jumper is off (open) your servos will operate powered by the ESC as allways, but your radio receiver and your APM2 will need another battery. It could be usefull for example if your motor and servos battery get empty and your aircraft couldn't return home you would be still having telemetry and position of it. Im sure there are many more cases but i dont imagine them.

    Hope it will be usefull for you.

    Have a nice fly.

    Marcos.

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