Discussions

Remote status LEDs

Posted by Kevin Klein on October 25, 2012 at 6:55pm

Having status LED's on the board is nice, but they're next to useless when the board is mounted in the stack or under a cover. The next rev of the board IMO should be designed so that these LED's can be mounted remotely. A simple pin header could either be jumpered to use the on-board LEDs or used as a connector for remote LEDs. At a minimum, the user needs to see the arm/disarm LED and the GPS lock LED.

Thoughts?

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Replies

  • Pieter May 19, 2013 at 12:49pm

    Does this work for arduplane?

  • Cletus Berkeley May 18, 2013 at 11:06am

    Pretty cool, easily implemented and works damned good .....RED (A4) blinks when disarmed and solid when armed. BLUE (A6) blinks when acquiring sats and  solid when GPS fixed.

  • Craig Fraser November 9, 2012 at 10:41am

    What is a motor LED? Is it for "decorative" use, or does it provide important info like the GPS and Arm LEDs? (I only have two ULN2803 drivers left.) Thanks.

  • Brian Sigmon October 27, 2012 at 12:28pm

    Hello my first post.  I am currently trying to get copter leds to work on my tricopter using the APM2.0.  Actually things are mostly working.  I used code 107 and I do get GPS status and motor LEDs.


    I wanted to use output AN9 as an output for Motor LEDs.  This output appears not to work by default.  I also tried AN10 and AN11 also with the same result.  I can always rewire as this was a nice to have.  Just curious how to make these outputs work.

    I was also curious about the LED AUX function.  What is that and how do you make it work?

    Thank you

  • Tissy October 27, 2012 at 12:25pm

    Fully recommend the jDrones IO board, this is what I am using for my Hex and soon will be writing code so its linked into MavLink.

     

    This option is already available, but I'm looking at customising it a little :-)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQc70F1NMs

  • J A October 27, 2012 at 12:22pm

    Also, that's good to know about the 4s. I haven't actually tried mine with a 4s yet. I figured it would burn them up, since they are rated at 12 volts. I will probably still use the 3s, since I am also awaiting an LM7805 and a couple caps to build a real 5v regulator for the input side of my Ardupilot (running off 3dr ESCs connected to output atm), and my video TX wants 12 volt input, as well (also not actually tested on the 4s since I don't want to fry it).

  • J A October 27, 2012 at 11:10am

    From what I understand, that particular MOSFET that I linked to is logic level, which means that it has a built in charge pump. 

  • J A October 27, 2012 at 10:03am

    I could be wrong, but it seems like we could use something like https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10213 to run more current. Should be really simple to set up. I actually have a few of those mosfets and some higher current led strips from Hobbyking that I want to try with this. I'm just waiting on a 3s battery to come in, since my 4s is too much for them. I'll let everyone know how it goes, hopefully next weekend.

    N-Channel MOSFET 60V 30A
    If you've ever wondered how to control the headlight of a car from a microcontroller, a MOSFET is what you need. This is a very common MOSFET with ve…
  • Rolf Stefani October 26, 2012 at 3:57pm
    Sound straight forward.... Off to the workshop to give it a shot.

    Thanks.
  • Rolf Stefani October 26, 2012 at 3:42pm
    This is my point exactly. I have no idea what "setting the parameter LED_Mode to... '107'" means. But I guess that is a bit esoteric if you guys have been mulling this over for a while. Me, as a new convert to multicopters and ardupilot, am finding that the nitty gritty of the software doing all this is in the list to learn. Just getting my quad, called Red Dwarf by the way, flying is consuming all my spare time yet I still would like to get LEDs out on the dome to see when it is armed and the GPS has a lock.

    I look forward to knowing what your talking about. It won't be that far from now.

    Cudo's to you guys. This is amazing stuff and your efforts are to be applauded.

    Rolf
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