Discussions

Tonight I finished one of many projects that I have planned for this winter.  That project was setting up a FrSky Taranis XD9 to operate my 450 heli, a process that proved to be much harder than it should have been.  First off, I set about building a Spektrum module for the radio, which went relatively easy, except for I am an idiot and decided to solder the five-pin connector to back of the board, which then was nearly impossible to fix.  Adding salt to the wound, I made the mistake on all three boards I was building.  A huge thanks to John Prikkel how did the leg work and put a nice blog together on building your own module.  Ordered everything he provided links for and project went smooth.

http://johnprikkel.blogspot.dk/2014/07/jr-dsmx.html

The fun part came when trying to program the radio, which seemed nearly impossible, but once I got a feel for how everything works, I was able to sort it out.  Following the guide on Opentx University, and rereading it was key to getting everything working properly.  Part of what made this difficult is that my “eBay 450” is a flybar model, which apparently makes it a dinosaur.  Complicating it further, Opentx seems to assume a front center line servo, versus a rear, which I have.  All in all, once I slowed down and carefully read the guide, I was able to get everything working, despite the minor differences in the software version since the guide had been written.  Tomorrow will tell all when I get out for an actual test flight, and not just hovering in the back yard.

The part I have not figured out yet is why the specktrum AR6100E receiver I am using in the helicopter will not arm my ESC properly.  I spent hours trying to figure this one out, and the issue is sporadic at best.  I believe the issue is with the built in fail safes of the receiver, but I am not entirely sure.  The curious part is if I power cycle the receiver with the ESC still powered on the ESC will normally arm.  This has in turn led me to adding a switch in the BEC ground wire so I can easily cycle the power without much fuss.  Probably not the correct method, but it is quick and effective.  I am sure my cheap Hobby King ESC is adding to the issue. 

If everything goes well, I should be able to start building my quad here shortly.

Lastly, if you are the purchaser a new FrSky Taranis, their SD card issues are not behind them.  I was having issues with the radio locking up when entering the bootloader, and turns out my SD card is no good.  Funny thing is the card works fine in the computer, but only works for a few power cycles in the radio, also my GoPro does not seem to like it much either.