Good day.
I usually fly helicopters but I bout a quadcopter, pixhawk, 3dr radios and gps.
I realise the pixhawk uses PPM. I have a 7ch spektrum receiver. I was wondering, for a quadcopter, do I need 8 channels or is 7 channels enough? Because I know that aruducopter for helis needs 8 channels. So can a 7 channel receiver work for quads?
Next question.
Is is better to use a normal receiver and ppm encoder or a ppm receiver? Bear in mind I already use a spektrum DX8 radio and spektrum has no ppm receivers. Only a company called lemon rx and I dont know if I can trust them.
Replies
Nope, the satellite is a receiver, just without the servo pins and such.
Two satellites would be the most robust so you can have some diversity.
As Chris said, just get a Spektrum satellite and plug it into your Pixhawk, then you will have all 8 channels in a clean setup.
You really only need 5 channels to fly: 4 for the controls and 1 for mode selection. I use 6 with the extra one to control tilt of my camera gimbal.
Seven channels is fine for a quadcopter. Although Pixhawk is designed for PPM receivers, it has a special port for the Spektrum satellite connection, so you should be able to use the radio gear you already have.