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Suggestions on converting to APM or Pixhawk on a DJI F550 w/Naza

Posted by Paul Braun on March 22, 2014 at 6:43am

I have been successfully flying a DJI Flamewheel F550 with a Naza controller, DJI stock motors/ESCs, etc for about a year now.  I love it.  However, I'm interested in autonomous flight utilizing waypoints and flight planning software.  Because of that, I'm thinking of retooling the hexarotor to APM or Pixhawk.  Can anyone point me to write-ups or posts that get to the ins and outs of this issue?  There are many feature comparison posts but none that I can find that outline the process of making the switch.  I'm particularly interested in what equipment I can repurpose vs. replace in order to understand the financial committment.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul

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Tags: apm, naza, vs
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Replies

  • Mike Knott April 7, 2015 at 5:26am

    You should be able to repurpose everything except the NAZA, GPS, and PMU. It's been some time since I did mine, but I also have a 550 that I changed over to Pixhawk. You'll have to change motor rotations to match the Pixhawk output, but it should be easy. Just attach the 3DR power module to the battery leads, and run everything else through the 550 PDB. You shouldn't need the 3DR hexcopter PDB. Remember to remove the 5V power wire from each ESC, as you don't want to overpower the Pixhawk. And always look over the wiki to learn more.

    copter.ardupilot.com 

    EDIT: Speaking of the wiki, I found this guide for setting up a 450 on there:

    http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-appendix/pdf-guides/ ;

    • Paul Braun > Mike Knott June 3, 2015 at 3:02pm

      Which line is the 5V power wire in the DJI ESC?

    • Paul Braun > Mike Knott April 10, 2015 at 4:14am

      Thanks a bunch Mike!

  • Andreas Nicolet April 6, 2015 at 6:00am

    Hi Paul, 

    please could you tell me if you ever found a solution to this problem? I am facing the same issue.

    /A

    • Paul Braun > Andreas Nicolet April 7, 2015 at 4:00am

      No responses via this forum I'm afraid.  I am in the process of doing this project but I've been making pretty slow progress.  My primary research right now is whether I can run the 6 stock DJI ESC's (and DJI stock motors) into the 3DR Hex Power Distribution Board.  I am not sure what the voltage/amperage is coming out of the Pixhawk to the Hex PDB and whether that supply will be enough to support the ESCs/motors.

  • Jay Galleno March 22, 2014 at 7:10am

    this pixhawk info graphic of  Jethro Hazelhurst might help.

    • Paul Braun > Jay Galleno March 23, 2014 at 6:40am

      Thanks Jay.

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