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
Replies
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/ ;
Which line is the 5V power wire in the DJI ESC?
Thanks a bunch Mike!
Hi Paul,
please could you tell me if you ever found a solution to this problem? I am facing the same issue.
/A
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.
this pixhawk info graphic of Jethro Hazelhurst might help.
Thanks Jay.