Replies

  • Dean Miller April 1, 2013 at 12:28pm

    Thanks Charles, I can see I may have to buy some 5v LEDs and resistors and run my NAV lights separately.  But why is it that some people such as William here can just plug in 5v LEDs and others say you must use a resistor?  Is it the type of LED or are some people just doing it wrong?

    I am considering your idea of using a switch on the Tx for arming/disarming and using a Y splitter to my RC activated switch to turn on the lights, very interesting idea.  The only downside I see is the possibility of accidently disarming in flight, that would suck.  Is there a link out there somewhere on how to do this?  I can't seem to find any info on a Transmitter arming switch.

  • Dean Miller March 31, 2013 at 9:45pm

    Thanks William, was really hoping I could get a PWM signal out of those AN pins (or somewhere else) on arming, this certainly explains why I can't get my setup to work.  I would rather get my existing navigation lights to turn on when armed (and GPS) but I guess I will have to order some 5v ones since I can't see my apm and I want a way to visially see when its disarmed/armed. 

  • Dean Miller March 31, 2013 at 12:07am

    Hi guys, I too want to add external LED's to my APM 2.5 to show arm and GPS status, however I am no electronics wizzard, I don't know anything about bitmaps, LED controllers or diodes, and i am finding the information in the posts confusing and conflicting.

    I have simple 12v LED strips already installed on the arms (quad) and I have a Turnigy reciever controlled switch which I can use to turn them on and off with a switch on my transmitter, the lights are powered directly from the battery.  How can I get the APM to trigger the switch on arming?  It seems to me I should be able to unplug the switch from the reciever, plug it into the AN7 (or AN4?) port and somehow get it to work. A seperate switch and lights would be used for GPS of course.

    I've tried changing LED_MODE to 3 (and 1 enabled, and 2 GPS and 9 default) and I've tried AN ports 4 to 7 on the board.  I'm just getting frustrated, perhaps all the other posts are using the 5v rail to power the LED's and I'm doing something different.

    Hoping someone can help with this, it should be simple (I think)

  • Charles lakins March 30, 2013 at 11:53am

    And also if you are using a switch on your radio to a channel on the receiver that is dedicated for arm/disarming function

    you could do this without any modification to the board itself by using a "Y" splitter on thet channel and connecting a led controller to it. and to whatever leds you wish to use, ( maybe a full nav light package)

  • Sandy Thomson March 30, 2013 at 11:34am

    See http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/external-arm-and-gps-led-kit-fo...  I've just added 10mm superbright LEDs as per this.  Just check the size of resistor you need in series depending on the Vf for the LED in question..  There's loads of info on the web about it.  I had to use 150 ohm for the red and 100ohm for the blue

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