Multiple questions about Pixhawk, ESCs, telemetry, etc...

Posted by Phil Desrosiers on April 10, 2015 at 7:51am

Hi, I'm new to pixhawk multirotors (coming from Naze32 / 250-class racers). I'm working on building a Tarot-690 Hex for an Aeiral Photography platform using PX4. Obviously I have a bunch of questions, and someone on reddit pointed me to DIYDrones as a friendly place to research and get some answers! If anyone can help me out with some of this, I'd really appreciate it:

  • Arducopter doesn't appear to support more than 8 channels over PPM / SBUS. Confirm / deny?
  • How can I get PX4 to send telemetry over my x4r-SB receiver? (FrSky telemetry / SmartPort)
  • I've seen people using a sort of "follow me" functionality with their craft, with bi-directional telemetry radio, attached to a tablet w/ GPS. How do I enable this?
  • I've read in various places that PixHawk supports running "apps" on the PX4. Where can I learn more about this?
  • Does PX4 support OneShot ESCs?
  • I read on a forum that not all ESCs will work with PX4 (which seems a little weird to me). Can anyone confirm / deny? I'm thinking of using AfroESCs 30A, flashed with BLHeli. Will that be a problem?
  • Lastly, there seems to be a bit of confusion (for me) on what exactly is "PixHawk". Most places refer to it as a flight controller / computer, but there are some sights that seem to think of it as a point-cloud capture / render system for 3D mapping or something. Which is it?

Thanks for any pointers / tips / links, I look forward to learning from this community, and "Stepping up" to ArduCopter!

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Replies

  • 3qs7z40lxxok2 April 10, 2015 at 4:19pm

    this post will help you with Frsky smartport

    i use Pixhawk to xr8 works great

    i use AfroESCs 30A SK firmware works fine

    http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/amp-to-frsky-x8r-sport-converter

  • Phil Desrosiers April 10, 2015 at 10:48am

    I'll post answers as I find them.

    Does PX4/ArduCopter support OneShot ESCs?

    According to this, it does not.

    Does PX4/ArduCopter support more than 8 channels over PPM / SBUS?

    According to this, it does not.

    How to get FrSky telemetry?

    Some good instructions here, but claims that Smart Port is not officially supported (though it seems like it's coming soon?). In general, there doesn't seem to be a wealth of information out there on the difference between Smart Port and "Regular" FrSky telemetry, but FrSky claims they are "compatible". Other than Telemetry though, FrSky X-series receivers seem to work just fine.

    Running "apps" on PX4: How?

    Here's the starting point I found.

    Using Afro ESCs w/ PX4?

    Various anecdotal evidence indicates this is no problem. Or it's a catastrophe. No conclusive indication, so I'm going to try it.

  • Henry V April 10, 2015 at 8:06am

    Wish I could help -- just wanted to vocalize that I'm in the same group as Phil on being curious about some of these points.

This reply was deleted.