Long time member, back again...

I just ordered a *real* Pixhawk (I know, I know, -sigh-  should have done it right the first time...) after being burnt by a Chinese clone whose I/O side seems to have died suddenly. I tried everything I could find on the net to unbrick it, but alas, I accept what is to be... Get what ya pay for right?

No warranty, no assistance, no replies to emails, no cares from the Chinese retailer, (a guy can hope right?) just another bunch of electronics destined for the recyclers.  Makes me sad about the waste.  I wonder if I could offer 3DR enough $$ to see if they could fix it, or would that be an insult of the highest order?  Anyway...

Years back I bought a real APM 1.6 (red and blue boards that connect together) and all its peripherals from 3DR to dive into the hobby and support the 3DR vision-  it still flew when it was decommissioned 2 years ago. That APM never had any problems after one early return to 3DR for glitchy hardware (a great experience as I recall- the customer service, not the grounding of my quadcopter) I have learned alot thru the hobby and put my years of electronics experience to good use.

***Lesson Learned*** Support 3DR/ developers and buy the best hardware from the best in customer service. Ouch, Got it.

Now something to add:

   PIXHAWK AUX RELAY OUT 3.3v EASY SWITCH:

2n3014 transistor (NPN, t-92 case, Hfe of 160+) is perfect for switching 5v (or 12v) with a 3.3v base signal to trigger a tiny 5v (or 12v) relay. This method works great so long as the grounds for the Pixhawk and device are tied together somewhere.

2n3014 may be hard to find, somehow I have a dozen, but any small transistor or FET is fine that saturates (turns on) at less than 3v and will take the load voltage/ current across the switching pins.

The collector pin on the transistor got soldered directly to one coil leg of the relay, +5v to the other leg of the relay, ground goes to the emitter and a 68ohm resistor between the Pixhawk out and the base of the transistor limits output current from the Pixhawk to less than 50ma.

Pixhawk sends 3.3v to the transistor which activates and grounds the coil of the relay. Simple.

Tiny relays can simplify things by allowing multiple unconnected circuits to be controlled by one signal.

I have channel 7 on my Tx set up to turn my RGB orientation LED strips (normally red front, green rear) to all white for landing.

 Thanks to everyone who makes open source projects happen (thats, um, all of us right?) but especially the ones who dare, who try, who risk, who ask the questions others may scoff at;

the ones who take the time to answer those sometimes repetitious questions with patience and wisdom;

and most of all *MANY THANKS* to the DEV crew who put so much into our very addictive hobby to make it what it is- from the amazingly reliable, well tested hardware and software to the excellent forum and documentation. Awesome!!

Gratitude expressed, back to soldering...