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Clean/ lightweight way to mount radio receiver

Posted by Tobin on January 24, 2013 at 5:12pm

3689499255?profile=originalFor fellow wire haters out there, here's a way that I figured out for attaching a 6 channel Hobby King receiver directly to the APM 2.5 without those pesky wires and connectors. The complete assembly of the APM 2.5 and the receiver is now only 18 grams and the clutter of wires goes away. I've flight tested this setup with the Turnigy 9x and it seems to work exactly as it did with the larger Turnigy 9x V2 8ch radio, less about 20 grams of stuff.

Here's a link the receiver I used if you're interested. I simply disassembled the case removed the old connector and used the connection that came with the APM 2.5 (with two unneeded connections cut off). You will also notice a bit of strain relief that I added to the receiver antenna, as that connection is now a bit exposed with the packaging removed.

The one thing that I still need to figure out is how to either make the three position switch on my Turnigy 9x transmitter connect to channel 5 or have the APM software look at channel 6 instead of 5 for flight modes, as I previously connected channel 6 on my receiver to channel 5 on the APM. Any suggestion of ideas on how I might do this?

Tags: 25, 9x, apm, hobby, king, turnigy, receiver
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Comments

  • Adam Conway January 25, 2013 at 5:23pm

    Thanks Tobin - 600 grams huh? that is impressive too... Would love it if you shared a photo of the whole thing.

  • Tobin January 25, 2013 at 1:26pm

    Fair points Hugues. In my case, the total craft weights about 600 grams, so 20 grams here and 20 grams there starts to add up fairly quickly. I also use a single enclosure for all of the electronics and wiring, which ends being fairly clean and robust.

  • MR60
    Hugues January 25, 2013 at 1:19pm
    Nice however I am not sure the look is better than with apm case which makes it cleaner , i find. Plus the exposed electronics and wires are not the best protection (electrical and mechanical). And to save only 20 grams on a total weight of 1kg or more does not make any difference.
    I guess it is like taste and colors, very personal.
  • Tobin January 25, 2013 at 1:03pm

    Adam - So far I haven't seen any issues with EMI. There's a good ground plane on the bottom of the RC receiver, that I'm hoping will minimize EMI problems. I'll let you know if any bugs emerge.

  • Muhammad Al-Rawi January 25, 2013 at 12:59pm

    Very clean indeed. 

    I thought about doing this with my APM 2.0, but the GPS dictated otherwise...

  • Adam Conway January 25, 2013 at 9:30am

    Very, very nice, I would love to know if you see nearfield EMI interference from the APM - probably unlikely, but still - I would rather you test it on your quad, than me test it on mine :)

  • Rob_Lefebvre January 25, 2013 at 5:07am

    Oh, yeah, and I use PPMSum, there is less soldering, and easier to remove later if you want.  

  • Rob_Lefebvre January 25, 2013 at 5:07am

    Nice job.  This is similar to the All-in-One that I did a number of months ago.  I really liked it, but on the APM2.0 it did create a problem with the GPS since I am using Telemetry FrSky Rx so they transmit, and the transmission is very close to the GPS.

    With the APM2.5, I plan to try again.  But I also want to do a few more things.  I want to bring the voltage regulator right on board.  Basically make an entire daughterboard for the Rx, and regulator.  

  • apocolipse January 25, 2013 at 4:45am

    ER9x firmware should solve your problems, its a software mixers dream.  Also, a suggestion might be to solder female pins to the reciever instead of soldering direct to APM?  to swap out if reciever dies or whatever

  • Andrew Rabbitt January 25, 2013 at 12:05am

    Alternatively, you could run a single jumper wire for the channel you want to use for the mode switch - easy peasy.

    This is the coolest way to save weight.

This reply was deleted.