WHAT A PHANTOM SHOULD LOOK LIKE INSIDE...

WHAT A PHANTOM SHOULD LOOK LIKE INSIDE...

We recently got a phantom in to play with and see how it was put together, it's a great little drone for basic flying and features. Being an ArduCopter guy and having used APMs on our SD systems since the biggining I though it would be a fun project to stick an ArduCopter board in the Phantom. It was pretty easy to do! Will post how to in the comments, needless to say it's a different drone all together, much more agile and solid + it now has full GPS system with unlimited waypoints, auto, RTL, GPS hold, and a host of other cool features, all free :)

HOW TO: Simply opened her up, unplugged the naza and wires, installed APM, soldered tiny 3A uBEC onto the phantom's pcb for power for the APM, used the phantom's PPM receiver directly into the APM (with a small mod in the phantom's radio to get a switch on channel 5, not 6 as it is) ripped out the phantom's gps, installed our uBlox, connected motors as is and did the AC setup, took maybe 45min in total. She flies much better now

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T3

Stephen Zidek March 24, 2014 at 8:21am

Thank you! For anyone else interested, I found out that DJI upgraded the Phantom 1 to have a 2.4GHz transmitter (yay!) but it decodes in D-BUS instead of PPM, so the APM can't use it (boo!). For mine I will probably also go with the Turnigy 9x, it seems like a good transmitter for the price.
Steve Burton March 24, 2014 at 6:50am

I purchased the body, ESC;s, Landing Gear, Engines and Props, and the distribution board. I then used a Turnigy 9 ch. receiver, APM2.5, Diy's GPS and the APM Power Module with XT60. I didn't covert a complete Phantom, I bought just the parts to make work with my APM2.5. I hope that helps.

APM Power Module with XT60
T3

Stephen Zidek March 22, 2014 at 11:12am

Steve, are you using the new Phantom controller with the 2.4ghz connection? Does it still connect to the APM's PPM just fine?
Steve Burton March 17, 2014 at 8:30am

I really appreciate your post, I have done the same thing and it is working great. I haven't used the autotune feature but I am thinking about it. Have you tried that?? I read where copters with a short distance between engines might have a problem using autotune so I'm a little reluctant to give it a try, it's flying pretty good with default PID's.

Thanks,

Steve
criro1999 February 12, 2014 at 9:26am

check your MOT_SPIN_ARMED. Default is 70
Francis Marasigan February 11, 2014 at 8:09pm

I just finished putting APM on my phantom. My APM firmware is 3.1 but somehow when arming, the propeller will not spin until I put some throttle. Anyone having the same experience? Is it normal? The same APM when I used on other ESC will spin motor on arming.
T.C. January 25, 2014 at 1:24pm

mine flies ok now but not fine yet, have to have external compass i guess. is there a easy way to get the orig. dji magnetometer to work on the i2c? other experiences with compass? apm 2.5 or 2.6?
T.C. January 17, 2014 at 11:41pm

I am aware of that and would sign every statement of yours, i have 5 apm s in various configurations, i am just one one hand lazy and on the other interested in comparing my future findings.
Ravi December 28, 2013 at 10:23pm

APM is not a plug and play piece of hardware. it is meant for serious hobbiests and R&D enthusiasts. it is very powerful. needs some patient to tune PIDs. i have installed a PX4 with APC3.0 on pahntom airframe flies very stable excellent waypoint navigation and RTL is very accurate. right now i am flying with default PIDS of arducopter. i will fine tune the PIDS when wind is low.
T.C. December 28, 2013 at 8:21am

just out of curiosity, what are the PIDs for an DJI Phantom modded with an APM? Anyone happy to share?

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