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View Full Version : Discussion The IR reciever for PiccoZ thread.

Cheesehead
Sep 10, 2006, 04:12 PM
The PiccoZ micro helicopter is the hottest thing since the blast furnace. It's a cheap, stable, and durable indoor R/C helicopter that can be purchased at RadioShack. What more can you ask?

How about a third or fourth channel?

I know a tiny bit of C (oddly enough, learned programming a PIC microcontroller), and I'd like to try modifying one of Koichi's IR recievers for use with two motors and a single actuator. However, I can't read a word of japanese, and have so far not made much headway, even with Babelfish translations.

Koichi's PlayStation controller TX:
http://www.oyajin.jp/~toko/pic/0063/index.html

Koichi's 3ch IR reciever kit:
http://6826.teacup.com/toko0131/shop/01_01_01/351KIT/

All that's necessary is to replace the actuator output (two pins on the PIC, one for each side of the actuator driver op-amp or h-bridge) with an ESC (1 pin on the PIC, for a 2502 FET, as with the main ESC.)

Any tips or ideas?
MatC
Sep 10, 2006, 07:15 PM
That's a lot of work... how about taking a normal transmitter, making that output IR, and interfacing that to the PiccoZ? That way you can use a sensible (mode 2) transmitter and the extra channels are there for the taking when it works...
Cheesehead
Sep 11, 2006, 01:01 AM
Eh. Koichi's circut and code is already done, and if I can get a file for the PCB, I can just send it off to Olimex with the other stuff I'm working on.

My transmitter, a Futaba 7uaf, is humoungous; a PlayStation controller is much more portable.
MatC
Sep 11, 2006, 05:15 PM
Let us all know if you get it working :)
Hopefully I get my PiccoZ tomorrow. I'll play with it in virginal state for maybe... 2 hours, then start hacking it.
robertyih
Sep 19, 2006, 06:04 AM
Why don't you try Didel's MIR5a? or perhaps combos from mircoplanes solutions?
http://www.microplanesolution.com/mps_000012.htm
http://www.didel.com/slow/mirted/Mir5.doc
Cheesehead
Sep 19, 2006, 09:33 PM
Because I'm poor. QED.
I don't know crap about programming, but I do know some people who do, and I'm trying to learn. I'm going to use an Atmel microcontroller because they're much more exonomical; althoguh I have a C compiler, my friend does not. (Atmel microcontrollers have a plethora of free compilers.)

It should'nt be hard; I know that some of the ATtinys have integrated PWM controllers. 2 2502's for the motors and a tiny H-bridge should do it.
darkith
Sep 20, 2006, 10:06 PM
I wrote some IR code a while back, including 4 channels on a PIC16F630, and two motor outputs for a heli (which I never got around to finishing), including an optional, but really primitive thr->rud mix. Might be worth a read through the code if you're interested.

http://darkith.dyndns.org/~darkith/html/ir.shtml

D.
Cheesehead
Sep 21, 2006, 12:40 AM
I wrote some IR code a while back, including 4 channels on a PIC16F630, and two motor outputs for a heli (which I never got around to finishing), including an optional, but really primitive thr->rud mix. Might be worth a read through the code if you're interested.

http://darkith.dyndns.org/~darkith/html/ir.shtml

D.

You, my friend, are most awesome.