Ok! You guys are starting to make my brain hurt....

Oh and ChiKung you still have loads of room left.

Originally Posted by Martin Y

Ok! You guys are starting to make my brain hurt....

Oh and ChiKung you still have loads of room left.

It has already 950 g flying weight and stock motor... Im thinking this for the next project: http://www.bevrc.com/the-king-of-fly...der-p-287.html

Enough room for a little pilot inside...

Can is us a microsoft USB joysick to do this? I took it apart and it appears to have 3-wire pots on the axis. I haven't figured out the thumb buttons or the hat switch they don't appear to have enough wires for them to be analog.

Yes you can. One (or more) of the wires is prolly common and the others goes through the switches. Just put it into gnd and use the digital inputs. You can use the arduinos internal pull-ups so no need for external resistors. Look at the original pcb and watch which wires goes to gnd.

I used the arduino nano v3, so there is not enough digital io:s for me. I added the flaps into one analog input. It has on-off-on switch and voltage divider resistors in output (to gnd and vcc). Then I just added some IF:s into code for mapping the input and having some space for resistor tolerances.

Ps. Here we go. The small lcd is just a panel mountable volt meter and has nothing to do with arduino.
PPs. Still not ready yet. Another video receiver had normal RSSI (not inverted as it should be for diversity controller)...

Looking good there Mate.

Chikung,

Thanks for the information. I will look at the original board. I am using a Uno so should have some additional digital pins.

Thanks Martin

Some pics of setup and my first time ever FPV:

FPV bixler (3 min 9 sec)

No, it is not the pilot - it is the lookout at end of the vid.

Has anyone created CCPM mixing for the arduino yet? It would be cool to have this core controller be an all around replacement for modern computerized controllers.

Originally Posted by pr0ject42

Has anyone created CCPM mixing for the arduino yet? It would be cool to have this core controller be an all around replacement for modern computerized controllers.

Yup, I guess it could be done.......but would need to research heli control first having never flown them!

Down side is that I fear a partial re-write would be required as the menu system is already getting a tad hard to follow in the source code.

Ian.

Well.. It can be done.

There will be several different setups.
- 2x 120 degree mixes (left or right & forward or backward pointing)
- 140 degree mix
- 2x 90 degree mixes (with 3 and 4 servos)

The mixing itself is pretty easy, but the code will be messing with different setups and fine tuning. I modified my code so that the mapping is done for negative and positive values. So for example from -500 to 500 where 0 is center. That might help with mixing. The pulse is then something like "1500 - fixed_us + channel_us". And with collective there would also be the same collective for each channel. After this it is just some trigonometry with cyclic.

I guess it would still be easier for multicopters than for helis. There is plenty of other stuff with helis like fine tuning of swash plate...

Yup, I was thinking an LCD upgrade might be necessary in order to be able to navigate the more complex items.

With the multicopters and with some FBL gyros, the inputs are simple and don't require any mixing other than a throttle/pitch curve, the swash is all done in the stabilizer, so really in theory this controller set is already good to go with any of those systems.

Ian, what would be the downside or pitfalls in going with a fancier graphical display, other than the nightmare of coding it? Would it sacrifice performance or do some of those things have their own GPU/CPU type thing that won't zap the cycles of the controller itself?

Originally Posted by ChiKung

Well.. It can be done.

There will be several different setups.
- 2x 120 degree mixes (left or right & forward or backward pointing)
- 140 degree mix
- 2x 90 degree mixes (with 3 and 4 servos)

The mixing itself is pretty easy, but the code will be messing with different setups and fine tuning. I modified my code so that the mapping is done for negative and positive values. So for example from -500 to 500 where 0 is center. That might help with mixing. The pulse is then something like "1500 - fixed_us + channel_us". And with collective there would also be the same collective for each channel. After this it is just some trigonometry with cyclic.

I guess it would still be easier for multicopters than for helis. There is plenty of other stuff with helis like fine tuning of swash plate...

You are totally correct, the trick would be the subtrims (which most heli guys would say should be done mechanically first, then electronically)

Dealing with the gyro and the gains and this stuff also would be extra code, along with having different pitch curves. Jeeze I see why no one messes with this stuff, but the challenge sounds fun! I'm ordering up my arduino from sparkfun today!

Got a Pro mini in the mail today, I'll be rebuilding this beast to use Ians software instead of the atmega8 board this tx came with originally!

I think I might even be able to fit the Matrix Orbital LCD where the stock one is!!

Thanks Ian!!

Charlie please document the build with pictures, a buildlog would be nice

Originally Posted by msev

Charlie please document the build with pictures, a buildlog would be nice

Hey msev, I will def. document it this time around but you should know I'm a really slow builder so don't hold your breath

I still need to get the LCD (or rework the code to support one I already have) and figure out a low drop out Voltage regulator as this tx I gutted only has 4 battery holder.

I'm planning to wire the thumb switches up, use them to control flight modes on Ardupilot and RVOSD.