I have an update regarding my original altitude problem. IT WORKS!

I have just been out in the night sky, and travelled to 461 feet :lol: (brave)

Flew spot on and the original stopping at 100m is cured, many thanks to all that helped, heres the finished mod shrink wrapped and in the drone

Originally Posted by SJW2511

I have an update regarding my original altitude problem. IT WORKS!

I have just been out in the night sky, and travelled to 461 feet :lol: (brave)

Flew spot on and the original stopping at 100m is cured, many thanks to all that helped, heres the finished mod shrink wrapped and in the drone

Well done! Make sure you leave easy access to the USB port to be able to update the mod in future.

Originally Posted by SJW2511

I have an update regarding my original altitude problem. IT WORKS!

I have just been out in the night sky, and travelled to 461 feet :lol: (brave)

Flew spot on and the original stopping at 100m is cured, many thanks to all that helped, heres the finished mod shrink wrapped and in the drone

Nice job!...did you range check your setup? If so what sort result did you get?...Only asking because there was such a huge difference in my results on the EU and US power setting on the Dx6i.

i set it straight to US based on your advice so no direct comparisons, not had chance to properly range test yet as its dark every day when i get home lol, il have proper results at the weekend

After being unable to get a Pro Mini Mod to work with a Level Shifter, I've built a completely new one with a both a New Shifter and a new Pro Mini and I still can't get the Mod to work on a v1 Drone using the Level Shifter. The old Mod works fine with resistors, but I gave up on it and started again with completely new components.

I actually have two sets of Drone wires connected to the Same Mod now (to avoid having to keep removing and resoldering between the two types) and when connected to the Drone via resistors it fires up every time. When using the Level Shifter it won't work, although I do sometimes get the Arduino flashing at 12hz but with RED motor LEDs, so it won't fly.

Tested the Level Shifter every which way with help from happul3 over PM and it's doing exactly what it should do.

Checked the wiring again and again and there is nothing else I can see to check.

As the connection diagram shows 3.3v for the v1 and 1.8v for the v2 when using the Level Shifter and I only get 2.5v and 1.6v am I actually suffering from an undervoltage problem?

What voltages should I be getting at Tx and Rx at the Drone end when connected via Resistors and via the Level Shifter using both a Nano and a Mini Pro?

Can anyone who has got either/both test and let me know what they get between each of them and GND?

I am getting ready to commit this mod to my Drone 2.. and one option I am considering has the Arduino and Level Shifter mounted right on top of the RC receiver in front of the battery tray.
Has anyone an idea if there will be an interference with this arrangement? Has anyone any experience of intermittent or unexplained problems that might be related to have the processor board and receiver too close?

Advantage of this arrangement is that wires are for the most part as short as possible and the electronics are as far as possible from the (noisy) motors. Disadvantage would be any unwanted stray interference between the receiver and Arduino.

thanks in advance

Originally Posted by Gordon2

I am getting ready to commit this mod to my Drone 2.. and one option I am considering has the Arduino and Level Shifter mounted right on top of the RC receiver in front of the battery tray.
Has anyone an idea if there will be an interference with this arrangement? Has anyone any experience of intermittent or unexplained problems that might be related to have the processor board and receiver too close?

Advantage of this arrangement is that wires are for the most part as short as possible and the electronics are as far as possible from the (noisy) motors. Disadvantage would be any unwanted stray interference between the receiver and Arduino.

thanks in advance

I have arduino and receiver as close as they can possibly can be and it works just fine. I don't think arduino@16MHz would be capable of creating interference for 2.4GHz band. By the way, drone's motors are brushless, hence no arcing there and no interference either.

Originally Posted by Gordon2

Has anyone an idea if there will be an interference with this arrangement? Has anyone any experience of intermittent or unexplained problems that might be related to have the processor board and receiver too close?

I have receiver (Turnigy) basically glued to Nano (see here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=2732) and observe no problems at all.

Originally Posted by pawelsky

I have receiver (Turnigy) basically glued to Nano (see here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=2732) and observe no problems at all.

OK! Two reports that it works is good for me.. so thats my plan.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by obelix662000

I built 2 mods with Pro Mini and Level shifter exactly as described in the wiring diagram. Both are fine with Ardrone v2 , no special care.

OK, thanks. That's confusing. Any chance you could PM me a photo with your wiring, as this is beyond baffling?

It's clear the Nano and Pro Mini are different because I only get 4.63v from a Nano, but 5.01v from the Pro Mini at VCC>GND (powered through USB), but is that enough to explain the problems I'm having?

The new Nano has turned up, so I'll wire that to the Drone's 12v/GND and measure what's at VCC and what's going back through Tx and Rx with Resistors or another new Level Shifter.

I guess all this Mod testing has finally taken it's toll on my poor v1 Drone.
Still flies, still works with a Mod (with resistors), but when I telnet in with no Mod plugged in - just standard - I now see this, which is what I saw last time I was testing with a Level Shifter Mod before it dropped the connection.

BusyBox v1.14.0 (2011-12-13 10:35:27 CET) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

# ls

 x▐╚ΘΘ┴P∙╧ì╝Θ░╚]?!u÷≈│n²{è+ ▀⌡$ßÅJU≥╝½╙▼╙Θ}:■#ï■↓ .ì═φ¢6╢5▓ΓM
bin
data
dev
etc
factory
firmware
home
lib
licenses
mnt
oƒΣ╚■ε
proc
root
sbin
sys
tmp
update
usr
var
½ù╤²φ8╨
»°
░²√G∙╢Ö°*_,7d╛Æoº┴■ΦbΓ█¬╦ì∩¬ª]┴╖W
α ▼·  ■°■°α°²■°≥·ⁿ╚°°■εΦε ^°ΦΩ°■■°°°°■ Ω°°┐α
α ²
°    ≡ ■ ° ■ ■■ⁿⁿⁿ ²      ■ ∙  ?      ■   ■ ■▲╢⌐mú ƒA]X
■  ≡  └ⁿ   ■ ■  ⁿ ■└  ⁿ    ²■ stty
#

Should I be worried and anything I can do about it, like reflashing the firmware?

One other thing that has changed: instead of seeing ardrone_020801 as the wireless access point, I now see: ardrone_v1.7.11 and I didn't rename it.

Originally Posted by Brandigan

One other thing that has changed: instead of seeing ardrone_020801 as the wireless access point, I now see: ardrone_v1.7.11 and I didn't rename it.

I installed an app called NAVAnDrone which renamed my drone to exactly the same...ardrone_v1.7.11.

Have you installed any new drone apps?

Originally Posted by Brandigan

I guess all this Mod testing has finally taken it's toll on my poor v1 Drone.
Still flies, still works with a Mod (with resistors), but when I telnet in with no Mod plugged in - just standard - I now see this, which is what I saw last time I was testing with a Level Shifter Mod before it dropped the connection.

BusyBox v1.14.0 (2011-12-13 10:35:27 CET) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

# ls

 x▐╚ΘΘ┴P∙╧ì╝Θ░╚]?!u÷≈│n²{è+ ▀⌡$ßÅJU≥╝½╙▼╙Θ}:■#ï■↓ .ì═φ¢6╢5▓ΓM
bin
data
dev
etc
factory
firmware
home
lib
licenses
mnt
oƒΣ╚■ε
proc
root
sbin
sys
tmp
update
usr
var
½ù╤²φ8╨
»°
░²√G∙╢Ö°*_,7d╛Æoº┴■ΦbΓ█¬╦ì∩¬ª]┴╖W
α ▼·  ■°■°α°²■°≥·ⁿ╚°°■εΦε ^°ΦΩ°■■°°°°■ Ω°°┐α
α ²
°    ≡ ■ ° ■ ■■ⁿⁿⁿ ²      ■ ∙  ?      ■   ■ ■▲╢⌐mú ƒA]X
■  ≡  └ⁿ   ■ ■  ⁿ ■└  ⁿ    ²■ stty
#

Should I be worried and anything I can do about it, like reflashing the firmware?

One other thing that has changed: instead of seeing ardrone_020801 as the wireless access point, I now see: ardrone_v1.7.11 and I didn't rename it.

Looks like you have a corrupted file system. This is pretty bad, try reloading the whole drone (with ardrone_update....plf). If it does not fix it you might have to send it in...

Originally Posted by tonyh0905

I installed an app called NAVAnDrone which renamed my drone to exactly the same...ardrone_v1.7.11.

Have you installed any new drone apps?

No, just been trying to get this Mod to work with a Level Shifter. Last thing before that was changing the Baud rate in the sketch as per Miru's recent instructions - no obvious difference; worked fine - but don't know if that's a side effect .i.e it was better as Miru had it originally.

Originally Posted by miru

Looks like you have a corrupted file system. This is pretty bad, try reloading the whole drone (with ardrone_update....plf). If it does not fix it you might have to send it in...

So reflashing 1.7.11 might fix it? I don't want to go higher. I'll go down first, then come back up again. I think I need to do 1.3.1 to make sure everything gets 'wiped' properly.