Quad Copter set up.
I am using a 4 channel FrSky receiver in SBUS mode out the Channel 4 port to my flight controller.
This leaves channels 1,2 and 3 open. Can I use a 3 wire buzzer on one of these channels to be activated by a switch on my Taranis? Or, does using channel 4 in SBUS mode preclude using the other 3 channels as normal?

Really appreciate an answer as I thought I'd ask before experimenting.
OK, my flight controller board does not support a buzzer. The PROosd VI has a buzzer port that activates 5 minutes after lost signal. I don't want to wait 5 minutes to find my quad. My friend uses beacon settings in Blheli to activate pulsing beeps from the motors. I find that also not to my liking. I WANT A BUZZER RIGHT NOW!

What RX do you have? SBUS should support up to 16 channels.
There are buzzers that can be activated via a PWM channel, such as this one:
http://bit.ly/2vv41Rn

But they don't work with PPM or SBUS.

I am using the FrSky X4-Rsb in SBUS from channel 4. Can I still use one of the other 3 channels in normal mode. As in activating a servo from a switch on my Taranis?

X4rsb supports 16 channels through sbus.

Assuming you are using betaflight, it should be somehow possible to trigger a pwm beeper on failsafe (i.e. turning off transmitter) by changing the presets for a spare channel in the failsafe settings. Not sure though if you have to edit resource mapping or servo settings, i'm not using latest betaflight versions yet myself.

To your original question: No i don't think you can use your 4 channels for anything else directly - they will always be tied to roll, pitch, yaw, throttle.

Ok, I got my buzzer working pluged into the channel 3 pins on my X4R sb. I am using channel 4 pins for sbus.

I activated pins ch 2 and 3 for PWM on the rx by binding it to the TX with the signal pins shorted on ch 2 and 3. Now I can activate a buzzer or servo from the channel 2 and 3 pins on my X4R which corresponds to channel 9 and 10 on Taranis mixer page. Set a switch to activate a servo on rx channel 2 with TX channel 9 or rx channel 3 for TX mixer page channel 10. YeeHaw.

Oh. Congratz. Didn't expect that to work. Learning something new every day.

(09-Dec-2017, 12:48 PM)fftunes Wrote: Oh. Congratz. Didn't expect that to work. Learning something new every day.

If any of you all use the X4-R sb Fr Sky 4 channel receiver on your quadcopter listen up. Here is the sure fire way to use sbus on channel 4 and also be able to use channel 2 and 3 pins for activating a servo, switch, or buzzer. Thanks to Captain 3D for the folowing instruction.

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Incase anyone stumbles on this thread like I did while searching for a solution...

I finally got my Taranis, Sbus and pwm working with X4R SB and kiss fc. Incase anyone else is trying to use a separate PWM channel to control a camera etc...

1. Connect the X4R SB to the kiss FC using Sbus (PWM slot 4).
2. Jumper (short) the X4R SB signal pins for Channel 2 and 3 (binding like this changes channel 2 to Ch9 and Ch3 to Ch10)
3. Hold the F/S button and power up the Rx to put it into bind mode.
4. On the taranis model setup page set...
Internal RF
Mode D16
Channel Range Ch1 - 10 (important to include Channel 9 and 10 for the extra PWM)

5. Put the Taranis into bind mode and confirm the Rx connects - Remove the jumper and Power cycle both Rx Tx
6. Taranis Mixer Page - Select your new channel 9 or 10 hit enter and associate a switch or dial with the channel by selecting the source input, hit enter and move the desired switch.

Now you should have your new switch/s controlling channel 9 or 10 and Sbus continues to work on Channel 1 - 8

phil............Captain 3D

Excellent, thanks for the tip!

You could use D-SHOT commands from the buzzer in Betaflight. It makes the motors buzz, and eliminates the beeper.