I'm very new to the hobby, and I'm struggling a great deal with the fundamentals. I have no background in electronics, so I'm scared most of the time. Anyone want to help me out with a few basic questions?

1: When connecting OPTO (No BEC) ESCs to my FC, do I need to have the ground running to the servo connector, or is it enough for the ESC main power to be on the same circuit as the 5V BEC that powers the FC board? I've seen photos where that seems to be what's happening, and my receiver connection in PWM mode can get by just fine with one 5V, one ground and 6 signal wires, but I'm chicken to try it out with the FC and ESCs.

2: Is there a way to send VBAT data through the Naze32 and into a MinimOSD, preferably through UART1? I don't want to clutter up my build with redundancies, but the MinimOSD doesn't seem to have VBAT data unless I plug the VCC right into it. For the record, this is a micro minimosd with MWOSD 1.5 and an SPRacing F3 running Cleanflight.

3: How do you get a current sensor onto a scratch-built rig? Also, what is a current sensor? I keep reading about shunts and the Hall Effect and such, but I need a simple solution. I even bought the APM 2.5 Power Module, thinking I'd be able to route the wires from it to power the minimOSD and provide VBAT and current data in an elegant way, but now that it's arrived, it's scary and confusing and all the tutorials I've found are for--naturally--hooking it to the APM. Can that be repurposed for a Naze32/MinimOSD setup? How?

4: What are the little white plugs on everything, and why are there so many different sizes of them, and how hard is it to get into fabricating them? I got a bunch of dupont connectors and a crimper on Ebay and have been having a wonderful time making custom connections for my stuff, but whenever I need the smaller ones, I have to cannibalize them from something else, and I did a very bad thing to one of my cameras when I failed to check the polarity on the plug I hijacked from some other part. I see JST-SH, JST-XH, Molex and various other terms bandied about, and I think I got some of it figured out through trial and error, but I sure would like a handy reference, and maybe a set of crimpers, that I can use to manage them.

If anyone can help me with one or more of these issues, I'd be very appreciative.

Yes you do need to connect ground as well as well as you signal

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Yea you can send flight data including VBT via serial to minimosd

A curren sensor is just a device you install between the lipo and your PDB, the output goes to you OSD or FC

Thank you, Oscar. Can anyone explain to me why my Q-Brain 4x ESC has one ground and four signal wires? The mechanics of the circuit board are mysterious to me, and it'll be enough for me to be told that they synchronize their positronic networks in the black box. If you can make it more intelligible than that, I'll be grateful to you.

For Information on "JST" connectors I found a chart on Wikipedia useful. This is the link.      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JST_connector

(17-Mar-2016, 12:51 PM)HatfieldCW Wrote: Thank you, Oscar. Can anyone explain to me why my Q-Brain 4x ESC has one ground and four signal wires? The mechanics of the circuit board are mysterious to me, and it'll be enough for me to be told that they synchronize their positronic networks in the black box. If you can make it more intelligible than that, I'll be grateful to you.

Ground is where all the electrons go after they have been used.

The signal wires contain exactly that; a signal. This signal is referenced to ground. You only need one ground as it does not carry any information.

Oscar, just want to say a quick thank you for setting this up and for all your responses. Wealth of knowledge here.